A dozen UC Berkeley professors struck back at UC Board of Regents Chairman John J. Moores on Friday, saying his recent attack on the school's admission of several hundred students with relatively low SAT scores ignores flaws in the entrance exam.
The professors, joined by representatives of a dozen education and civil rights advocacy groups, issued a 30-page defense of the university admission policy known as "comprehensive review." The policy allows consideration of academic qualifications such as SAT performance along with other factors, such as leadership and perseverance in the face of challenges.
The report asserts that SAT scores do not predict success at Berkeley. William Kidder, the report's chief author, said Moores' criticism of Berkeley's admissions policy lacked "a shred of evidence."
Moores said students "did not belong at the university -- without [citing] evidence they were unsuccessful," Kidder said.
Kidder, who is not on the Berkeley faculty, is affiliated with the Equal Justice Society, a civil rights advocacy group. The Berkeley faculty authors are primarily sociologists and ethnic studies professors.
Moores said he could not directly respond to the report, which he had not seen, but stood by his use of SAT data. "It's curious that there would be any concern about the SAT because it's required by the University of California," he said.
Moores also contended that the most competitive majors at the university assess applicants based on test scores and grade point averages. "A number of highly impacted majors almost exclusively admit students with high GPAs and high SAT scores. Those are their requirements, not mine," he said.
UC Berkeley officials say that in general, the top priority in evaluating applications for admission is academics, but students' various achievements are considered in the context of their opportunities and challenges.
The critique of Moores' report cites graduation rates at Berkeley as proof of the limited value of the SAT. The authors, citing UC Berkeley data, say the graduation rate for students who entered in 1988 with SAT scores between 1000 and 1099 was identical to that of those with scores above 1500 -- 82%. Those with scores between 900 and 999 graduated at a 79% rate, and the lowest-scoring group, with scores between 700 and 799, graduated at a 73% rate, the report states.
Kidder said Moores "focused entirely on one statistic as a measure of merit -- the SAT."
