Reply to NEWS: UC schools are dropping SAT requirement for class of 2021

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]But back to a key question from a prior post.  Does anyone actually KNOW how test-optional colleges have been operating, or whether the UC system is going to operate differently?  Is there any data out there?

By the way, Harvard actually lost its lawsuit after depositions were taken, although the case is on appeal.  The people who sued emphasized the zero-sum theory of college admissions.  If you act affirmatively in favor of one group, the argument goes, you are implicitly acting against other groups.  Favoring athletes discriminates against non-athletes.  Favoring legacies discriminates against non-legacies.   Favoring underrepresented minorities discriminates against Caucasians and Asians.  That's the argument.

In my opinion, and Harvard's, that kind of favoritism is not the same as "discrimination" toward any particular group, especially in the context of affirmative action.  It's just a recognition that diversity within the school is good for the school and for society.  Also, there are populations that tend to do well once admitted, and also do well after graduation, even though they don't do all as well on standardized tests.  For this reason, many people are suspicious of standardized tests even though they do not discriminate in the traditional sense, in that the graders at the College Board don't know the race of any particular test taker.  But the system as a whole can seem discriminatory, especially if the tests are accurate predictors for many students but not students from all groups.

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[b]You've swallowed all the talking points that proponents of reverse discrimination traffic in; but, here's a test to prove me wrong:  cite with specificity the empirical evidence that educational outcomes for all students improve as the direct result of racial diversity in the classroom.  (I don't think this is a test you can pass.)

Second:  since when did non-athletes and non-legacies become protected classes under the law?  If the Asians used such an argument, or suggested such an argument, I very much doubt it was persuasive, let alone dispositive.

The Asians won their case because reverse discrimination, or race-based discrimination, is illegal as a matter of law (see Equal Protection Clause, 14th Amendment), even when practiced by a nominally private actor, such as Harvard. (Harvard is so entangled with the Feds financially that it falls under the aegis of the Constitution and protections afforded thereunder.)

I suspect that if Harvard is to prevail in its appeal, it will need to be able to pass the test I posed to you, above.  And Harvard won't be able to do so.  Because it's facially preposterous to argue, e.g., that white kids or Asian kids will be impaired and debilitated in terms of learning capacity and learning outcomes unless there are blacks and Hispanics in their classrooms.

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