Stop Grading California With A 3-Hour Bubble Test

Send us Fan MailThe SAT is back in the Regents’ conversation at the University of California, and I’m not convinced we’re asking the right question. When a small group of faculty points to “math preparedness” and reaches for a high-stakes standardized test as the solution, it can sound reasonable on the surface. But UC is a public research university funded by Californians, built to create talent and knowledge for the state. That public mission changes what “merit” should mean and how UC admissions should work.I walk through what’s driving the new pressure, including the reality that many current students came through high school during COVID-era disruption, lost access to teachers and counselors, and faced a very different learning environment. Then I bring it back to the evidence: UC moved away from the SAT for a reason, and UC’s institutional data since 2020 shows diverse classes and stable (or slightly improved) outcomes in course completion, retention, and graduation. If student success isn’t falling, why are we racing toward a tool that mostly rations seats and fuels a test-prep marketplace?I also lay out what a real, modern alternative can look like: data-driven admissions that use multiple measures, smarter readiness signals, and serious collaboration with the K-12 pipeline to diagnose gaps instead of cutting students off at the door. If you care about college readiness, standardized testing, and the future of public higher education in California, listen through and tell me where you land. Subscribe, share the show with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find the conversation.