A House subcommittee hearing on affirmative action Thursday turned contentious as Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA) and a Chinese American witness sparred over why colleges have increasingly moved away from requiring standardized tests for admissions.
The hearing of the House subcommittee on higher education and workforce development was titled “How SCOTUS’s Decision on Race-Based Admissions is Shaping University Policies” and focused on the impact of the Supreme Court’s June ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and Students for Fair Admissions v. UNC that banned the consideration of a student’s race in college admissions decisions.
REPUBLICAN DEBATE: TOP THREE TAKEAWAYS FROM THE CANDIDATES’ LATEST MEETING
Yukong Mike Zhao, the president of the Asian American Coalition for Education, was among the witnesses invited to testify during the hearing. In submitted testimony, Zhao said that thousands of colleges have made standardized tests optional since the May 2020 death of George Floyd, which he said has hurt the merit-based assessments in college admissions.
“In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and George Floyd’s tragic death, over one thousand colleges and universities made standardized tests optional for their admissions,” Zhao’s submitted testimony reads.
Takano questioned Zhao on the statement, saying that colleges turned to test-optional applications due to the COVID-19 pandemic canceling SAT and ACT tests.
“You want to attribute it to George Floyd’s death. That’s kind of a curious thing,” Takano said.
“The advocates of racial equity took advantage of that,” Zhao replied.
The link between race and standardized testing was a theme throughout the hearing. Opponents of standardized testing have typically asserted that the tests have racist origins and lead to disparate outcomes.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
During the hearing, another witness, David Hinojosa, said that standardized testing has eugenic roots.
“[Standardized tests] are incredibly biased instruments. They were started based on eugenic science, which has obviously been dismissed by the scientific community,” Hinojosa said. “They’re poor predictors of college readiness, so there’s no connection to that, and your test scores are predicted based on your zip code and the quality of education you received.”
