False Assumption Registry

SAT/ACT Scores Are Biased Predictors

False Assumption: Standardized test scores like SAT/ACT are less predictive of college success than high school GPA and exhibit bias against disadvantaged or minority students.

Summaries Written by FARAgent (AI) on February 11, 2026 · Pending Verification

For years, the respectable view in admissions was that the SAT and ACT were narrow, coachable, and socially tilted, while high school GPA showed the “whole student” and therefore predicted college performance better. That belief had real appeal. Wealthy families could buy test prep, students from weak schools often faced unfamiliar question styles, and a transcript seemed to capture diligence over four years rather than one Saturday morning. In the civil rights and education worlds, this fit a broader conviction that standardized tests carried disparate impact and screened out able minority and low income applicants. By the 1990s and 2000s, “test optional” and “holistic review” sounded not only humane but more scientific.

Then the policy built on that assumption ran into awkward facts. Grade inflation spread, with ever higher GPAs becoming common and harder to compare across schools, while admissions offices still needed some common yardstick. Studies from selective colleges and policy groups increasingly found that test scores often added substantial predictive power on top of GPA, especially once one accounted for differences in school quality and grading standards. The old complaint that tests mainly measured family privilege also looked less complete when high scores repeatedly surfaced among students from poor or chaotic backgrounds, including some, like Rob Henderson in the military testing context, who had little else in their file that elite institutions would have trusted. The result was a system that often dropped the one metric most likely to reveal hidden academic strength.

A growing body of researchers now argues that the standard line, “tests are biased predictors,” overstated both the bias and the superiority of GPA. The debate is not finished, and many educators still defend test optional policies as a way to widen access. But increasingly the argument has shifted from whether the SAT and ACT are imperfect, everyone knew that, to whether they were discarded on a false premise. More institutions have begun restoring testing requirements, and the live question now is whether the country spent decades treating the most comparable measure in admissions as the least trustworthy one.

Status: A small but growing and influential group of experts think this was false
People Involved
  • Rob Henderson grew up in foster care with a deported drug-addict mother and an absent father yet discovered his own capabilities when the military's ASVAB standardized test identified his talent and opened a path to Yale. The test operated without regard to his chaotic background and gave him structure that non-test methods would have missed. He later wrote about the experience in his book Troubled, showing how such instruments can locate talent that softer measures overlook. [3]
  • Janet Napolitano served as president of the University of California when she proposed suspending SAT and ACT requirements in 2020, arguing that eliminating the tests would enhance equity for disadvantaged students. She framed the policy as a step toward fairness after a lawsuit claimed the exams discriminated. The change spread quickly to other campuses despite an internal task force that had found the tests added predictive value. [7][8]
  • Cecilia Estolano sat as a University of California regent and declared the SAT a racist test during debates over admissions policy. Her statement reflected the widespread view among administrators that score gaps proved inherent bias rather than differences in preparation. The regents ultimately agreed to drop the requirement in a 2021 settlement. [8]
  • Jimmy Carter's administration officials settled the Luevano lawsuit in 1981 and banned the PACE exam after concluding it showed unacceptable disparate impact on Black and Hispanic applicants. They replaced a validated test used for 118 federal positions with subjective methods that reduced validity. The consent decree bound federal hiring for more than four decades. [4][5]
▶ Supporting Quotes (26)
“In Part II of The Bell Curve, Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray compared the effect of IQ on various outcomes ... to that of parental socio-economic status.”— IQ isn't everything but it's a lot
“Despite his disadvantages in life, the test could see something others could not: there was intellectual talent within.”— Review of 'Troubled' by Rob Henderson
“To me this shows the value of standardized tests, which don’t care about your family wealth, if you behave poorly, or whether you do your homework; they just care about how well you can perform.”— Review of 'Troubled' by Rob Henderson
“Perhaps the most egregious action of the Carter Administration was deep-sixing the federal civil service hiring exam in January 1981 by surrendering to friendly plaintiffs in the Luevano discrimination case”— Trump Trashes Carter's Infamous Luevano Decree
“Not surprisingly, the Reagan Administration failed to do so, as did the Clinton, Obama, and Biden Administrations, along with everybody else.”— Trump Trashes Carter's Infamous Luevano Decree
““For over four decades, this decree has hampered the federal government from hiring the top talent of our nation,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Civil Rights Division.”— Trump Trashes Carter's Infamous Luevano Decree
“the EEOC tacitly sponsored a lawsuit and filed it under the name of a Mexican-American plaintiff who had failed the test, Angel Luevano.”— Trump Administration does something smart
“For two years the Carter administration quietly conspired with liberal public interest law firms, the purported opponents in the suit. And as it was packing up, the Carter Justice Department signed a consent decree.”— Trump Administration does something smart
“including George Albee, who testified that IQ tests measure exposure to White culture”— Bias is Often Unpredictable
“Leon Kamin, who testified that IQ tests measure differences in information exposure”— Bias is Often Unpredictable
“Robert Williams, who provided the only attempt to demonstrate that there was any bias in IQ tests”— Bias is Often Unpredictable
“the right honorable judge proceeded to scrutinize every single item on the Stanford-Binet (1960 test, revised with 1972 norms), the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC), and the revised WISC (WISC-R)”— Bias is Often Unpredictable
“When then-UC president Janet Napolitano initially proposed suspending the testing requirement in 2020, her statement argued that eliminating testing requirements would “enhance equity,” ... their lawsuit cited then-UC regent Cecilia Estolano, who said of the SAT, “We all know it’s a racist test.””— Think Again: Do College Admissions Exams Drive Higher Education Inequities?
“When then-UC president Janet Napolitano initially proposed suspending the testing requirement in 2020, her statement argued that eliminating testing requirements would “enhance equity,””— Think Again: “College Admissions Exams Drive Higher Education Inequities”
“their lawsuit cited then-UC regent Cecilia Estolano, who said of the SAT, “We all know it’s a racist test.””— Think Again: “College Admissions Exams Drive Higher Education Inequities”
“Carol Christ, the chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, has long called for a move away from standardized testing for admissions. She cited the recent college admissions bribery scandal as a case in point, calling the episode “grotesque.””— Q. Why is the SAT falling out of favor? A. Asian Supremacy
“California’s community college chancellor, Eloy Ortiz Oakley, who is also a University of California regent, reminded the board this week that the university already enrolls tens of thousands of transfer students who are not required to take any standardized admission tests.”— Q. Why is the SAT falling out of favor? A. Asian Supremacy
“Tant aux États-Unis qu’en Europe, nous assistons à la poursuite des tendances fatales qui m’ont incité, en 1990, à commencer ma vie d’activiste.”— Jared Taylor : « Pour que les Blancs puissent défendre leurs terres et leur culture, ils doivent se libérer de l'illusion suicidaire qu'ils ont été une présence malveillante sur la planète » [Interview]
“Pas moins de 39 monuments à la gloire de Christophe Colomb ont été détruits. [...] Christophe Colomb est désormais un criminel parce qu’il a amené les premiers Blancs dans le Nouveau Monde.”— Jared Taylor : « Pour que les Blancs puissent défendre leurs terres et leur culture, ils doivent se libérer de l'illusion suicidaire qu'ils ont été une présence malveillante sur la planète » [Interview]
““Federal law mandates that employment practices causing a disparate impact because of race or other protected classifications must be shown by the employer to be necessary to ensure the safe and efficient performance of the particular jobs at issue,” EEOC attorney Debra M. Lawrence said in a statement.”— How the EEOC built America's secret police, and got companies to pay for it
“Harry Stille Ph. D., author of “Louisiana: Public Institutions,” believes loose admission standards contribute to an estimated $440 million annual waste – an “enormous cost for little results.””— Louisiana’s Higher Education System Not Making the Grade
“Mrs. Cunningham... was convinced... that I should be among the first students from her elementary school to attend the nearest white junior high school the following year. This was an honor, she declared.”— The Rage of the Black Middle Class : The Children of the Civil Rights Revolution Grew Up Expecting Entry Into a Colorblind Society. Today They Are Finding That All the Trappings of Success Can't Shelter Blacks From the Realities of Racism.
“My parents... imbued in us a belief that the evils of the outside world--I never heard the word racism in our household--could be made to disappear. If I worked hard, nothing was impossible.”— The Rage of the Black Middle Class : The Children of the Civil Rights Revolution Grew Up Expecting Entry Into a Colorblind Society. Today They Are Finding That All the Trappings of Success Can't Shelter Blacks From the Realities of Racism.
“Bradley... was right to say that it is impossible 'to give a socially meaningful description of who I am and what I’ve done without using the word black.' This is painful, because it means I must accept his corollary: 'Nothing I shall ever accomplish... will outweigh the fact of my race in determining my destiny.'”— The Rage of the Black Middle Class : The Children of the Civil Rights Revolution Grew Up Expecting Entry Into a Colorblind Society. Today They Are Finding That All the Trappings of Success Can't Shelter Blacks From the Realities of Racism.
“"Poor Latino kids are not being identified, and I worry part of that is language," Hone said. "African-American kids are not being identified. I'm worried that's race."”— Discrimination Complaint Against Virginia High School
“"...I think that what they bring up is a valid concern," said Ryan McElveen, member-at-large for the Fairfax County Public School Board.”— Discrimination Complaint Against Virginia High School
Organizations Involved

The University of California system used its institutional power to promote the assumption by settling a 2021 lawsuit and eliminating the SAT and ACT requirement for admission. Administrators cited claims of bias against disadvantaged and minority students even though their own task force had found the tests supplied distinct predictive information beyond high school GPA. The policy quickly influenced other selective colleges that adopted test-optional practices. [7][8][9]

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sponsored the Luevano lawsuit and enforced the resulting consent decree that prohibited federal exams with adverse impact on Black and Hispanic applicants. For forty-four years the agency required new tests without racial score differences, leading agencies to abandon valid instruments and rely on biodata self-ratings that performed worse. The decree shaped federal personnel policy across multiple administrations. [5]

The Fairfax County NAACP and Coalition of Silence filed a civil rights complaint alleging that Thomas Jefferson High School's test-and-grade admissions policy discriminated against Black and Latino students. The complaint focused on the low enrollment numbers for those groups and prompted school board review and resource shifts. Local media amplified the claim that the policy constituted racial exclusion. [19]

▶ Supporting Quotes (21)
“using college admissions data from the putative top 12 undergraduate colleges (the 8 Ivies plus Stanford, MIT, Duke, and Chicago)”— Wow, it turns out The Science shows SAT/ACT scores matter
“Fortunately for the US, their military was one of the early adopters, and despite the strong anti-testing sentiment among American elites, tests have never been abolished there.”— Review of 'Troubled' by Rob Henderson
“The US has some gifted programs, but these have been systematically dismantled because they reveal the inequalities of talent among racial groups – or rather, that they reveal the paucity of talent among Blacks and Hispanics, as compared to Whites.”— Review of 'Troubled' by Rob Henderson
“by surrendering to friendly plaintiffs in the Luevano discrimination case by declaring that the 7 year old, highly scientific PACE test was fatally biased against blacks and Latinos”— Trump Trashes Carter's Infamous Luevano Decree
““Today, the Justice Department removed that barrier and reopened federal employment opportunities based on merit—not race.””— Trump Trashes Carter's Infamous Luevano Decree
“the Carter administration's Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and its allies on the left... the EEOC tacitly sponsored a lawsuit.”— Trump Administration does something smart
“More than forty years later, the Luevano Consent Decree still binds OPM [Office of Personnel Management] and every other executive branch agency. But OPM has struggled to develop any test that meets the Decree’s stringent adverse impact.”— Trump Administration does something smart
“concerned parents formed an advocacy group – Parents in Action on Special Ed. (PASE) – and sued the Chicago school system to put an end to the IQ testing of minority children”— Bias is Often Unpredictable
“In a landmark 2021 settlement by the University of California (UC), the nation’s most prestigious state university system, officials agreed to eliminate the requirement that students submit college entrance exam scores to gain admission.”— Think Again: Do College Admissions Exams Drive Higher Education Inequities?
“In a landmark 2021 settlement by the University of California (UC), the nation’s most prestigious state university system, officials agreed to eliminate the requirement that students submit college entrance exam scores to gain admission.”— Think Again: “College Admissions Exams Drive Higher Education Inequities”
“the left-leaning groups that brought the UC lawsuit called the tests “discriminatory,””— Think Again: “College Admissions Exams Drive Higher Education Inequities”
“The University of California’s decision this past week to stop requiring the SAT and ACT tests for admissions renewed a debate”— Q. Why is the SAT falling out of favor? A. Asian Supremacy
“Meanwhile, the Black Lives Matter movement went into high gear, and among its demands was that test scores be banned in college admissions so as to give a leg up to low-scoring groups like blacks and Hispanics.”— The SAT and Racial/Ethnic Differences in Cognitive Ability
“Les plus grandes entreprises américaines ont récompensé les émeutiers en s’engageant à hauteur de près de 100 milliards de dollars auprès des organisations Black Lives Matter.”— Jared Taylor : « Pour que les Blancs puissent défendre leurs terres et leur culture, ils doivent se libérer de l'illusion suicidaire qu'ils ont été une présence malveillante sur la planète » [Interview]
“the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a suit against the convenience store chain Sheetz, arguing that their use of criminal background checks in hiring violates federal civil rights law.”— How the EEOC built America's secret police, and got companies to pay for it
“Corporations don’t hire sprawling HR and DEI departments out of inertia, or because they’re afraid of popular pressure: they do it because they need an internal constituency that is as crazy as their craziest employee”— How the EEOC built America's secret police, and got companies to pay for it
“these public [four-year] institutions are the most wasteful agency in any state’s government process”— Louisiana’s Higher Education System Not Making the Grade
““At the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, for example,” says Greene, “the number of full-time administrators per ??100 students grew by 44% between 1993 and 2007, while full-time employees engaged in ?instruction, research, and service grew by only 9%.””— Louisiana’s Higher Education System Not Making the Grade
“Black colleges are experiencing a renaissance. Black organizations--churches, fraternities, sororities and professional groups--are attracting legions of new members.”— The Rage of the Black Middle Class : The Children of the Civil Rights Revolution Grew Up Expecting Entry Into a Colorblind Society. Today They Are Finding That All the Trappings of Success Can't Shelter Blacks From the Realities of Racism.
“The NAACP has filed a complaint regarding the admissions policy at the prestigious Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, saying it keeps African-American and Latino students out.”— Discrimination Complaint Against Virginia High School
“Martina Hone with the Coalition of Silence claims the Fairfax County Public School System discriminates against minority students and those with disabilities.”— Discrimination Complaint Against Virginia High School
The Foundation

Believers in the assumption made a reasonable case grounded in observable patterns. Wealthy parents could afford test preparation courses that seemed to inflate scores beyond true academic readiness. High school GPA appeared to capture sustained effort over years while SAT and ACT offered only a single snapshot. Score gaps between racial groups were large and persistent, with Asian students averaging 24.9 on the ACT and Black students 16.3, which looked like evidence of systemic unfairness given historical disadvantages. [7] Critics argued that letters of recommendation, teacher reports, and extracurriculars would identify talent more fairly than instruments that merely measured exposure to privileged environments. [3] A thoughtful observer in the early 2000s could see grade inflation pushing GPAs against a 4.0 ceiling and conclude that tests added little once school rigor was considered. [1]

The assumption gained strength from real limitations in early studies. Critics of The Bell Curve pointed out that measures of parental socioeconomic status were imperfect and that fuller controls for confounding factors appeared to shrink the independent effect of cognitive ability. [2] The PACE exam, developed scientifically over seven years, still produced disparate impact on Black and Hispanic applicants, which seemed to prove that no valid test could avoid unequal outcomes. [4] Witnesses in court testified that items such as "Who discovered America?" measured only exposure to White culture rather than ability, and the claim sounded credible when presented as cultural irrelevance to minority children. [6] These arguments were not invented from nothing; they reflected genuine concern about fairness and the visible correlation between family resources and test performance. [1][7]

Yet growing evidence suggests the core claims were flawed. A 2025 study by Friedman and colleagues found that SAT and ACT scores predict college GPA better than high school GPA and show no bias against disadvantaged or underrepresented minority students. [1] Conditional on test scores, higher-resourced students do not outperform lower-resourced ones, contradicting the idea that scores merely reflect privilege. [23] Similar gaps appear in essays, letters of recommendation, and extracurriculars, indicating that preparation differences rather than test design drive disparities. [7][8] The University of California’s own task force concluded that the tests supplied information distinct from GPA and helped identify some minority students who would succeed. [9]

▶ Supporting Quotes (28)
“if test scores are biased against a certain group of students, then those students will have a higher level of underlying academic preparation as compared to others with the same score, leading them to outperform academically once in college and judged in a system without such bias. Such might be the case if, for instance, students from advantaged backgrounds had more resources with which to prepare specifically for the SAT or ACT, inflating their test scores relative to others with the same underlying level of academic preparation but lacking these extra resources.”— Wow, it turns out The Science shows SAT/ACT scores matter
“Recent grade inflation could be eroding the information content of high school GPA most at the top, as more students are pushed up against the 4.0 cap.”— Wow, it turns out The Science shows SAT/ACT scores matter
“Goodman, Gurantz and Smith (2020) show that retaking SAT tests increases scores more for students lower in the test score distribution. The rule for college admissions committees is only to look at the highest scoring test out of multiple attempts. Regression to the mean suggests that high scores from lower scoring groups are more likely to be flukes than high scores from high scoring groups.”— Wow, it turns out The Science shows SAT/ACT scores matter
“Detractors claimed that Herrnstein and Murray’s measure of parental SES was imperfect or even flawed, and that when confounding factors are properly controlled, the effect of IQ diminishes substantially.”— IQ isn't everything but it's a lot
“Standardized testing isn’t perfect and has some degree of trainability, but the alternatives – letters of recommendation, teacher reports, extracurricular activities – are all much worse, as they are much more influenced by non-talent factors and predict future outcomes less well.”— Review of 'Troubled' by Rob Henderson
“As far as I know, these had little impact compared to the egalitarian ethics of diversity, inclusion, and equity (DIE).”— Review of 'Troubled' by Rob Henderson
“declaring that the 7 year old, highly scientific PACE test was fatally biased against blacks and Latinos, and the incoming Reagan Administration could no doubt concoct a predictively valid test on which the Carter Administration’s favored minorities would perform just as well as whites and Asians.”— Trump Trashes Carter's Infamous Luevano Decree
“That’s pretty much the fundamental law of psychometrics: you can have a valid test or you can have a test on which the races score equally, but you can’t have both.”— Trump Administration does something smart
“biographical data “self-rating sections” (e.g., “Are you a hard worker?”) tend to produce more racially equal scores than questions with objective answers.”— Trump Administration does something smart
“Their principal argument was that IQ tests were biased, resulting in an abnormally large number of Black students being identified for placement into remedial education”— Bias is Often Unpredictable
“Williams took this to be “absolutely insulting” to Amerindian children “since it implies that the land where their forebearers resided needed to be ‘discovered’ by someone else.””— Bias is Often Unpredictable
“The average ACT composite score is about 20, but the highest-scoring racial/ethnic group, Asian students, scores 24.9 on average, while Black students, the lowest-scoring group, have an average score of 16.3. ... Far from being instruments of systemic racism, the SAT and ACT are put through extensive measures to ensure that the exams do not discriminate against students because of their racial or ethnic background (or class or gender).”— Think Again: Do College Admissions Exams Drive Higher Education Inequities?
“Consider a 2020 study that used software to analyze hundreds of thousands of student admissions essays from applications to the University of California system. ... found that the form and content of students’ personal essays were even more correlated with student socioeconomic status than SAT scores.”— Think Again: Do College Admissions Exams Drive Higher Education Inequities?
“Entrance exams provide information about schools and students that is distinct from grade point average.”— Think Again: Do College Admissions Exams Drive Higher Education Inequities?
“Gaps in average exam scores for students of different groups are, of course, no myth. The average ACT composite score is about 20, but the highest-scoring racial/ethnic group, Asian students, scores 24.9 on average, while Black students, the lowest-scoring group, have an average score of 16.3. For some, the existence of such a gap is alone sufficient to prove the tests are racist.”— Think Again: “College Admissions Exams Drive Higher Education Inequities”
“Far from being instruments of systemic racism, the SAT and ACT are put through extensive measures to ensure that the exams do not discriminate against students because of their racial or ethnic background (or class or gender). The organizations that administer the exams vet them intensely, not just by diverse review panels that alert the test makers to any potential cultural biases but also through statistical techniques that flag test questions answered differently by students from different backgrounds.”— Think Again: “College Admissions Exams Drive Higher Education Inequities”
“Critics of the tests cite decades of data indicating that they are inherently biased in favor of affluent, white and Asian-American students. [...] Critics also say the tests are too easily gamed by students who can pay thousands of dollars for private coaching and test prep.”— Q. Why is the SAT falling out of favor? A. Asian Supremacy
“Firstly, it is a high-stakes college entrance test, which means that it is a target for intense test preparation activities in ways that conventional IQ tests are not, potentially jeopardizing its validity as a measure of cognitive ability.”— The SAT and Racial/Ethnic Differences in Cognitive Ability
“Secondly, taking the SAT is voluntary, which means that the participant sample is not representative but rather consists of people who tend to be smarter and more motivated than the average.”— The SAT and Racial/Ethnic Differences in Cognitive Ability
“Aux États-Unis, le dogme veut que les Noirs et les Hispaniques soient aussi intelligents et travailleurs que les Blancs et qu’ils ne réussissent pas aussi bien que ces derniers uniquement en raison de la discrimination systématique dont ils font l’objet.”— Jared Taylor : « Pour que les Blancs puissent défendre leurs terres et leur culture, ils doivent se libérer de l'illusion suicidaire qu'ils ont été une présence malveillante sur la planète » [Interview]
“Federal law mandates that employment practices causing a disparate impact because of race or other protected classifications must be shown by the employer to be necessary”— How the EEOC built America's secret police, and got companies to pay for it
“discrimination can be defined as broadly as “unwelcome verbal conduct” (i.e. saying things the complainant doesn’t like), so long as the investigator believes that the conduct is motivated by a discriminatory attitude”— How the EEOC built America's secret police, and got companies to pay for it
“Twenty-nine percent of Louisiana’s freshmen come from the bottom half of their high school class, and Stille believes that these unprepared students account for the state’s embarrassingly low graduation rates.”— Louisiana’s Higher Education System Not Making the Grade
“the funding mechanism has incentivized poor results, focusing on the “numbers of students on campus… instead of academic quality in admissions.””— Louisiana’s Higher Education System Not Making the Grade
“Overt racial barriers were falling, and I... thought my future would be free of racism, free of oppression. I believed I was standing on the portico of the Promised Land.”— The Rage of the Black Middle Class : The Children of the Civil Rights Revolution Grew Up Expecting Entry Into a Colorblind Society. Today They Are Finding That All the Trappings of Success Can't Shelter Blacks From the Realities of Racism.
“In 1967... about 266,000 black American households earned an inflation-adjusted $50,000 or more... In 1989, the number... had grown to more than 1 million.”— The Rage of the Black Middle Class : The Children of the Civil Rights Revolution Grew Up Expecting Entry Into a Colorblind Society. Today They Are Finding That All the Trappings of Success Can't Shelter Blacks From the Realities of Racism.
“Their report indicates this year's class at Thomas Jefferson is made up of 476 students. Of those, 43 percent are white, 46 percent are Asian, and a little more than 8 percent are multiracial. Only 2.1 percent are Hispanic and a bleak 0.6 percent -- just 3 students -- are black.”— Discrimination Complaint Against Virginia High School
“Schools are dropping standardized tests to buck the decision and allow minority students in who are academically unqualified, an expert said.”— Universities Are Evading Supreme Court’s Anti-Affirmative Action Ruling, Congress Hears
How It Spread

Admissions committees at elite colleges spread the assumption by shifting to test-optional policies after 2020, reasoning that high school GPA could be adjusted for school quality even though committees often lacked precise knowledge of thousands of high schools. [1] Media outlets reinforced the narrative by describing the SAT as a wealth test that favored rich families, a framing that persisted in popular coverage despite mounting counter-evidence. [2] The assumption moved through lawsuits brought by left-leaning groups that labeled the exams discriminatory, prompting public statements from university officials who called the tests racist. [7][8] New York Times coverage and UC regents debates portrayed the instruments as proxies for privilege that disadvantaged minorities. [9]

Legal mechanisms amplified the idea without much public scrutiny. The Luevano consent decree, approved by a hand-picked judge, bound federal hiring for forty-four years and discouraged rigorous testing across agencies. [5] Courtroom testimony in the PASE case featured experts claiming IQ tests measured only cultural exposure, and those assertions entered the record without requiring proof of differential prediction. [6] Black Lives Matter organizations during the 2020 racial reckoning called for discarding SAT scores as unfair to Black and Hispanic applicants, framing them as structural barriers. [10] Corporate pledges of nearly one hundred billion dollars to such groups after George Floyd’s death rewarded the narrative and extended its reach. [12]

The idea also traveled through state policy and media amplification. Louisiana’s public universities relied on enrollment-based funding that rewarded loose admissions standards justified by equity goals. [14] Local media in Fairfax County reported NAACP complaints about low minority enrollment at Thomas Jefferson High School as evidence of discrimination, shaping public perception before any investigation. [19] Media outlets such as CBS and Inside Higher Ed reported colleges dropping tests due to discrimination concerns and pandemic disruptions, accelerating the trend. [26]

▶ Supporting Quotes (24)
“Presumably, if the admissions committee knows that, to take local examples from my neighborhood, a 4.0 at academically demanding Harvard-Westlake is harder to achieve than a 4.0 at more artistic Oakwood”— Wow, it turns out The Science shows SAT/ACT scores matter
“in 1991, People magazine ran profiles of five of the 9 boys (no girls) in the U.S. who scored a perfect 1600 on the SAT. A few years ago I tracked down three of the five with perfect scores. One was a tenured professor of brain science at Georgetown”— Wow, it turns out The Science shows SAT/ACT scores matter
“Even today, it is common to hear that the SAT (an IQ-type test used in college admissions) “favors rich, educated families” or that it is merely a “wealth test”.”— IQ isn't everything but it's a lot
“despite the strong anti-testing sentiment among American elites”— Review of 'Troubled' by Rob Henderson
“So far, practically nobody in the mainstream media has yet reported on the epochal overthrow of the Luevano consent decree, including, the Washington Post, which you might think would be closely following civil service exam issues.”— Trump Trashes Carter's Infamous Luevano Decree
“the Carter Justice Department signed a consent decree, approved by a picked judge, junking the civil service examination.”— Trump Administration does something smart
“PASE alleged that the IQ tests given to students in Chicago were biased against Blacks. They brought forward several witnesses who testified as such”— Bias is Often Unpredictable
“For example, the left-leaning groups that brought the UC lawsuit called the tests “discriminatory,” ... From lawsuits to deliberate test-blind or test-optional admissions policies, the claim that the SAT and ACT put underrepresented minority students at a disadvantage is pervasive.”— Think Again: Do College Admissions Exams Drive Higher Education Inequities?
“From lawsuits to deliberate test-blind or test-optional admissions policies, the claim that the SAT and ACT put underrepresented minority students at a disadvantage is pervasive.”— Think Again: “College Admissions Exams Drive Higher Education Inequities”
“Critics say the tests put less wealthy students at a disadvantage. [...] numerous speakers used the word “racist” to describe the exams.”— Q. Why is the SAT falling out of favor? A. Asian Supremacy
“Meanwhile, the Black Lives Matter movement went into high gear, and among its demands was that test scores be banned in college admissions so as to give a leg up to low-scoring groups like blacks and Hispanics.”— The SAT and Racial/Ethnic Differences in Cognitive Ability
“Les États-Unis exercent une influence culturelle et idéologique considérable, notamment sur les médias d’information, mais aussi sur les films hollywoodiens, la télévision et les romans populaires. Tous sont fermement entre les mains de la gauche, qui ne manque jamais de critiquer les Blancs et de glorifier les non-Blancs.”— Jared Taylor : « Pour que les Blancs puissent défendre leurs terres et leur culture, ils doivent se libérer de l'illusion suicidaire qu'ils ont été une présence malveillante sur la planète » [Interview]
“the EEOC gets the outcome they want from the district judge 96% of the time — and attorneys on both sides know this — so only 0.1% of cases go to court”— How the EEOC built America's secret police, and got companies to pay for it
“employees in protected categories have massive incentives to generate or fabricate such conflicts.”— How the EEOC built America's secret police, and got companies to pay for it
“he “wonders how the political leadership of [Louisiana] can support such a system with these poor results.” Without performance oversight since the G.I. Bill in the late 1940s”— Louisiana’s Higher Education System Not Making the Grade
“By an act of Protestant willpower, they sheltered us from the lingering traces of Jim Crow and imbued in us a belief that... nothing was impossible.”— The Rage of the Black Middle Class : The Children of the Civil Rights Revolution Grew Up Expecting Entry Into a Colorblind Society. Today They Are Finding That All the Trappings of Success Can't Shelter Blacks From the Realities of Racism.
“I came of age as the Great Society of the late 1960s closed. Author... David Bradley defined that period as the 'Years of the Black'...”— The Rage of the Black Middle Class : The Children of the Civil Rights Revolution Grew Up Expecting Entry Into a Colorblind Society. Today They Are Finding That All the Trappings of Success Can't Shelter Blacks From the Realities of Racism.
“Allegations of discrimination have hit a prestigious Alexandria high school. Two organizations have filed a complaint against the admissions policy at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.”— Discrimination Complaint Against Virginia High School
“But Dieter Salomon, the mayor of Freiburg warned people not to "apply perpetrator background for sweeping judgements, but to view it as an isolated incident".”— Daughter of top EU official raped and murdered by Afghan migrant
“Colleges and universities across the country are evading a recent Supreme Court ruling that struck down the use of racially discriminatory admissions policies in higher education”— Universities Are Evading Supreme Court’s Anti-Affirmative Action Ruling, Congress Hears
“SAT scores were 3.9 times more predictive than high school grades at these colleges”— Standardized Test Scores and Academic Performance at Ivy-Plus Colleges
“Conditional on SAT/ACT score, there is no evidence that students from higher-resourced backgrounds outperform students from lower-resourced backgrounds”— Standardized Admission Tests Are Not Biased
“Using SAT scores with high school GPA was the most powerful predictor of future academic performance, with SAT scores adding 15% more predictive power above high school grades alone”— Standardized tests can be great predictors of college success
“By October 2020, CBS was reporting that “A growing number of U.S. colleges and universities are abandoning ACT and SAT scores as part of their admissions process,” and attributing this decision to the fact that the virus led to widespread cancellation of these tests.”— Let's Discuss One Of The Worst Ideas Influential Public Intellectuals Have Embraced Recently
Resulting Policies

Top colleges enacted test-optional admissions policies after 2020, basing decisions primarily on high school GPA because they assumed SAT and ACT scores were biased against disadvantaged and minority applicants. [1] The University of California formalized the shift through a 2021 lawsuit settlement that eliminated the entrance exam requirement, a move many other institutions copied. [7][8] The policy was presented as advancing equity without lowering standards, yet internal studies had shown the tests added predictive power. [21]

The Luevano Consent Decree of January 1981 banned the PACE exam and required federal hiring tests without adverse impact on Black and Hispanic candidates. [4][5] The Carter administration’s Justice Department settled the case and replaced a validated instrument used for 118 positions with subjective tools such as biodata forms that reduced validity. [5] Multiple subsequent administrations failed to develop a replacement that produced equal scores across groups, leaving the decree in place for more than four decades. [4]

School systems dismantled gifted programs that relied on standardized testing after those programs revealed racial differences in talent distribution. [3] Chicago schools faced a lawsuit from Parents in Action on Special Education that challenged IQ testing for placing Black children in special education classes. [6] Fairfax County Public Schools reviewed Thomas Jefferson High School’s test-and-grade admissions policy after a NAACP complaint alleged discrimination, leading to board interventions and potential loss of federal funds. [19]

▶ Supporting Quotes (18)
“At the high end, college admission testing is much more predictive of freshman college grade point average than is high school grade point average”— Wow, it turns out The Science shows SAT/ACT scores matter
“these have been systematically dismantled because they reveal the inequalities of talent among racial groups”— Review of 'Troubled' by Rob Henderson
“deep-sixing the federal civil service hiring exam in January 1981 by surrendering to friendly plaintiffs in the Luevano discrimination case”— Trump Trashes Carter's Infamous Luevano Decree
“The outgoing Carter Justice officials declared that no exam could replace PACE until a valid one without adverse impact on blacks and Hispanics could be devised.”— Trump Administration does something smart
“on behalf of all Black children who have been or will be placed in special classes for the educable mentally handicapped in the Chicago school system”— Bias is Often Unpredictable
“In a landmark 2021 settlement by the University of California (UC) ... officials agreed to eliminate the requirement that students submit college entrance exam scores to gain admission. ... Recent years have seen many colleges and universities adopt “test-optional” admissions”— Think Again: Do College Admissions Exams Drive Higher Education Inequities?
“In a landmark 2021 settlement by the University of California (UC), ... officials agreed to eliminate the requirement that students submit college entrance exam scores to gain admission.”— Think Again: “College Admissions Exams Drive Higher Education Inequities”
“The University of California will no longer use SAT and ACT scores in admissions decisions.”— Q. Why is the SAT falling out of favor? A. Asian Supremacy
“many colleges stopped asking for test scores for the duration.”— The SAT and Racial/Ethnic Differences in Cognitive Ability
“Tous les sondages montrent que les Américains et les Européens veulent moins d’immigration, pas plus. Et pourtant, nos gouvernants, qui se targuent de « démocratie », écrasent la volonté du peuple.”— Jared Taylor : « Pour que les Blancs puissent défendre leurs terres et leur culture, ils doivent se libérer de l'illusion suicidaire qu'ils ont été une présence malveillante sur la planète » [Interview]
“The government intends to force Sheetz to hire applicants who were previously denied employment, providing them with “back pay” and retroactive seniority.”— How the EEOC built America's secret police, and got companies to pay for it
“Pepsi was ordered to pay $3.13M and invited in the future to “take into consideration the nature and gravity of the offense, the time that has passed since the conviction and/or completion of the sentence, and the nature of the job sought”— How the EEOC built America's secret police, and got companies to pay for it
“funding for the state’s higher education, from all sources, has already declined by 4 percent.* However, that came after a 23 percent increase”— Louisiana’s Higher Education System Not Making the Grade
“the Louisiana Board of Regents is planning for slightly higher admissions requirements, although they will not begin until fall 2012, and not completely until 2014.”— Louisiana’s Higher Education System Not Making the Grade
“I should be among the first students from her elementary school to attend the nearest white junior high school the following year.”— The Rage of the Black Middle Class : The Children of the Civil Rights Revolution Grew Up Expecting Entry Into a Colorblind Society. Today They Are Finding That All the Trappings of Success Can't Shelter Blacks From the Realities of Racism.
“CEO statistical research (logistic regression analyses) showed that underrepresented minorities (URMs) received significant preference”— Campus Diversity and Student Discontent: The Costs of Race and Ethnic Preferences in College Admissions
“The Education Department's civil rights office willl determine whether there's enough evidence here to warrant a full investigation. The office has the power to withhold federal funds from schools that refuse to correct civil rights violations.”— Discrimination Complaint Against Virginia High School
“At the same time, the schools are backing away from standardized testing in order to admit academically unqualified minority applicants, a legal expert told The Epoch Times.”— Universities Are Evading Supreme Court’s Anti-Affirmative Action Ruling, Congress Hears
Harm Caused

Test-optional policies produced credential inflation in which GPAs climbed to 4.40 and made it harder to distinguish genuine top talent from average performers. [1] Selective colleges overlooked signals from stronger high schools and risked mismatching students who appeared qualified on paper but struggled once enrolled. [1] Disadvantaged children with high ability, including those in foster care, were less likely to be identified without universal testing and often remained with peer groups that offered less structure. [3]

Federal hiring suffered for forty-four years under the Luevano decree. Agencies abandoned six successive valid exams because they showed adverse impact and turned instead to subjective resumes, interviews, and self-ratings that performed worse and introduced new forms of bias. [5] The result was reduced competence in government staffing and a measurable decline in the quality of civil service selection. [4]

Louisiana’s public universities wasted four hundred forty million dollars annually on students who never graduated, with institutions such as SUNO achieving an eight percent graduation rate and the statewide average stuck at thirty-nine percent against a national fifty-four percent. [14] Administrative bloat grew until there were thirty-nine percent more administrators per student than faculty, a pattern sustained by enrollment-based funding that rewarded quantity over outcomes. [14] The Black middle class experienced disillusionment after integration policies failed to deliver colorblind success, leading many families to retreat into separate social circles and producing greater societal Balkanization. [15]

▶ Supporting Quotes (22)
“At my pretty good private Catholic school, two of the 181 in the Class of ‘76 had perfect 4.0 GPAs. ... These days with the 1.0 bonus just for taking Advance Placement classes, a GPA of 4.40 is common.”— Wow, it turns out The Science shows SAT/ACT scores matter
“In general, kids who go to better high schools tend to do better, not worse, than their SAT/ACT scores predict. This follows Kingsley Amis’s Lucky Jim rule: “There was no end to the ways in which nice things are nicer than nasty ones.””— Wow, it turns out The Science shows SAT/ACT scores matter
“Western countries have for decades been neglecting their talented young people. We can see this clearly when examining public funding for gifted programs.”— Review of 'Troubled' by Rob Henderson
“I was wondering whether he might have gotten on a better path earlier in life if there had been some talent program where he could have met other bright children, instead of hanging around with troublemakers and proto-criminals.”— Review of 'Troubled' by Rob Henderson
“For over four decades, this decree has hampered the federal government from hiring the top talent of our nation”— Trump Trashes Carter's Infamous Luevano Decree
“most federal jobs have been awarded by various temporary makeshift methods involving high degrees of subjectivity (making hiring more ethnically biased was, of course, the point of Luevano).”— Trump Administration does something smart
“those selection methods which were most valid also had the greatest adverse impact... The MSPB supported the use of the ACWA written examination because it was “better at predicting future job performance” than the “temporary hiring authorities established under Luevano.””— Trump Administration does something smart
“sued the Chicago school system to put an end to the IQ testing of minority children”— Bias is Often Unpredictable
“evaluations of test-optional admissions policies show little effect on equity. ... States should require and pay for all high school students to take the SAT or ACT, in order to help identify all students with high academic potential, especially those from underrepresented groups.”— Think Again: Do College Admissions Exams Drive Higher Education Inequities?
“evaluations of test-optional admissions policies show little effect on equity.”— Think Again: “College Admissions Exams Drive Higher Education Inequities”
“Higher education is running out of white kids. They are looking at a hyper stratified future of Asians versus Latinos, so they are engaging in various kinds of Shoot the Messenger behavior.”— Q. Why is the SAT falling out of favor? A. Asian Supremacy
“participation declined sharply after the double whammy of the coronavirus pandemic and the “racial reckoning” hit in 2020. The pandemic caused the College Board to cancel test administrations,”— The SAT and Racial/Ethnic Differences in Cognitive Ability
“Depuis, combien de voitures et d’immeubles ont brûlé, combien de Français tués, combien de femmes françaises violées, combien de Français battus et humiliés, combien de quartiers sensibles perdus pour la souveraineté française ?”— Jared Taylor : « Pour que les Blancs puissent défendre leurs terres et leur culture, ils doivent se libérer de l'illusion suicidaire qu'ils ont été une présence malveillante sur la planète » [Interview]
“This risk is existential for small and medium-sized businesses, which is one reason that labor-intensive businesses are dominated by massive conglomerates.”— How the EEOC built America's secret police, and got companies to pay for it
“the EEOC built a $30B network of internal informants and political officers (twice the size and 3X the budget of the KGB at its peak) who are not accountable to the Constitution”— How the EEOC built America's secret police, and got companies to pay for it
“loose admission standards contribute to an estimated $440 million annual waste – an “enormous cost for little results.””— Louisiana’s Higher Education System Not Making the Grade
“Eight percent of freshmen at Southern University at New Orleans (SUNO) complete their degree within six years, and the average across the state’s university system is 39 percent. That compares to 54 percent nationally”— Louisiana’s Higher Education System Not Making the Grade
“even it accepts 17 percent of its freshmen from the bottom half of their high school class. Stille... describes this as a “travesty for a research institution,” and a “disservice to the better academically prepared students.””— Louisiana’s Higher Education System Not Making the Grade
“My generation... is so disillusioned by the persistent racism... that we are abandoning efforts to assimilate into the mainstream of society. I see no end to this trend.”— The Rage of the Black Middle Class : The Children of the Civil Rights Revolution Grew Up Expecting Entry Into a Colorblind Society. Today They Are Finding That All the Trappings of Success Can't Shelter Blacks From the Realities of Racism.
“Recently she shocked her mother and me by declaring that when she grows up, she intends to 'be white' like one of her classmates.”— The Rage of the Black Middle Class : The Children of the Civil Rights Revolution Grew Up Expecting Entry Into a Colorblind Society. Today They Are Finding That All the Trappings of Success Can't Shelter Blacks From the Realities of Racism.
“"In addition to focusing on early education, we've also put more money into summer school and interventions throughout the year to help struggling students," he said.”— Discrimination Complaint Against Virginia High School
“Schools are dropping standardized tests to buck the decision and allow minority students in who are academically unqualified, an expert said.”— Universities Are Evading Supreme Court’s Anti-Affirmative Action Ruling, Congress Hears
Downfall

Growing evidence suggests the assumption was flawed. The 2025 Friedman study demonstrated that SAT and ACT scores predict college GPA more accurately than high school GPA and exhibit no bias against disadvantaged or underrepresented minority students. [1] Non-URM students slightly outperformed URM students with identical scores, contradicting claims that the tests systematically underpredict minority performance. [1] A 2015 study of universal testing in one state produced large increases in gifted placements for disadvantaged and minority students, showing that the instruments uncover hidden talent rather than conceal it. [3]

Legal and institutional shifts began to reverse the policies built on the assumption. The Trump administration ended the Luevano consent decree in 2025, arguing that it conflicted with Supreme Court precedents against racial quotas for statistical parity. [4][5] The decree’s own history illustrated its failure: agencies had repeatedly abandoned superior tests such as ACWA because of adverse impact and settled for inferior substitutes. [5]

University of California’s internal task force had already contradicted the public narrative by finding that the SAT was a better predictor of college success than GPA and provided useful information for some minority applicants. [9] Similar gaps in essays, recommendations, and extracurriculars revealed that preparation differences, not test design, drove disparities. [7][8] Congressional hearings later exposed how universities continued test-blind practices to evade the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling against race-based admissions. [21] The accumulating data made reliance on alternatives look less fair than the tests themselves. [26]

▶ Supporting Quotes (20)
“Figure 2a shows a non-parametric representation of our test for bias between students attending more vs. less advantaged high schools. The relationship between test SAT/ACT scores and first-year college GPA is quite similar for all students, no matter the advantage of the high school they attended.”— Wow, it turns out The Science shows SAT/ACT scores matter
“Figure 2b replicates this test for bias between URM and non-URM students; we similarly find that non-URM students slightly outperform URM students with the same SAT/ACT scores”— Wow, it turns out The Science shows SAT/ACT scores matter
“One US study from 2015 exploited a policy change where universal testing was introduced for second grade students. This resulted in “large increases in the fractions of economically disadvantaged students and minorities placed in gifted programs”.”— Review of 'Troubled' by Rob Henderson
“Finally, after 44 years of anti-competence mischief, the Trump Administration has cut the Gordian knot by junking the Luevano consent decree last week”— Trump Trashes Carter's Infamous Luevano Decree
“The Luevano Consent Decree directly conflicts with multiple Supreme Court decisions from the intervening decades... this kind of blatant racial favoritism is not permitted under current Supreme Court precedent.”— Trump Administration does something smart
“the MSPB has found that it “is far less able to predict future performance.””— Trump Administration does something smart
“the judge proceeded to scrutinize every single item on the Stanford-Binet (1960 test, revised with 1972 norms), the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC), and the revised WISC (WISC-R). This is – to put it mildly – an incredible breach of confidentiality”— Bias is Often Unpredictable
“None of the attorneys for plaintiffs nor the attorneys for the Department of Justice were prepared to discuss specific test items during the day-long oral arguments”— Bias is Often Unpredictable
“The study, which was the first to use quantitative methods to analyze college admissions essays, found that the form and content of students’ personal essays were even more correlated with student socioeconomic status than SAT scores. ... Officials at both testing companies implement multiple, overlapping systems designed to ensure that the exams are free of such biased questions”— Think Again: Do College Admissions Exams Drive Higher Education Inequities?
“All components of a typical college application packet that have been studied by researchers, from letters of recommendation to personal essays, exhibit gaps when computing the averages of different student groups, suggesting that the gaps are driven by average differences in academic achievement and preparation.”— Think Again: “College Admissions Exams Drive Higher Education Inequities”
“Entrance exams provide information about schools and students that is distinct from grade point average.”— Think Again: “College Admissions Exams Drive Higher Education Inequities”
“At the University of California, a faculty task force found that standardized tests were a better predictor of college success than high school grades were. They also found that including the SAT and ACT in the formula for admissions helped some black, Hispanic and low-income students by offering an additional metric for those who might have been rejected based on grades.”— Q. Why is the SAT falling out of favor? A. Asian Supremacy
“Unsurprisingly, SAT scores correlate strongly with scores from other IQ tests (Frey & Detterman, 2004).”— The SAT and Racial/Ethnic Differences in Cognitive Ability
“This can be done with data from states where entire high school graduate cohorts take the SAT.”— The SAT and Racial/Ethnic Differences in Cognitive Ability
“it is also advantageous that SAT-takers are generally motivated to get good scores, and that large numbers of young people from all backgrounds take the test each year, enabling precise estimation of population means.”— The SAT and Racial/Ethnic Differences in Cognitive Ability
“Au moins les nations d’Europe de l’Est ont-elles conscience de la menace qui pèse sur nous et des enjeux qui en découlent. Elles voient ce qui se passe en France et en Allemagne.”— Jared Taylor : « Pour que les Blancs puissent défendre leurs terres et leur culture, ils doivent se libérer de l'illusion suicidaire qu'ils ont été une présence malveillante sur la planète » [Interview]
“Louisiana comes in at 39th in terms of admissions standards and 49th in on a broader scale, which also includes rates of completion, affordability, and student preparedness.”— Louisiana’s Higher Education System Not Making the Grade
“Now, as the 20th Century seeps away, I am waking from my blind belief... I feel betrayed and isolated. I am angrier than I’ve ever been.”— The Rage of the Black Middle Class : The Children of the Civil Rights Revolution Grew Up Expecting Entry Into a Colorblind Society. Today They Are Finding That All the Trappings of Success Can't Shelter Blacks From the Realities of Racism.
“Colleges and universities across the country are evading a recent Supreme Court ruling that struck down the use of racially discriminatory admissions policies in higher education, a congressional panel heard.”— Universities Are Evading Supreme Court’s Anti-Affirmative Action Ruling, Congress Hears
“but that’s a ridiculous critique because what tool is perfect or profoundly powerful?”— Let's Discuss One Of The Worst Ideas Influential Public Intellectuals Have Embraced Recently
Sources
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