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This is a question I normally would not dare respond; however, this has become a rather “hot button” topic. In fact I just received this from an academic colleague in California US.University of California Will End Use of SAT and ACT in AdmissionsUniversity of California Will End Use of SAT and ACT in AdmissionsThe change is expected to accelerate the momentum of American colleges away from the tests, amid concern that they are unfair to poor, black and Hispanic students.Reading this the first question to arise is “what about the poor white, Asian, or other ethnicities?”Why are black and Hispanic students called-out as needing assistance in college entrance due low-test-performance? There are many people of all races and social classes that do not perform well on tests.There are poor and middle-class black and Hispanic students that do very well on college entrance and classroom tests; why slap them in the face and place the stigma of inferiority on them?The University of California, Davis, a public research university, provides one with a snapshot of poverty by race.Clearly the distribution of poverty by race indicates that the adjective “poor” is not the driver, but black and Hispanic students are used as pawns to ”…accelerate the momentum of American colleges away from the tests”.If the objective is to aid those deemed socioeconomically disadvantaged by providing an opportunity for higher-educations, then such a program should quantitatively reflect the chart above.There have existed college special admissions for minority students in the US for over 50-years.The problem with these programs is they create animosity and racism. The black and Hispanic people that I know and have worked-with that are intelligent and did it on their own, despise “cheat programs” that imply they are not “smart enough” to do it on their own. Black and Hispanic as a people are tainted with the stigma, “you are not smart enough, and you needed a cheat program”.There is probably no greater example of panchreston than US college admissions.But to eliminate testing for college admissions?Is “equality” eliminating tests and performance measures?We are all not equal in any quantifiable measure, height, weight, intelligence, etc… Some can run faster (we use time as metric), some can throw further (we us length as a metric), some are more intelligent (we use examination as a metric), some are musically talented, some are artistically talented, some have no talent. “Life is not fair”, and legislation and college programs cannot make it fairer by invalidating nature.The argument is college entrance test scores are meaningless due to the fact that other factors already dominate the admissions process.However, one then must decide the priorities in US education.It is to educate the best and brightest students to provide the most talented and intelligent workforce in an ever increasing competitive global economy and to provide the most talented and intelligent workforce to ensure that the interworking of the US economy and government is operating at the highest level. Or is to provide diverse mediocre workforce.National Council on Teacher Quality concerning the SAT and ACT: Assessment Bias “An assessment instrument has cultural bias if any of its items either offend or unfairly penalize some students on the basis of their ethnicity, gender, or socioeconomic status.” Really?Clearly there are two district metrics for college admissions, 1) Merit, and 2) Diversity.MeritMerit is based on academic aptitude and intellect. The process to measure these qualities is “test” prospective students.Why use a standardized test such as the ACT or SAT?A standardized test is one that requires all test takers to answer the same questions from common bank of questions, and is scored in a “standard” or consistent manner. This makes it possible to compare the relative performance of individual students or groups of studentsIn other words standardized testing allows for comparisons to be made by student’s academic aptitude, not based on high-school transcripts. What it takes to earn an A at one school is not the same at all schools. We have all witnessed students with a perfect high-school GPA completely fail the lowest mathematics placement test. We need a metric that measures relative attitude among the body of students applying for admission.Over the years the US has devised many educational programs to politically lift low-income low-scoring low-academic aptitude students into higher educational paths, such as Affirmative Action, special admissions, college retention programs, and used discount admission metrics such as diversity, race, the disadvantaged, perceived social hardship, sexual identity, sports, and victimhood.These programs and the lowering of standards are never is never enough, so delete academic performance from academic institutions.In 2019 The College Board (administrators of the SAT) announced plans to assign an adversity score to capture their social and economic background of students who take the SAT to adjust for race and class in college admissions. Later that year, 2019, College Board announced it was replacing the SAT adversity score with metric called “Landscape”. Landscape is a rebrand of “adversity score”. Call it what they will, it is still an adjusted score.Asians that have never been exposed to US or Western-World culture or norms, they are some of most socioeconomically disadvantaged in the world, from impoverished agrarian subcultures, a different nature, a different nurture, and score in the top percentile. However, as a faculty member we were constantly told how US citizens did poorly because they were socioeconomically disadvantaged and the tests were Eurocentric.I have experienced students of many races and ethnicities in US academia and the US workforce that come from absolute abject poverty and never needed a “cheat ticket” or “free pass” based on Socioeconomics.In the US as a faculty member I would hear “I am really smart I just do not take tests well” from every C to F student. I would then proceed to examine this terrible affliction. I would give an office oral exam, “what is your address?”, “what is home town?”, “what high school did you attend”, they would always score a perfect 100 percent! Then they would claim “but that was an easy test”, yes, it was, we have a place for people that only do well on simple tasks and test, and it not here at the University. At one time I had a Burger King application on my desk as an aid to make this point, but was admonished and disposed the application.DiversityDo minorities in the US have the social and economic barriers in 2020 as they did in 1961 when President John F Kennedy introduced Affirmative Action by executive action? Is the US so racist they would not elect a black-man as President?If a black-man can become President of the US, then we must ask, what is the objective in the elimination of academic performance for blacks and Hispanics as the standard of college admission?The answer for lowering-the-bar in college admissions always been “it is needed to ensure diversity”.I have spent many years in and working with US academia and have been told, “Diversity and multiculturalism is vitally important for the college experience”.We have been told diversity on college campuses; improve the “intellectual engagement, self-motivation, citizenship, and cultural engagement, and academic skills like critical thinking, and problem-solving”.The person next to me could have been black or white, rich or poor, straight of gay, tall or midget, how could that possibly improve my academic skills like critical thinking, and problem-solving?I attended class to learn, not to share my culture or learn about other people. The only person in the room that I focused my attention was the instructor.I viewed people (regardless of diversity classification) in a classroom as competition, which encouraged me to perform at my best. The marks and grades earned would be recorded in my college transcripts, which reflected my performance relative to others in the class.The best way to improve my academic skills like critical thinking, and problem-solving would be pack the classroom with high-achievers that kick-arse on the SAT and ACT. Make the class competitive, force people to compete that “A”; create a learning environment that reflects the real world: “competitive”.If “The change is expected to accelerate the momentum of American colleges away from the tests…” how are students tested and ranked on their comprehension and understanding, what incentive do students have to learn the course material?In the 1960’s 58 percent of U.S. college students were men. Today in 2020 56 percent are women. Despite the fact that females score 36 points below males on the Math portion of the SAT and 4 points lower on Verbal. The ACT gender gap grew by one-tenth of a point to .3, the equivalent of about 12 points on the SAT.Where is the program or movement to create gender equality, or 50% male, 50% female?Such an initiative would be ill-conceived as it would use gender not academic aptitude to place people in an institution of higher of leaning.A tax payer funded institution should use a relative criterion such as academic aptitude for institutions for higher learning for ‘all citizens’, any other classification or criteria discriminates against those with greater qualifications.It is not the government’s role to “slap people to back of the line” by “pushing less qualified, less gifted, and less intelligent to the front-of-the-line”.In identity politics whose son or daughter is “pushed to the back-of-the-line”? Who was denied opportunity by identity politics?No one is against or has a problem with diversity if occurs naturally.I did not attend undergraduate in the US; however, in US graduate schools I was quite often a minority in the hard-sciences and engineering as a white male, as classrooms were heavily populated by Asians; I was quite often a minority in electives such as business management as a foreign student, as many were Americans, it had no effect on my marks or performance. I strived for the highest scores in the class, and having the best and brightest from around the world made the competition more fun. I have spent never understood what the goal of diluting the student body with poor-performing studentsThe private sector technical workforce in the US is “naturally” quite diverse. I have spent my career in private sector research and technical consulting, these industries, we have a dominant population by people from the US, Europe, India, China, and Korea. It is a “natural diversity”, I have never hired or discharged a person by their race, ethnicity, or National origin.The TaxpayerThe Academic Institutions that employ these “cheat tickets” or “free passes” are taxpayer funded. This would appear to be one of the biggest crimes against democracy of our times.I attended a university in Pasadena California in the 1990’s. I remember California Proposition 209.Proposition 209 amended the California Constitution to prohibit public institutions from discriminating on the basis of race, sex, or ethnicity.At the ballot box the measure was passed by 55% to 45%. Where are the demands for “popular vote”?Why is forced diversity an issue in the US in 2020?· The US had a black man elected to the highest-office in the land, President Obama.· The US needs the best and brightest students to provide the most talented and intelligent workforce in an ever increasing competitive global economy and to provide the most talented and intelligent workforce to ensure that the interworking’s of the US economy and government is operating at the highest level, regardless of race, ethnicity, or other sham classification.The most important point of this discussion is the “taxpayer”. In a democracy of elected representation any organization, institution, or entity that is supported by the “taxpayer” must not penalize a portion of “taxpayers” at the benefit of others.The topic is “taxpayer funded” institutions of higher learning, “colleges and universities”.Colleges and universities use the argument, governments justify using taxpayer money to fund colleges by claiming the investment produces graduating students that will benefit economy.In this argument, as a taxpayer funded institution the colleges and universities should reflect the demographic of the population, blacks and Hispanics must be represented regardless of academic talent. It is justifiable to lower-the-bar on talent to reflect the demographic of the population.What about other “taxpayer funded” institutions and organizations?Taxpayers pay hundreds of millions in direct subsidies and tax breaks to help professional sports build stadiums and arenas for organizations such as the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLP generate millions for owners and players. It is not just new facilities; cities and states spend taxpayer money to refurbish old ones to prevent an existing team from leaving.Many see stadium subsidies as corporate welfare. Governments justify using taxpayer money to fund sports teams by claiming it is an investment that will benefit economy.I have a home in Boston MA, Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, “cost taxpayers $72 million”. I am a “taxpayer” in Massachusetts.Teams that play in taxpayer funded stadiums should reflect the demographic of the population, blacks and Hispanics must be represented regardless of academic talent. It is justifiable to lower-the-bar on talent to reflect the demographic of the population.Where is the program to accelerate the momentum of American professional sports teams away from the physical tryouts, amid concern that they are unfair to small white and Asian athletes?There could be no such program, no one is against or has a problem with diversity if occurs naturally. The racial makeup of professional sports teams is as it should be, based on talent.Sports and CollegeWhile in the US America working on my doctorate in mathematics we were faced with the question of race and talent. The graduate students were required by the administration to tutor athletes and low-performing program students in mathematics. My advisor was not only a great man of reason, but possessed great wisdom. It became clear our efforts would bear little or no fruit. The office of Minority Affairs and Athletes Director demanded answers, as if we were the problem; of course we did not provide the secret universal equation or share the magic beans.My advisor proposed that the Basketball coach (who made an order or magnitude more in pay, implying his teaching and coaching skills must be superior) should train his mathematics grad students to be starting basketball forwards. The coach scoffed that we lacked any athletic ability or human characteristics to be basketball players no matter how many hours or training or practice we were granted. We all looked at each other and adjourned the meeting.Final Thoughts of ReasonIf colleges and universities lower-the-bar for entrance and graduation:Who do you think is teaching your children?