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"content": "\u003cp>In May 2020, the University of California regents \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11820185/uc-admissions-to-phase-out-sat-and-act-requirement\">voted\u003c/a> unanimously to phase out the SAT and ACT as admission requirements. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Considered a rite of passage in high school \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/education/530951/should-colleges-still-require-the-sats-and-acts\">since the 1940s\u003c/a> for students planning to continue their education, the standardized tests were also \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/education/530951/should-colleges-still-require-the-sats-and-acts\">long criticized\u003c/a> as insufficient predictors of college performance and discriminatory to low-income students who didn’t have the same access to test-prep materials and classes. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The UC system wasn’t alone. At the end of 2021, Harvard University announced it would waive \u003ca href=\"https://www.cbsnews.com/news/harvard-test-optional-sat-act-scores-college-admission/\">the testing requirement through 2026.\u003c/a> Institutions like \u003ca href=\"https://www.nyu.edu/admissions/undergraduate-admissions/how-to-apply/standardized-tests.html\">New York University\u003c/a>, the \u003ca href=\"https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/apply/application/required-materials/\">University of Chicago\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://admissions.nd.edu/apply/\">Notre Dame University\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://admissions.northwestern.edu/faqs/standardized-testing-policy/\">Northwestern University\u003c/a> are all currently test-optional for this application cycle. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1331\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/021822-UCLA-Campus-File-RN-CM-45-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11996136\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/021822-UCLA-Campus-File-RN-CM-45-copy.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/021822-UCLA-Campus-File-RN-CM-45-copy-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/021822-UCLA-Campus-File-RN-CM-45-copy-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/021822-UCLA-Campus-File-RN-CM-45-copy-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/021822-UCLA-Campus-File-RN-CM-45-copy-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/021822-UCLA-Campus-File-RN-CM-45-copy-1920x1278.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The UCLA campus in Los Angeles on Feb. 18, 2022. \u003cbr> (Raquel Natalicchio for CalMatters)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But tides are shifting for these schools — and possibly for the UCs, too. Over the summer, more than 3,000 faculty members at University of California schools have signed \u003ca href=\"https://ucstudentsuccess.org/\">a pair of open letters\u003c/a> supporting admissions testing. \u003ca href=\"https://ucstudentsuccess.org/\">One letter\u003c/a> — signed by more than 2,300 people — called for the return of the mathematics test for STEM majors, saying that testing is a “critical baseline” and “a common external check that students have the core mathematical fluency required for university-level STEM coursework.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The SAT/ACT mathematics requirement is not an obstacle to equity; rather, it is a prerequisite for it,” the letter reads. “Failing to measure preparation gaps does not remove barriers; it moves them into the classroom, where they become harder to overcome.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What fairness looks like\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>2020 was also a year when the country was in the middle of a “racial justice reckoning” after \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/george-floyd\">the killing of George Floyd by police officers\u003c/a>, explained \u003cem>Berkeleyside \u003c/em>higher education reporter Felicia Mello on \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101914438/should-the-ucs-reinstate-the-sat\">KQED’s Forum\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was a lot of discussion about equity happening,” Mello said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>She also added that a year prior, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/09/30/914061484/lies-money-and-cheating-the-deeper-story-of-the-college-admissions-scandal\">the infamous Varsity Blues college admissions scandal\u003c/a> took place, in which federal authorities cracked down on wealthy parents who had been cheating the application process through bribes and rigged standardized test scores. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240125-UC-REGENTS-UNDOCUMENTED-WORK-MD-11-KQED.jpg?ver=1706236237\" alt=\"A bald person with glasses speaks into a microphone at a long table.\" class=\"wp-image-11973813\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240125-UC-REGENTS-UNDOCUMENTED-WORK-MD-11-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240125-UC-REGENTS-UNDOCUMENTED-WORK-MD-11-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240125-UC-REGENTS-UNDOCUMENTED-WORK-MD-11-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240125-UC-REGENTS-UNDOCUMENTED-WORK-MD-11-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240125-UC-REGENTS-UNDOCUMENTED-WORK-MD-11-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240125-UC-REGENTS-UNDOCUMENTED-WORK-MD-11-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">UC President Michael Drake (center) announces the UC Board of Regents’ vote not to consider a proposal to allow the university to hire undocumented students at a UC Board of Regents meeting at the UCSF Mission Bay Conference Center on Jan. 25, 2024. (Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The Board of Regents then took the decision first to go test-optional and eventually ended up going completely test-blind, and that’s the situation that we’ve been in since then,” Mello said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>However, after the UCs went test-optional in 2020, “we saw students thoroughly unprepared to take math in college,” said co-author of the STEM faculty letter, Mina Aganagic — a professor of mathematics and physics at UC Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We’re not saying that these kids didn’t take pre-calc or calc or they haven’t mastered that,” she argued. “The issue is at a much, much earlier level. Students who struggle with material that’s taught in elementary and middle school.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“And for those students, helping them learn calculus is really literally an impossible task,” she said. “So it was heartbreaking seeing so many students struggle.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://ucstudentsuccess.org/socscihum/\">other letter\u003c/a> — signed by more than 900 people — argued for bringing back the reading and writing portion of the SAT and ACT, echoing similar sentiments from STEM faculty members. The humanities faculty members also remarked on \u003ca href=\"https://www.404media.co/teachers-are-not-ok-ai-chatgpt/\">the rise of AI use among students\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“As artificial intelligence becomes more capable, it is arguably more important than ever for students to be able to think through and compose sound arguments on their own, to comprehend the texts they read and to recognize weaknesses in the arguments of those texts,” the social sciences letter reads. “The growing use of AI also makes essays a less reliable indicator of these abilities.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>However, critics of the SAT and ACT requirements emphasize the disadvantage under-resourced students face and note that the letter’s signatories are a small portion of the large UC faculty.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The problem was that the SAT itself was basically a test that was really about assessing someone’s socioeconomic status,” said Lisa Holder, an \u003ca href=\"https://equaljusticesociety.org/\">Equal Justice Society\u003c/a> civil rights attorney who helped \u003ca href=\"https://publiccounsel.org/our-cases/smith-v-regents-of-university-of-california/\">file a lawsuit\u003c/a> to end the use of SAT and ACT in UC admissions, which ended in a settlement.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1980\" height=\"1469\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/GettyImages-1366973965.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12092383\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/GettyImages-1366973965.jpg 1980w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/GettyImages-1366973965-160x119.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/GettyImages-1366973965-1536x1140.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1980px) 100vw, 1980px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Close-up of a pencil on a page of an SAT college entrance exam preparation book, taken on Aug., 6, 2017, in Melville, New York. (Thomas A. Ferrara/Newsday RM via Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The metric that that test actually excelled at measuring was your access to test prep. And that is correlated to wealth,” she said. “This is one snapshot, a day in the life of an individual, as opposed to four years of a high-performing, high-achieving student who is striving.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Stephanie, a high school teacher at a college prep school, wrote into Forum saying she was against reinstating the SAT.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I see how much time and money the wealthy students at my school spend on test prep, and it’s egregious,” she said. “The test prep courses and private tutors don’t teach students the material. They teach them how to game the system.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Another listener, who said they are a UC Merced professor, wrote on Forum’s Discord channel that many of the signatures came from “faculty at the three most selective campuses like Berkeley, UCLA and San Diego.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We educate a much higher share of students who need remedial math or writing,” they wrote. “Instead of trying to weed those students out, our approach has been to provide them with additional support and help them catch up.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1129\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/11/UCMerced11.jpg\" alt=\"A sign marking the entrance to UC Merced.\" class=\"wp-image-10747399\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/11/UCMerced11.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/11/UCMerced11-400x235.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/11/UCMerced11-800x470.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/11/UCMerced11-1440x847.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/11/UCMerced11-1180x694.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/11/UCMerced11-960x565.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A sign marking the entrance to UC Merced. (Lance Johnson/Flickr)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>However, an audience member who said they were a math tutor for two decades also pointed out that “kids trying to learn calculus couldn’t add two fractions efficiently, so I stopped tutoring calculus altogether. It was too much hassle. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>If you wish to compete in the world, boost standards. Universities are not designed for remedial education.” Another told Forum that as a Northern California teacher who worked in \u003ca href=\"https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/what-is-standards-based-grading-and-how-does-it-work/2024/09\">a standards-based grading school\u003c/a>, “All of my co-teachers agreed that this made grades very inflated. Students graduated shockingly ill-prepared for college, but their grades looked great.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Read on to learn more about Forum’s conversation with experts and reporters on the debate around standardized testing in California’s public higher education system.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Arguments for Standardized Testing \u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mina Kim: What are professors who signed the letter seeing in classrooms?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mina Aganagic\u003c/strong>: You’d see enormous amounts of stress on the students. You’d see students who try to take the class three times, and they’re failing again. And they say, “I’ve done everything,” and they have done everything. But the task put in front of them is to cover a multi-year gap in one college calculus class together with 400 to 700 other students. It is simply impossible. It’s sort of like I asked you to climb a wall with no footholds at all. A mathematical genius could not do that. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Why is standardized testing the best way to measure that readiness for college-level work?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>First, most of the SAT actually focuses on the kind of math that’s taught in middle school. I don’t mean acing it, but you will be able to do all right. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The other absolutely crucial thing to understand is how UC uses the SAT. UC was never providing a linear ranking of students and then saying, “We’ll take those with top SAT scores.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>What we will do is the following: Let’s say you take two students from a poor Black neighborhood. They’re going to the same high school. We have grade inflation. Both of these kids ace their math class. And we have to pick one. How are you going to pick? Right now, if we have to pick one, it’s going to be a random choice. In fact, Berkeley doesn’t even take teachers’ recommendations into account. What we are asking for is, “Give us the SAT score.” It will allow us to make an informed choice. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1980\" height=\"1385\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/GettyImages-860780.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12092386\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/GettyImages-860780.jpg 1980w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/GettyImages-860780-160x112.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/GettyImages-860780-1536x1074.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1980px) 100vw, 1980px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">SAT preparation books sit on a shelf at a Barnes and Noble store June 27, 2002 in New York City. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>There’s also the \u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://smarterbalanced.org/our-system/students-and-families/samples/\">\u003cstrong>Smarter Balanced Test\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong> that all California public high school juniors have to take. Would that be a reliable measure?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Certainly having something would be better than having nothing at all. But one problem is purely technical — test problems leaking. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And right now, Smarter Balanced is intended to assess how schools are doing. It’s not designed as a high-stakes test. And converting it to one would require huge resources just to achieve the same thing the SAT is already doing.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What do you say to critics of standardized testing, who say scores track closely with income and racial disparities? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Every measure we have, including Smarter Balanced, already has in it, baked, these inequities. There’s just simply no way around it. The SAT is no better, no worse than any other measure we had. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But the crucial thing is what washes them out is how we use the SAT. We are not comparing a kid from an affluent background to a low-income student and saying, “Compare their SAT scores.” No, we compare students who are alike in every other respect. In other words, the SAT becomes one part of a student’s file. And when we cannot decide between two students who are completely alike in every other respect, it’s a much more informed choice than throwing a die, which is deeply unfair. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Didn’t the pandemic — and remote schooling — also have a hand in dropping performances? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The overall level of math preparedness has been declining. Nobody’s questioning that. But what we are seeing here is a population of students at the very lowest level of preparedness. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Usually what you see is kind of a bell curve. And when you’re talking about overall level shifting, you’re talking about this bell curve kind of shifting. But what we are seeing is the bell curve — it becomes kind of a U-shape. You see students who are acing our classes and students who’re hopelessly failing, and there’s nothing in the middle. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1980\" height=\"1320\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GettyImages-2230923952.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12088396\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GettyImages-2230923952.jpg 1980w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GettyImages-2230923952-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GettyImages-2230923952-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1980px) 100vw, 1980px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">California State University, Northridge on Friday, Aug. 22, 2025. (Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Couldn’t the UCs support these students through remedial college courses?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>We’re pouring a lot into remediation. However, there are certain sizes of gaps that you simply cannot fill. They just become too large. If you are asking to fill a gap from elementary and middle school, it’s just hopeless. For those students, it would take years of work in college to catch up. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And California has this beautiful master plan for higher education: of community colleges, the CSUs and the UCs and pathways between them. So a student who is not as well-prepared could have a real path upward: you could go to a community college, take remedial classes and then transfer to UC. You’re not placed into this classroom where you simply have no way of succeeding because your task was impossible. It is not your failure. It’s the failure of a whole system, and we should not propagate this. We should use the SAT as a placement to put kids in the right places, to give them ladders they can climb up. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>The Arguments Against Standardized Testing \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mina Kim: What was the lawsuit filed against the UCs?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lisa Holder: \u003c/strong>In 2019, \u003ca href=\"https://equaljusticesociety.org/\">Equal Justice Society\u003c/a> — along with several private and public firms in a case called Smith v. UC Regents — sued the University of California for continuing to use the SAT and the ACT as a principal criteria for UC admissions when, in fact, the social science showed that the standardized tests, particularly the SAT and the ACT, were not the best metric for assessing a student’s college readiness, even though they purported to be that. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The best metric, according to social scientists and psychometricians, was a student’s high school performance. Basically the classes that they took for four years. What did their teachers say about them, their student evaluations, their extracurriculars, their sports, their community involvement? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>What was heartbreaking was seeing the clients we had in the Smith case who were incredible students. Many of them were students of color, disabled students and students that did not have a lot of money. And so they had no access to test prep, but they were straight A students. We had a student who had been living in his car for four years, yet he was a straight A student. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Some would argue that accessibility to test-prep has improved thanks to online resources like Khan Academy. \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That’s completely speculative. We haven’t had the test for five years, and there’s no requirement under any settlement to bring that test back. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>What we should be doing is looking at the data that is right in front of us. And the data is what tells us that the \u003ca href=\"https://www.ucop.edu/institutional-research-academic-planning/_files/admissions-outcomes-and-performance.pdf\">UC’s own studies conducted by the board\u003c/a> established that students admitted in the last five years under the test-free policy are equally — if not more — qualified and prepared than the previous students. And that this test-free policy is much more aligned with the UC’s mission, which is to offer high-quality, publicly funded education to California’s best students, not its wealthiest students. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This is a publicly funded university system, and everyone, regardless of income, is paying taxes to fund it. All high-performing California students should be able to access this school without obstruction from a gatekeeper test calibrated to measure for wealth rather than excellence. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What do you say in response to concerns being raised by professors like Aganagic? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The achievement lapses that folks may be seeing are much more likely attributable to this generation’s addiction to mobile phones and their scattered focus, their literacy deficits and sort of shrinking attention spans caused by mobile phone usage and AI addiction. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That’s a much larger systemic problem that we have to start to think about pedagogically in all of our schools. Also, what we’re seeing in this cohort of students is also largely impacted by the missed learning opportunities that they experienced during COVID. Some students were out of school for a year and a half, and so I’m sure that their math preparation may have suffered. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And frankly, we have a lot of really lackluster curricula around STEM in our high schools. And so, students may not be excelling as much as they could be if we were to modernize our systems and sort of keep up with what’s going on globally around STEM. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/GenericClassroomGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12050458\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/GenericClassroomGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/GenericClassroomGetty-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/GenericClassroomGetty-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Back view of large group of students sitting in the classroom and listening to their teacher. (Skynesher/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Behind the Testing Debate\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mina Kim: What have some of the effects been of waiving the test requirement?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Felicia Mello: \u003c/strong>UC’s data actually showed that they saw a big bump in applications right after going test-optional. In the first year, applications went up about 19%. And you also start to see a slight increase in diversity of both the people who are applying and the people who are getting in. In terms of performance, the official UC stats don’t show a huge difference. They show that persistence — meaning students who remained in college from the first year to the second year — was largely flat during that time. First-year GPAs ticked down very slightly. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>I am really just speaking to kind of what we saw right after the change went into effect in 2021. But the picture painted by the overall UC data is not as grim as the one that is being put forward by faculty on some campuses. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How would you characterize the support for the faculty letters? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>We have about 3,000 UC faculty out of roughly 26,000 who have signed on to one of these letters, either the letter from STEM faculty or the letter from social sciences and humanities faculty. We have seen the STEM faculty be much more out front on this. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The social sciences and humanities faculty who have come out in favor of this mentioned that having a good quantitative background is also important for social science classes like economics. There also is clearly some concern around students’ writing skills — that the rise of AI has made it harder to tell, even from students’ applications, whether they’re writing them themselves, and it also just has the potential to constrain what students are learning in terms of writing and communication in general. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The UC Berkeley math faculty — who had really been pushing via this open letter for the return of the SAT — had done their own analysis of numbers in introductory calculus classes. And they found that between 2021 and 2023, after UC got rid of the SAT and admissions, there was a big jump in students who were severely underprepared for that introductory calculus course. But unfortunately, because we only have those three years of data, they weren’t giving the same test prior to or after that. It is a bit hard to put that data in context. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Supporters of reinstating the requirement say that the tests would be used in a holistic approach. How true is that?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The UC actually does consider 13 different factors in admissions currently, even separate from test scores. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Not just your high school GPA, but how you’re doing relative to other students in your class. It looks at the types of life circumstances you’ve had, your geographic location. Have you had a recent improvement in your performance? What kinds of rigorous courses have you taken? Have you taken AP courses? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>There’s another factor here, which is the broader political environment, and I think there’s a concern that even if the UC brings back the test, there will be pressure then on the UC to focus more narrowly on the task and abandon some of the more holistic aspects of its review. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The Trump administration has certainly been pressuring universities to not pay much attention to the diversity of their classes and not intentionally try to enroll a diverse student body. There’s a concern that this could be seized on by outside actors to try and do an analysis of the university’s admission policies that would focus really narrowly on those test scores. Now, whether that actually happens would remain to be seen.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Equity advocates have also said in the past that, for different reasons, even if you go test-optional, it’s still sending a signal whether those students choose to submit their scores or not, and that could still affect their application.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Next Steps\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mina Kim: The UC is saying that they will study and make a decision on whether to bring back the testing requirement a year from now. How likely is it that they will bring it back?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mello: \u003c/strong>This is something that was actually in the works even before these open letters. We’ve seen a number of factors that have changed since 2020: We have seen shifts in AI and how it affects the application process. Some of those concerns related to the pandemic are no longer there in the same way. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>There’s a lot of pressure to make this decision more quickly. The Faculty Senate had laid out this process of coming to a recommendation by fall 2027. The faculty had originally laid out a plan: They said, we’re going to study this, and the earliest that we could make a decision under this very detailed road map would be for people who are applying in fall of 2028.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>They have since rescinded that detailed timeline. All we know at this point is that they’re going to make their recommendation by June. That creates some potential anxiety for this year’s incoming high school juniors. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Who decides to bring back standardized testing?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The regents will really make the ultimate call on this. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The most interesting part of the regents meeting was the chair of the Board of Regents saying that she really felt like the public discussion around this has been too narrowly focused on standardized testing and that the university really needs to take a broader look at what it means to be ready for college in 2026. So this will include things like looking at the high school courses that UC requires people to have when they’re applying. Right now, there’s not a requirement for computer science or any other technology-related course. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>There’s really an appetite for looking at these things more broadly. The regents are looking at, “How do we both maintain that reputation for excellence?” But also do what they are intending to do as a state university and make sure that access to the university is based on hard work and aptitude as opposed to just how much wealth your family has. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1980\" height=\"1485\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/GettyImages-1056629578.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12092389\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/GettyImages-1056629578.jpg 1980w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/GettyImages-1056629578-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/GettyImages-1056629578-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1980px) 100vw, 1980px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Standardized test company logo seen displayed on smartphone. (Igor Golovniov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Is there a middle ground option for standardized testing?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>There are some universities and colleges that are using the SAT more for placement purposes after people get in. So they’re essentially saying, “We don’t require this for admissions, but we either require or strongly encourage you to share scores after you get in so that we can help figure out if you’re going to be in the right math class for you.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>One of the things that I observe during the course of this reporting is that placement practices for math classes really vary across UC. It’s an extremely diverse system. I spoke with the math chair at UC Santa Barbara who did not sign on to this open letter in support of bringing back the SAT, and he was saying that when we identify students who may not be prepared for our introductory calculus classes, we make sure we flag that early on. We make sure that they are going to community college, and getting the kind of remedial preparation that they need, and then coming back, and those students tend to succeed in our classes. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Wouldn’t the effects of the pandemic also be a major factor in student performance?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Essentially, there’s nobody I interviewed on either side that said, “Oh, we’re not dealing with any pandemic-related learning deficiencies.” There’s broad acknowledgment that our students are struggling in various ways since the pandemic, and something needs to be done. And the question is, what is the best response? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>We know it’s not just all about the pandemic, because instead of seeing everybody equally struggling, we’re seeing this concentration on both ends where some people are doing really well, some people are really struggling, and that middle category of student is dropping out.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some researchers I talked to said that that’s really what you would expect from the impact of the pandemic because the pandemic impacted students differently. Some of them have the peace and quiet they need to study and a reliable Wi-Fi connection, and others do not. \u003c/p>\n\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Considered a rite of passage in high school \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/education/530951/should-colleges-still-require-the-sats-and-acts\">since the 1940s\u003c/a> for students planning to continue their education, the standardized tests were also \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/education/530951/should-colleges-still-require-the-sats-and-acts\">long criticized\u003c/a> as insufficient predictors of college performance and discriminatory to low-income students who didn’t have the same access to test-prep materials and classes. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The UC system wasn’t alone. At the end of 2021, Harvard University announced it would waive \u003ca href=\"https://www.cbsnews.com/news/harvard-test-optional-sat-act-scores-college-admission/\">the testing requirement through 2026.\u003c/a> Institutions like \u003ca href=\"https://www.nyu.edu/admissions/undergraduate-admissions/how-to-apply/standardized-tests.html\">New York University\u003c/a>, the \u003ca href=\"https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/apply/application/required-materials/\">University of Chicago\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://admissions.nd.edu/apply/\">Notre Dame University\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://admissions.northwestern.edu/faqs/standardized-testing-policy/\">Northwestern University\u003c/a> are all currently test-optional for this application cycle. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The UC system wasn’t alone. At the end of 2021, Harvard University announced it would waive \u003ca href=\"https://www.cbsnews.com/news/harvard-test-optional-sat-act-scores-college-admission/\">the testing requirement through 2026.\u003c/a> Institutions like \u003ca href=\"https://www.nyu.edu/admissions/undergraduate-admissions/how-to-apply/standardized-tests.html\">New York University\u003c/a>, the \u003ca href=\"https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/apply/application/required-materials/\">University of Chicago\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://admissions.nd.edu/apply/\">Notre Dame University\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://admissions.northwestern.edu/faqs/standardized-testing-policy/\">Northwestern University\u003c/a> are all currently test-optional for this application cycle. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/021822-UCLA-Campus-File-RN-CM-45-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11996136\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/021822-UCLA-Campus-File-RN-CM-45-copy.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/021822-UCLA-Campus-File-RN-CM-45-copy-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/021822-UCLA-Campus-File-RN-CM-45-copy-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/021822-UCLA-Campus-File-RN-CM-45-copy-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/021822-UCLA-Campus-File-RN-CM-45-copy-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/021822-UCLA-Campus-File-RN-CM-45-copy-1920x1278.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The UCLA campus in Los Angeles on Feb. 18, 2022. \u003cbr>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/021822-UCLA-Campus-File-RN-CM-45-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11996136\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The UCLA campus in Los Angeles on Feb. 18, 2022. \u003cbr>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But tides are shifting for these schools — and possibly for the UCs, too. Over the summer, more than 3,000 faculty members at University of California schools have signed \u003ca href=\"https://ucstudentsuccess.org/\">a pair of open letters\u003c/a> supporting admissions testing. \u003ca href=\"https://ucstudentsuccess.org/\">One letter\u003c/a> — signed by more than 2,300 people — called for the return of the mathematics test for STEM majors, saying that testing is a “critical baseline” and “a common external check that students have the core mathematical fluency required for university-level STEM coursework.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>But tides are shifting for these schools — and possibly for the UCs, too. Over the summer, more than 3,000 faculty members at University of California schools have signed \u003ca href=\"https://ucstudentsuccess.org/\">a pair of open letters\u003c/a> supporting admissions testing. \u003ca href=\"https://ucstudentsuccess.org/\">One letter\u003c/a> — signed by more than 2,300 people — called for the return of the mathematics test for STEM majors, saying that testing is a “critical baseline” and “a common external check that students have the core mathematical fluency required for university-level STEM coursework.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“The SAT/ACT mathematics requirement is not an obstacle to equity; rather, it is a prerequisite for it,” the letter reads. “Failing to measure preparation gaps does not remove barriers; it moves them into the classroom, where they become harder to overcome.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“The SAT/ACT mathematics requirement is not an obstacle to equity; rather, it is a prerequisite for it,” the letter reads. “Failing to measure preparation gaps does not remove barriers; it moves them into the classroom, where they become harder to overcome.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>2020 was also a year when the country was in the middle of a “racial justice reckoning” after \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/george-floyd\">the killing of George Floyd by police officers\u003c/a>, explained \u003cem>Berkeleyside \u003c/em>higher education reporter Felicia Mello on \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101914438/should-the-ucs-reinstate-the-sat\">KQED’s Forum\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>2020 was also a year when the country was in the middle of a “racial justice reckoning” after \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/george-floyd\">the killing of George Floyd by police officers\u003c/a>, explained \u003cem>Berkeleyside \u003c/em>higher education reporter Felicia Mello on \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101914438/should-the-ucs-reinstate-the-sat\">KQED’s Forum\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“There was a lot of discussion about equity happening,” Mello said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>She also added that a year prior, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/09/30/914061484/lies-money-and-cheating-the-deeper-story-of-the-college-admissions-scandal\">the infamous Varsity Blues college admissions scandal\u003c/a> took place, in which federal authorities cracked down on wealthy parents who had been cheating the application process through bribes and rigged standardized test scores. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>She also added that a year prior, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/09/30/914061484/lies-money-and-cheating-the-deeper-story-of-the-college-admissions-scandal\">the infamous Varsity Blues college admissions scandal\u003c/a> took place, in which federal authorities cracked down on wealthy parents who had been cheating the application process through bribes and rigged standardized test scores. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240125-UC-REGENTS-UNDOCUMENTED-WORK-MD-11-KQED.jpg?ver=1706236237\" alt=\"A bald person with glasses speaks into a microphone at a long table.\" class=\"wp-image-11973813\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240125-UC-REGENTS-UNDOCUMENTED-WORK-MD-11-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240125-UC-REGENTS-UNDOCUMENTED-WORK-MD-11-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240125-UC-REGENTS-UNDOCUMENTED-WORK-MD-11-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240125-UC-REGENTS-UNDOCUMENTED-WORK-MD-11-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240125-UC-REGENTS-UNDOCUMENTED-WORK-MD-11-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240125-UC-REGENTS-UNDOCUMENTED-WORK-MD-11-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">UC President Michael Drake (center) announces the UC Board of Regents’ vote not to consider a proposal to allow the university to hire undocumented students at a UC Board of Regents meeting at the UCSF Mission Bay Conference Center on Jan. 25, 2024.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240125-UC-REGENTS-UNDOCUMENTED-WORK-MD-11-KQED.jpg?ver=1706236237\" alt=\"A bald person with glasses speaks into a microphone at a long table.\" class=\"wp-image-11973813\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">UC President Michael Drake (center) announces the UC Board of Regents’ vote not to consider a proposal to allow the university to hire undocumented students at a UC Board of Regents meeting at the UCSF Mission Bay Conference Center on Jan. 25, 2024.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“The Board of Regents then took the decision first to go test-optional and eventually ended up going completely test-blind, and that’s the situation that we’ve been in since then,” Mello said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“The Board of Regents then took the decision first to go test-optional and eventually ended up going completely test-blind, and that’s the situation that we’ve been in since then,” Mello said.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>However, after the UCs went test-optional in 2020, “we saw students thoroughly unprepared to take math in college,” said co-author of the STEM faculty letter, Mina Aganagic — a professor of mathematics and physics at UC Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>However, after the UCs went test-optional in 2020, “we saw students thoroughly unprepared to take math in college,” said co-author of the STEM faculty letter, Mina Aganagic — a professor of mathematics and physics at UC Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“We’re not saying that these kids didn’t take pre-calc or calc or they haven’t mastered that,” she argued. “The issue is at a much, much earlier level. Students who struggle with material that’s taught in elementary and middle school.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“We’re not saying that these kids didn’t take pre-calc or calc or they haven’t mastered that,” she argued. “The issue is at a much, much earlier level. Students who struggle with material that’s taught in elementary and middle school.” \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“And for those students, helping them learn calculus is really literally an impossible task,” she said. “So it was heartbreaking seeing so many students struggle.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“And for those students, helping them learn calculus is really literally an impossible task,” she said. “So it was heartbreaking seeing so many students struggle.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://ucstudentsuccess.org/socscihum/\">other letter\u003c/a> — signed by more than 900 people — argued for bringing back the reading and writing portion of the SAT and ACT, echoing similar sentiments from STEM faculty members. The humanities faculty members also remarked on \u003ca href=\"https://www.404media.co/teachers-are-not-ok-ai-chatgpt/\">the rise of AI use among students\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://ucstudentsuccess.org/socscihum/\">other letter\u003c/a> — signed by more than 900 people — argued for bringing back the reading and writing portion of the SAT and ACT, echoing similar sentiments from STEM faculty members. The humanities faculty members also remarked on \u003ca href=\"https://www.404media.co/teachers-are-not-ok-ai-chatgpt/\">the rise of AI use among students\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“As artificial intelligence becomes more capable, it is arguably more important than ever for students to be able to think through and compose sound arguments on their own, to comprehend the texts they read and to recognize weaknesses in the arguments of those texts,” the social sciences letter reads. “The growing use of AI also makes essays a less reliable indicator of these abilities.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“As artificial intelligence becomes more capable, it is arguably more important than ever for students to be able to think through and compose sound arguments on their own, to comprehend the texts they read and to recognize weaknesses in the arguments of those texts,” the social sciences letter reads. “The growing use of AI also makes essays a less reliable indicator of these abilities.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>However, critics of the SAT and ACT requirements emphasize the disadvantage under-resourced students face and note that the letter’s signatories are a small portion of the large UC faculty.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>However, critics of the SAT and ACT requirements emphasize the disadvantage under-resourced students face and note that the letter’s signatories are a small portion of the large UC faculty.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“The problem was that the SAT itself was basically a test that was really about assessing someone’s socioeconomic status,” said Lisa Holder, an \u003ca href=\"https://equaljusticesociety.org/\">Equal Justice Society\u003c/a> civil rights attorney who helped \u003ca href=\"https://publiccounsel.org/our-cases/smith-v-regents-of-university-of-california/\">file a lawsuit\u003c/a> to end the use of SAT and ACT in UC admissions, which ended in a settlement.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“The problem was that the SAT itself was basically a test that was really about assessing someone’s socioeconomic status,” said Lisa Holder, an \u003ca href=\"https://equaljusticesociety.org/\">Equal Justice Society\u003c/a> civil rights attorney who helped \u003ca href=\"https://publiccounsel.org/our-cases/smith-v-regents-of-university-of-california/\">file a lawsuit\u003c/a> to end the use of SAT and ACT in UC admissions, which ended in a settlement.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/GettyImages-1366973965.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12092383\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/GettyImages-1366973965.jpg 1980w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/GettyImages-1366973965-160x119.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/GettyImages-1366973965-1536x1140.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Close-up of a pencil on a page of an SAT college entrance exam preparation book, taken on Aug., 6, 2017, in Melville, New York.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/GettyImages-1366973965.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12092383\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Close-up of a pencil on a page of an SAT college entrance exam preparation book, taken on Aug., 6, 2017, in Melville, New York.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“The metric that that test actually excelled at measuring was your access to test prep. And that is correlated to wealth,” she said. “This is one snapshot, a day in the life of an individual, as opposed to four years of a high-performing, high-achieving student who is striving.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“The metric that that test actually excelled at measuring was your access to test prep. And that is correlated to wealth,” she said. “This is one snapshot, a day in the life of an individual, as opposed to four years of a high-performing, high-achieving student who is striving.” \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Stephanie, a high school teacher at a college prep school, wrote into Forum saying she was against reinstating the SAT.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I see how much time and money the wealthy students at my school spend on test prep, and it’s egregious,” she said. “The test prep courses and private tutors don’t teach students the material. They teach them how to game the system.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“I see how much time and money the wealthy students at my school spend on test prep, and it’s egregious,” she said. “The test prep courses and private tutors don’t teach students the material. They teach them how to game the system.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Another listener, who said they are a UC Merced professor, wrote on Forum’s Discord channel that many of the signatures came from “faculty at the three most selective campuses like Berkeley, UCLA and San Diego.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Another listener, who said they are a UC Merced professor, wrote on Forum’s Discord channel that many of the signatures came from “faculty at the three most selective campuses like Berkeley, UCLA and San Diego.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“We educate a much higher share of students who need remedial math or writing,” they wrote. “Instead of trying to weed those students out, our approach has been to provide them with additional support and help them catch up.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“We educate a much higher share of students who need remedial math or writing,” they wrote. “Instead of trying to weed those students out, our approach has been to provide them with additional support and help them catch up.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>However, an audience member who said they were a math tutor for two decades also pointed out that “kids trying to learn calculus couldn’t add two fractions efficiently, so I stopped tutoring calculus altogether. It was too much hassle. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>If you wish to compete in the world, boost standards. Universities are not designed for remedial education.” Another told Forum that as a Northern California teacher who worked in \u003ca href=\"https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/what-is-standards-based-grading-and-how-does-it-work/2024/09\">a standards-based grading school\u003c/a>, “All of my co-teachers agreed that this made grades very inflated. Students graduated shockingly ill-prepared for college, but their grades looked great.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>If you wish to compete in the world, boost standards. Universities are not designed for remedial education.” Another told Forum that as a Northern California teacher who worked in \u003ca href=\"https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/what-is-standards-based-grading-and-how-does-it-work/2024/09\">a standards-based grading school\u003c/a>, “All of my co-teachers agreed that this made grades very inflated. Students graduated shockingly ill-prepared for college, but their grades looked great.” \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Read on to learn more about Forum’s conversation with experts and reporters on the debate around standardized testing in California’s public higher education system.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Read on to learn more about Forum’s conversation with experts and reporters on the debate around standardized testing in California’s public higher education system.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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"text": "The Arguments for Standardized Testing ",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mina Kim: What are professors who signed the letter seeing in classrooms?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mina Kim: What are professors who signed the letter seeing in classrooms?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mina Aganagic\u003c/strong>: You’d see enormous amounts of stress on the students. You’d see students who try to take the class three times, and they’re failing again. And they say, “I’ve done everything,” and they have done everything. But the task put in front of them is to cover a multi-year gap in one college calculus class together with 400 to 700 other students. It is simply impossible. It’s sort of like I asked you to climb a wall with no footholds at all. A mathematical genius could not do that. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mina Aganagic\u003c/strong>: You’d see enormous amounts of stress on the students. You’d see students who try to take the class three times, and they’re failing again. And they say, “I’ve done everything,” and they have done everything. But the task put in front of them is to cover a multi-year gap in one college calculus class together with 400 to 700 other students. It is simply impossible. It’s sort of like I asked you to climb a wall with no footholds at all. A mathematical genius could not do that. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Why is standardized testing the best way to measure that readiness for college-level work?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Why is standardized testing the best way to measure that readiness for college-level work?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>First, most of the SAT actually focuses on the kind of math that’s taught in middle school. I don’t mean acing it, but you will be able to do all right. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>First, most of the SAT actually focuses on the kind of math that’s taught in middle school. I don’t mean acing it, but you will be able to do all right. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The other absolutely crucial thing to understand is how UC uses the SAT. UC was never providing a linear ranking of students and then saying, “We’ll take those with top SAT scores.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The other absolutely crucial thing to understand is how UC uses the SAT. UC was never providing a linear ranking of students and then saying, “We’ll take those with top SAT scores.” \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>What we will do is the following: Let’s say you take two students from a poor Black neighborhood. They’re going to the same high school. We have grade inflation. Both of these kids ace their math class. And we have to pick one. How are you going to pick? Right now, if we have to pick one, it’s going to be a random choice. In fact, Berkeley doesn’t even take teachers’ recommendations into account. What we are asking for is, “Give us the SAT score.” It will allow us to make an informed choice. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>What we will do is the following: Let’s say you take two students from a poor Black neighborhood. They’re going to the same high school. We have grade inflation. Both of these kids ace their math class. And we have to pick one. How are you going to pick? Right now, if we have to pick one, it’s going to be a random choice. In fact, Berkeley doesn’t even take teachers’ recommendations into account. What we are asking for is, “Give us the SAT score.” It will allow us to make an informed choice. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/GettyImages-860780.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12092386\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/GettyImages-860780.jpg 1980w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/GettyImages-860780-160x112.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/GettyImages-860780-1536x1074.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">SAT preparation books sit on a shelf at a Barnes and Noble store June 27, 2002 in New York City.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/GettyImages-860780.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12092386\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">SAT preparation books sit on a shelf at a Barnes and Noble store June 27, 2002 in New York City.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>There’s also the \u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://smarterbalanced.org/our-system/students-and-families/samples/\">\u003cstrong>Smarter Balanced Test\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong> that all California public high school juniors have to take. Would that be a reliable measure?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>There’s also the \u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://smarterbalanced.org/our-system/students-and-families/samples/\">\u003cstrong>Smarter Balanced Test\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong> that all California public high school juniors have to take. Would that be a reliable measure?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Certainly having something would be better than having nothing at all. But one problem is purely technical — test problems leaking. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Certainly having something would be better than having nothing at all. But one problem is purely technical — test problems leaking. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>And right now, Smarter Balanced is intended to assess how schools are doing. It’s not designed as a high-stakes test. And converting it to one would require huge resources just to achieve the same thing the SAT is already doing.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>And right now, Smarter Balanced is intended to assess how schools are doing. It’s not designed as a high-stakes test. And converting it to one would require huge resources just to achieve the same thing the SAT is already doing.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What do you say to critics of standardized testing, who say scores track closely with income and racial disparities? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What do you say to critics of standardized testing, who say scores track closely with income and racial disparities? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Every measure we have, including Smarter Balanced, already has in it, baked, these inequities. There’s just simply no way around it. The SAT is no better, no worse than any other measure we had. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Every measure we have, including Smarter Balanced, already has in it, baked, these inequities. There’s just simply no way around it. The SAT is no better, no worse than any other measure we had. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But the crucial thing is what washes them out is how we use the SAT. We are not comparing a kid from an affluent background to a low-income student and saying, “Compare their SAT scores.” No, we compare students who are alike in every other respect. In other words, the SAT becomes one part of a student’s file. And when we cannot decide between two students who are completely alike in every other respect, it’s a much more informed choice than throwing a die, which is deeply unfair. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>But the crucial thing is what washes them out is how we use the SAT. We are not comparing a kid from an affluent background to a low-income student and saying, “Compare their SAT scores.” No, we compare students who are alike in every other respect. In other words, the SAT becomes one part of a student’s file. And when we cannot decide between two students who are completely alike in every other respect, it’s a much more informed choice than throwing a die, which is deeply unfair. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Didn’t the pandemic — and remote schooling — also have a hand in dropping performances? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Didn’t the pandemic — and remote schooling — also have a hand in dropping performances? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The overall level of math preparedness has been declining. Nobody’s questioning that. But what we are seeing here is a population of students at the very lowest level of preparedness. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The overall level of math preparedness has been declining. Nobody’s questioning that. But what we are seeing here is a population of students at the very lowest level of preparedness. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Usually what you see is kind of a bell curve. And when you’re talking about overall level shifting, you’re talking about this bell curve kind of shifting. But what we are seeing is the bell curve — it becomes kind of a U-shape. You see students who are acing our classes and students who’re hopelessly failing, and there’s nothing in the middle. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Usually what you see is kind of a bell curve. And when you’re talking about overall level shifting, you’re talking about this bell curve kind of shifting. But what we are seeing is the bell curve — it becomes kind of a U-shape. You see students who are acing our classes and students who’re hopelessly failing, and there’s nothing in the middle. \u003c/p>\n"
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"sizes": "(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GettyImages-2230923952.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12088396\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GettyImages-2230923952.jpg 1980w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GettyImages-2230923952-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GettyImages-2230923952-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">California State University, Northridge on Friday, Aug. 22, 2025.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GettyImages-2230923952.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12088396\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">California State University, Northridge on Friday, Aug. 22, 2025.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Couldn’t the UCs support these students through remedial college courses?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Couldn’t the UCs support these students through remedial college courses?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>We’re pouring a lot into remediation. However, there are certain sizes of gaps that you simply cannot fill. They just become too large. If you are asking to fill a gap from elementary and middle school, it’s just hopeless. For those students, it would take years of work in college to catch up. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>We’re pouring a lot into remediation. However, there are certain sizes of gaps that you simply cannot fill. They just become too large. If you are asking to fill a gap from elementary and middle school, it’s just hopeless. For those students, it would take years of work in college to catch up. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>And California has this beautiful master plan for higher education: of community colleges, the CSUs and the UCs and pathways between them. So a student who is not as well-prepared could have a real path upward: you could go to a community college, take remedial classes and then transfer to UC. You’re not placed into this classroom where you simply have no way of succeeding because your task was impossible. It is not your failure. It’s the failure of a whole system, and we should not propagate this. We should use the SAT as a placement to put kids in the right places, to give them ladders they can climb up. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>And California has this beautiful master plan for higher education: of community colleges, the CSUs and the UCs and pathways between them. So a student who is not as well-prepared could have a real path upward: you could go to a community college, take remedial classes and then transfer to UC. You’re not placed into this classroom where you simply have no way of succeeding because your task was impossible. It is not your failure. It’s the failure of a whole system, and we should not propagate this. We should use the SAT as a placement to put kids in the right places, to give them ladders they can climb up. \u003c/p>\n"
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"text": "The Arguments Against Standardized Testing ",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mina Kim: What was the lawsuit filed against the UCs?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mina Kim: What was the lawsuit filed against the UCs?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lisa Holder: \u003c/strong>In 2019, \u003ca href=\"https://equaljusticesociety.org/\">Equal Justice Society\u003c/a> — along with several private and public firms in a case called Smith v. UC Regents — sued the University of California for continuing to use the SAT and the ACT as a principal criteria for UC admissions when, in fact, the social science showed that the standardized tests, particularly the SAT and the ACT, were not the best metric for assessing a student’s college readiness, even though they purported to be that. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lisa Holder: \u003c/strong>In 2019, \u003ca href=\"https://equaljusticesociety.org/\">Equal Justice Society\u003c/a> — along with several private and public firms in a case called Smith v. UC Regents — sued the University of California for continuing to use the SAT and the ACT as a principal criteria for UC admissions when, in fact, the social science showed that the standardized tests, particularly the SAT and the ACT, were not the best metric for assessing a student’s college readiness, even though they purported to be that. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The best metric, according to social scientists and psychometricians, was a student’s high school performance. Basically the classes that they took for four years. What did their teachers say about them, their student evaluations, their extracurriculars, their sports, their community involvement? \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The best metric, according to social scientists and psychometricians, was a student’s high school performance. Basically the classes that they took for four years. What did their teachers say about them, their student evaluations, their extracurriculars, their sports, their community involvement? \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>What was heartbreaking was seeing the clients we had in the Smith case who were incredible students. Many of them were students of color, disabled students and students that did not have a lot of money. And so they had no access to test prep, but they were straight A students. We had a student who had been living in his car for four years, yet he was a straight A student. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>What was heartbreaking was seeing the clients we had in the Smith case who were incredible students. Many of them were students of color, disabled students and students that did not have a lot of money. And so they had no access to test prep, but they were straight A students. We had a student who had been living in his car for four years, yet he was a straight A student. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Some would argue that accessibility to test-prep has improved thanks to online resources like Khan Academy. \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Some would argue that accessibility to test-prep has improved thanks to online resources like Khan Academy. \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>That’s completely speculative. We haven’t had the test for five years, and there’s no requirement under any settlement to bring that test back. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>That’s completely speculative. We haven’t had the test for five years, and there’s no requirement under any settlement to bring that test back. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>What we should be doing is looking at the data that is right in front of us. And the data is what tells us that the \u003ca href=\"https://www.ucop.edu/institutional-research-academic-planning/_files/admissions-outcomes-and-performance.pdf\">UC’s own studies conducted by the board\u003c/a> established that students admitted in the last five years under the test-free policy are equally — if not more — qualified and prepared than the previous students. And that this test-free policy is much more aligned with the UC’s mission, which is to offer high-quality, publicly funded education to California’s best students, not its wealthiest students. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>What we should be doing is looking at the data that is right in front of us. And the data is what tells us that the \u003ca href=\"https://www.ucop.edu/institutional-research-academic-planning/_files/admissions-outcomes-and-performance.pdf\">UC’s own studies conducted by the board\u003c/a> established that students admitted in the last five years under the test-free policy are equally — if not more — qualified and prepared than the previous students. And that this test-free policy is much more aligned with the UC’s mission, which is to offer high-quality, publicly funded education to California’s best students, not its wealthiest students. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>This is a publicly funded university system, and everyone, regardless of income, is paying taxes to fund it. All high-performing California students should be able to access this school without obstruction from a gatekeeper test calibrated to measure for wealth rather than excellence. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>This is a publicly funded university system, and everyone, regardless of income, is paying taxes to fund it. All high-performing California students should be able to access this school without obstruction from a gatekeeper test calibrated to measure for wealth rather than excellence. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What do you say in response to concerns being raised by professors like Aganagic? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What do you say in response to concerns being raised by professors like Aganagic? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The achievement lapses that folks may be seeing are much more likely attributable to this generation’s addiction to mobile phones and their scattered focus, their literacy deficits and sort of shrinking attention spans caused by mobile phone usage and AI addiction. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The achievement lapses that folks may be seeing are much more likely attributable to this generation’s addiction to mobile phones and their scattered focus, their literacy deficits and sort of shrinking attention spans caused by mobile phone usage and AI addiction. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>That’s a much larger systemic problem that we have to start to think about pedagogically in all of our schools. Also, what we’re seeing in this cohort of students is also largely impacted by the missed learning opportunities that they experienced during COVID. Some students were out of school for a year and a half, and so I’m sure that their math preparation may have suffered. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>That’s a much larger systemic problem that we have to start to think about pedagogically in all of our schools. Also, what we’re seeing in this cohort of students is also largely impacted by the missed learning opportunities that they experienced during COVID. Some students were out of school for a year and a half, and so I’m sure that their math preparation may have suffered. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>And frankly, we have a lot of really lackluster curricula around STEM in our high schools. And so, students may not be excelling as much as they could be if we were to modernize our systems and sort of keep up with what’s going on globally around STEM. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mina Kim: What have some of the effects been of waiving the test requirement?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Felicia Mello: \u003c/strong>UC’s data actually showed that they saw a big bump in applications right after going test-optional. In the first year, applications went up about 19%. And you also start to see a slight increase in diversity of both the people who are applying and the people who are getting in. In terms of performance, the official UC stats don’t show a huge difference. They show that persistence — meaning students who remained in college from the first year to the second year — was largely flat during that time. First-year GPAs ticked down very slightly. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Felicia Mello: \u003c/strong>UC’s data actually showed that they saw a big bump in applications right after going test-optional. In the first year, applications went up about 19%. And you also start to see a slight increase in diversity of both the people who are applying and the people who are getting in. In terms of performance, the official UC stats don’t show a huge difference. They show that persistence — meaning students who remained in college from the first year to the second year — was largely flat during that time. First-year GPAs ticked down very slightly. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>I am really just speaking to kind of what we saw right after the change went into effect in 2021. But the picture painted by the overall UC data is not as grim as the one that is being put forward by faculty on some campuses. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>I am really just speaking to kind of what we saw right after the change went into effect in 2021. But the picture painted by the overall UC data is not as grim as the one that is being put forward by faculty on some campuses. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How would you characterize the support for the faculty letters? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>We have about 3,000 UC faculty out of roughly 26,000 who have signed on to one of these letters, either the letter from STEM faculty or the letter from social sciences and humanities faculty. We have seen the STEM faculty be much more out front on this. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>We have about 3,000 UC faculty out of roughly 26,000 who have signed on to one of these letters, either the letter from STEM faculty or the letter from social sciences and humanities faculty. We have seen the STEM faculty be much more out front on this. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The social sciences and humanities faculty who have come out in favor of this mentioned that having a good quantitative background is also important for social science classes like economics. There also is clearly some concern around students’ writing skills — that the rise of AI has made it harder to tell, even from students’ applications, whether they’re writing them themselves, and it also just has the potential to constrain what students are learning in terms of writing and communication in general. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The social sciences and humanities faculty who have come out in favor of this mentioned that having a good quantitative background is also important for social science classes like economics. There also is clearly some concern around students’ writing skills — that the rise of AI has made it harder to tell, even from students’ applications, whether they’re writing them themselves, and it also just has the potential to constrain what students are learning in terms of writing and communication in general. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The UC Berkeley math faculty — who had really been pushing via this open letter for the return of the SAT — had done their own analysis of numbers in introductory calculus classes. And they found that between 2021 and 2023, after UC got rid of the SAT and admissions, there was a big jump in students who were severely underprepared for that introductory calculus course. But unfortunately, because we only have those three years of data, they weren’t giving the same test prior to or after that. It is a bit hard to put that data in context. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The UC Berkeley math faculty — who had really been pushing via this open letter for the return of the SAT — had done their own analysis of numbers in introductory calculus classes. And they found that between 2021 and 2023, after UC got rid of the SAT and admissions, there was a big jump in students who were severely underprepared for that introductory calculus course. But unfortunately, because we only have those three years of data, they weren’t giving the same test prior to or after that. It is a bit hard to put that data in context. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Supporters of reinstating the requirement say that the tests would be used in a holistic approach. How true is that?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Supporters of reinstating the requirement say that the tests would be used in a holistic approach. How true is that?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The UC actually does consider 13 different factors in admissions currently, even separate from test scores. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Not just your high school GPA, but how you’re doing relative to other students in your class. It looks at the types of life circumstances you’ve had, your geographic location. Have you had a recent improvement in your performance? What kinds of rigorous courses have you taken? Have you taken AP courses? \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Not just your high school GPA, but how you’re doing relative to other students in your class. It looks at the types of life circumstances you’ve had, your geographic location. Have you had a recent improvement in your performance? What kinds of rigorous courses have you taken? Have you taken AP courses? \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>There’s another factor here, which is the broader political environment, and I think there’s a concern that even if the UC brings back the test, there will be pressure then on the UC to focus more narrowly on the task and abandon some of the more holistic aspects of its review. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>There’s another factor here, which is the broader political environment, and I think there’s a concern that even if the UC brings back the test, there will be pressure then on the UC to focus more narrowly on the task and abandon some of the more holistic aspects of its review. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The Trump administration has certainly been pressuring universities to not pay much attention to the diversity of their classes and not intentionally try to enroll a diverse student body. There’s a concern that this could be seized on by outside actors to try and do an analysis of the university’s admission policies that would focus really narrowly on those test scores. Now, whether that actually happens would remain to be seen.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The Trump administration has certainly been pressuring universities to not pay much attention to the diversity of their classes and not intentionally try to enroll a diverse student body. There’s a concern that this could be seized on by outside actors to try and do an analysis of the university’s admission policies that would focus really narrowly on those test scores. Now, whether that actually happens would remain to be seen.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Equity advocates have also said in the past that, for different reasons, even if you go test-optional, it’s still sending a signal whether those students choose to submit their scores or not, and that could still affect their application.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Equity advocates have also said in the past that, for different reasons, even if you go test-optional, it’s still sending a signal whether those students choose to submit their scores or not, and that could still affect their application.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mina Kim: The UC is saying that they will study and make a decision on whether to bring back the testing requirement a year from now. How likely is it that they will bring it back?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mina Kim: The UC is saying that they will study and make a decision on whether to bring back the testing requirement a year from now. How likely is it that they will bring it back?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mello: \u003c/strong>This is something that was actually in the works even before these open letters. We’ve seen a number of factors that have changed since 2020: We have seen shifts in AI and how it affects the application process. Some of those concerns related to the pandemic are no longer there in the same way. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mello: \u003c/strong>This is something that was actually in the works even before these open letters. We’ve seen a number of factors that have changed since 2020: We have seen shifts in AI and how it affects the application process. Some of those concerns related to the pandemic are no longer there in the same way. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>There’s a lot of pressure to make this decision more quickly. The Faculty Senate had laid out this process of coming to a recommendation by fall 2027. The faculty had originally laid out a plan: They said, we’re going to study this, and the earliest that we could make a decision under this very detailed road map would be for people who are applying in fall of 2028.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>There’s a lot of pressure to make this decision more quickly. The Faculty Senate had laid out this process of coming to a recommendation by fall 2027. The faculty had originally laid out a plan: They said, we’re going to study this, and the earliest that we could make a decision under this very detailed road map would be for people who are applying in fall of 2028.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>They have since rescinded that detailed timeline. All we know at this point is that they’re going to make their recommendation by June. That creates some potential anxiety for this year’s incoming high school juniors. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>They have since rescinded that detailed timeline. All we know at this point is that they’re going to make their recommendation by June. That creates some potential anxiety for this year’s incoming high school juniors. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Who decides to bring back standardized testing?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The regents will really make the ultimate call on this. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The most interesting part of the regents meeting was the chair of the Board of Regents saying that she really felt like the public discussion around this has been too narrowly focused on standardized testing and that the university really needs to take a broader look at what it means to be ready for college in 2026. So this will include things like looking at the high school courses that UC requires people to have when they’re applying. Right now, there’s not a requirement for computer science or any other technology-related course. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The most interesting part of the regents meeting was the chair of the Board of Regents saying that she really felt like the public discussion around this has been too narrowly focused on standardized testing and that the university really needs to take a broader look at what it means to be ready for college in 2026. So this will include things like looking at the high school courses that UC requires people to have when they’re applying. Right now, there’s not a requirement for computer science or any other technology-related course. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>There’s really an appetite for looking at these things more broadly. The regents are looking at, “How do we both maintain that reputation for excellence?” But also do what they are intending to do as a state university and make sure that access to the university is based on hard work and aptitude as opposed to just how much wealth your family has. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>There’s really an appetite for looking at these things more broadly. The regents are looking at, “How do we both maintain that reputation for excellence?” But also do what they are intending to do as a state university and make sure that access to the university is based on hard work and aptitude as opposed to just how much wealth your family has. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/GettyImages-1056629578.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12092389\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/GettyImages-1056629578.jpg 1980w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/GettyImages-1056629578-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/GettyImages-1056629578-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Standardized test company logo seen displayed on smartphone.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Is there a middle ground option for standardized testing?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>There are some universities and colleges that are using the SAT more for placement purposes after people get in. So they’re essentially saying, “We don’t require this for admissions, but we either require or strongly encourage you to share scores after you get in so that we can help figure out if you’re going to be in the right math class for you.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>One of the things that I observe during the course of this reporting is that placement practices for math classes really vary across UC. It’s an extremely diverse system. I spoke with the math chair at UC Santa Barbara who did not sign on to this open letter in support of bringing back the SAT, and he was saying that when we identify students who may not be prepared for our introductory calculus classes, we make sure we flag that early on. We make sure that they are going to community college, and getting the kind of remedial preparation that they need, and then coming back, and those students tend to succeed in our classes. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>One of the things that I observe during the course of this reporting is that placement practices for math classes really vary across UC. It’s an extremely diverse system. I spoke with the math chair at UC Santa Barbara who did not sign on to this open letter in support of bringing back the SAT, and he was saying that when we identify students who may not be prepared for our introductory calculus classes, we make sure we flag that early on. We make sure that they are going to community college, and getting the kind of remedial preparation that they need, and then coming back, and those students tend to succeed in our classes. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Wouldn’t the effects of the pandemic also be a major factor in student performance?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Essentially, there’s nobody I interviewed on either side that said, “Oh, we’re not dealing with any pandemic-related learning deficiencies.” There’s broad acknowledgment that our students are struggling in various ways since the pandemic, and something needs to be done. And the question is, what is the best response? \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>We know it’s not just all about the pandemic, because instead of seeing everybody equally struggling, we’re seeing this concentration on both ends where some people are doing really well, some people are really struggling, and that middle category of student is dropping out.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Some researchers I talked to said that that’s really what you would expect from the impact of the pandemic because the pandemic impacted students differently. Some of them have the peace and quiet they need to study and a reliable Wi-Fi connection, and others do not. \u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "In 2020, the University of California regents voted unanimously to phase out the SAT and ACT as admission requirements. Over 3,000 faculty members are asking for it to come back.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In May 2020, the University of California regents \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11820185/uc-admissions-to-phase-out-sat-and-act-requirement\">voted\u003c/a> unanimously to phase out the SAT and ACT as admission requirements. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Considered a rite of passage in high school \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/education/530951/should-colleges-still-require-the-sats-and-acts\">since the 1940s\u003c/a> for students planning to continue their education, the standardized tests were also \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/education/530951/should-colleges-still-require-the-sats-and-acts\">long criticized\u003c/a> as insufficient predictors of college performance and discriminatory to low-income students who didn’t have the same access to test-prep materials and classes. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The UC system wasn’t alone. At the end of 2021, Harvard University announced it would waive \u003ca href=\"https://www.cbsnews.com/news/harvard-test-optional-sat-act-scores-college-admission/\">the testing requirement through 2026.\u003c/a> Institutions like \u003ca href=\"https://www.nyu.edu/admissions/undergraduate-admissions/how-to-apply/standardized-tests.html\">New York University\u003c/a>, the \u003ca href=\"https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/apply/application/required-materials/\">University of Chicago\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://admissions.nd.edu/apply/\">Notre Dame University\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://admissions.northwestern.edu/faqs/standardized-testing-policy/\">Northwestern University\u003c/a> are all currently test-optional for this application cycle. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1331\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/021822-UCLA-Campus-File-RN-CM-45-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11996136\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/021822-UCLA-Campus-File-RN-CM-45-copy.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/021822-UCLA-Campus-File-RN-CM-45-copy-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/021822-UCLA-Campus-File-RN-CM-45-copy-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/021822-UCLA-Campus-File-RN-CM-45-copy-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/021822-UCLA-Campus-File-RN-CM-45-copy-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/021822-UCLA-Campus-File-RN-CM-45-copy-1920x1278.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The UCLA campus in Los Angeles on Feb. 18, 2022. \u003cbr> (Raquel Natalicchio for CalMatters)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But tides are shifting for these schools — and possibly for the UCs, too. Over the summer, more than 3,000 faculty members at University of California schools have signed \u003ca href=\"https://ucstudentsuccess.org/\">a pair of open letters\u003c/a> supporting admissions testing. \u003ca href=\"https://ucstudentsuccess.org/\">One letter\u003c/a> — signed by more than 2,300 people — called for the return of the mathematics test for STEM majors, saying that testing is a “critical baseline” and “a common external check that students have the core mathematical fluency required for university-level STEM coursework.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The SAT/ACT mathematics requirement is not an obstacle to equity; rather, it is a prerequisite for it,” the letter reads. “Failing to measure preparation gaps does not remove barriers; it moves them into the classroom, where they become harder to overcome.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What fairness looks like\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>2020 was also a year when the country was in the middle of a “racial justice reckoning” after \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/george-floyd\">the killing of George Floyd by police officers\u003c/a>, explained \u003cem>Berkeleyside \u003c/em>higher education reporter Felicia Mello on \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101914438/should-the-ucs-reinstate-the-sat\">KQED’s Forum\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was a lot of discussion about equity happening,” Mello said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>She also added that a year prior, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/09/30/914061484/lies-money-and-cheating-the-deeper-story-of-the-college-admissions-scandal\">the infamous Varsity Blues college admissions scandal\u003c/a> took place, in which federal authorities cracked down on wealthy parents who had been cheating the application process through bribes and rigged standardized test scores. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240125-UC-REGENTS-UNDOCUMENTED-WORK-MD-11-KQED.jpg?ver=1706236237\" alt=\"A bald person with glasses speaks into a microphone at a long table.\" class=\"wp-image-11973813\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240125-UC-REGENTS-UNDOCUMENTED-WORK-MD-11-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240125-UC-REGENTS-UNDOCUMENTED-WORK-MD-11-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240125-UC-REGENTS-UNDOCUMENTED-WORK-MD-11-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240125-UC-REGENTS-UNDOCUMENTED-WORK-MD-11-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240125-UC-REGENTS-UNDOCUMENTED-WORK-MD-11-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240125-UC-REGENTS-UNDOCUMENTED-WORK-MD-11-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">UC President Michael Drake (center) announces the UC Board of Regents’ vote not to consider a proposal to allow the university to hire undocumented students at a UC Board of Regents meeting at the UCSF Mission Bay Conference Center on Jan. 25, 2024. (Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The Board of Regents then took the decision first to go test-optional and eventually ended up going completely test-blind, and that’s the situation that we’ve been in since then,” Mello said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>However, after the UCs went test-optional in 2020, “we saw students thoroughly unprepared to take math in college,” said co-author of the STEM faculty letter, Mina Aganagic — a professor of mathematics and physics at UC Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We’re not saying that these kids didn’t take pre-calc or calc or they haven’t mastered that,” she argued. “The issue is at a much, much earlier level. Students who struggle with material that’s taught in elementary and middle school.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“And for those students, helping them learn calculus is really literally an impossible task,” she said. “So it was heartbreaking seeing so many students struggle.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://ucstudentsuccess.org/socscihum/\">other letter\u003c/a> — signed by more than 900 people — argued for bringing back the reading and writing portion of the SAT and ACT, echoing similar sentiments from STEM faculty members. The humanities faculty members also remarked on \u003ca href=\"https://www.404media.co/teachers-are-not-ok-ai-chatgpt/\">the rise of AI use among students\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“As artificial intelligence becomes more capable, it is arguably more important than ever for students to be able to think through and compose sound arguments on their own, to comprehend the texts they read and to recognize weaknesses in the arguments of those texts,” the social sciences letter reads. “The growing use of AI also makes essays a less reliable indicator of these abilities.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>However, critics of the SAT and ACT requirements emphasize the disadvantage under-resourced students face and note that the letter’s signatories are a small portion of the large UC faculty.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The problem was that the SAT itself was basically a test that was really about assessing someone’s socioeconomic status,” said Lisa Holder, an \u003ca href=\"https://equaljusticesociety.org/\">Equal Justice Society\u003c/a> civil rights attorney who helped \u003ca href=\"https://publiccounsel.org/our-cases/smith-v-regents-of-university-of-california/\">file a lawsuit\u003c/a> to end the use of SAT and ACT in UC admissions, which ended in a settlement.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1980\" height=\"1469\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/GettyImages-1366973965.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12092383\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/GettyImages-1366973965.jpg 1980w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/GettyImages-1366973965-160x119.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/GettyImages-1366973965-1536x1140.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1980px) 100vw, 1980px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Close-up of a pencil on a page of an SAT college entrance exam preparation book, taken on Aug., 6, 2017, in Melville, New York. (Thomas A. Ferrara/Newsday RM via Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The metric that that test actually excelled at measuring was your access to test prep. And that is correlated to wealth,” she said. “This is one snapshot, a day in the life of an individual, as opposed to four years of a high-performing, high-achieving student who is striving.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Stephanie, a high school teacher at a college prep school, wrote into Forum saying she was against reinstating the SAT.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I see how much time and money the wealthy students at my school spend on test prep, and it’s egregious,” she said. “The test prep courses and private tutors don’t teach students the material. They teach them how to game the system.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Another listener, who said they are a UC Merced professor, wrote on Forum’s Discord channel that many of the signatures came from “faculty at the three most selective campuses like Berkeley, UCLA and San Diego.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We educate a much higher share of students who need remedial math or writing,” they wrote. “Instead of trying to weed those students out, our approach has been to provide them with additional support and help them catch up.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1129\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/11/UCMerced11.jpg\" alt=\"A sign marking the entrance to UC Merced.\" class=\"wp-image-10747399\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/11/UCMerced11.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/11/UCMerced11-400x235.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/11/UCMerced11-800x470.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/11/UCMerced11-1440x847.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/11/UCMerced11-1180x694.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/11/UCMerced11-960x565.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A sign marking the entrance to UC Merced. (Lance Johnson/Flickr)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>However, an audience member who said they were a math tutor for two decades also pointed out that “kids trying to learn calculus couldn’t add two fractions efficiently, so I stopped tutoring calculus altogether. It was too much hassle. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>If you wish to compete in the world, boost standards. Universities are not designed for remedial education.” Another told Forum that as a Northern California teacher who worked in \u003ca href=\"https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/what-is-standards-based-grading-and-how-does-it-work/2024/09\">a standards-based grading school\u003c/a>, “All of my co-teachers agreed that this made grades very inflated. Students graduated shockingly ill-prepared for college, but their grades looked great.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Read on to learn more about Forum’s conversation with experts and reporters on the debate around standardized testing in California’s public higher education system.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Arguments for Standardized Testing \u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mina Kim: What are professors who signed the letter seeing in classrooms?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mina Aganagic\u003c/strong>: You’d see enormous amounts of stress on the students. You’d see students who try to take the class three times, and they’re failing again. And they say, “I’ve done everything,” and they have done everything. But the task put in front of them is to cover a multi-year gap in one college calculus class together with 400 to 700 other students. It is simply impossible. It’s sort of like I asked you to climb a wall with no footholds at all. A mathematical genius could not do that. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Why is standardized testing the best way to measure that readiness for college-level work?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>First, most of the SAT actually focuses on the kind of math that’s taught in middle school. I don’t mean acing it, but you will be able to do all right. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The other absolutely crucial thing to understand is how UC uses the SAT. UC was never providing a linear ranking of students and then saying, “We’ll take those with top SAT scores.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>What we will do is the following: Let’s say you take two students from a poor Black neighborhood. They’re going to the same high school. We have grade inflation. Both of these kids ace their math class. And we have to pick one. How are you going to pick? Right now, if we have to pick one, it’s going to be a random choice. In fact, Berkeley doesn’t even take teachers’ recommendations into account. What we are asking for is, “Give us the SAT score.” It will allow us to make an informed choice. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1980\" height=\"1385\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/GettyImages-860780.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12092386\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/GettyImages-860780.jpg 1980w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/GettyImages-860780-160x112.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/GettyImages-860780-1536x1074.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1980px) 100vw, 1980px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">SAT preparation books sit on a shelf at a Barnes and Noble store June 27, 2002 in New York City. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>There’s also the \u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://smarterbalanced.org/our-system/students-and-families/samples/\">\u003cstrong>Smarter Balanced Test\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong> that all California public high school juniors have to take. Would that be a reliable measure?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Certainly having something would be better than having nothing at all. But one problem is purely technical — test problems leaking. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And right now, Smarter Balanced is intended to assess how schools are doing. It’s not designed as a high-stakes test. And converting it to one would require huge resources just to achieve the same thing the SAT is already doing.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What do you say to critics of standardized testing, who say scores track closely with income and racial disparities? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Every measure we have, including Smarter Balanced, already has in it, baked, these inequities. There’s just simply no way around it. The SAT is no better, no worse than any other measure we had. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But the crucial thing is what washes them out is how we use the SAT. We are not comparing a kid from an affluent background to a low-income student and saying, “Compare their SAT scores.” No, we compare students who are alike in every other respect. In other words, the SAT becomes one part of a student’s file. And when we cannot decide between two students who are completely alike in every other respect, it’s a much more informed choice than throwing a die, which is deeply unfair. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Didn’t the pandemic — and remote schooling — also have a hand in dropping performances? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The overall level of math preparedness has been declining. Nobody’s questioning that. But what we are seeing here is a population of students at the very lowest level of preparedness. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Usually what you see is kind of a bell curve. And when you’re talking about overall level shifting, you’re talking about this bell curve kind of shifting. But what we are seeing is the bell curve — it becomes kind of a U-shape. You see students who are acing our classes and students who’re hopelessly failing, and there’s nothing in the middle. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1980\" height=\"1320\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GettyImages-2230923952.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12088396\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GettyImages-2230923952.jpg 1980w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GettyImages-2230923952-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GettyImages-2230923952-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1980px) 100vw, 1980px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">California State University, Northridge on Friday, Aug. 22, 2025. (Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Couldn’t the UCs support these students through remedial college courses?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>We’re pouring a lot into remediation. However, there are certain sizes of gaps that you simply cannot fill. They just become too large. If you are asking to fill a gap from elementary and middle school, it’s just hopeless. For those students, it would take years of work in college to catch up. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And California has this beautiful master plan for higher education: of community colleges, the CSUs and the UCs and pathways between them. So a student who is not as well-prepared could have a real path upward: you could go to a community college, take remedial classes and then transfer to UC. You’re not placed into this classroom where you simply have no way of succeeding because your task was impossible. It is not your failure. It’s the failure of a whole system, and we should not propagate this. We should use the SAT as a placement to put kids in the right places, to give them ladders they can climb up. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>The Arguments Against Standardized Testing \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mina Kim: What was the lawsuit filed against the UCs?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lisa Holder: \u003c/strong>In 2019, \u003ca href=\"https://equaljusticesociety.org/\">Equal Justice Society\u003c/a> — along with several private and public firms in a case called Smith v. UC Regents — sued the University of California for continuing to use the SAT and the ACT as a principal criteria for UC admissions when, in fact, the social science showed that the standardized tests, particularly the SAT and the ACT, were not the best metric for assessing a student’s college readiness, even though they purported to be that. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The best metric, according to social scientists and psychometricians, was a student’s high school performance. Basically the classes that they took for four years. What did their teachers say about them, their student evaluations, their extracurriculars, their sports, their community involvement? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>What was heartbreaking was seeing the clients we had in the Smith case who were incredible students. Many of them were students of color, disabled students and students that did not have a lot of money. And so they had no access to test prep, but they were straight A students. We had a student who had been living in his car for four years, yet he was a straight A student. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Some would argue that accessibility to test-prep has improved thanks to online resources like Khan Academy. \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That’s completely speculative. We haven’t had the test for five years, and there’s no requirement under any settlement to bring that test back. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>What we should be doing is looking at the data that is right in front of us. And the data is what tells us that the \u003ca href=\"https://www.ucop.edu/institutional-research-academic-planning/_files/admissions-outcomes-and-performance.pdf\">UC’s own studies conducted by the board\u003c/a> established that students admitted in the last five years under the test-free policy are equally — if not more — qualified and prepared than the previous students. And that this test-free policy is much more aligned with the UC’s mission, which is to offer high-quality, publicly funded education to California’s best students, not its wealthiest students. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This is a publicly funded university system, and everyone, regardless of income, is paying taxes to fund it. All high-performing California students should be able to access this school without obstruction from a gatekeeper test calibrated to measure for wealth rather than excellence. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What do you say in response to concerns being raised by professors like Aganagic? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The achievement lapses that folks may be seeing are much more likely attributable to this generation’s addiction to mobile phones and their scattered focus, their literacy deficits and sort of shrinking attention spans caused by mobile phone usage and AI addiction. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That’s a much larger systemic problem that we have to start to think about pedagogically in all of our schools. Also, what we’re seeing in this cohort of students is also largely impacted by the missed learning opportunities that they experienced during COVID. Some students were out of school for a year and a half, and so I’m sure that their math preparation may have suffered. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And frankly, we have a lot of really lackluster curricula around STEM in our high schools. And so, students may not be excelling as much as they could be if we were to modernize our systems and sort of keep up with what’s going on globally around STEM. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/GenericClassroomGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12050458\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/GenericClassroomGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/GenericClassroomGetty-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/GenericClassroomGetty-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Back view of large group of students sitting in the classroom and listening to their teacher. (Skynesher/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Behind the Testing Debate\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mina Kim: What have some of the effects been of waiving the test requirement?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Felicia Mello: \u003c/strong>UC’s data actually showed that they saw a big bump in applications right after going test-optional. In the first year, applications went up about 19%. And you also start to see a slight increase in diversity of both the people who are applying and the people who are getting in. In terms of performance, the official UC stats don’t show a huge difference. They show that persistence — meaning students who remained in college from the first year to the second year — was largely flat during that time. First-year GPAs ticked down very slightly. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>I am really just speaking to kind of what we saw right after the change went into effect in 2021. But the picture painted by the overall UC data is not as grim as the one that is being put forward by faculty on some campuses. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How would you characterize the support for the faculty letters? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>We have about 3,000 UC faculty out of roughly 26,000 who have signed on to one of these letters, either the letter from STEM faculty or the letter from social sciences and humanities faculty. We have seen the STEM faculty be much more out front on this. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The social sciences and humanities faculty who have come out in favor of this mentioned that having a good quantitative background is also important for social science classes like economics. There also is clearly some concern around students’ writing skills — that the rise of AI has made it harder to tell, even from students’ applications, whether they’re writing them themselves, and it also just has the potential to constrain what students are learning in terms of writing and communication in general. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The UC Berkeley math faculty — who had really been pushing via this open letter for the return of the SAT — had done their own analysis of numbers in introductory calculus classes. And they found that between 2021 and 2023, after UC got rid of the SAT and admissions, there was a big jump in students who were severely underprepared for that introductory calculus course. But unfortunately, because we only have those three years of data, they weren’t giving the same test prior to or after that. It is a bit hard to put that data in context. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Supporters of reinstating the requirement say that the tests would be used in a holistic approach. How true is that?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The UC actually does consider 13 different factors in admissions currently, even separate from test scores. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Not just your high school GPA, but how you’re doing relative to other students in your class. It looks at the types of life circumstances you’ve had, your geographic location. Have you had a recent improvement in your performance? What kinds of rigorous courses have you taken? Have you taken AP courses? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>There’s another factor here, which is the broader political environment, and I think there’s a concern that even if the UC brings back the test, there will be pressure then on the UC to focus more narrowly on the task and abandon some of the more holistic aspects of its review. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The Trump administration has certainly been pressuring universities to not pay much attention to the diversity of their classes and not intentionally try to enroll a diverse student body. There’s a concern that this could be seized on by outside actors to try and do an analysis of the university’s admission policies that would focus really narrowly on those test scores. Now, whether that actually happens would remain to be seen.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Equity advocates have also said in the past that, for different reasons, even if you go test-optional, it’s still sending a signal whether those students choose to submit their scores or not, and that could still affect their application.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Next Steps\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mina Kim: The UC is saying that they will study and make a decision on whether to bring back the testing requirement a year from now. How likely is it that they will bring it back?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mello: \u003c/strong>This is something that was actually in the works even before these open letters. We’ve seen a number of factors that have changed since 2020: We have seen shifts in AI and how it affects the application process. Some of those concerns related to the pandemic are no longer there in the same way. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>There’s a lot of pressure to make this decision more quickly. The Faculty Senate had laid out this process of coming to a recommendation by fall 2027. The faculty had originally laid out a plan: They said, we’re going to study this, and the earliest that we could make a decision under this very detailed road map would be for people who are applying in fall of 2028.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>They have since rescinded that detailed timeline. All we know at this point is that they’re going to make their recommendation by June. That creates some potential anxiety for this year’s incoming high school juniors. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Who decides to bring back standardized testing?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The regents will really make the ultimate call on this. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The most interesting part of the regents meeting was the chair of the Board of Regents saying that she really felt like the public discussion around this has been too narrowly focused on standardized testing and that the university really needs to take a broader look at what it means to be ready for college in 2026. So this will include things like looking at the high school courses that UC requires people to have when they’re applying. Right now, there’s not a requirement for computer science or any other technology-related course. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>There’s really an appetite for looking at these things more broadly. The regents are looking at, “How do we both maintain that reputation for excellence?” But also do what they are intending to do as a state university and make sure that access to the university is based on hard work and aptitude as opposed to just how much wealth your family has. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1980\" height=\"1485\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/GettyImages-1056629578.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12092389\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/GettyImages-1056629578.jpg 1980w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/GettyImages-1056629578-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/GettyImages-1056629578-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1980px) 100vw, 1980px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Standardized test company logo seen displayed on smartphone. (Igor Golovniov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Is there a middle ground option for standardized testing?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>There are some universities and colleges that are using the SAT more for placement purposes after people get in. So they’re essentially saying, “We don’t require this for admissions, but we either require or strongly encourage you to share scores after you get in so that we can help figure out if you’re going to be in the right math class for you.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>One of the things that I observe during the course of this reporting is that placement practices for math classes really vary across UC. It’s an extremely diverse system. I spoke with the math chair at UC Santa Barbara who did not sign on to this open letter in support of bringing back the SAT, and he was saying that when we identify students who may not be prepared for our introductory calculus classes, we make sure we flag that early on. We make sure that they are going to community college, and getting the kind of remedial preparation that they need, and then coming back, and those students tend to succeed in our classes. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Wouldn’t the effects of the pandemic also be a major factor in student performance?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Essentially, there’s nobody I interviewed on either side that said, “Oh, we’re not dealing with any pandemic-related learning deficiencies.” There’s broad acknowledgment that our students are struggling in various ways since the pandemic, and something needs to be done. And the question is, what is the best response? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>We know it’s not just all about the pandemic, because instead of seeing everybody equally struggling, we’re seeing this concentration on both ends where some people are doing really well, some people are really struggling, and that middle category of student is dropping out.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some researchers I talked to said that that’s really what you would expect from the impact of the pandemic because the pandemic impacted students differently. Some of them have the peace and quiet they need to study and a reliable Wi-Fi connection, and others do not. \u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>High schoolers in the San Francisco Unified School District and San Francisco City College students applying to college are now guaranteed admission to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco-state-university\">San Francisco State University\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Thursday, the University and City College announced a partnership with the San Francisco Unified School District that guarantees admissions to high school seniors who meet certain eligibility requirements — benefitting both students and the University, which has suffered from declining enrollment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The loss of students caused SFSU to announce a \u003ca href=\"https://president.sfsu.edu/presidents-messages-2024\">financial emergency in 2024. \u003c/a>SFSU president Lynn Mahoney \u003ca href=\"https://president.sfsu.edu/presidents-messages-2024\">said \u003c/a>that the school was expecting “significant reductions in the 2025–26 budget.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Katie Lynch, who manages enrollment for SFSU, said guaranteed admissions could help keep the University afloat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are deploying a number of strategies, one of them being the guaranteed admissions with San Francisco Unified and City College of San Francisco to help mitigate the loss of enrollment that we’re seeing and to bolster our relationship with our San Francisco residents as the institution of choice for them,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12061390\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12061390\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/SFUSD.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/SFUSD.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/SFUSD-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/SFUSD-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">City College of San Francisco Chancellor Kimberlee S. Messina (from left), San Francisco Unified School District Superintendent Maria Su and SFSU President Lynn Mahoney pose at a press conference on Oct. 23, 2025, announcing the partnership. \u003ccite>(Kent Bravo/Dropbox)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Now, the University will send all eligible students in San Francisco a postcard in the mail with the words, “Congratulations, You’re In!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new partnership is part of a larger movement to increase state college enrollment in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, the California State University system announced a direct admissions pilot program with Riverside County in which about 12,000 high school seniors will be offered admission to a CSU for the fall 2025 term.[aside postID=news_12059855 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20240403_SJSUFILE_GC-11-KQED-1020x680.jpg']Earlier this month, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB640\"> SB 640\u003c/a>, which expanded the program throughout California and allows every high school student to be admitted automatically if they have the grades to get in. The law takes effect in January, with full statewide participation starting for fall 2027 applicants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To qualify, high school students must have a GPA of at least 2.5 and City College students must have a GPA of 2.0, among other requirements. Students still need to formally apply and pay the $70 application fee after they receive the offer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While we don’t know exactly how many students this will yield, we do think that year over year this will build greater momentum with enrolling San Francisco Unified and City College students,” Lynch said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it is going to reduce barriers for several hundred students who aren’t taking advantage of the educational wealth of the city,” said San Francisco State President Lynn Mahoney.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kimberlee Messina, chancellor of City College of San Francisco, said she sees the new program as a way to reduce barriers for students looking to attend college.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This partnership is demystifying all of the complications of higher education for our San Francisco students,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>High schoolers in the San Francisco Unified School District and San Francisco City College students applying to college are now guaranteed admission to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco-state-university\">San Francisco State University\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Thursday, the University and City College announced a partnership with the San Francisco Unified School District that guarantees admissions to high school seniors who meet certain eligibility requirements — benefitting both students and the University, which has suffered from declining enrollment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The loss of students caused SFSU to announce a \u003ca href=\"https://president.sfsu.edu/presidents-messages-2024\">financial emergency in 2024. \u003c/a>SFSU president Lynn Mahoney \u003ca href=\"https://president.sfsu.edu/presidents-messages-2024\">said \u003c/a>that the school was expecting “significant reductions in the 2025–26 budget.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Katie Lynch, who manages enrollment for SFSU, said guaranteed admissions could help keep the University afloat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are deploying a number of strategies, one of them being the guaranteed admissions with San Francisco Unified and City College of San Francisco to help mitigate the loss of enrollment that we’re seeing and to bolster our relationship with our San Francisco residents as the institution of choice for them,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12061390\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12061390\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/SFUSD.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/SFUSD.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/SFUSD-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/SFUSD-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">City College of San Francisco Chancellor Kimberlee S. Messina (from left), San Francisco Unified School District Superintendent Maria Su and SFSU President Lynn Mahoney pose at a press conference on Oct. 23, 2025, announcing the partnership. \u003ccite>(Kent Bravo/Dropbox)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Now, the University will send all eligible students in San Francisco a postcard in the mail with the words, “Congratulations, You’re In!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new partnership is part of a larger movement to increase state college enrollment in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, the California State University system announced a direct admissions pilot program with Riverside County in which about 12,000 high school seniors will be offered admission to a CSU for the fall 2025 term.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Earlier this month, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB640\"> SB 640\u003c/a>, which expanded the program throughout California and allows every high school student to be admitted automatically if they have the grades to get in. The law takes effect in January, with full statewide participation starting for fall 2027 applicants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To qualify, high school students must have a GPA of at least 2.5 and City College students must have a GPA of 2.0, among other requirements. Students still need to formally apply and pay the $70 application fee after they receive the offer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While we don’t know exactly how many students this will yield, we do think that year over year this will build greater momentum with enrolling San Francisco Unified and City College students,” Lynch said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it is going to reduce barriers for several hundred students who aren’t taking advantage of the educational wealth of the city,” said San Francisco State President Lynn Mahoney.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kimberlee Messina, chancellor of City College of San Francisco, said she sees the new program as a way to reduce barriers for students looking to attend college.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This partnership is demystifying all of the complications of higher education for our San Francisco students,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>As efforts expand across California to boost \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/college-access\">college access\u003c/a> and enrollment, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-jose-state-university\">San José State University\u003c/a> is making it easier for high school students in South Santa Clara County to attend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The university is launching a new guaranteed admission program in partnership with both Gilroy and Morgan Hill Unified School Districts. All graduating seniors who meet California State University education requirements will be offered acceptance into San José State, one of the most popular schools in the system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is about your future, your potential and your power to shape the world,” Anisha Munshi, superintendent of Gilroy Unified, told a group of dozens of students gathered for a launch event this week at Christopher High School in Gilroy. “We are so proud of you, and we cannot wait to see all that you will accomplish.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cynthia Teniente-Matson, San José State’s president, said the partnership helps the university reach its goals of equity and inclusiveness, and helps South County students open doors to more possibilities, such as careers in Silicon Valley. According to a\u003ca href=\"https://www.ppic.org/publication/is-college-worth-it/\"> recent report\u003c/a> from the Public Policy Institute of California, workers in the state who had a bachelor’s degree in 2023 earned 61% on average more than those with just a high school diploma.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They have an opportunity to pursue things that they might not have experienced in their upbringing. We have a lot of first-generation students that are here in Gilroy Unified School District. We have a lot of families where English is not their first language,” Teniente-Matson said. “We want to be more available to them to know San José State is their home, and we want them at our institution.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12060088\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12060088\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-SJSUPATHWAYS-JG-07_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-SJSUPATHWAYS-JG-07_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-SJSUPATHWAYS-JG-07_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-SJSUPATHWAYS-JG-07_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cynthia Teniente-Matson, president of San José State University, speaks to a group of students and staff at Christopher High School in Gilroy during a launch event for a new guaranteed admissions partnership on Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The new program is set to go into effect next fall. Students who have maintained a minimum 2.5 grade point average, and have held a C average or better across \u003ca href=\"https://www.calstate.edu/apply/freshman/getting_into_the_csu/pages/admission-requirements.aspx\">CSU-required courses\u003c/a> in math, literature, science, language and arts classes, will be proactively notified that they are eligible to be admitted to SJSU.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The letter will include information about how to formalize their application online and claim their spot, and will also direct students and their families to financial aid applications, officials said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just getting the letter in the mail that lets a student know they have a spot waiting for them at a university can significantly boost the likelihood they’ll enroll, said Melissa Bardo, the director of government affairs for EdTrust-West, an Oakland-based organization working to remove racial and economic barriers in the state’s education system.[aside postID=news_12059504 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20250930_HISPANICSERVINGINSTITUTIONS_GC-14-KQED.jpg']“Thinking about this from the perspective of a high school senior who is completing their courses in high school, maybe they are unaware that they completed all the courses that are necessary for them to enter college,” Bardo said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But let’s say you get a letter in the mail, and it says, ‘Congratulations, you met all the requirements, and you are conditionally accepted to the university.’ It can make those next steps of applying for financial aid and figuring out how to get enrolled, and doing so with the support from the institutions that reached out to you, a lot less daunting and more approachable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bardo said direct admissions programs are a proven strategy to increase enrollment and opportunity, and have shown success in states like Idaho, Minnesota and Hawaii, as well as a pilot program in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12033771/no-need-to-apply-cal-state-is-automatically-admitting-high-school-students-with-good-grades\">Riverside County\u003c/a> that began last year. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12038974/over-1000-oakland-teens-guaranteed-admission-cal-state-east-bay-next-year\">Cal State East Bay\u003c/a> has also set up similar programs with schools in Hayward, Oakland and San Leandro.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom recently signed into law SB 640, a bill that expands the pilot program from Riverside County to school districts across the state, opening up 16 of the state’s 22 CSUs for guaranteed admission to many more students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State colleges that are \u003ca href=\"https://www.calstate.edu/attend/degrees-certificates-credentials/Pages/impacted-degrees.aspx\">impacted\u003c/a>, meaning they receive more applications than they can accept in certain programs, including San José State, don’t fall under that law currently.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Programs like the ones San José State is rolling out now will help all students, Bardo said, but are especially helpful for students who have traditionally been underrepresented in state colleges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12060087\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12060087\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-SJSUPATHWAYS-JG-06_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-SJSUPATHWAYS-JG-06_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-SJSUPATHWAYS-JG-06_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-SJSUPATHWAYS-JG-06_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students and staff at Christopher High School in Gilroy listen during a launch event for a new guaranteed admissions partnership with San José State University on Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It benefits all types of students from all types of backgrounds, but it is also conscious of the fact that we need to close equity gaps for students of color, for students from low-income backgrounds, and for first-generation students,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One study cited in EdTrust-West’s \u003ca href=\"https://west.edtrust.org/resource/black-minds-matter-supporting-the-educational-success-of-black-children-in-california/\">Black Minds Matter\u003c/a> 2025 report found that students who were “randomly assigned to receive direct admissions letters were four times more likely to apply to the institution and 30% more likely to also apply to another college.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both Morgan Hill and Gilroy schools had lower percentages of students who met the CSU entrance requirements than the average for all schools in Santa Clara County from 2020 to 2024, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.ed-data.org/county/Santa-Clara\">state education data\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gilroy also had significantly higher percentages of students who were English learners, foster youth or eligible for free or reduced-price meals than the county average over the past five years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12060091\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12060091\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-SJSUPATHWAYS-JG-08_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-SJSUPATHWAYS-JG-08_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-SJSUPATHWAYS-JG-08_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-SJSUPATHWAYS-JG-08_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jenny Lee, a senior at Christopher High School in Gilroy, listens during a launch event for a new guaranteed admissions partnership with San José State University on Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Jenny Lee, a senior at Christopher High and the student body vice president, said she thinks the program will be a big boon for students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it could be really helpful for the students that want to go to college but might have felt discouraged based on financial situations or just not feeling like they could be enough,” Lee said. “I think this eases that and might motivate more people to get their college education and continue just leveling up to their highest potential.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San José State will also offer dual enrollment courses to South County students, where high school students can take courses that earn them college credit ahead of time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Teniente-Matson told students at the launch rally in Gilroy that the partnership is about making sure they know they all have a “clear, supported and guaranteed pathway to our university,” though she noted the school has become more popular in recent years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12060092\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12060092\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-SJSUPATHWAYS-JG-01_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-SJSUPATHWAYS-JG-01_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-SJSUPATHWAYS-JG-01_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-SJSUPATHWAYS-JG-01_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The main entrance of Christopher High School in Gilroy on Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It is actually quite difficult to get into San José State University, particularly in certain programs like engineering, animation and design, psychology, kinesiology; these are some of our top-ranked programs,” she said. “So our ability to create this partnership means a lot about our commitment to you.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Andrew Wright, head of enrollment management at SJSU, said every student in the program who meets the basic requirements will be able to nab a spot at the school, but if they apply to more impacted programs, such as computer science or nursing, and don’t have the “competitive marks” to get in, they would likely be admitted as an undeclared major, or to other programs.[aside postID=news_12038974 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/240205-CalStateEastBayFile-KSM-25_qed-1020x680.jpg']“So we’re not telling them that they can’t. All it’s doing is giving them an opportunity to explore other options,” Wright said. Students admitted to the university could then take courses in the impacted programs to earn a spot in those majors, he said, with help from advisors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, Bardo from EdTrust-West said plenty of other barriers to college success exist. While tuition costs can be partially addressed through \u003ca href=\"https://www.csac.ca.gov/all-in\">universal statewide requirements\u003c/a> to check for financial aid eligibility, challenges affecting many Californians, such as the rising cost of housing, food, transportation and childcare, can often play a big role in determining a student’s success in college.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lee, the senior at Christopher High, agreed, saying tuition and housing fees are some of the biggest weights on seniors’ minds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I know a lot of people get stressed out about loans. Even in my government class, my teacher showed us a video kind of warning students about loans and how you can fall down into a deep hole and to explore all your options,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Direct admission programs like SJSU are pursuing are “one of the puzzle pieces” the state is putting together to try and make college more widely accessible and affordable, Bardo said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to develop innovative ways to reach out to students and let them know that college pathways are still available,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>As efforts expand across California to boost \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/college-access\">college access\u003c/a> and enrollment, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-jose-state-university\">San José State University\u003c/a> is making it easier for high school students in South Santa Clara County to attend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The university is launching a new guaranteed admission program in partnership with both Gilroy and Morgan Hill Unified School Districts. All graduating seniors who meet California State University education requirements will be offered acceptance into San José State, one of the most popular schools in the system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is about your future, your potential and your power to shape the world,” Anisha Munshi, superintendent of Gilroy Unified, told a group of dozens of students gathered for a launch event this week at Christopher High School in Gilroy. “We are so proud of you, and we cannot wait to see all that you will accomplish.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cynthia Teniente-Matson, San José State’s president, said the partnership helps the university reach its goals of equity and inclusiveness, and helps South County students open doors to more possibilities, such as careers in Silicon Valley. According to a\u003ca href=\"https://www.ppic.org/publication/is-college-worth-it/\"> recent report\u003c/a> from the Public Policy Institute of California, workers in the state who had a bachelor’s degree in 2023 earned 61% on average more than those with just a high school diploma.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They have an opportunity to pursue things that they might not have experienced in their upbringing. We have a lot of first-generation students that are here in Gilroy Unified School District. We have a lot of families where English is not their first language,” Teniente-Matson said. “We want to be more available to them to know San José State is their home, and we want them at our institution.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12060088\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12060088\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-SJSUPATHWAYS-JG-07_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-SJSUPATHWAYS-JG-07_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-SJSUPATHWAYS-JG-07_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-SJSUPATHWAYS-JG-07_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cynthia Teniente-Matson, president of San José State University, speaks to a group of students and staff at Christopher High School in Gilroy during a launch event for a new guaranteed admissions partnership on Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The new program is set to go into effect next fall. Students who have maintained a minimum 2.5 grade point average, and have held a C average or better across \u003ca href=\"https://www.calstate.edu/apply/freshman/getting_into_the_csu/pages/admission-requirements.aspx\">CSU-required courses\u003c/a> in math, literature, science, language and arts classes, will be proactively notified that they are eligible to be admitted to SJSU.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The letter will include information about how to formalize their application online and claim their spot, and will also direct students and their families to financial aid applications, officials said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just getting the letter in the mail that lets a student know they have a spot waiting for them at a university can significantly boost the likelihood they’ll enroll, said Melissa Bardo, the director of government affairs for EdTrust-West, an Oakland-based organization working to remove racial and economic barriers in the state’s education system.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Thinking about this from the perspective of a high school senior who is completing their courses in high school, maybe they are unaware that they completed all the courses that are necessary for them to enter college,” Bardo said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But let’s say you get a letter in the mail, and it says, ‘Congratulations, you met all the requirements, and you are conditionally accepted to the university.’ It can make those next steps of applying for financial aid and figuring out how to get enrolled, and doing so with the support from the institutions that reached out to you, a lot less daunting and more approachable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bardo said direct admissions programs are a proven strategy to increase enrollment and opportunity, and have shown success in states like Idaho, Minnesota and Hawaii, as well as a pilot program in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12033771/no-need-to-apply-cal-state-is-automatically-admitting-high-school-students-with-good-grades\">Riverside County\u003c/a> that began last year. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12038974/over-1000-oakland-teens-guaranteed-admission-cal-state-east-bay-next-year\">Cal State East Bay\u003c/a> has also set up similar programs with schools in Hayward, Oakland and San Leandro.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom recently signed into law SB 640, a bill that expands the pilot program from Riverside County to school districts across the state, opening up 16 of the state’s 22 CSUs for guaranteed admission to many more students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State colleges that are \u003ca href=\"https://www.calstate.edu/attend/degrees-certificates-credentials/Pages/impacted-degrees.aspx\">impacted\u003c/a>, meaning they receive more applications than they can accept in certain programs, including San José State, don’t fall under that law currently.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Programs like the ones San José State is rolling out now will help all students, Bardo said, but are especially helpful for students who have traditionally been underrepresented in state colleges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12060087\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12060087\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-SJSUPATHWAYS-JG-06_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-SJSUPATHWAYS-JG-06_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-SJSUPATHWAYS-JG-06_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-SJSUPATHWAYS-JG-06_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students and staff at Christopher High School in Gilroy listen during a launch event for a new guaranteed admissions partnership with San José State University on Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It benefits all types of students from all types of backgrounds, but it is also conscious of the fact that we need to close equity gaps for students of color, for students from low-income backgrounds, and for first-generation students,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One study cited in EdTrust-West’s \u003ca href=\"https://west.edtrust.org/resource/black-minds-matter-supporting-the-educational-success-of-black-children-in-california/\">Black Minds Matter\u003c/a> 2025 report found that students who were “randomly assigned to receive direct admissions letters were four times more likely to apply to the institution and 30% more likely to also apply to another college.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both Morgan Hill and Gilroy schools had lower percentages of students who met the CSU entrance requirements than the average for all schools in Santa Clara County from 2020 to 2024, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.ed-data.org/county/Santa-Clara\">state education data\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gilroy also had significantly higher percentages of students who were English learners, foster youth or eligible for free or reduced-price meals than the county average over the past five years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12060091\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12060091\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-SJSUPATHWAYS-JG-08_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-SJSUPATHWAYS-JG-08_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-SJSUPATHWAYS-JG-08_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-SJSUPATHWAYS-JG-08_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jenny Lee, a senior at Christopher High School in Gilroy, listens during a launch event for a new guaranteed admissions partnership with San José State University on Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Jenny Lee, a senior at Christopher High and the student body vice president, said she thinks the program will be a big boon for students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it could be really helpful for the students that want to go to college but might have felt discouraged based on financial situations or just not feeling like they could be enough,” Lee said. “I think this eases that and might motivate more people to get their college education and continue just leveling up to their highest potential.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San José State will also offer dual enrollment courses to South County students, where high school students can take courses that earn them college credit ahead of time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Teniente-Matson told students at the launch rally in Gilroy that the partnership is about making sure they know they all have a “clear, supported and guaranteed pathway to our university,” though she noted the school has become more popular in recent years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12060092\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12060092\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-SJSUPATHWAYS-JG-01_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-SJSUPATHWAYS-JG-01_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-SJSUPATHWAYS-JG-01_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-SJSUPATHWAYS-JG-01_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The main entrance of Christopher High School in Gilroy on Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It is actually quite difficult to get into San José State University, particularly in certain programs like engineering, animation and design, psychology, kinesiology; these are some of our top-ranked programs,” she said. “So our ability to create this partnership means a lot about our commitment to you.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Andrew Wright, head of enrollment management at SJSU, said every student in the program who meets the basic requirements will be able to nab a spot at the school, but if they apply to more impacted programs, such as computer science or nursing, and don’t have the “competitive marks” to get in, they would likely be admitted as an undeclared major, or to other programs.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“So we’re not telling them that they can’t. All it’s doing is giving them an opportunity to explore other options,” Wright said. Students admitted to the university could then take courses in the impacted programs to earn a spot in those majors, he said, with help from advisors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, Bardo from EdTrust-West said plenty of other barriers to college success exist. While tuition costs can be partially addressed through \u003ca href=\"https://www.csac.ca.gov/all-in\">universal statewide requirements\u003c/a> to check for financial aid eligibility, challenges affecting many Californians, such as the rising cost of housing, food, transportation and childcare, can often play a big role in determining a student’s success in college.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lee, the senior at Christopher High, agreed, saying tuition and housing fees are some of the biggest weights on seniors’ minds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I know a lot of people get stressed out about loans. Even in my government class, my teacher showed us a video kind of warning students about loans and how you can fall down into a deep hole and to explore all your options,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Direct admission programs like SJSU are pursuing are “one of the puzzle pieces” the state is putting together to try and make college more widely accessible and affordable, Bardo said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to develop innovative ways to reach out to students and let them know that college pathways are still available,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>For the first time since \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11987754/californias-class-of-2024-lags-in-student-aid-applications-data-shows\">its glitchy revamp\u003c/a> two years ago, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is \u003ca href=\"https://fsapartners.ed.gov/home/\">open to students on time\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The application launched last week on Oct. 1, on the same day \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/government-shutdown\">the federal government shut down\u003c/a> after Congress failed to pass a stopgap funding bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there’s good news for prospective college students: The shutdown doesn’t impact applying for FAFSA. Daisy Gonzales, Executive Director of the California Student Aid Commission (CSAC), said students can \u003ca href=\"https://fsapartners.ed.gov/knowledge-center/library/electronic-announcements/2025-10-01/government-lapse-appropriations-federal-student-aid-processing-and-customer-service-guidance\">still submit their forms\u003c/a>, and the agency “does not anticipate any disruption.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“CSAC encourages students to be ready to apply for financial aid through the FAFSA,” Gonzales said in a statement. “Call centers will be open to answer any calls from both the Federal Student Aid and CSAC.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California DREAM Act, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11979367/fafsa-2024-the-big-error-affecting-mixed-status-families-and-what-to-do-if-youre-an-affected-student\">state-based application\u003c/a> for undocumented students and students from mixed-status families, is also open. The state said that student\u003ca href=\"https://dream.csac.ca.gov/landing\"> “information is never shared with the federal government or used for immigration enforcement.” \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11982309\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11982309\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240408-UCLAWSF-010-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240408-UCLAWSF-010-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240408-UCLAWSF-010-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240408-UCLAWSF-010-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240408-UCLAWSF-010-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240408-UCLAWSF-010-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240408-UCLAWSF-010-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students outside of the University of California College of the Law in San Francisco on April 8, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While you have plenty of time to complete and submit the application, deadlines can creep up on you, especially after two cycles of delayed rollouts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Keep reading for all the FAFSA and CADAA application deadlines to know for 2025, as well as other financial aid applications.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What are the financial aid deadlines to know for 2025?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>What deadlines you should keep track of largely depends on what type of college or university you are hoping to enroll in. You should check directly with the school you’re interested in attending to make sure of their specific timings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the FAFSA, March 2, 2026, is \u003ca href=\"https://www.csac.ca.gov/post/important-dates-and-deadlines\">the priority deadline\u003c/a> for most colleges and institutions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For students applying for state-based aid like CADAA, March 2, 2026, is the strict deadline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11968720\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11968720 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/IMG_0524.jpg\" alt=\"An illustration showing a pair of hands holding a yellow sheet of paper that reads FAFSA. In the background, a number of figures representing family members talk.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1240\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/IMG_0524.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/IMG_0524-800x517.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/IMG_0524-1020x659.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/IMG_0524-160x103.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/IMG_0524-1536x992.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The FAFSA is now open on time. Here are the major student aid deadlines students need to know. \u003ccite>(Anna Vignet/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The financial aid deadline for students going to community college is Sept. 2, 2026.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While some people may qualify for free community college through the California Promise Grant, they can only access this program by \u003ca href=\"https://www.ccsf.edu/california-college-promise-grant-ccpg\">applying to the FAFSA or CADAA\u003c/a> along with \u003ca href=\"https://home.cccapply.org/index.php/us/money/california-college-promise-grant\">the grant’s own application\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Students hoping to go to a private institution should consider filling out the \u003ca href=\"https://cssprofile.collegeboard.org/getting-started\">CSS Profile\u003c/a> in addition to the FAFSA. The deadline for the CSS Profile, which is a separate aid application, is dependent on the \u003ca href=\"https://cssprofile.collegeboard.org/frequently-asked-questionshttps:/cssprofile.collegeboard.org/frequently-asked-questions\">private school’s own priority deadline\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>I’m not sure I’m going to college. Should I follow these deadlines anyway?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12018723/fafsa-2025-california-deadlines\">a 2024 interview with KQED\u003c/a>, Gonzales said that the biggest misconception people can make about the FAFSA is believing that they don’t qualify — whether that’s because their family is \u003ca href=\"https://www.csac.ca.gov/middle-class-scholarship\">middle class\u003c/a>, they’re thinking about joining the military or they’re going on a gap year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even if you’re uncertain about going to college at all, Gonzales said you should apply for FAFSA anyway. That way, you’ll have it completed in case they change your mind about your plans, and you’ll be sure you haven’t missed any deadlines.[aside postID=news_12058230 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-1-1020x681.jpg']“It’s never a bad idea to apply,” she said. And because “the aid here in California is very generous, very diverse,” many students — especially first-year college students — will qualify for some form of aid like grants, scholarships, subsidized loans or work-study, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among those programs is \u003ca href=\"https://www.csac.ca.gov/financial-aid-programshttps:/www.csac.ca.gov/financial-aid-programs\">the Cal Grant\u003c/a> — the \u003ca href=\"https://www.csac.ca.gov/cal-grants\">state-specific aid program\u003c/a> that California students can apply for through the FAFSA. Other programs include:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>The Cal-HBCU program, which provides aid for California students transferring from California Community Colleges to a partnering Historically Black College.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>A grant for foster youth under 26 that funds five years of schooling\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Aid for undocumented students who also participate in community service\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Grants for students who are also parents\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Students planning to enter the teaching profession.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>What tax documents do I need to complete the FAFSA on time?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>First, a quick breakdown of tax vocabulary:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>A W-2 form is a tax document that an employer gives workers once a year, which shows how much the employer paid the worker that year.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>A 1040 form is a tax document, also known as a tax return, that a worker completes themselves, usually with the help of a tax expert. This document is sent to the IRS each year to confirm how much the worker got paid and how much they owe the government in taxes.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12011586\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12011586\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241029-OAKLANDSCHOLARSHIPSTUDENTS-01-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241029-OAKLANDSCHOLARSHIPSTUDENTS-01-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241029-OAKLANDSCHOLARSHIPSTUDENTS-01-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241029-OAKLANDSCHOLARSHIPSTUDENTS-01-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241029-OAKLANDSCHOLARSHIPSTUDENTS-01-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241029-OAKLANDSCHOLARSHIPSTUDENTS-01-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241029-OAKLANDSCHOLARSHIPSTUDENTS-01-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Northeastern University campus in Oakland on Oct. 29, 2024, formerly Mills College. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Most people in the U.S. receive a W-2 form and then complete a 1040 form themselves. FAFSA will ask parents to share information from last year’s documents. If the parents do not have this information, it could be for one of these reasons:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>The parent is a gig worker, such as driving for Uber or doing deliveries for Grubhub; they most likely did not get a W-2 form. Instead, the company they work for gave them a 1099 form. Ask for “their 1099” instead.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>The parents did not work last year and received unemployment benefits instead; they most likely did not get a W-2 form. In this case, the state government will have sent them a 1099-G form, which lists how much they received from unemployment benefits.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>If a student’s parent has a W-2 form but does not have last year’s 1040 form, this probably means they haven’t filed their taxes yet. Colleges will still want to see their taxes, and applicants should ask their parents about scheduling an appointment with a tax preparer to catch up on this.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many community organizations offer free tax filing services year-round. In the Bay Area, \u003ca href=\"https://uwba.org/freetaxhelp/\">United Way can connect people\u003c/a> to online and in-person tax help — and parents could potentially qualify to get cash back from the government when they file, based on their income and the size of the family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If your family still needs to file their taxes, keep the schools you’re applying to updated about this.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Resources for students applying for financial aid:\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For students and family members who still have questions, FAFSA resources state-wide and nationally include:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ncan.org/news/687244/NCANs-2025-26-FAFSA-Page-A-How-To-Guide.htm\">The National College Attainment Network’s 2025–26 FAFSA Page: A How-To Guide\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://studentaid.gov/apply-for-aid/fafsa/filling-out/help\">FAFSA’s official FAQ\u003c/a> (with \u003ca href=\"https://studentaid.gov/help-center/contact\">the help center’s contact information\u003c/a>)\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.csac.ca.gov/sites/default/files/file-attachments/spanish_paper_better_cadaa_2024-2025.pdf\">Solicitud Dream Act de California\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.csac.ca.gov/students\">California Student Aid Commission\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.csac.ca.gov/cash-college\">CSAC’s Cash for College\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.casfaa.org/\">California Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>For the first time since \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11987754/californias-class-of-2024-lags-in-student-aid-applications-data-shows\">its glitchy revamp\u003c/a> two years ago, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is \u003ca href=\"https://fsapartners.ed.gov/home/\">open to students on time\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The application launched last week on Oct. 1, on the same day \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/government-shutdown\">the federal government shut down\u003c/a> after Congress failed to pass a stopgap funding bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there’s good news for prospective college students: The shutdown doesn’t impact applying for FAFSA. Daisy Gonzales, Executive Director of the California Student Aid Commission (CSAC), said students can \u003ca href=\"https://fsapartners.ed.gov/knowledge-center/library/electronic-announcements/2025-10-01/government-lapse-appropriations-federal-student-aid-processing-and-customer-service-guidance\">still submit their forms\u003c/a>, and the agency “does not anticipate any disruption.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“CSAC encourages students to be ready to apply for financial aid through the FAFSA,” Gonzales said in a statement. “Call centers will be open to answer any calls from both the Federal Student Aid and CSAC.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California DREAM Act, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11979367/fafsa-2024-the-big-error-affecting-mixed-status-families-and-what-to-do-if-youre-an-affected-student\">state-based application\u003c/a> for undocumented students and students from mixed-status families, is also open. The state said that student\u003ca href=\"https://dream.csac.ca.gov/landing\"> “information is never shared with the federal government or used for immigration enforcement.” \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11982309\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11982309\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240408-UCLAWSF-010-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240408-UCLAWSF-010-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240408-UCLAWSF-010-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240408-UCLAWSF-010-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240408-UCLAWSF-010-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240408-UCLAWSF-010-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240408-UCLAWSF-010-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students outside of the University of California College of the Law in San Francisco on April 8, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While you have plenty of time to complete and submit the application, deadlines can creep up on you, especially after two cycles of delayed rollouts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Keep reading for all the FAFSA and CADAA application deadlines to know for 2025, as well as other financial aid applications.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What are the financial aid deadlines to know for 2025?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>What deadlines you should keep track of largely depends on what type of college or university you are hoping to enroll in. You should check directly with the school you’re interested in attending to make sure of their specific timings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the FAFSA, March 2, 2026, is \u003ca href=\"https://www.csac.ca.gov/post/important-dates-and-deadlines\">the priority deadline\u003c/a> for most colleges and institutions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For students applying for state-based aid like CADAA, March 2, 2026, is the strict deadline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11968720\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11968720 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/IMG_0524.jpg\" alt=\"An illustration showing a pair of hands holding a yellow sheet of paper that reads FAFSA. In the background, a number of figures representing family members talk.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1240\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/IMG_0524.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/IMG_0524-800x517.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/IMG_0524-1020x659.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/IMG_0524-160x103.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/IMG_0524-1536x992.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The FAFSA is now open on time. Here are the major student aid deadlines students need to know. \u003ccite>(Anna Vignet/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The financial aid deadline for students going to community college is Sept. 2, 2026.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While some people may qualify for free community college through the California Promise Grant, they can only access this program by \u003ca href=\"https://www.ccsf.edu/california-college-promise-grant-ccpg\">applying to the FAFSA or CADAA\u003c/a> along with \u003ca href=\"https://home.cccapply.org/index.php/us/money/california-college-promise-grant\">the grant’s own application\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Students hoping to go to a private institution should consider filling out the \u003ca href=\"https://cssprofile.collegeboard.org/getting-started\">CSS Profile\u003c/a> in addition to the FAFSA. The deadline for the CSS Profile, which is a separate aid application, is dependent on the \u003ca href=\"https://cssprofile.collegeboard.org/frequently-asked-questionshttps:/cssprofile.collegeboard.org/frequently-asked-questions\">private school’s own priority deadline\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>I’m not sure I’m going to college. Should I follow these deadlines anyway?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12018723/fafsa-2025-california-deadlines\">a 2024 interview with KQED\u003c/a>, Gonzales said that the biggest misconception people can make about the FAFSA is believing that they don’t qualify — whether that’s because their family is \u003ca href=\"https://www.csac.ca.gov/middle-class-scholarship\">middle class\u003c/a>, they’re thinking about joining the military or they’re going on a gap year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even if you’re uncertain about going to college at all, Gonzales said you should apply for FAFSA anyway. That way, you’ll have it completed in case they change your mind about your plans, and you’ll be sure you haven’t missed any deadlines.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“It’s never a bad idea to apply,” she said. And because “the aid here in California is very generous, very diverse,” many students — especially first-year college students — will qualify for some form of aid like grants, scholarships, subsidized loans or work-study, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among those programs is \u003ca href=\"https://www.csac.ca.gov/financial-aid-programshttps:/www.csac.ca.gov/financial-aid-programs\">the Cal Grant\u003c/a> — the \u003ca href=\"https://www.csac.ca.gov/cal-grants\">state-specific aid program\u003c/a> that California students can apply for through the FAFSA. Other programs include:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>The Cal-HBCU program, which provides aid for California students transferring from California Community Colleges to a partnering Historically Black College.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>A grant for foster youth under 26 that funds five years of schooling\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Aid for undocumented students who also participate in community service\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Grants for students who are also parents\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Students planning to enter the teaching profession.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>What tax documents do I need to complete the FAFSA on time?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>First, a quick breakdown of tax vocabulary:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>A W-2 form is a tax document that an employer gives workers once a year, which shows how much the employer paid the worker that year.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>A 1040 form is a tax document, also known as a tax return, that a worker completes themselves, usually with the help of a tax expert. This document is sent to the IRS each year to confirm how much the worker got paid and how much they owe the government in taxes.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12011586\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12011586\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241029-OAKLANDSCHOLARSHIPSTUDENTS-01-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241029-OAKLANDSCHOLARSHIPSTUDENTS-01-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241029-OAKLANDSCHOLARSHIPSTUDENTS-01-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241029-OAKLANDSCHOLARSHIPSTUDENTS-01-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241029-OAKLANDSCHOLARSHIPSTUDENTS-01-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241029-OAKLANDSCHOLARSHIPSTUDENTS-01-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241029-OAKLANDSCHOLARSHIPSTUDENTS-01-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Northeastern University campus in Oakland on Oct. 29, 2024, formerly Mills College. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Most people in the U.S. receive a W-2 form and then complete a 1040 form themselves. FAFSA will ask parents to share information from last year’s documents. If the parents do not have this information, it could be for one of these reasons:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>The parent is a gig worker, such as driving for Uber or doing deliveries for Grubhub; they most likely did not get a W-2 form. Instead, the company they work for gave them a 1099 form. Ask for “their 1099” instead.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>The parents did not work last year and received unemployment benefits instead; they most likely did not get a W-2 form. In this case, the state government will have sent them a 1099-G form, which lists how much they received from unemployment benefits.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>If a student’s parent has a W-2 form but does not have last year’s 1040 form, this probably means they haven’t filed their taxes yet. Colleges will still want to see their taxes, and applicants should ask their parents about scheduling an appointment with a tax preparer to catch up on this.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many community organizations offer free tax filing services year-round. In the Bay Area, \u003ca href=\"https://uwba.org/freetaxhelp/\">United Way can connect people\u003c/a> to online and in-person tax help — and parents could potentially qualify to get cash back from the government when they file, based on their income and the size of the family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If your family still needs to file their taxes, keep the schools you’re applying to updated about this.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Resources for students applying for financial aid:\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For students and family members who still have questions, FAFSA resources state-wide and nationally include:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ncan.org/news/687244/NCANs-2025-26-FAFSA-Page-A-How-To-Guide.htm\">The National College Attainment Network’s 2025–26 FAFSA Page: A How-To Guide\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://studentaid.gov/apply-for-aid/fafsa/filling-out/help\">FAFSA’s official FAQ\u003c/a> (with \u003ca href=\"https://studentaid.gov/help-center/contact\">the help center’s contact information\u003c/a>)\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.csac.ca.gov/sites/default/files/file-attachments/spanish_paper_better_cadaa_2024-2025.pdf\">Solicitud Dream Act de California\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.csac.ca.gov/students\">California Student Aid Commission\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.csac.ca.gov/cash-college\">CSAC’s Cash for College\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.casfaa.org/\">California Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "california-banned-legacy-admissions-at-private-schools-stanford-is-sticking-with-it",
"title": "California Banned Legacy Admissions at Private Schools. Stanford Is Sticking With It",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/stanford-university\">Stanford University\u003c/a> will continue to use legacy and donor status in its admissions process by opting out of the state’s Cal Grant financial aid program, a move that would allow it to skirt a statewide ban on legacy admissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The announcement comes just a few weeks before \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB1780\">Assembly Bill 1780\u003c/a>, which was signed into law last year, takes effect Sept. 1. The law \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2024/10/college-admissions-2/\">prohibits legacy or donor-driven preferences\u003c/a> in admissions at any university “that receives, or benefits from, state-funded student financial assistance or that enrolls students who receive state-funded student financial assistance,” including private institutions like Stanford.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Colleges that receive state funding and continue to give legacy preference risk an increased burden of reporting requirements to the state government, as well as being publicly listed as noncompliant on the California Department of Justice’s website.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By withdrawing from Cal Grant, the state-funded financial aid program that provides millions of dollars a year to support hundreds of its students, Stanford will be able to continue those admissions practices without being subject to the law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement posted \u003ca href=\"https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2025/07/admissions-criteria-application-period\">online\u003c/a> July 29, university officials said Stanford will use university scholarship funding instead of state financial assistance programs, including Cal Grant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for Stanford told KQED that the university will continue to evaluate how legacy status is considered in its admissions process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12052037\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12052037\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/StanfordUniversity.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1513\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/StanfordUniversity.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/StanfordUniversity-160x121.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/StanfordUniversity-1536x1162.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">One of the entrances to the Main Quad on the Stanford University campus on April 9, 2019. \u003ccite>(Rachael Myrow/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Assemblymember Phil Ting, who introduced AB 1780, has said he was inspired to target legacy admissions by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13887290/lies-money-and-cheating-the-deeper-story-of-the-college-admissions-scandal\">Varsity Blues scandal\u003c/a>, in which wealthy parents paid bribes to get their children into elite schools, including Stanford, USC, UC Berkeley and UCLA through side doors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Student organizers, meanwhile, have also taken aim at university admissions policies that they say favor the children of wealthy and influential parents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ryan Cieslikowski, a Stanford alum who benefited from financial aid for students from less privileged backgrounds, said his experience there led him to \u003ca href=\"https://www.joinclassaction.us/\">Class Action\u003c/a>, a nationwide nonprofit of students, alumni and faculty members who advocate for tackling classism and inequality within higher education.[aside postID=news_12050989 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/03/GettyImages-1135386368-1020x679.jpg']Now a lead organizer for the nonprofit, he said his research showed schools like Stanford accept “more students from the top 1% of the income distribution than the entire bottom 50%.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His fellow Stanford organizers traveled to Sacramento three times to testify before the state Legislature when AB 1780 was still in the process of becoming law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These are the various students whose children stand to benefit from legacy admissions in the future,” Cieslikowski said. “Even the people who stand to benefit from it disproportionately don’t think that their institution should practice it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said that while the Trump administration is “exploiting America’s mistrust” of elite education for political purposes, universities should be striving to demonstrate that they serve the public interest, but “Stanford’s decision to continue legacy and donor preference does the exact opposite of that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The university’s legacy admissions statement was posted just two days before it announced sweeping \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12050989/stanford-university-lays-off-363-employees-citing-trump-cuts\">layoffs\u003c/a> of over 350 employees and a $140 million budget cut.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11956028\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11956028\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"An ornate sandstone-colored building with a series of arches sitting on a brick plaza.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1320\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED-800x528.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED-1020x673.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED-1536x1014.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED-1920x1267.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The arches of the Main Quadrangle buildings on the campus of Stanford University in Palo Alto on Oct. 2, 2021. \u003ccite>(David Madison/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Stanford has decided that accepting the disproportionately privileged children of Stanford alumni and Stanford donors is more important than taking free money from the state of California in order to provide financial aid for their low-income students,” Cieslikowski said. “Especially in the face of massive layoffs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Stanford spokesperson did not respond to a follow-up question seeking to specify whether the decision to substitute university funding for Cal Grant was a factor or point of discussion in the budget cut.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cieslikowski referenced Leland Stanford’s quote upon founding the institution in 1885: that “The children of California shall be our children.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“By clinging to legacy preference, the university is sending the exact opposite message,” he said. “Saying that the children of wealthy alumni and donors come first, they shall be our children.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/stanford-university\">Stanford University\u003c/a> will continue to use legacy and donor status in its admissions process by opting out of the state’s Cal Grant financial aid program, a move that would allow it to skirt a statewide ban on legacy admissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The announcement comes just a few weeks before \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB1780\">Assembly Bill 1780\u003c/a>, which was signed into law last year, takes effect Sept. 1. The law \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2024/10/college-admissions-2/\">prohibits legacy or donor-driven preferences\u003c/a> in admissions at any university “that receives, or benefits from, state-funded student financial assistance or that enrolls students who receive state-funded student financial assistance,” including private institutions like Stanford.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Colleges that receive state funding and continue to give legacy preference risk an increased burden of reporting requirements to the state government, as well as being publicly listed as noncompliant on the California Department of Justice’s website.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By withdrawing from Cal Grant, the state-funded financial aid program that provides millions of dollars a year to support hundreds of its students, Stanford will be able to continue those admissions practices without being subject to the law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement posted \u003ca href=\"https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2025/07/admissions-criteria-application-period\">online\u003c/a> July 29, university officials said Stanford will use university scholarship funding instead of state financial assistance programs, including Cal Grant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for Stanford told KQED that the university will continue to evaluate how legacy status is considered in its admissions process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12052037\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12052037\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/StanfordUniversity.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1513\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/StanfordUniversity.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/StanfordUniversity-160x121.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/StanfordUniversity-1536x1162.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">One of the entrances to the Main Quad on the Stanford University campus on April 9, 2019. \u003ccite>(Rachael Myrow/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Assemblymember Phil Ting, who introduced AB 1780, has said he was inspired to target legacy admissions by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13887290/lies-money-and-cheating-the-deeper-story-of-the-college-admissions-scandal\">Varsity Blues scandal\u003c/a>, in which wealthy parents paid bribes to get their children into elite schools, including Stanford, USC, UC Berkeley and UCLA through side doors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Student organizers, meanwhile, have also taken aim at university admissions policies that they say favor the children of wealthy and influential parents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ryan Cieslikowski, a Stanford alum who benefited from financial aid for students from less privileged backgrounds, said his experience there led him to \u003ca href=\"https://www.joinclassaction.us/\">Class Action\u003c/a>, a nationwide nonprofit of students, alumni and faculty members who advocate for tackling classism and inequality within higher education.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Now a lead organizer for the nonprofit, he said his research showed schools like Stanford accept “more students from the top 1% of the income distribution than the entire bottom 50%.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His fellow Stanford organizers traveled to Sacramento three times to testify before the state Legislature when AB 1780 was still in the process of becoming law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These are the various students whose children stand to benefit from legacy admissions in the future,” Cieslikowski said. “Even the people who stand to benefit from it disproportionately don’t think that their institution should practice it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said that while the Trump administration is “exploiting America’s mistrust” of elite education for political purposes, universities should be striving to demonstrate that they serve the public interest, but “Stanford’s decision to continue legacy and donor preference does the exact opposite of that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The university’s legacy admissions statement was posted just two days before it announced sweeping \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12050989/stanford-university-lays-off-363-employees-citing-trump-cuts\">layoffs\u003c/a> of over 350 employees and a $140 million budget cut.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11956028\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11956028\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"An ornate sandstone-colored building with a series of arches sitting on a brick plaza.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1320\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED-800x528.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED-1020x673.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED-1536x1014.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED-1920x1267.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The arches of the Main Quadrangle buildings on the campus of Stanford University in Palo Alto on Oct. 2, 2021. \u003ccite>(David Madison/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Stanford has decided that accepting the disproportionately privileged children of Stanford alumni and Stanford donors is more important than taking free money from the state of California in order to provide financial aid for their low-income students,” Cieslikowski said. “Especially in the face of massive layoffs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Stanford spokesperson did not respond to a follow-up question seeking to specify whether the decision to substitute university funding for Cal Grant was a factor or point of discussion in the budget cut.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cieslikowski referenced Leland Stanford’s quote upon founding the institution in 1885: that “The children of California shall be our children.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“By clinging to legacy preference, the university is sending the exact opposite message,” he said. “Saying that the children of wealthy alumni and donors come first, they shall be our children.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 11:22 a.m. Thursday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal State East Bay is teaming up with the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland-unified-school-district\">Oakland Unified School District\u003c/a> to offer guaranteed admission to over 1,000 qualified high school students, marking the largest district so far to join the growing initiative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beginning with this year’s graduating class, 1,300 Oakland Unified seniors with a minimum 2.5 GPA who have completed \u003ca href=\"https://www.calstate.edu/apply/freshman/getting_into_the_csu/pages/admission-requirements.aspx\">required high school coursework\u003c/a> received a letter in February informing them of their \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12033771/no-need-to-apply-cal-state-is-automatically-admitting-high-school-students-with-good-grades\">guaranteed admission\u003c/a> and inviting them to tour the campus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By allowing students to explore all the resources that would be available to them at Cal State East Bay, the hope is that first-generation college students will feel more supported, University President Cathy Sandeen said — who added that she should know, because she was once in their shoes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>I myself am a first-generation college graduate, and I was born and raised in the East Bay, so I didn’t have that guidance,” Sandeen said. “I kind of figured it out on my own.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The majority of Cal State East Bay students are the first in their families to earn a degree, Sandeen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The partnership with Oakland Unified announced this week follows a number of similar arrangements last year with the Hayward, San Leandro, San Lorenzo, New Haven and Castro Valley school districts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12038976\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12038976 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/250219-CSU-East-Bay-File-MD-12_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/250219-CSU-East-Bay-File-MD-12_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/250219-CSU-East-Bay-File-MD-12_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/250219-CSU-East-Bay-File-MD-12_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/250219-CSU-East-Bay-File-MD-12_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/250219-CSU-East-Bay-File-MD-12_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/250219-CSU-East-Bay-File-MD-12_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students make their way on campus at CSU East Bay on Feb. 19, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Sandeen hopes that the streamlined admissions process will encourage and excite high school students who otherwise might not have considered higher education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This opens another door for a lot of our kids,” said John Sasaki, a spokesperson for Oakland Unified.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sasaki said a major focus for the district is supporting would-be first-generation college students to unlearn assumptions that college is out of reach for them or that they don’t qualify.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In one of these \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12011539/many-oakland-students-dont-go-to-college-this-new-scholarship-gives-some-a-chance\">endeavors\u003c/a>, Oakland Unified has also partnered with the private Northeastern University, Oakland, to award up to 10 students a year with full tuition, room and board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although the prospect of lofty tuition fees and strained finances can often cloud high school students’ dreams of attending college, Sandeen said, 60% of Cal State East Bay students pay no tuition or fees.[aside postID=news_12037474 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250425-SFSUStudentHousing-10-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg']According to Sasaki, the prospect of receiving a four-year degree with financial aid is sure to bolster the district’s already increasing number of students heading to college after graduating high school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The partnership with Oakland Unified adds another layer of significance for Cal State East Bay, Sandeen said: One of the university’s most robust programs is its teacher education program, from which many current and former OUSD teachers received their certification.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s a full circle moment, and we’re hoping that a lot of the students who come to us will think about going into education,” Sandeen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sasaki echoed Sandeen’s sentiments, saying this “will be a great way to get more of our kids educated and ready to be teachers to come back, ready to be administrators, ready to work in our offices.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sandeen’s own journey started at San Leandro High School, where she returned last year to celebrate its induction into Cal State East Bay’s guaranteed admission program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said meaningful moments like this one are just another reason why her hopes for Oakland Unified students and beyond are so tremendous.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s very meaningful for me to be able to stand there and to tell the high school students of today, ‘Yes you can, you can,’” Sandeen said. “Academically, you are prepared.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>May 8: A spokesperson for the Oakland Unified School District initially said the program would begin in 2026. In fact, members of this year’s graduating class have already received guaranteed admission letters, the district and Cal State East Bay later clarified.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 11:22 a.m. Thursday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal State East Bay is teaming up with the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland-unified-school-district\">Oakland Unified School District\u003c/a> to offer guaranteed admission to over 1,000 qualified high school students, marking the largest district so far to join the growing initiative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beginning with this year’s graduating class, 1,300 Oakland Unified seniors with a minimum 2.5 GPA who have completed \u003ca href=\"https://www.calstate.edu/apply/freshman/getting_into_the_csu/pages/admission-requirements.aspx\">required high school coursework\u003c/a> received a letter in February informing them of their \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12033771/no-need-to-apply-cal-state-is-automatically-admitting-high-school-students-with-good-grades\">guaranteed admission\u003c/a> and inviting them to tour the campus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By allowing students to explore all the resources that would be available to them at Cal State East Bay, the hope is that first-generation college students will feel more supported, University President Cathy Sandeen said — who added that she should know, because she was once in their shoes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>I myself am a first-generation college graduate, and I was born and raised in the East Bay, so I didn’t have that guidance,” Sandeen said. “I kind of figured it out on my own.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The majority of Cal State East Bay students are the first in their families to earn a degree, Sandeen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The partnership with Oakland Unified announced this week follows a number of similar arrangements last year with the Hayward, San Leandro, San Lorenzo, New Haven and Castro Valley school districts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12038976\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12038976 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/250219-CSU-East-Bay-File-MD-12_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/250219-CSU-East-Bay-File-MD-12_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/250219-CSU-East-Bay-File-MD-12_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/250219-CSU-East-Bay-File-MD-12_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/250219-CSU-East-Bay-File-MD-12_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/250219-CSU-East-Bay-File-MD-12_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/250219-CSU-East-Bay-File-MD-12_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students make their way on campus at CSU East Bay on Feb. 19, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Sandeen hopes that the streamlined admissions process will encourage and excite high school students who otherwise might not have considered higher education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This opens another door for a lot of our kids,” said John Sasaki, a spokesperson for Oakland Unified.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sasaki said a major focus for the district is supporting would-be first-generation college students to unlearn assumptions that college is out of reach for them or that they don’t qualify.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In one of these \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12011539/many-oakland-students-dont-go-to-college-this-new-scholarship-gives-some-a-chance\">endeavors\u003c/a>, Oakland Unified has also partnered with the private Northeastern University, Oakland, to award up to 10 students a year with full tuition, room and board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although the prospect of lofty tuition fees and strained finances can often cloud high school students’ dreams of attending college, Sandeen said, 60% of Cal State East Bay students pay no tuition or fees.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>According to Sasaki, the prospect of receiving a four-year degree with financial aid is sure to bolster the district’s already increasing number of students heading to college after graduating high school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The partnership with Oakland Unified adds another layer of significance for Cal State East Bay, Sandeen said: One of the university’s most robust programs is its teacher education program, from which many current and former OUSD teachers received their certification.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s a full circle moment, and we’re hoping that a lot of the students who come to us will think about going into education,” Sandeen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sasaki echoed Sandeen’s sentiments, saying this “will be a great way to get more of our kids educated and ready to be teachers to come back, ready to be administrators, ready to work in our offices.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sandeen’s own journey started at San Leandro High School, where she returned last year to celebrate its induction into Cal State East Bay’s guaranteed admission program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said meaningful moments like this one are just another reason why her hopes for Oakland Unified students and beyond are so tremendous.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s very meaningful for me to be able to stand there and to tell the high school students of today, ‘Yes you can, you can,’” Sandeen said. “Academically, you are prepared.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>May 8: A spokesperson for the Oakland Unified School District initially said the program would begin in 2026. In fact, members of this year’s graduating class have already received guaranteed admission letters, the district and Cal State East Bay later clarified.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>New research shows that a San Francisco program that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11952106/kindergarten-to-college-2023\">opens children’s savings accounts for kindergarteners\u003c/a> is closing the college enrollment gap, the treasurer’s office announced Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Kindergarten to College program began opening savings accounts seeded with $50 for a cohort of kindergarteners entering the city’s public schools in 2011. Those students, who graduated in 2023, were significantly more likely to enroll in college, mostly driven by increases in underrepresented groups, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgov.org/k2c/media/420/download?attachment\">research findings\u003c/a> released Monday show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our Kindergarten to College program shows that there is a real and significant improvement in the number of kids who attend college who were, from kindergarten, raised with a college savings account in the child’s name,” San Francisco Treasurer José Cisneros said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>College enrollment was 6 percentage points higher among class of 2023 graduates with K2C accounts compared with the control cohort — 60% versus 54%, according to the study. Those gains were doubled among Black, Hispanic, Filipino, Pacific Islander and Indigenous students, closing 30% of the enrollment gap faced by these groups. The on-time high school graduation rate for underrepresented students also increased by 7 percentage points if they had K2C accounts, compared with a similar set of students without the savings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The average savings for the class of 2023 was just over $1,400, and the program’s total savings across more than 54,000 accounts was $17 million as of May.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12004857\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12004857\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/004_KQED_Kindergarten2College_05162023_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/004_KQED_Kindergarten2College_05162023_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/004_KQED_Kindergarten2College_05162023_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/004_KQED_Kindergarten2College_05162023_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/004_KQED_Kindergarten2College_05162023_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/004_KQED_Kindergarten2College_05162023_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/004_KQED_Kindergarten2College_05162023_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">San Francisco Treasurer José Cisneros speaks during a ceremony celebrating the first class of graduates from San Francisco high schools using the Kindergarten to College (K2C) savings account as they head off to college at the San Francisco Unified School District headquarters in San Francisco on May 16, 2023. K2C is the first universal children’s savings account in the nation. Every kindergartner who attends public school in San Francisco receives a college savings account automatically opened by the City of San Francisco with a $50 incentive. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The kindergarten to college program makes the concept of college real for every child in our public school system,” Cisneros said. “The families that have saved millions of dollars in these accounts are very impressive, but those millions of dollars really represent, in my mind, millions of conversations that parents have had with their kids along the way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The program was launched by Cisneros and then-San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom in 2011. Initially, deposit-only accounts were opened in the names of about 1,100 kindergarteners with an initial deposit of $50 in public funds using the Citi Start Savings platform. In its second year, the program doubled the number of children in the K2C cohort, according to Cisneros, and in its third year, it expanded to every student entering kindergarten at an SFUSD school. Children who were not enrolled in the program in its pilot years also received an account by the time they graduated high school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11952106 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/RS65708_032_KQED_Kindergarten2College_05162023-qut-1020x680.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The program costs the city $25 per student per year, according to Amanda Fried, the chief of policy and communications for the treasurer’s office. With state and philanthropic funding included, the total price per year is about $36 per child.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By high school graduation, students have an average of 28 times the initial investment — “It’s quite cost-effective,” Fried said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Similar college savings plans have been created in municipalities across the state, including in Oakland and Los Angeles. In 2019, during Newsom’s first term as governor, he introduced a statewide program, CalKids, that creates savings accounts with an initial deposit \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11720307/san-francisco-gives-kindergartners-free-money-for-college-could-it-work-statewide\">for every newborn in the state of California\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cisneros said that some of the best days for the K2C program are when classes of kindergarteners or first graders line up at the teller window and make deposits to their own college savings accounts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You really build hopes and aspirations and dreams for children by talking to them from when they’re very young throughout their entire childhood, making sure they understand what all of the opportunities for success are when they grow up,” Cisneros told KQED. “I believe that this program, these college savings accounts, have made those conversations happen and improve the outcomes for these kids.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>New research shows that a San Francisco program that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11952106/kindergarten-to-college-2023\">opens children’s savings accounts for kindergarteners\u003c/a> is closing the college enrollment gap, the treasurer’s office announced Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Kindergarten to College program began opening savings accounts seeded with $50 for a cohort of kindergarteners entering the city’s public schools in 2011. Those students, who graduated in 2023, were significantly more likely to enroll in college, mostly driven by increases in underrepresented groups, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgov.org/k2c/media/420/download?attachment\">research findings\u003c/a> released Monday show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our Kindergarten to College program shows that there is a real and significant improvement in the number of kids who attend college who were, from kindergarten, raised with a college savings account in the child’s name,” San Francisco Treasurer José Cisneros said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>College enrollment was 6 percentage points higher among class of 2023 graduates with K2C accounts compared with the control cohort — 60% versus 54%, according to the study. Those gains were doubled among Black, Hispanic, Filipino, Pacific Islander and Indigenous students, closing 30% of the enrollment gap faced by these groups. The on-time high school graduation rate for underrepresented students also increased by 7 percentage points if they had K2C accounts, compared with a similar set of students without the savings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The average savings for the class of 2023 was just over $1,400, and the program’s total savings across more than 54,000 accounts was $17 million as of May.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12004857\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12004857\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/004_KQED_Kindergarten2College_05162023_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/004_KQED_Kindergarten2College_05162023_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/004_KQED_Kindergarten2College_05162023_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/004_KQED_Kindergarten2College_05162023_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/004_KQED_Kindergarten2College_05162023_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/004_KQED_Kindergarten2College_05162023_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/004_KQED_Kindergarten2College_05162023_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">San Francisco Treasurer José Cisneros speaks during a ceremony celebrating the first class of graduates from San Francisco high schools using the Kindergarten to College (K2C) savings account as they head off to college at the San Francisco Unified School District headquarters in San Francisco on May 16, 2023. K2C is the first universal children’s savings account in the nation. Every kindergartner who attends public school in San Francisco receives a college savings account automatically opened by the City of San Francisco with a $50 incentive. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The kindergarten to college program makes the concept of college real for every child in our public school system,” Cisneros said. “The families that have saved millions of dollars in these accounts are very impressive, but those millions of dollars really represent, in my mind, millions of conversations that parents have had with their kids along the way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The program was launched by Cisneros and then-San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom in 2011. Initially, deposit-only accounts were opened in the names of about 1,100 kindergarteners with an initial deposit of $50 in public funds using the Citi Start Savings platform. In its second year, the program doubled the number of children in the K2C cohort, according to Cisneros, and in its third year, it expanded to every student entering kindergarten at an SFUSD school. Children who were not enrolled in the program in its pilot years also received an account by the time they graduated high school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The program costs the city $25 per student per year, according to Amanda Fried, the chief of policy and communications for the treasurer’s office. With state and philanthropic funding included, the total price per year is about $36 per child.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By high school graduation, students have an average of 28 times the initial investment — “It’s quite cost-effective,” Fried said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Similar college savings plans have been created in municipalities across the state, including in Oakland and Los Angeles. In 2019, during Newsom’s first term as governor, he introduced a statewide program, CalKids, that creates savings accounts with an initial deposit \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11720307/san-francisco-gives-kindergartners-free-money-for-college-could-it-work-statewide\">for every newborn in the state of California\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cisneros said that some of the best days for the K2C program are when classes of kindergarteners or first graders line up at the teller window and make deposits to their own college savings accounts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You really build hopes and aspirations and dreams for children by talking to them from when they’re very young throughout their entire childhood, making sure they understand what all of the opportunities for success are when they grow up,” Cisneros told KQED. “I believe that this program, these college savings accounts, have made those conversations happen and improve the outcomes for these kids.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "raising-kids-in-california-they-may-have-college-savings-accounts-you-dont-know-about",
"title": "Raising Kids in California? They May Have College Savings Accounts You Don't Know About",
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"headTitle": "Raising Kids in California? They May Have College Savings Accounts You Don’t Know About | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Nearly 3.7 million students and 667,000 newborns in California have money invested in a savings account to help pay for college. But most families don’t know the money is there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Citlali Lopez, a second-year psychology student at Sacramento State, found out a few months ago she had $500 sitting in a California Kids Investment and Development Savings Program (CalKIDS) account. Although she’s been eligible to use the funds since she graduated high school in 2022, she had no idea until her sister, who works at a nonprofit that supports lower-income students with scholarships and financial aid, told her to check her eligibility. Lopez was skeptical at first, but found she was eligible and registered her account.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was just really surprised that I was able to get some extra help,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Financial aid had been top of mind for her and guided her decision to go to Sacramento State. She plans on using the money to finish general education classes over the summer if financial aid will not cover it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11988479\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11988479\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/050924-Citlali-Lopez-CalKIDS-MG-CM-03-ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"1045\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/050924-Citlali-Lopez-CalKIDS-MG-CM-03-ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter.jpg 1568w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/050924-Citlali-Lopez-CalKIDS-MG-CM-03-ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/050924-Citlali-Lopez-CalKIDS-MG-CM-03-ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/050924-Citlali-Lopez-CalKIDS-MG-CM-03-ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/050924-Citlali-Lopez-CalKIDS-MG-CM-03-ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Citlali Lopez is a 2nd-year student at Sacramento State University and a beneficiary of the state’s CalKIDS program. May 9, 2024. \u003ccite>(Miguel Gutierrez Jr./CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>So who gets money? Under CalKIDS, all babies born in California receive a sum. Babies born between July 1, 2022 and June 30, 2023 received $25 deposits, and all babies born after July 1, 2023 receive $100 deposits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As part of the program, all first grade students with low-income receive a onetime deposit of $500. First graders who are in foster care receive an extra $500 and homeless first graders receive $500 more, totaling $1500 for some students. All the accounts are tax-free, and the money is invested whether or not families claim their accounts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Additionally, the state spent $1.8 billion in the 2021–22 budget to provide a onetime deposit to all lower-income students in grades 1 through 12 in 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet, of the 4.3 million student accounts created, only 313,445 accounts have been claimed by families, meaning they have \u003ca href=\"https://calkids.org/get-started/\">registered online\u003c/a> and seen the amount in their accounts. Only 6.3% of newborn accounts have been claimed and 7.4% of student accounts have been claimed as of March 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"h-the-state-is-slowly-building-awareness-about-college-savings\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">The state is slowly building awareness about college savings\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>CalKIDS is run by a three-person team led by Julio Martinez, the executive director of the Scholarshare Investment Board, an agency within the State Treasurer’s Office. It administers the state’s 529 college savings accounts, which allow families to invest money tax free to cover education related expenses in the future. The team is responsible for creating the accounts, notifying families about the accounts and explaining what CalKIDS can provide to families.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With these programs, it takes time to kind of build brand awareness, and also to break down the skepticism that often exists when you get a letter in the mail that says you have free money,” Martinez said. CalKIDS staffers go to college fairs and financial aid nights and host \u003ca href=\"https://www.scholarshare529.com/events\">online informational sessions\u003c/a> to reach families and students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state allocated \u003ca href=\"https://abgt.assembly.ca.gov/system/files/2024-05/sub-3-may-7-agenda-final.pdf\">$22 million (PDF)\u003c/a> in the 2022 and 2023 budgets to market the program. In Los Angeles, Riverside, Fresno, and Sonoma counties, CalKIDS program info is sent to all families that request a birth certificate, according to Joe DeAnda, the director of communication at the State Treasurer’s Office. During the first three months of this year, registration in the newborn program has more than doubled, from 20,608 to 42,312 newborns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In April, CalKIDS began targeting high school seniors, through social media, email and direct mail, according to DeAnda. By May, the number of claims among high school seniors increased by 74%. They have partnered with school districts, such as Hawthorne School District in Los Angeles County, where 87% of seniors have claimed their accounts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, most of the funds for marketing CalKIDS remain unused. The 2023–24 California state budget reappropriated $8 million to CalKIDS for a statewide media campaign, and the Scholarshare Investment Board is currently soliciting proposals for marketing services, which were anticipated to start on April 1, but have not begun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If families are not aware of this program, then it’s not going to have the impact that we think it’s going to have,” Martinez said.[aside label=\"More Stories\" tag=\"financial-aid\"]The fact that many families don’t start thinking about college until high school is one cultural obstacle that college savings programs like CalKIDS run up against, says Willie Elliott, a professor of social work and founder of the Center on Assets, Education, and Inclusion at the University of Michigan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So, we can’t expect that we put one of these programs in place, and, instantly, people get it and start functioning in that way,” Elliott said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Elliott has helped develop state and local college savings programs in Pennsylvania, New York City and Washington, D.C. He says that enrollment is not the best measure of success of programs like CalKIDS, especially this early on in the program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What you have in place in California is the infrastructure and now you have to do the work of making communities aware,” Elliott said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He suggests that creating a culture around college savings through programs like CalKIDs will lead to positive outcomes. Those include increased account enrollment, more family conversations about going to college, and generally less stress for families who will be hopeful for their children’s future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The conversations about college are as important as the amount of money actually in the account, Elliott said. Elliott’s research has shown that lower-income students with a college savings account are three times more likely to \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740912004379?via%3Dihub\">attend college\u003c/a> and four times more likely to graduate than students without an account.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11988480\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11988480\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/051724-CalKIDS-Website-CM-01-ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"980\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/051724-CalKIDS-Website-CM-01-ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter.jpg 1568w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/051724-CalKIDS-Website-CM-01-ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter-800x500.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/051724-CalKIDS-Website-CM-01-ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter-1020x638.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/051724-CalKIDS-Website-CM-01-ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter-160x100.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/051724-CalKIDS-Website-CM-01-ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter-1536x960.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A screenshot of the CalKIDS website. \u003ccite>(CalKIDS)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Amanda Cook, a mother of six who has four children eligible for CalKIDS, is the homeless student advocate at Marysville Joint Unified School District in Yuba County, where she works to support homeless students and help them graduate. She said a lot of the families she works with don’t have college at the top of their mind because they’re thinking about urgent concerns like where they will sleep.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said if schools were able to register students, it would be helpful for the families she supports. She also said training for school staff and counselors on the program as well as outreach from California Health and Human Services would help build awareness for schools and families.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"h-calkids-joins-local-programs-investing-in-students-education-nbsp\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">CalKIDS joins local programs investing in students’ education\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For many students, CalKIDS can be coupled with one of more than a dozen local child’s savings account programs in California. Launched in 2010 by then-mayor of San Francisco Gavin Newson, Kindergarten to College was the first program in the country to include automatic and universal enrollment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the last 14 years, the program has been able to refine its outreach efforts to meet the needs of San Franciscans, said Amanda Fried, the chief of policy and communications at the San Francisco Office of the Treasurer & Tax Collector. Students are eligible no matter their documentation status and can easily make cash deposits into their accounts.[aside label=\"Higher Education Stories\" tag=\"california-colleges\"]“People have so many things on their plate, and so many competing priorities, and I think a huge mistrust of the financial system, which is totally warranted,” Fried said. “So this program just kind of eliminates so many barriers for families.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The program’s five-person team hosts weekly \u003ca href=\"https://sfgov.org/k2c/help-center\">online office hours\u003c/a> in English and Spanish, texts resources and reminders to parents and trains teachers and counselors as school ambassadors to explain the program and answer questions. Students take field trips to Citibank to make deposits into their accounts, so they can physically contribute to their futures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We really have an intentional focus on schools where typically students are much less likely to go to college. That’s where we focus our in-person resources,” Fried said. “We’re on the ground at those schools, talking to families constantly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://oaklandpromise.org/\">Oakland Promise\u003c/a> has a child’s savings program that starts in kindergarten, also called Kindergarten to College, alongside a program for newborns for Medi-Cal eligible families called Brilliant Baby. Veena Pawloski, the chief program officer at Oakland Promise, said they use community-based organizations to act as enrolling partners.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"h-can-college-savings-accounts-help-combat-poverty-nbsp-nbsp\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Can college savings accounts help combat poverty?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The aim of college savings programs like CalKIDS is not for money deposited by the state to grow enough to pay for college entirely. Rather, the program intends to ease some of the \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2024/05/when-is-a-california-college-degree-worth-the-cost-a-new-study-has-answers/\">burden of college costs\u003c/a> and help students create a college-bound identity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, UCLA \u003ca href=\"https://seis.ucla.edu/faculty-and-research/CalKids-Institute\">opened\u003c/a> the CalKIDS Institute in partnership with the state to boost outreach as well as research the program’s reach and which demographics they should be targeting based on enrollment. The institute’s director, Nayiri Nahabedian, said that, ultimately, the point of all these programs is to make college seem like an attainable goal for students and show them that the state, their community and their family believe that they can pursue higher education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“CalKIDS made me realize more how much people are willing to help students,” said Lopez, the Sacramento State student.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For a lot of students [the money] can make the difference between deciding to go and not deciding to go. It can be the difference between having a laptop and not having a laptop, having WiFi at home and not having WiFi at home,” Martinez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to registering, students can connect their CalKIDS account to a ScholarShare 529 account where families can contribute their own money, which is invested. Six percent of claimed student accounts and 35% of claimed newborn accounts have been connected to a ScholarShare 529 account. According to Martinez, families have, on average, $2,890 in their Scholarshare 529 account connected via their CalKIDS account.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Evelyn Garcia Romero, a senior at Calistoga Junior-Senior High School, did not know before talking to CalMatters that she could add her own money into a Scholarshare 529 that has accrued $32 in addition to the original $500 deposit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel like every cent counts and makes a difference,” said Garcia Romero, who plans on using her CalKIDS money and future savings to go to law school. “So, having an extra $500 would be so helpful and will definitely encourage me to attend college even more.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The state is directly investing money for lower-income students and all newborns to attend college. After 2 years, the program is still not widely known by the students who need the most financial assistance.",
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"title": "Raising Kids in California? They May Have College Savings Accounts You Don't Know About | KQED",
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"nprByline": "\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/author/jacqueline-munis/\">Jacqueline Munis\u003c/a>, CalMatters",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Nearly 3.7 million students and 667,000 newborns in California have money invested in a savings account to help pay for college. But most families don’t know the money is there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Citlali Lopez, a second-year psychology student at Sacramento State, found out a few months ago she had $500 sitting in a California Kids Investment and Development Savings Program (CalKIDS) account. Although she’s been eligible to use the funds since she graduated high school in 2022, she had no idea until her sister, who works at a nonprofit that supports lower-income students with scholarships and financial aid, told her to check her eligibility. Lopez was skeptical at first, but found she was eligible and registered her account.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was just really surprised that I was able to get some extra help,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Financial aid had been top of mind for her and guided her decision to go to Sacramento State. She plans on using the money to finish general education classes over the summer if financial aid will not cover it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11988479\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11988479\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/050924-Citlali-Lopez-CalKIDS-MG-CM-03-ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"1045\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/050924-Citlali-Lopez-CalKIDS-MG-CM-03-ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter.jpg 1568w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/050924-Citlali-Lopez-CalKIDS-MG-CM-03-ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/050924-Citlali-Lopez-CalKIDS-MG-CM-03-ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/050924-Citlali-Lopez-CalKIDS-MG-CM-03-ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/050924-Citlali-Lopez-CalKIDS-MG-CM-03-ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Citlali Lopez is a 2nd-year student at Sacramento State University and a beneficiary of the state’s CalKIDS program. May 9, 2024. \u003ccite>(Miguel Gutierrez Jr./CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>So who gets money? Under CalKIDS, all babies born in California receive a sum. Babies born between July 1, 2022 and June 30, 2023 received $25 deposits, and all babies born after July 1, 2023 receive $100 deposits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As part of the program, all first grade students with low-income receive a onetime deposit of $500. First graders who are in foster care receive an extra $500 and homeless first graders receive $500 more, totaling $1500 for some students. All the accounts are tax-free, and the money is invested whether or not families claim their accounts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Additionally, the state spent $1.8 billion in the 2021–22 budget to provide a onetime deposit to all lower-income students in grades 1 through 12 in 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet, of the 4.3 million student accounts created, only 313,445 accounts have been claimed by families, meaning they have \u003ca href=\"https://calkids.org/get-started/\">registered online\u003c/a> and seen the amount in their accounts. Only 6.3% of newborn accounts have been claimed and 7.4% of student accounts have been claimed as of March 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"h-the-state-is-slowly-building-awareness-about-college-savings\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">The state is slowly building awareness about college savings\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>CalKIDS is run by a three-person team led by Julio Martinez, the executive director of the Scholarshare Investment Board, an agency within the State Treasurer’s Office. It administers the state’s 529 college savings accounts, which allow families to invest money tax free to cover education related expenses in the future. The team is responsible for creating the accounts, notifying families about the accounts and explaining what CalKIDS can provide to families.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With these programs, it takes time to kind of build brand awareness, and also to break down the skepticism that often exists when you get a letter in the mail that says you have free money,” Martinez said. CalKIDS staffers go to college fairs and financial aid nights and host \u003ca href=\"https://www.scholarshare529.com/events\">online informational sessions\u003c/a> to reach families and students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state allocated \u003ca href=\"https://abgt.assembly.ca.gov/system/files/2024-05/sub-3-may-7-agenda-final.pdf\">$22 million (PDF)\u003c/a> in the 2022 and 2023 budgets to market the program. In Los Angeles, Riverside, Fresno, and Sonoma counties, CalKIDS program info is sent to all families that request a birth certificate, according to Joe DeAnda, the director of communication at the State Treasurer’s Office. During the first three months of this year, registration in the newborn program has more than doubled, from 20,608 to 42,312 newborns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In April, CalKIDS began targeting high school seniors, through social media, email and direct mail, according to DeAnda. By May, the number of claims among high school seniors increased by 74%. They have partnered with school districts, such as Hawthorne School District in Los Angeles County, where 87% of seniors have claimed their accounts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, most of the funds for marketing CalKIDS remain unused. The 2023–24 California state budget reappropriated $8 million to CalKIDS for a statewide media campaign, and the Scholarshare Investment Board is currently soliciting proposals for marketing services, which were anticipated to start on April 1, but have not begun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If families are not aware of this program, then it’s not going to have the impact that we think it’s going to have,” Martinez said.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The fact that many families don’t start thinking about college until high school is one cultural obstacle that college savings programs like CalKIDS run up against, says Willie Elliott, a professor of social work and founder of the Center on Assets, Education, and Inclusion at the University of Michigan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So, we can’t expect that we put one of these programs in place, and, instantly, people get it and start functioning in that way,” Elliott said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Elliott has helped develop state and local college savings programs in Pennsylvania, New York City and Washington, D.C. He says that enrollment is not the best measure of success of programs like CalKIDS, especially this early on in the program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What you have in place in California is the infrastructure and now you have to do the work of making communities aware,” Elliott said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He suggests that creating a culture around college savings through programs like CalKIDs will lead to positive outcomes. Those include increased account enrollment, more family conversations about going to college, and generally less stress for families who will be hopeful for their children’s future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The conversations about college are as important as the amount of money actually in the account, Elliott said. Elliott’s research has shown that lower-income students with a college savings account are three times more likely to \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740912004379?via%3Dihub\">attend college\u003c/a> and four times more likely to graduate than students without an account.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11988480\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11988480\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/051724-CalKIDS-Website-CM-01-ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"980\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/051724-CalKIDS-Website-CM-01-ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter.jpg 1568w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/051724-CalKIDS-Website-CM-01-ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter-800x500.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/051724-CalKIDS-Website-CM-01-ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter-1020x638.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/051724-CalKIDS-Website-CM-01-ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter-160x100.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/051724-CalKIDS-Website-CM-01-ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter-1536x960.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A screenshot of the CalKIDS website. \u003ccite>(CalKIDS)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Amanda Cook, a mother of six who has four children eligible for CalKIDS, is the homeless student advocate at Marysville Joint Unified School District in Yuba County, where she works to support homeless students and help them graduate. She said a lot of the families she works with don’t have college at the top of their mind because they’re thinking about urgent concerns like where they will sleep.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said if schools were able to register students, it would be helpful for the families she supports. She also said training for school staff and counselors on the program as well as outreach from California Health and Human Services would help build awareness for schools and families.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"h-calkids-joins-local-programs-investing-in-students-education-nbsp\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">CalKIDS joins local programs investing in students’ education\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For many students, CalKIDS can be coupled with one of more than a dozen local child’s savings account programs in California. Launched in 2010 by then-mayor of San Francisco Gavin Newson, Kindergarten to College was the first program in the country to include automatic and universal enrollment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the last 14 years, the program has been able to refine its outreach efforts to meet the needs of San Franciscans, said Amanda Fried, the chief of policy and communications at the San Francisco Office of the Treasurer & Tax Collector. Students are eligible no matter their documentation status and can easily make cash deposits into their accounts.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“People have so many things on their plate, and so many competing priorities, and I think a huge mistrust of the financial system, which is totally warranted,” Fried said. “So this program just kind of eliminates so many barriers for families.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The program’s five-person team hosts weekly \u003ca href=\"https://sfgov.org/k2c/help-center\">online office hours\u003c/a> in English and Spanish, texts resources and reminders to parents and trains teachers and counselors as school ambassadors to explain the program and answer questions. Students take field trips to Citibank to make deposits into their accounts, so they can physically contribute to their futures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We really have an intentional focus on schools where typically students are much less likely to go to college. That’s where we focus our in-person resources,” Fried said. “We’re on the ground at those schools, talking to families constantly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://oaklandpromise.org/\">Oakland Promise\u003c/a> has a child’s savings program that starts in kindergarten, also called Kindergarten to College, alongside a program for newborns for Medi-Cal eligible families called Brilliant Baby. Veena Pawloski, the chief program officer at Oakland Promise, said they use community-based organizations to act as enrolling partners.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"h-can-college-savings-accounts-help-combat-poverty-nbsp-nbsp\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Can college savings accounts help combat poverty?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The aim of college savings programs like CalKIDS is not for money deposited by the state to grow enough to pay for college entirely. Rather, the program intends to ease some of the \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2024/05/when-is-a-california-college-degree-worth-the-cost-a-new-study-has-answers/\">burden of college costs\u003c/a> and help students create a college-bound identity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, UCLA \u003ca href=\"https://seis.ucla.edu/faculty-and-research/CalKids-Institute\">opened\u003c/a> the CalKIDS Institute in partnership with the state to boost outreach as well as research the program’s reach and which demographics they should be targeting based on enrollment. The institute’s director, Nayiri Nahabedian, said that, ultimately, the point of all these programs is to make college seem like an attainable goal for students and show them that the state, their community and their family believe that they can pursue higher education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“CalKIDS made me realize more how much people are willing to help students,” said Lopez, the Sacramento State student.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For a lot of students [the money] can make the difference between deciding to go and not deciding to go. It can be the difference between having a laptop and not having a laptop, having WiFi at home and not having WiFi at home,” Martinez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to registering, students can connect their CalKIDS account to a ScholarShare 529 account where families can contribute their own money, which is invested. Six percent of claimed student accounts and 35% of claimed newborn accounts have been connected to a ScholarShare 529 account. According to Martinez, families have, on average, $2,890 in their Scholarshare 529 account connected via their CalKIDS account.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Evelyn Garcia Romero, a senior at Calistoga Junior-Senior High School, did not know before talking to CalMatters that she could add her own money into a Scholarshare 529 that has accrued $32 in addition to the original $500 deposit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel like every cent counts and makes a difference,” said Garcia Romero, who plans on using her CalKIDS money and future savings to go to law school. “So, having an extra $500 would be so helpful and will definitely encourage me to attend college even more.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>This story has been updated.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over 42,000 fewer students in California applied for federal student aid in 2024 than last year after a major overhaul of the application process resulted in serious technical problems for would-be college applicants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Less than half of California high school seniors completed the Free Application for Federal Student Aid — or FAFSA — form this year, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncan.org/page/FAFSAtracker\">May 17 data from the National College Attainment Network\u003c/a> (NCAN), a nonprofit that aims to increase postsecondary degree access.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to NCAN’s latest available figures, which are still being updated as more forms are processed, the California class of 2024 saw a 14% decrease in FAFSA completions compared to the same time last year. (Due to the delayed launch of the 2024-25 FAFSA the data for that year starts in January, as shown in the graph below, rather than in October as in previous years.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The extended deadline for California \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11957693/applying-for-fafsa-in-2023-will-be-different-what-to-know-including-deadlines\">state aid was May 2\u003c/a>, although \u003ca href=\"https://studentaid.gov/apply-for-aid/fafsa/fafsa-deadlines#fafsa-deadlines-2024-25\">students can still apply to FAFSA to assess their potential eligibility\u003c/a> for other types of aid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"California's total FAFSA Completions since 2017\" aria-label=\"Table\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-Uon0q\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/Zp4Bd/4\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border: none;\" width=\"800\" height=\"500\" data-external=\"1\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nationally, the drop in FAFSA applications was even higher: A 16% decrease compared to the class of 2023. California was ranked ninth in highest among U.S. states and territories for FAFSA completion, a position that has nonetheless improved in the past two weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"High school seniors' FAFSA completions in 2024\" aria-label=\"Table\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-Uon0q\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/vX50o/6/\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border: none;\" width=\"800\" height=\"475\" data-external=\"1\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NCAN measured FAFSA completion data rather than just submissions, meaning the application has been submitted \u003cem>and \u003c/em>not sent back to the student for any corrections. The nonprofit’s data comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s Federal Student Aid office and includes both public and private high schools. As it continues to report the submission numbers that are still coming in, NCAN also mounted \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncan.org/page/DoTheFAFSA\">a social campaign to highlight the national FAFSA statistics lagging\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bill DeBaun, NCAN’s senior director, said the submission data “really raises the question about how many students actually started the application but didn’t finish, because of the glitches in the application — or because of whatever complication.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Who’s applying for financial aid — and who’s not?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>NCAN’s data also reveals demographic disparities in who’s applying for financial aid in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Low-income schools, defined as schools where at least half of the students are qualified for free or reduced-priced lunch, saw a FAFSA completion rate of 47%. This means, over 165,000 lower-income students did not complete the FAFSA this year compared to 2023 — a 15% decrease. By comparison, higher-income schools saw a 56% completion rate among their students and a 13% decrease from last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The data is similar when examining completions among students of color in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Less than half of seniors in “high-minority” schools (which NCAN defines as enrolling 40% or more Black and/or Hispanic students) completed the FAFSA for 2024 — a 15% drop in this same group from last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By contrast, a higher percentage of seniors in “low-minority schools” — 56% — completed the FAFSA this year, with a smaller decrease of 12% in 2023.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monitoring the relative levels of FAFSA completion matters, DeBaun said, because the numbers give an idea of how many young people intend to enroll in college in the fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we see FAFSA completion go up, we see immediate college enrollment also go up,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>For mixed-status students, a particular burden\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>As school counselors like Piedmont Hills’ Jill Shoopman can attest, applying to the FAFSA is already a dreaded process for most high school seniors who aim to attend postsecondary institutions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11979367/fafsa-2024-the-big-error-affecting-mixed-status-families-and-what-to-do-if-youre-an-affected-student\">the bungled rollout\u003c/a> had Shoopman fearing that many high school students would give up trying to complete the form entirely and miss out on aid they could be qualified for, especially those who need it most.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like many in similar positions, Shoopman saw the particular impact on students from California’s mixed-status families. Mixed-status students \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11979367/fafsa-2024-the-big-error-affecting-mixed-status-families-and-what-to-do-if-youre-an-affected-student\">found themselves blocked from completing the FAFSA application\u003c/a> if one of their parents didn’t have a Social Security number due to their immigration status. Shoopman recalled how one of her favorite students, a senior from a mixed-status family, would stop by her office each week to anxiously ask, “Is there a fix? Is there a fix?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She understands, even at her young age, how important this is,” Shoopman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Counselors, high schools and college-prep organizations say \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11957693/applying-for-fafsa-in-2023-will-be-different-what-to-know-including-deadlines\">the delayed rollout of the relaunched FAFSA\u003c/a> — a revamp intended to streamline and simplify the process for students — was no big surprise. Further complicating the process were \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/63005/exclusive-the-education-department-says-it-will-fix-its-1-8-billion-fafsa-mistake\">glitches \u003c/a>with Social Security numbers and instances where students could not create accounts entirely, which created real panic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The application launched on Dec. 30, 2023, but students from mixed-status families could only complete the application starting March 12.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just don’t know how they didn’t anticipate that [mixed-status families not being able to apply] was going to be a concern,” Shoopman said — especially in a state like California, where \u003ca href=\"https://immigrantdataca.org/indicators/mixed-status-families?breakdown=by-age-group\">20% of Californians under 18 are either undocumented or living with undocumented family members\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Families, support staff and schools under pressure\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For David Alvarez, the director of college readiness and success at Alpha Public Schools in San José, it was “the worst financial aid application season that I’ve ever experienced” in his 15 years in education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I know that us as a team, as well as fellow educators, tried our absolute best to improve completion rates from years to the next,” Alvarez said. “But the system [this year] didn’t really allow for it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alvarez’s school has a large number of first-generation and Latino students, he explained. In preparation for the application season, the school prepared FAFSA workshops and early morning hours for seniors to work on their application to provide specialized attention to students — trying to work around the complications of the form.[aside postID=news_11984551 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240423-SAT-III-MD-06-KQED-1020x680.jpg']During those workshops, Alvarez managed the growing frustrations of students and their parents. He said some had taken time off work to attend a workshop and faced unanswered questions exacerbated by FAFSA glitches.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The experience has become a nightmare when you realize that applications weren’t working properly, that you didn’t always have the answers when you were troubleshooting things … and that created a lot of distrust from students and parents,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sometimes, they might see it as, ‘Hey, you don’t have the answers. You might be incompetent. You don’t know what you’re talking about,’” Alvarez said. “And the reality is: It’s so much bigger than us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our community is losing out on both the time and the money that, let’s be real, we didn’t really have in the first place to begin with,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oftentimes, students would question the purpose of even doing the application, Alvarez said. Some four-year eligible students instead planned to go to community college, potentially overloading the community college system, which is unsure who will be attending in the fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With a delay in FAFSA, it delayed the ability for schools to present financial aid award letters,” Alvarez said. The FAFSA delays also delayed schools’ ability to present financial aid award letters, Alvarez said — meaning that “ultimately, students and parents can’t confidently select the institution that they want to go to — because they’re just unaware of how much money they will receive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While many states extended their college application deadlines, this led to institutions not knowing who would attend their school in the fall. According to DeBaun, this impacts course schedules, staffing and residential halls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is a limit to how far back institutions can push these deadlines and still be prepared to receive students for the fall semester,” he said. Shoopman also said it can keep students on college waitlists in limbo as others consider if they can afford to enroll.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For students in California, or anywhere in America right now, we should be concerned about what full enrollment would look like based on the FAFSA completion declines that we’re seeing,” DeBaun said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Examining the reasons behind FAFSA declines\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>One factor to consider in this year’s sharp fall in FAFSA submissions is the record number of applications the state saw last year, according to California State Aid Commission (CSAC) spokesperson Shelveen Ratnam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2023, the agency’s widespread \u003ca href=\"https://campussuite-storage.s3.amazonaws.com/prod/1558523/0672826e-a84b-11e7-9779-0ae3e1d9783c/2627890/325d1d6e-1cfb-11ee-b757-02b0137163b1/file/all_in_for_fafsa_ca_dream_act_fact_sheet.pdf\">“All in for FAFSA/CA Dream” campaign\u003c/a> promoted awareness of FAFSA, encouraging California high schools to have all students fill out an application or actively opt out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like every state that also implemented this policy, California saw a large jump in FAFSA completion numbers last year, DeBaun said. By September 2023, 62% of the class of 2023 had completed the FAFSA — compared to 58% of the class of 2022 in the same period that year.[aside postID=news_11982354 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240408-UCLAWSF-014-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg']States that have traditionally done well with FAFSA completion, like California and Texas, are also seeing major drops this year, DeBaun said. However, for him, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/fafsa\">the delay in this year’s FAFSA application\u003c/a> is at least partly responsible for these marked decreases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Think about it this way: Every day, [successful states] are relatively more effective at getting more students to complete a FAFSA than their peers,” DeBaun said. “So when you take 90 days out of the FAFSA cycle … every single one of those days, relatively speaking, costs that state more in terms of FAFSA completion.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The class of 2024 [has] just had a much smaller window in which to complete the FAFSA,” DeBaun said — and all the while — “the fall semester isn’t getting pushed back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ratnam described the trend in data — and the technical difficulties that students faced — as “definitely alarming.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[Financial aid is] one of the most important things that students or families think about when it comes to deciding if they want to pursue higher education,” Ratnam said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Alvarez noted that FAFSA submission numbers have increased in the last weeks, likely helped by the fact that the previous glitches with the form had been fixed, he said that distrust of the process among students and their families is still noticeable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As this winter’s initial FAFSA errors might have been resolved, “tell that to someone who’s come to the high school five, six, seven, eight times already,” Alvarez said. “And that’s really what we’re facing: Just re-energizing the students and the parents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As difficult as it is, it has long-term impacts, and we want to see the light at the end of the tunnel.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Do students still have time to apply?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>While the May 2 deadline for in-state aid has passed, CSAC is encouraging students to still apply to the FAFSA to see if they qualify for other types of financial aid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.csac.ca.gov/post/cal-grant-community-college-entitlement-award\">Cal Grant Community College Entitlement Award FAFSA application\u003c/a> is due on Sept. 2\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alvarez said the FAFSA is often the first college-related struggle students face. But he tells his students to apply for financial aid to keep the door open to college enrollment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And to parents, Alvarez said his message on the importance of financial aid’s role in getting a student to college often comes when their children are graduating: “They’re literally transcending their circumstances; they’re narrowing that achievement gap,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re breaking barriers for their families.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>This story has been updated.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over 42,000 fewer students in California applied for federal student aid in 2024 than last year after a major overhaul of the application process resulted in serious technical problems for would-be college applicants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Less than half of California high school seniors completed the Free Application for Federal Student Aid — or FAFSA — form this year, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncan.org/page/FAFSAtracker\">May 17 data from the National College Attainment Network\u003c/a> (NCAN), a nonprofit that aims to increase postsecondary degree access.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to NCAN’s latest available figures, which are still being updated as more forms are processed, the California class of 2024 saw a 14% decrease in FAFSA completions compared to the same time last year. (Due to the delayed launch of the 2024-25 FAFSA the data for that year starts in January, as shown in the graph below, rather than in October as in previous years.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The extended deadline for California \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11957693/applying-for-fafsa-in-2023-will-be-different-what-to-know-including-deadlines\">state aid was May 2\u003c/a>, although \u003ca href=\"https://studentaid.gov/apply-for-aid/fafsa/fafsa-deadlines#fafsa-deadlines-2024-25\">students can still apply to FAFSA to assess their potential eligibility\u003c/a> for other types of aid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"California's total FAFSA Completions since 2017\" aria-label=\"Table\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-Uon0q\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/Zp4Bd/4\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border: none;\" width=\"800\" height=\"500\" data-external=\"1\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nationally, the drop in FAFSA applications was even higher: A 16% decrease compared to the class of 2023. California was ranked ninth in highest among U.S. states and territories for FAFSA completion, a position that has nonetheless improved in the past two weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"High school seniors' FAFSA completions in 2024\" aria-label=\"Table\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-Uon0q\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/vX50o/6/\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border: none;\" width=\"800\" height=\"475\" data-external=\"1\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NCAN measured FAFSA completion data rather than just submissions, meaning the application has been submitted \u003cem>and \u003c/em>not sent back to the student for any corrections. The nonprofit’s data comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s Federal Student Aid office and includes both public and private high schools. As it continues to report the submission numbers that are still coming in, NCAN also mounted \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncan.org/page/DoTheFAFSA\">a social campaign to highlight the national FAFSA statistics lagging\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bill DeBaun, NCAN’s senior director, said the submission data “really raises the question about how many students actually started the application but didn’t finish, because of the glitches in the application — or because of whatever complication.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Who’s applying for financial aid — and who’s not?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>NCAN’s data also reveals demographic disparities in who’s applying for financial aid in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Low-income schools, defined as schools where at least half of the students are qualified for free or reduced-priced lunch, saw a FAFSA completion rate of 47%. This means, over 165,000 lower-income students did not complete the FAFSA this year compared to 2023 — a 15% decrease. By comparison, higher-income schools saw a 56% completion rate among their students and a 13% decrease from last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The data is similar when examining completions among students of color in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Less than half of seniors in “high-minority” schools (which NCAN defines as enrolling 40% or more Black and/or Hispanic students) completed the FAFSA for 2024 — a 15% drop in this same group from last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By contrast, a higher percentage of seniors in “low-minority schools” — 56% — completed the FAFSA this year, with a smaller decrease of 12% in 2023.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monitoring the relative levels of FAFSA completion matters, DeBaun said, because the numbers give an idea of how many young people intend to enroll in college in the fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we see FAFSA completion go up, we see immediate college enrollment also go up,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>For mixed-status students, a particular burden\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>As school counselors like Piedmont Hills’ Jill Shoopman can attest, applying to the FAFSA is already a dreaded process for most high school seniors who aim to attend postsecondary institutions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11979367/fafsa-2024-the-big-error-affecting-mixed-status-families-and-what-to-do-if-youre-an-affected-student\">the bungled rollout\u003c/a> had Shoopman fearing that many high school students would give up trying to complete the form entirely and miss out on aid they could be qualified for, especially those who need it most.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like many in similar positions, Shoopman saw the particular impact on students from California’s mixed-status families. Mixed-status students \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11979367/fafsa-2024-the-big-error-affecting-mixed-status-families-and-what-to-do-if-youre-an-affected-student\">found themselves blocked from completing the FAFSA application\u003c/a> if one of their parents didn’t have a Social Security number due to their immigration status. Shoopman recalled how one of her favorite students, a senior from a mixed-status family, would stop by her office each week to anxiously ask, “Is there a fix? Is there a fix?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She understands, even at her young age, how important this is,” Shoopman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Counselors, high schools and college-prep organizations say \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11957693/applying-for-fafsa-in-2023-will-be-different-what-to-know-including-deadlines\">the delayed rollout of the relaunched FAFSA\u003c/a> — a revamp intended to streamline and simplify the process for students — was no big surprise. Further complicating the process were \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/63005/exclusive-the-education-department-says-it-will-fix-its-1-8-billion-fafsa-mistake\">glitches \u003c/a>with Social Security numbers and instances where students could not create accounts entirely, which created real panic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The application launched on Dec. 30, 2023, but students from mixed-status families could only complete the application starting March 12.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just don’t know how they didn’t anticipate that [mixed-status families not being able to apply] was going to be a concern,” Shoopman said — especially in a state like California, where \u003ca href=\"https://immigrantdataca.org/indicators/mixed-status-families?breakdown=by-age-group\">20% of Californians under 18 are either undocumented or living with undocumented family members\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Families, support staff and schools under pressure\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For David Alvarez, the director of college readiness and success at Alpha Public Schools in San José, it was “the worst financial aid application season that I’ve ever experienced” in his 15 years in education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I know that us as a team, as well as fellow educators, tried our absolute best to improve completion rates from years to the next,” Alvarez said. “But the system [this year] didn’t really allow for it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alvarez’s school has a large number of first-generation and Latino students, he explained. In preparation for the application season, the school prepared FAFSA workshops and early morning hours for seniors to work on their application to provide specialized attention to students — trying to work around the complications of the form.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>During those workshops, Alvarez managed the growing frustrations of students and their parents. He said some had taken time off work to attend a workshop and faced unanswered questions exacerbated by FAFSA glitches.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The experience has become a nightmare when you realize that applications weren’t working properly, that you didn’t always have the answers when you were troubleshooting things … and that created a lot of distrust from students and parents,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sometimes, they might see it as, ‘Hey, you don’t have the answers. You might be incompetent. You don’t know what you’re talking about,’” Alvarez said. “And the reality is: It’s so much bigger than us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our community is losing out on both the time and the money that, let’s be real, we didn’t really have in the first place to begin with,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oftentimes, students would question the purpose of even doing the application, Alvarez said. Some four-year eligible students instead planned to go to community college, potentially overloading the community college system, which is unsure who will be attending in the fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With a delay in FAFSA, it delayed the ability for schools to present financial aid award letters,” Alvarez said. The FAFSA delays also delayed schools’ ability to present financial aid award letters, Alvarez said — meaning that “ultimately, students and parents can’t confidently select the institution that they want to go to — because they’re just unaware of how much money they will receive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While many states extended their college application deadlines, this led to institutions not knowing who would attend their school in the fall. According to DeBaun, this impacts course schedules, staffing and residential halls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is a limit to how far back institutions can push these deadlines and still be prepared to receive students for the fall semester,” he said. Shoopman also said it can keep students on college waitlists in limbo as others consider if they can afford to enroll.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For students in California, or anywhere in America right now, we should be concerned about what full enrollment would look like based on the FAFSA completion declines that we’re seeing,” DeBaun said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Examining the reasons behind FAFSA declines\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>One factor to consider in this year’s sharp fall in FAFSA submissions is the record number of applications the state saw last year, according to California State Aid Commission (CSAC) spokesperson Shelveen Ratnam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2023, the agency’s widespread \u003ca href=\"https://campussuite-storage.s3.amazonaws.com/prod/1558523/0672826e-a84b-11e7-9779-0ae3e1d9783c/2627890/325d1d6e-1cfb-11ee-b757-02b0137163b1/file/all_in_for_fafsa_ca_dream_act_fact_sheet.pdf\">“All in for FAFSA/CA Dream” campaign\u003c/a> promoted awareness of FAFSA, encouraging California high schools to have all students fill out an application or actively opt out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like every state that also implemented this policy, California saw a large jump in FAFSA completion numbers last year, DeBaun said. By September 2023, 62% of the class of 2023 had completed the FAFSA — compared to 58% of the class of 2022 in the same period that year.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>States that have traditionally done well with FAFSA completion, like California and Texas, are also seeing major drops this year, DeBaun said. However, for him, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/fafsa\">the delay in this year’s FAFSA application\u003c/a> is at least partly responsible for these marked decreases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Think about it this way: Every day, [successful states] are relatively more effective at getting more students to complete a FAFSA than their peers,” DeBaun said. “So when you take 90 days out of the FAFSA cycle … every single one of those days, relatively speaking, costs that state more in terms of FAFSA completion.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The class of 2024 [has] just had a much smaller window in which to complete the FAFSA,” DeBaun said — and all the while — “the fall semester isn’t getting pushed back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ratnam described the trend in data — and the technical difficulties that students faced — as “definitely alarming.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[Financial aid is] one of the most important things that students or families think about when it comes to deciding if they want to pursue higher education,” Ratnam said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Alvarez noted that FAFSA submission numbers have increased in the last weeks, likely helped by the fact that the previous glitches with the form had been fixed, he said that distrust of the process among students and their families is still noticeable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As this winter’s initial FAFSA errors might have been resolved, “tell that to someone who’s come to the high school five, six, seven, eight times already,” Alvarez said. “And that’s really what we’re facing: Just re-energizing the students and the parents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As difficult as it is, it has long-term impacts, and we want to see the light at the end of the tunnel.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Do students still have time to apply?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>While the May 2 deadline for in-state aid has passed, CSAC is encouraging students to still apply to the FAFSA to see if they qualify for other types of financial aid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.csac.ca.gov/post/cal-grant-community-college-entitlement-award\">Cal Grant Community College Entitlement Award FAFSA application\u003c/a> is due on Sept. 2\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alvarez said the FAFSA is often the first college-related struggle students face. But he tells his students to apply for financial aid to keep the door open to college enrollment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And to parents, Alvarez said his message on the importance of financial aid’s role in getting a student to college often comes when their children are graduating: “They’re literally transcending their circumstances; they’re narrowing that achievement gap,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re breaking barriers for their families.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>California State University students will see a 6% annual tuition increase starting fall 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The system’s board of trustees voted 15–5 for the five-year tuition rate hike Wednesday despite vocal opposition from students, faculty and staff during more than 2 hours, 30 minutes of public comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rate increase will affect the system’s 460,000 undergraduate and graduate students. The board also agreed to sunset the increase after five years and be reevaluated for the 2029–30 academic year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The vote means that the first annual increase would be $342 to $6,084 for full-time undergraduate students in 2024. Full-time graduate students will see tuition increase by $432 to $7,608.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CSU outlined its need for the new revenue from the tuition hike. CSU is facing a $1.5 billion deficit. The increase will generate $148 million in new, ongoing revenue in its first year and about $840 million over the five years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is really a difficult decision for all of us,” said trustee Leslie Gilbert-Lurie. “I reluctantly support raising tuition because, for the moment, I don’t feel we have found an alternative path, and I think part of the reason that we heard the anger and the anxiety from the public is that it is shocking that we have created a culture where people don’t expect tuition to be raised.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11961153\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1374px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11961153\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/CSUgraph01.png\" alt=\"A graph showing California State University's tuition rate approved increases. Students in the fall will see a 6% increase.\" width=\"1374\" height=\"1544\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/CSUgraph01.png 1374w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/CSUgraph01-800x899.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/CSUgraph01-1020x1146.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/CSUgraph01-160x180.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/CSUgraph01-1367x1536.png 1367w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1374px) 100vw, 1374px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">California State University Tuition Rate Approved Increases. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of EdSource)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Cal State tuition has only been raised once in the past 12 years, according to the chancellor’s office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Somewhere along the way, we gave people the impression that this system is magically going to create money to sustain itself, and what we see instead, as I have toured campuses, is shocking disrepair of buildings and salaries we can’t pay,” Gilbert-Lurie said. [pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Leslie Gilbert-Lurie, trustee, California State University\"]‘Somewhere along the way, we gave people the impression that this system is magically going to create money to sustain itself, and what we see instead, as I have toured campuses, is shocking disrepair of buildings and salaries we can’t pay.’[/pullquote] The CSU is facing demands to improve its Title IX policies and close equity gaps in student academics and graduation rates. It also has about $30 billion in capital maintenance and construction needs, enrollment challenges and demands to improve employee compensation and wages, trustee Jack McGrory said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We start with a $1.5 billion structural deficit that accumulated over the years because we didn’t take tough actions along the way,” he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The board also approved a new tuition policy that requires any future tuition hike to be assessed 18 months before it goes into effect. The policy also increases institutional financial aid by at least a third of any expected additional revenue received from tuition increases or enrollment growth. The trustees will also review the tuition policy every five years because rate increases will not be longer than five years. [aside label='More Stories on the California State University System' tag='california-state-university'] “The system is facing revenue shortfalls,” said interim Chancellor Jolene Koester. “We have also proposed a salary step structure for our staff, and the bottom line is that the total new proposed financial commitments that have been offered to our faculty and staff for the current year, 2023–24, far exceeds the entire amount of new funding available to the CSU in the 2023–24 state budget.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Koester said the university presidents must make “extremely difficult, extremely painful decisions regarding how they’re going to reallocate their already limited financial resources” to meet those compensation obligations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Student-trustee Diana Aguilar-Cruz offered trustees an alternative solution to shorten the tuition rate hike from five years to three or four, but the other trustees rejected that idea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This will benefit students in the long term and in the years to come,” she said. “But right now, it will harm our students.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With students applying to CSU campuses for admission starting Oct. 1, Steve Relyea, the system’s chief financial officer, said the trustees could not delay voting on a tuition rate increase.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2023/cal-state-students-will-see-6-tuition-hike/697358?amp=1\">This story was originally published in EdSource.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>California State University students will see a 6% annual tuition increase starting fall 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The system’s board of trustees voted 15–5 for the five-year tuition rate hike Wednesday despite vocal opposition from students, faculty and staff during more than 2 hours, 30 minutes of public comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rate increase will affect the system’s 460,000 undergraduate and graduate students. The board also agreed to sunset the increase after five years and be reevaluated for the 2029–30 academic year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The vote means that the first annual increase would be $342 to $6,084 for full-time undergraduate students in 2024. Full-time graduate students will see tuition increase by $432 to $7,608.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CSU outlined its need for the new revenue from the tuition hike. CSU is facing a $1.5 billion deficit. The increase will generate $148 million in new, ongoing revenue in its first year and about $840 million over the five years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is really a difficult decision for all of us,” said trustee Leslie Gilbert-Lurie. “I reluctantly support raising tuition because, for the moment, I don’t feel we have found an alternative path, and I think part of the reason that we heard the anger and the anxiety from the public is that it is shocking that we have created a culture where people don’t expect tuition to be raised.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11961153\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1374px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11961153\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/CSUgraph01.png\" alt=\"A graph showing California State University's tuition rate approved increases. Students in the fall will see a 6% increase.\" width=\"1374\" height=\"1544\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/CSUgraph01.png 1374w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/CSUgraph01-800x899.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/CSUgraph01-1020x1146.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/CSUgraph01-160x180.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/CSUgraph01-1367x1536.png 1367w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1374px) 100vw, 1374px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">California State University Tuition Rate Approved Increases. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of EdSource)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Cal State tuition has only been raised once in the past 12 years, according to the chancellor’s office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Somewhere along the way, we gave people the impression that this system is magically going to create money to sustain itself, and what we see instead, as I have toured campuses, is shocking disrepair of buildings and salaries we can’t pay,” Gilbert-Lurie said. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp> The CSU is facing demands to improve its Title IX policies and close equity gaps in student academics and graduation rates. It also has about $30 billion in capital maintenance and construction needs, enrollment challenges and demands to improve employee compensation and wages, trustee Jack McGrory said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We start with a $1.5 billion structural deficit that accumulated over the years because we didn’t take tough actions along the way,” he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The board also approved a new tuition policy that requires any future tuition hike to be assessed 18 months before it goes into effect. The policy also increases institutional financial aid by at least a third of any expected additional revenue received from tuition increases or enrollment growth. The trustees will also review the tuition policy every five years because rate increases will not be longer than five years. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp> “The system is facing revenue shortfalls,” said interim Chancellor Jolene Koester. “We have also proposed a salary step structure for our staff, and the bottom line is that the total new proposed financial commitments that have been offered to our faculty and staff for the current year, 2023–24, far exceeds the entire amount of new funding available to the CSU in the 2023–24 state budget.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Koester said the university presidents must make “extremely difficult, extremely painful decisions regarding how they’re going to reallocate their already limited financial resources” to meet those compensation obligations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Student-trustee Diana Aguilar-Cruz offered trustees an alternative solution to shorten the tuition rate hike from five years to three or four, but the other trustees rejected that idea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This will benefit students in the long term and in the years to come,” she said. “But right now, it will harm our students.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With students applying to CSU campuses for admission starting Oct. 1, Steve Relyea, the system’s chief financial officer, said the trustees could not delay voting on a tuition rate increase.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2023/cal-state-students-will-see-6-tuition-hike/697358?amp=1\">This story was originally published in EdSource.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Thousands of adult Californians without a high school diploma want to take college classes. Unfortunately, those classes aren’t free, and the lack of a high school diploma cuts off access to most financial aid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The good news is, there’s a fix. The bad news is, most students don’t know about the fix, and most college officials don’t understand the laws surrounding it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federal law has a special clause that allows students lacking a high school diploma to access financial aid money they would otherwise miss. Known as the Ability to Benefit, the provision opens up federal financial aid to adults without high school degrees who enroll in GED and college classes simultaneously.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California community colleges also stand to benefit financially from the law because it could allow schools to boost \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2022/03/community-college-enrollment/\">enrollment\u003c/a> and the number of students on federal aid, both of which are tied to the state’s new college funding formula.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than 4 million Californians lack a high school degree and roughly 340,000 of those adults were taking some form of adult education in 2021, according to the California Community College Chancellor’s Office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least that many adults could be eligible for this federal aid, but in 2016, just shy of 58,000 students in California actually received federal grants or loans associated with it. The numbers have dropped every year since, and in 2021, just more than 30,000 California students participated, according to the U.S. Department of Education. That means as many as 90% of eligible adult students weren’t taking advantage of this aid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The decline is the result of a complicated balancing act. On the one hand, the federal government has noted a history of poor oversight and \u003ca href=\"https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-09-600.pdf\">“abuse” of Ability to Benefit (PDF)\u003c/a>, especially by for-profit colleges. On the other hand, more regulation has left community colleges feeling confused and uninformed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, Bradley Custer, senior policy analyst for higher education at the Center for American Progress, said use of the aid has room to grow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s no compelling reason why we couldn’t at least get back to 2016 and prior enrollment,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/13378870/embed\" title=\"Interactive or visual content\" class=\"flourish-embed-iframe\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"width:100%;height:600px;\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-forms allow-scripts allow-downloads allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Locked out of loans and grants\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In California, community college tuition is free for qualifying students with lower incomes who apply, but even for those who get the fee waiver, it’s just a fraction of the many costs related to attending college. Textbooks, transportation and food add an average of roughly $12,000 a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why the federal government offers flexible aid for college students — and through Ability to Benefit, adults without high school degrees can access that money, too. A federal Pell grant, for instance, currently provides as much as $6,895 a year for qualifying students, money that can be spent on things like child care or rent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Joe Villa, 67, needs that money. He has six children from two marriages, no high school diploma and a criminal record that makes even a simple job interview challenging. But he won’t give up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While serving a 10-year sentence at High Desert State Prison in Susanville, Villa attempted to get his GED, but the program closed before he could finish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11946606\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11946606\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/CalMattersStudentLoans01.jpg\" alt=\"An older man with glasses and dark hair stares out a window. The light from the sun illuminating his face. He wears a white, collared shirt and a black sweater wrapped around his shoulders.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/CalMattersStudentLoans01.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/CalMattersStudentLoans01-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/CalMattersStudentLoans01-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/CalMattersStudentLoans01-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/CalMattersStudentLoans01-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Joe Villa at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo on April 11, 2023. \u003ccite>(Lauren Justice/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Then in 2019, Villa was standing beside a prison employee when another person incarcerated there charged at the two of them. Villa intervened, saving the employee’s life. Gov. Gavin Newsom commuted Villa’s sentence, and he was released in April 2020 — just weeks after the state locked down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was no employment because of COVID, and I’m thinking, perhaps this is the best time to reeducate myself and get my degree,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Through Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, Villa promptly enrolled in both a GED program and a number of college classes. CalMatters found Villa through a Saddleback administrator reference.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He tried to apply for federal student aid, but didn’t get far since he doesn’t have a high school diploma and didn’t know about the Ability to Benefit provision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Qualifying for the Ability to Benefit exception is not easy. A student must first enroll in a program to obtain their high school degree or equivalent and take six credits of college courses. Alternatively, they can pass a special exam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Finally, students who want the federal dollars must receive certain kinds of counseling support and can only take a certain set of courses, as interpreted by their college.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Villa checks nearly every box. He is currently enrolled in both a GED class and has already taken more than six credits worth of courses at Saddleback in the hope of getting his associate degree and then transferring to a four-year university to study cinematography.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But as of 2020, Saddleback College no longer offers students aid through Ability to Benefit.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Fixing a ‘scam,’ facing consequences\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>It’s a trend, said Judy Mortrude, senior technical adviser at the National College Transition Network, which is part of World Education and a Boston-based nonprofit that helps community colleges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1991, Congress put Ability to Benefit into law and slowly added regulations that explained how students could qualify, like through an exam or by taking six credits. In 2012, Congress cut the funding, only to restore it fully in 2016. Then Congress required that colleges offer counseling and career training to these students and that they restrict them to a certain set of classes and majors that align with the local economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whereas the original rule had only been about a student’s eligibility, the 2016 regulations asked colleges to perform certain services, and colleges didn’t know how to interpret it, Mortrude said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11946614\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11946614\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/CalMattersStudentLoans02.jpg\" alt=\"A college campus quad area with circular tables with umbrellas are scattered about. Large planters with trees growing inside shade students sitting in pairs chatting between classes.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/CalMattersStudentLoans02.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/CalMattersStudentLoans02-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/CalMattersStudentLoans02-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/CalMattersStudentLoans02-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/CalMattersStudentLoans02-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Saddleback College in Mission Viejo on April 11, 2023. \u003ccite>(Lauren Justice/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The chain of communication is poor,” said Naomi Castro, senior director with the Career Ladders Project, a nonprofit research group founded by the California Community Colleges Board of Governors. She said that many financial aid directors at community colleges didn’t even know that Congress restarted the program in 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Saddleback allowed students who enrolled prior to 2012 to get aid at any point, since they qualified through the old law, but the college never implemented the 2016 regulations, meaning students such as Villa have yet to benefit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The challenge, said Karima Feldhus, academic administrator at Saddleback, is that the college lacks “an eligible list of careers” according to the 2016 regulations. As to why the college waited years to adopt the regulations, she said she didn’t know and referred CalMatters to the director of the financial aid office and the dean of enrollment. Neither person responded to requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nor did San José City College implement Ability to Benefit when it restarted in 2016, according to Takeo Kubo, financial aid director there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San José City College spokesperson Daniel Garza said the 2016 law required “significant curriculum development efforts,” which he noted can be “quite an undertaking” at any school. He said he was not aware of what efforts the college made to consider making the necessary curriculum changes when the new regulations came out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some community colleges, including the four Sacramento-area ones in the Los Rios Community College District, did adapt to the new regulations. Those colleges currently have 42 students who receive aid through Ability to Benefit, out of a total 780 students in the system without a high school diploma.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/13379286/embed\" title=\"Interactive or visual content\" class=\"flourish-embed-iframe\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"width:100%;height:600px;\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-forms allow-scripts allow-downloads allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While community colleges have increasingly shied away from Ability to Benefit over the years, for-profit colleges have leaned in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nationally, participation at public and private nonprofit colleges has dropped by more than half since 2016, while usage at private for-profit schools has risen, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Education. The department did not respond to requests for recent statewide data.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For-profit and nonprofit colleges use different processes, too. The department data shows that public and private nonprofit colleges generally have students qualify for Ability to Benefit by taking six credits worth of classes. At for-profit colleges, nearly every student qualifies for it through an exam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s sort of a scam how they are getting bucket loads of people to hit a cut score on an exam who somehow couldn’t pass the GED test,” said Mortrude.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department created many of the new regulations to clamp down on such “predatory behavior,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A third way\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>While students generally qualify for Ability to Benefit through the two national pathways, federal law also allows states to develop their own processes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2019, Mortrude, Castro and other college leaders sent a proposal to the Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office on how California could set its own such process. Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Mississippi, Washington and Wisconsin have already done it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='More Stories on Education' tag='education']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Wisconsin, for example, adult students at some technical colleges can qualify for aid by participating in an orientation and by working with a tutor or academic counselor, among other criteria.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The individual community colleges are responsible for implementing the Ability to Benefit provision for students, said Paul Feist, vice chancellor for the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the office will explore creating a “state defined process” akin to what other states have done. The office did not provide a timeline for a new state process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This month, a committee of Saddleback administrators came together to figure out the federal regulations with the goal of offering the Ability to Benefit aid this fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If they succeed, Villa has a list of expenses he hopes his aid can cover. First, he’s late on child support payments. He wants a new apartment, and after putting on some weight during the COVID pandemic, he needs new clothes that fit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Many college students rely on federal student aid to cover expenses, but increasingly complicated laws and poor communication have made those dollars harder to come by for some adult students.",
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"title": "Thousands of Californians Are Eligible for Student Aid Under This Special Clause. But Many Don't Know It Exists | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Thousands of adult Californians without a high school diploma want to take college classes. Unfortunately, those classes aren’t free, and the lack of a high school diploma cuts off access to most financial aid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The good news is, there’s a fix. The bad news is, most students don’t know about the fix, and most college officials don’t understand the laws surrounding it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federal law has a special clause that allows students lacking a high school diploma to access financial aid money they would otherwise miss. Known as the Ability to Benefit, the provision opens up federal financial aid to adults without high school degrees who enroll in GED and college classes simultaneously.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California community colleges also stand to benefit financially from the law because it could allow schools to boost \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2022/03/community-college-enrollment/\">enrollment\u003c/a> and the number of students on federal aid, both of which are tied to the state’s new college funding formula.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than 4 million Californians lack a high school degree and roughly 340,000 of those adults were taking some form of adult education in 2021, according to the California Community College Chancellor’s Office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least that many adults could be eligible for this federal aid, but in 2016, just shy of 58,000 students in California actually received federal grants or loans associated with it. The numbers have dropped every year since, and in 2021, just more than 30,000 California students participated, according to the U.S. Department of Education. That means as many as 90% of eligible adult students weren’t taking advantage of this aid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The decline is the result of a complicated balancing act. On the one hand, the federal government has noted a history of poor oversight and \u003ca href=\"https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-09-600.pdf\">“abuse” of Ability to Benefit (PDF)\u003c/a>, especially by for-profit colleges. On the other hand, more regulation has left community colleges feeling confused and uninformed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, Bradley Custer, senior policy analyst for higher education at the Center for American Progress, said use of the aid has room to grow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s no compelling reason why we couldn’t at least get back to 2016 and prior enrollment,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/13378870/embed\" title=\"Interactive or visual content\" class=\"flourish-embed-iframe\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"width:100%;height:600px;\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-forms allow-scripts allow-downloads allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Locked out of loans and grants\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In California, community college tuition is free for qualifying students with lower incomes who apply, but even for those who get the fee waiver, it’s just a fraction of the many costs related to attending college. Textbooks, transportation and food add an average of roughly $12,000 a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why the federal government offers flexible aid for college students — and through Ability to Benefit, adults without high school degrees can access that money, too. A federal Pell grant, for instance, currently provides as much as $6,895 a year for qualifying students, money that can be spent on things like child care or rent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Joe Villa, 67, needs that money. He has six children from two marriages, no high school diploma and a criminal record that makes even a simple job interview challenging. But he won’t give up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While serving a 10-year sentence at High Desert State Prison in Susanville, Villa attempted to get his GED, but the program closed before he could finish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11946606\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11946606\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/CalMattersStudentLoans01.jpg\" alt=\"An older man with glasses and dark hair stares out a window. The light from the sun illuminating his face. He wears a white, collared shirt and a black sweater wrapped around his shoulders.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/CalMattersStudentLoans01.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/CalMattersStudentLoans01-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/CalMattersStudentLoans01-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/CalMattersStudentLoans01-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/CalMattersStudentLoans01-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Joe Villa at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo on April 11, 2023. \u003ccite>(Lauren Justice/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Then in 2019, Villa was standing beside a prison employee when another person incarcerated there charged at the two of them. Villa intervened, saving the employee’s life. Gov. Gavin Newsom commuted Villa’s sentence, and he was released in April 2020 — just weeks after the state locked down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was no employment because of COVID, and I’m thinking, perhaps this is the best time to reeducate myself and get my degree,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Through Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, Villa promptly enrolled in both a GED program and a number of college classes. CalMatters found Villa through a Saddleback administrator reference.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He tried to apply for federal student aid, but didn’t get far since he doesn’t have a high school diploma and didn’t know about the Ability to Benefit provision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Qualifying for the Ability to Benefit exception is not easy. A student must first enroll in a program to obtain their high school degree or equivalent and take six credits of college courses. Alternatively, they can pass a special exam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Finally, students who want the federal dollars must receive certain kinds of counseling support and can only take a certain set of courses, as interpreted by their college.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Villa checks nearly every box. He is currently enrolled in both a GED class and has already taken more than six credits worth of courses at Saddleback in the hope of getting his associate degree and then transferring to a four-year university to study cinematography.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But as of 2020, Saddleback College no longer offers students aid through Ability to Benefit.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Fixing a ‘scam,’ facing consequences\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>It’s a trend, said Judy Mortrude, senior technical adviser at the National College Transition Network, which is part of World Education and a Boston-based nonprofit that helps community colleges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1991, Congress put Ability to Benefit into law and slowly added regulations that explained how students could qualify, like through an exam or by taking six credits. In 2012, Congress cut the funding, only to restore it fully in 2016. Then Congress required that colleges offer counseling and career training to these students and that they restrict them to a certain set of classes and majors that align with the local economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whereas the original rule had only been about a student’s eligibility, the 2016 regulations asked colleges to perform certain services, and colleges didn’t know how to interpret it, Mortrude said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11946614\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11946614\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/CalMattersStudentLoans02.jpg\" alt=\"A college campus quad area with circular tables with umbrellas are scattered about. Large planters with trees growing inside shade students sitting in pairs chatting between classes.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/CalMattersStudentLoans02.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/CalMattersStudentLoans02-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/CalMattersStudentLoans02-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/CalMattersStudentLoans02-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/CalMattersStudentLoans02-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Saddleback College in Mission Viejo on April 11, 2023. \u003ccite>(Lauren Justice/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The chain of communication is poor,” said Naomi Castro, senior director with the Career Ladders Project, a nonprofit research group founded by the California Community Colleges Board of Governors. She said that many financial aid directors at community colleges didn’t even know that Congress restarted the program in 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Saddleback allowed students who enrolled prior to 2012 to get aid at any point, since they qualified through the old law, but the college never implemented the 2016 regulations, meaning students such as Villa have yet to benefit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The challenge, said Karima Feldhus, academic administrator at Saddleback, is that the college lacks “an eligible list of careers” according to the 2016 regulations. As to why the college waited years to adopt the regulations, she said she didn’t know and referred CalMatters to the director of the financial aid office and the dean of enrollment. Neither person responded to requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nor did San José City College implement Ability to Benefit when it restarted in 2016, according to Takeo Kubo, financial aid director there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San José City College spokesperson Daniel Garza said the 2016 law required “significant curriculum development efforts,” which he noted can be “quite an undertaking” at any school. He said he was not aware of what efforts the college made to consider making the necessary curriculum changes when the new regulations came out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some community colleges, including the four Sacramento-area ones in the Los Rios Community College District, did adapt to the new regulations. Those colleges currently have 42 students who receive aid through Ability to Benefit, out of a total 780 students in the system without a high school diploma.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/13379286/embed\" title=\"Interactive or visual content\" class=\"flourish-embed-iframe\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"width:100%;height:600px;\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-forms allow-scripts allow-downloads allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While community colleges have increasingly shied away from Ability to Benefit over the years, for-profit colleges have leaned in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nationally, participation at public and private nonprofit colleges has dropped by more than half since 2016, while usage at private for-profit schools has risen, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Education. The department did not respond to requests for recent statewide data.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For-profit and nonprofit colleges use different processes, too. The department data shows that public and private nonprofit colleges generally have students qualify for Ability to Benefit by taking six credits worth of classes. At for-profit colleges, nearly every student qualifies for it through an exam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s sort of a scam how they are getting bucket loads of people to hit a cut score on an exam who somehow couldn’t pass the GED test,” said Mortrude.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department created many of the new regulations to clamp down on such “predatory behavior,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A third way\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>While students generally qualify for Ability to Benefit through the two national pathways, federal law also allows states to develop their own processes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2019, Mortrude, Castro and other college leaders sent a proposal to the Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office on how California could set its own such process. Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Mississippi, Washington and Wisconsin have already done it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Wisconsin, for example, adult students at some technical colleges can qualify for aid by participating in an orientation and by working with a tutor or academic counselor, among other criteria.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The individual community colleges are responsible for implementing the Ability to Benefit provision for students, said Paul Feist, vice chancellor for the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the office will explore creating a “state defined process” akin to what other states have done. The office did not provide a timeline for a new state process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This month, a committee of Saddleback administrators came together to figure out the federal regulations with the goal of offering the Ability to Benefit aid this fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If they succeed, Villa has a list of expenses he hopes his aid can cover. First, he’s late on child support payments. He wants a new apartment, and after putting on some weight during the COVID pandemic, he needs new clothes that fit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "UC Berkeley Enrollment Capped, but Few Students Turned Away by State Supreme Court Decision",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 4:00 p.m. March 6\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Earlier versions of this story included outdated enrollment impact estimates, which were supplied by UC Berkeley officials to CalMatters. The story has been updated to reflect revised numbers from UC Berkeley, which indicate a less dire impact on new students than the university’s past statements and projections had suggested. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UC Berkeley will be able to enroll almost all the roughly 9,200 students it planned for this coming academic year, even though the California Supreme Court Thursday refused to strike down a lower court’s order that the university cut its campus enrollment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All the undergraduates we planned to enroll will be enrolled next year,” said Dan Mogulof, assistant vice chancellor of public affairs at UC Berkeley, during a phone interview with CalMatters Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the lower court said UC Berkeley must whittle down its campus enrollment by about 3,000 students, that still leaves room for new students to attend online in the fall or start their classes next spring, when the campus population declines as other students graduate early.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By asking roughly 1,000 new students to take all their classes online in the fall and another 650 to begin their UC Berkeley educations in spring of 2023, the university won’t have to leave any students behind in the 2022-23 academic year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the campus will miss some enrollment targets. Because some of the 125 graduate school programs hadn’t yet sent out their admissions offers, the enrollment cap means 400 fewer new graduate students in engineering, business and law programs will attend the university next year, Mogulof said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s a different degree of fallout than campus officials warned could happen. That UC Berkeley has to cut its campus population at all stems from Alameda Superior Court Judge Brad Seligman’s \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2022/02/uc-berkeley-admissions-cuts-prioritize-californians/\">order last year to hold UC Berkeley’s enrollment at 2020-21 levels\u003c/a>, after residents in the city of Berkeley sued the university, challenging the impact the school’s enrollment growth would have on city services, scarce local housing and noise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The basis of that suit and court decisions, the 1970 California Environmental Quality Act, centers anew the state’s marquee environmental protection law as either a source of ire for backers of urban density and housing developers or as a chief weapon to preserve communities and the surrounding environments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Thursday, a statement from UC Berkeley said the state Supreme Court’s decision not to intervene “is devastating news for the thousands of students who have worked so hard for and have earned a seat in our fall 2022 class.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A new press statement from Mogulof on Friday said, “[T]he harm caused by this court decision extends beyond the students who should be offered an in-person seat in our fall 2022 class. It impacts prospective students generally, our campus operations, and the university’s ability to serve students by meeting the enrollment targets set by the state.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The decision wasn’t unanimous. In a dissenting statement, Justice Goodwin Liu wrote that he would have granted UC Berkeley’s request to block the enrollment cap. He urged the sides to try to quickly resolve the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Thursday, Phil Bokovoy, president of Save Berkeley’s Neighborhoods, the group that brought the suit against UC Berkeley, said he was “pleased” with the Supreme Court’s decision but that “we’d like to assure deserving California high school students that we are as disappointed as they are that UC has tried to use them as pawns in UC’s attempts to avoid mitigating the impacts from the massive enrollment increases over the past few years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response to Liu’s comments, \u003ca href=\"http://saveberkeleysneighborhoods.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Press-release-Save-Berkeleys-Neighborhoods-offers-partial-relief-to-UC-5-March-22.pdf\">Save Berkeley’s Neighborhoods proposed a compromise deal\u003c/a> in a press release on Saturday, March 5. The group’s proposal would allow UC Berkeley to enroll a total of 43,347 students, instead of the 42,347 allowed under the Supreme Court’s ruling, but it would be conditional. The group would require that 90% of new undergraduates be California residents (in 2021, \u003ca href=\"https://pages.github.berkeley.edu/OPA/our-berkeley/100-students.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">73% \u003c/a>of newly matriculated students were), and UC Berkeley would not be allowed to seek further legal action on this matter in the courts or state Legislature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mogulof told KQED that UC Berkeley officials take issue with the proposal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What this small group of litigants is asking for is authority to determine enrollment at the University of California, Berkeley,” Mogulof said. He went on to say, “Enrollment decisions of the universities should not be in the hands of a small group of private citizens who have no accountability and no expertise in this area.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After telling CalMatters that all the undergraduates the university had planned to enroll will be able to attend, Mogulof emailed a short time later to clarify that most of, but not all, the students would be able to attend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“None of this is exact,” he said. “These are all rounded numbers that fluctuate year to year. Yes, we usually hover around 9,500 new undergrads a year. … This year, before the court ruling, we originally planned on on 9,310 … and now we’re looking at 9,144 plus an expanded wait list of 150 that will provide us with more flexibility in potentially enrolling additional students if, for example, there is a legislative fix.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The question becomes where might those students who would have been admitted to Berkeley end up going.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now those fears are largely neutralized because the enrollment cap isn’t reducing the total number of new students the university will be able to enroll this coming academic year. There’s still tumult for students and the university, though. For the 1,650 students who’ll have to start online or in the fall, the start of their academic careers “is going to look nothing like what they wanted and hoped for,” Mogulof said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The campus has some wiggle room with the enrollment cap because the campus population typically goes down marginally in the spring as students graduate early or attend off-campus programs in cities like Sacramento and Washington, D.C.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For its new students starting this fall and in person, the university will also prioritize in-state students over students who don’t have residency in California. In the past few years, about a quarter of undergraduates have typically come from out of state. But UC Berkeley will aim to lower that ratio substantially for this year — just 9% of students, or 641, will be nonresidents, and the remaining 6,334 new students will be Californians. Overall, 7,171 of the new 9,144 undergraduates, about 79%, who are expected to enter next year will be Californians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This follows a CalMatters analysis that the campus could find a way to \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2022/02/uc-berkeley-admissions-cuts-prioritize-californians/\">enroll more Californians by excluding some out-of-state students\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UC Berkeley said Friday its in-person campus population has to go down by roughly 2,600 students, not the 3,000 it previously estimated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some lawmakers and legal scholars had previously said that if the state Supreme Court kept Seligman’s order in place, it would open the door for other communities to sue campuses for their enrollment growth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is an enormous limit on what any UC school, any Cal State school, any public school system can do,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of UC Berkeley’s law school, in a conversation with CalMatters before the Supreme Court issued its decision Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, Thursday’s court decision wasn’t about the full merits of the case but instead was about Seligman’s decision to cap enrollment. A state court of appeals is expected to hear the full case later this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawmakers could try to fast-track a bill to exempt campus enrollment from the state’s environmental quality act, a lawmaker said last month. But UC Berkeley is supposed to inform students by March 24 whether they’re admitted and some were already informed Feb. 11. Meanwhile, May 1 is the deadline for students to put down deposits to attend the campus — and the typical deadline for colleges across the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawmakers “don’t need much time to put that together,” texted Assemblymember Kevin McCarty, a Democrat from Sacramento. “We’re on the case and aware of the deadlines.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Such a law would be a “missed opportunity,” said UC Davis law professor Chris Elmendorf, because it wouldn’t address what he says is the environmental act’s major flaw: It views population growth of any kind as pollution in urban settings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UC Berkeley’s \u003ca href=\"https://docs.google.com/document/d/12KMGguyqRPfNjmRTNEkFK_E0pUNRnEfSnerfTcRN_qE/edit\">student government implored the state Legislature\u003c/a> today to exempt campus enrollment from the environmental act’s restrictions. In the past, Berkeley students were critical of the university’s housing plans because they threatened to displace lower-income city residents. The campus has already \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyside.org/2021/12/16/student-housing-uc-berkeley-walnut-street-demolition\">demolished an eight-unit rent-controlled building\u003c/a> to make room for a new student housing complex. The students fear less revenue from fewer students will make it harder for the campus to meet its student housing goals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the act’s backers say it \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/commentary/2022/02/ceqa-advances-environmental-justice-so-why-all-the-hate/\">protects communities from pollution\u003c/a> and is unfairly pilloried by public agencies and developers who want to build housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UC Berkeley argued in court filings that if it could not enroll the 3,000 students previously expected to be excluded this fall, it would lose out on $57 million in annual tuition payments for at least four years. The actual hit to UC’s bottom line will be much less now that it can enroll almost every student it sought for this coming fall. The students starting in the spring and the lower number of graduate students will lead to revenue declines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though the current lawsuit technically concerns a housing and academic development for the Goldman School of Public Policy, the larger issue is whether UC Berkeley failed to adequately measure the impact its enrollment growth would have on the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berkeley said in its 2005 multiyear construction plan that its 2020 enrollment would be around 33,000 students. But the campus actually hit nearly 43,000 students in the fall of 2020. While the campus far exceeded its enrollment caps, UC Berkeley built fewer housing slots for students than it had anticipated. By 2020 the campus said it would have 10,790 beds but to date can house just 9,800 students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit brought forth by Save Berkeley’s Neighborhoods argues UC Berkeley never did a proper assessment of how that added enrollment growth affects the surrounding area. And without that analysis, the campus can’t proceed with any other construction plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seligman agreed. And the state Supreme Court agreed with him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UC Berkeley contends budget shortfalls caused by the Great Recession and declining state support for much of that period meant less money to invest in student housing. The campus also spent “a significant amount of its housing reserves to seismically retrofit three of our existing residential facilities,” said Mogulof, the UC Berkeley spokesperson. And, he said, while the campus had identified land for as many as \u003ca href=\"https://evcp.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/housing_master_plan_task_force_final_draft_january_2017.pdf\">5,000 beds in a 2017 report\u003c/a>, those properties already included existing structures like parking lots and academic buildings that would have to be torn down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawmakers in the past year have proposed or approved \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/2022/01/student-housing-2/\">$7 billion in campus housing loans and grants\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other legal scholars say enrollment growth isn’t an issue that’s relevant to the case. “The trial court’s ruling was wrong on many levels. The court had no jurisdiction in deciding the Goldman School case to impose limits on Berkeley’s student population; that was simply not at issue,” wrote Chemerinsky in a Sacramento Bee essay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Public officials, most prominently Gov. Gavin Newsom, said students will be locked out of an elite education. Denying enrollment at UC Berkeley “would be irreparably damaging” and “also undermine the State’s broad interest in expanding access to higher education, especially at the State’s flagship undergraduate institutions,” Newsom’s brief to the state Supreme Court said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But public data suggests nearly all UC Berkeley applicants admitted as first-year students end up at a college.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2019, just 5%, or 656, of \u003ca href=\"https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/about-us/information-center/admit-destinations\">UC Berkeley’s admitted freshmen didn’t attend a college\u003c/a>, or their college destinations were unknown. Nearly half — 45% — who were admitted ended up attending the university. The remaining half largely made their way to strong institutions, including 16% to other UCs and 24% to selective private universities that typically have strong financial aid packages for students with lower incomes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, those stats apply to a normal year, not when a large campus like UC Berkeley is unable to enroll the 3,000 new freshmen and transfer students officials previously feared would lose a spot. Given the popularity of the whole UC system, other campuses within the system would have struggled to accommodate those students, which could have affected enrollment capacity at other public and private colleges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bokovoy, of Save Berkeley’s Neighborhoods, pointed out during a Zoom press conference following the state Supreme Court’s decision that in the past decade, the percentage of students receiving the federal Pell grant intended for students with lower incomes dropped from 33% to 27% at UC Berkeley. He argued high rents in the community and insufficient student housing have pushed students with lower incomes out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Previously, Bokovoy wrote in an email that the group “would like a legally binding agreement that ties enrollment growth to the production of housing on land UC already owns” — which would mean the campus can’t add more students until it builds more housing. In past conversations, he cited the \u003ca href=\"https://lrdp.ucsc.edu/settlement-agreement.pdf\">2008 legal settlement between UC Santa Cruz and local government\u003c/a> that tied campus enrollment growth to more housing as a model for what UC Berkeley could pursue. But that deal also came with an enrollment cap of 19,500 students for what ended up being 15 years. At the time of the deal, UC Santa Cruz’s enrollment was around 16,000 students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several times Bokovoy denied a UC Berkeley claim that he is pushing for an enrollment cap.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UC Berkeley won’t agree to any enrollment cap, Mogulof said. The campus struck a deal last year with the city of Berkeley that \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyside.org/2021/07/14/uc-berkeley-payment-settlement-agreement\">it will pay the city $4 million a year\u003c/a> regardless of whether the campus reaches its housing production goals. The city was an initial plaintiff in the lawsuit against UC Berkeley but settled with the campus before Seligman issued his enrollment cap. \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyside.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/2022-02-18-Amicus-Curiae-Letter-Supreme-Court-Case-No.-S273160.pdf\">The city never sought an enrollment cap\u003c/a>; in fact, its legal team wrote to the state Supreme Court in a request to side with the UC campus and lift the enrollment cap.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another campus, UC Davis, made a promise to tie enrollment growth to more housing but \u003ca href=\"https://ucdavis.app.box.com/s/gq0jfianaphpgtafrzvoqe3hq5fwxlz8\">the penalty for missing its targets is $500 per bed\u003c/a>, according to a legal deal it made with the local government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bokovoy said UC Berkeley could expand its campus elsewhere in the Bay Area and not in the city of Berkeley, such as in nearby Richmond. \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/UC-Berkeley-suspends-plans-to-build-Global-Campus-9187281.php\">Early plans for a satellite campus\u003c/a> there fell through in 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Going forward, if community groups target other campuses for their enrollment growth, those lawsuits may be short-lived if the court of appeals overturns Seligman’s ruling once it hears the full UC Berkeley case later this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chemerinsky, the UC Berkeley law school dean, said the UC Berkeley case introduces larger questions about the state’s main environmental law at the center of the lawsuit and the role courts play in university affairs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a real question of how much do we want the courts in the name of [the environmental law] to be controlling enrollment in the UC system,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s Haley Gray contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 4:00 p.m. March 6\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Earlier versions of this story included outdated enrollment impact estimates, which were supplied by UC Berkeley officials to CalMatters. The story has been updated to reflect revised numbers from UC Berkeley, which indicate a less dire impact on new students than the university’s past statements and projections had suggested. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UC Berkeley will be able to enroll almost all the roughly 9,200 students it planned for this coming academic year, even though the California Supreme Court Thursday refused to strike down a lower court’s order that the university cut its campus enrollment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All the undergraduates we planned to enroll will be enrolled next year,” said Dan Mogulof, assistant vice chancellor of public affairs at UC Berkeley, during a phone interview with CalMatters Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the lower court said UC Berkeley must whittle down its campus enrollment by about 3,000 students, that still leaves room for new students to attend online in the fall or start their classes next spring, when the campus population declines as other students graduate early.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By asking roughly 1,000 new students to take all their classes online in the fall and another 650 to begin their UC Berkeley educations in spring of 2023, the university won’t have to leave any students behind in the 2022-23 academic year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the campus will miss some enrollment targets. Because some of the 125 graduate school programs hadn’t yet sent out their admissions offers, the enrollment cap means 400 fewer new graduate students in engineering, business and law programs will attend the university next year, Mogulof said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s a different degree of fallout than campus officials warned could happen. That UC Berkeley has to cut its campus population at all stems from Alameda Superior Court Judge Brad Seligman’s \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2022/02/uc-berkeley-admissions-cuts-prioritize-californians/\">order last year to hold UC Berkeley’s enrollment at 2020-21 levels\u003c/a>, after residents in the city of Berkeley sued the university, challenging the impact the school’s enrollment growth would have on city services, scarce local housing and noise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The basis of that suit and court decisions, the 1970 California Environmental Quality Act, centers anew the state’s marquee environmental protection law as either a source of ire for backers of urban density and housing developers or as a chief weapon to preserve communities and the surrounding environments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Thursday, a statement from UC Berkeley said the state Supreme Court’s decision not to intervene “is devastating news for the thousands of students who have worked so hard for and have earned a seat in our fall 2022 class.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A new press statement from Mogulof on Friday said, “[T]he harm caused by this court decision extends beyond the students who should be offered an in-person seat in our fall 2022 class. It impacts prospective students generally, our campus operations, and the university’s ability to serve students by meeting the enrollment targets set by the state.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The decision wasn’t unanimous. In a dissenting statement, Justice Goodwin Liu wrote that he would have granted UC Berkeley’s request to block the enrollment cap. He urged the sides to try to quickly resolve the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Thursday, Phil Bokovoy, president of Save Berkeley’s Neighborhoods, the group that brought the suit against UC Berkeley, said he was “pleased” with the Supreme Court’s decision but that “we’d like to assure deserving California high school students that we are as disappointed as they are that UC has tried to use them as pawns in UC’s attempts to avoid mitigating the impacts from the massive enrollment increases over the past few years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response to Liu’s comments, \u003ca href=\"http://saveberkeleysneighborhoods.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Press-release-Save-Berkeleys-Neighborhoods-offers-partial-relief-to-UC-5-March-22.pdf\">Save Berkeley’s Neighborhoods proposed a compromise deal\u003c/a> in a press release on Saturday, March 5. The group’s proposal would allow UC Berkeley to enroll a total of 43,347 students, instead of the 42,347 allowed under the Supreme Court’s ruling, but it would be conditional. The group would require that 90% of new undergraduates be California residents (in 2021, \u003ca href=\"https://pages.github.berkeley.edu/OPA/our-berkeley/100-students.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">73% \u003c/a>of newly matriculated students were), and UC Berkeley would not be allowed to seek further legal action on this matter in the courts or state Legislature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mogulof told KQED that UC Berkeley officials take issue with the proposal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What this small group of litigants is asking for is authority to determine enrollment at the University of California, Berkeley,” Mogulof said. He went on to say, “Enrollment decisions of the universities should not be in the hands of a small group of private citizens who have no accountability and no expertise in this area.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After telling CalMatters that all the undergraduates the university had planned to enroll will be able to attend, Mogulof emailed a short time later to clarify that most of, but not all, the students would be able to attend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“None of this is exact,” he said. “These are all rounded numbers that fluctuate year to year. Yes, we usually hover around 9,500 new undergrads a year. … This year, before the court ruling, we originally planned on on 9,310 … and now we’re looking at 9,144 plus an expanded wait list of 150 that will provide us with more flexibility in potentially enrolling additional students if, for example, there is a legislative fix.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The question becomes where might those students who would have been admitted to Berkeley end up going.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now those fears are largely neutralized because the enrollment cap isn’t reducing the total number of new students the university will be able to enroll this coming academic year. There’s still tumult for students and the university, though. For the 1,650 students who’ll have to start online or in the fall, the start of their academic careers “is going to look nothing like what they wanted and hoped for,” Mogulof said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The campus has some wiggle room with the enrollment cap because the campus population typically goes down marginally in the spring as students graduate early or attend off-campus programs in cities like Sacramento and Washington, D.C.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For its new students starting this fall and in person, the university will also prioritize in-state students over students who don’t have residency in California. In the past few years, about a quarter of undergraduates have typically come from out of state. But UC Berkeley will aim to lower that ratio substantially for this year — just 9% of students, or 641, will be nonresidents, and the remaining 6,334 new students will be Californians. Overall, 7,171 of the new 9,144 undergraduates, about 79%, who are expected to enter next year will be Californians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This follows a CalMatters analysis that the campus could find a way to \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2022/02/uc-berkeley-admissions-cuts-prioritize-californians/\">enroll more Californians by excluding some out-of-state students\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UC Berkeley said Friday its in-person campus population has to go down by roughly 2,600 students, not the 3,000 it previously estimated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some lawmakers and legal scholars had previously said that if the state Supreme Court kept Seligman’s order in place, it would open the door for other communities to sue campuses for their enrollment growth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is an enormous limit on what any UC school, any Cal State school, any public school system can do,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of UC Berkeley’s law school, in a conversation with CalMatters before the Supreme Court issued its decision Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, Thursday’s court decision wasn’t about the full merits of the case but instead was about Seligman’s decision to cap enrollment. A state court of appeals is expected to hear the full case later this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawmakers could try to fast-track a bill to exempt campus enrollment from the state’s environmental quality act, a lawmaker said last month. But UC Berkeley is supposed to inform students by March 24 whether they’re admitted and some were already informed Feb. 11. Meanwhile, May 1 is the deadline for students to put down deposits to attend the campus — and the typical deadline for colleges across the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawmakers “don’t need much time to put that together,” texted Assemblymember Kevin McCarty, a Democrat from Sacramento. “We’re on the case and aware of the deadlines.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Such a law would be a “missed opportunity,” said UC Davis law professor Chris Elmendorf, because it wouldn’t address what he says is the environmental act’s major flaw: It views population growth of any kind as pollution in urban settings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UC Berkeley’s \u003ca href=\"https://docs.google.com/document/d/12KMGguyqRPfNjmRTNEkFK_E0pUNRnEfSnerfTcRN_qE/edit\">student government implored the state Legislature\u003c/a> today to exempt campus enrollment from the environmental act’s restrictions. In the past, Berkeley students were critical of the university’s housing plans because they threatened to displace lower-income city residents. The campus has already \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyside.org/2021/12/16/student-housing-uc-berkeley-walnut-street-demolition\">demolished an eight-unit rent-controlled building\u003c/a> to make room for a new student housing complex. The students fear less revenue from fewer students will make it harder for the campus to meet its student housing goals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the act’s backers say it \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/commentary/2022/02/ceqa-advances-environmental-justice-so-why-all-the-hate/\">protects communities from pollution\u003c/a> and is unfairly pilloried by public agencies and developers who want to build housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UC Berkeley argued in court filings that if it could not enroll the 3,000 students previously expected to be excluded this fall, it would lose out on $57 million in annual tuition payments for at least four years. The actual hit to UC’s bottom line will be much less now that it can enroll almost every student it sought for this coming fall. The students starting in the spring and the lower number of graduate students will lead to revenue declines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though the current lawsuit technically concerns a housing and academic development for the Goldman School of Public Policy, the larger issue is whether UC Berkeley failed to adequately measure the impact its enrollment growth would have on the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berkeley said in its 2005 multiyear construction plan that its 2020 enrollment would be around 33,000 students. But the campus actually hit nearly 43,000 students in the fall of 2020. While the campus far exceeded its enrollment caps, UC Berkeley built fewer housing slots for students than it had anticipated. By 2020 the campus said it would have 10,790 beds but to date can house just 9,800 students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit brought forth by Save Berkeley’s Neighborhoods argues UC Berkeley never did a proper assessment of how that added enrollment growth affects the surrounding area. And without that analysis, the campus can’t proceed with any other construction plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seligman agreed. And the state Supreme Court agreed with him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UC Berkeley contends budget shortfalls caused by the Great Recession and declining state support for much of that period meant less money to invest in student housing. The campus also spent “a significant amount of its housing reserves to seismically retrofit three of our existing residential facilities,” said Mogulof, the UC Berkeley spokesperson. And, he said, while the campus had identified land for as many as \u003ca href=\"https://evcp.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/housing_master_plan_task_force_final_draft_january_2017.pdf\">5,000 beds in a 2017 report\u003c/a>, those properties already included existing structures like parking lots and academic buildings that would have to be torn down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawmakers in the past year have proposed or approved \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/2022/01/student-housing-2/\">$7 billion in campus housing loans and grants\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other legal scholars say enrollment growth isn’t an issue that’s relevant to the case. “The trial court’s ruling was wrong on many levels. The court had no jurisdiction in deciding the Goldman School case to impose limits on Berkeley’s student population; that was simply not at issue,” wrote Chemerinsky in a Sacramento Bee essay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Public officials, most prominently Gov. Gavin Newsom, said students will be locked out of an elite education. Denying enrollment at UC Berkeley “would be irreparably damaging” and “also undermine the State’s broad interest in expanding access to higher education, especially at the State’s flagship undergraduate institutions,” Newsom’s brief to the state Supreme Court said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But public data suggests nearly all UC Berkeley applicants admitted as first-year students end up at a college.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2019, just 5%, or 656, of \u003ca href=\"https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/about-us/information-center/admit-destinations\">UC Berkeley’s admitted freshmen didn’t attend a college\u003c/a>, or their college destinations were unknown. Nearly half — 45% — who were admitted ended up attending the university. The remaining half largely made their way to strong institutions, including 16% to other UCs and 24% to selective private universities that typically have strong financial aid packages for students with lower incomes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, those stats apply to a normal year, not when a large campus like UC Berkeley is unable to enroll the 3,000 new freshmen and transfer students officials previously feared would lose a spot. Given the popularity of the whole UC system, other campuses within the system would have struggled to accommodate those students, which could have affected enrollment capacity at other public and private colleges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bokovoy, of Save Berkeley’s Neighborhoods, pointed out during a Zoom press conference following the state Supreme Court’s decision that in the past decade, the percentage of students receiving the federal Pell grant intended for students with lower incomes dropped from 33% to 27% at UC Berkeley. He argued high rents in the community and insufficient student housing have pushed students with lower incomes out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Previously, Bokovoy wrote in an email that the group “would like a legally binding agreement that ties enrollment growth to the production of housing on land UC already owns” — which would mean the campus can’t add more students until it builds more housing. In past conversations, he cited the \u003ca href=\"https://lrdp.ucsc.edu/settlement-agreement.pdf\">2008 legal settlement between UC Santa Cruz and local government\u003c/a> that tied campus enrollment growth to more housing as a model for what UC Berkeley could pursue. But that deal also came with an enrollment cap of 19,500 students for what ended up being 15 years. At the time of the deal, UC Santa Cruz’s enrollment was around 16,000 students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several times Bokovoy denied a UC Berkeley claim that he is pushing for an enrollment cap.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UC Berkeley won’t agree to any enrollment cap, Mogulof said. The campus struck a deal last year with the city of Berkeley that \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyside.org/2021/07/14/uc-berkeley-payment-settlement-agreement\">it will pay the city $4 million a year\u003c/a> regardless of whether the campus reaches its housing production goals. The city was an initial plaintiff in the lawsuit against UC Berkeley but settled with the campus before Seligman issued his enrollment cap. \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyside.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/2022-02-18-Amicus-Curiae-Letter-Supreme-Court-Case-No.-S273160.pdf\">The city never sought an enrollment cap\u003c/a>; in fact, its legal team wrote to the state Supreme Court in a request to side with the UC campus and lift the enrollment cap.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another campus, UC Davis, made a promise to tie enrollment growth to more housing but \u003ca href=\"https://ucdavis.app.box.com/s/gq0jfianaphpgtafrzvoqe3hq5fwxlz8\">the penalty for missing its targets is $500 per bed\u003c/a>, according to a legal deal it made with the local government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bokovoy said UC Berkeley could expand its campus elsewhere in the Bay Area and not in the city of Berkeley, such as in nearby Richmond. \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/UC-Berkeley-suspends-plans-to-build-Global-Campus-9187281.php\">Early plans for a satellite campus\u003c/a> there fell through in 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Going forward, if community groups target other campuses for their enrollment growth, those lawsuits may be short-lived if the court of appeals overturns Seligman’s ruling once it hears the full UC Berkeley case later this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chemerinsky, the UC Berkeley law school dean, said the UC Berkeley case introduces larger questions about the state’s main environmental law at the center of the lawsuit and the role courts play in university affairs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a real question of how much do we want the courts in the name of [the environmental law] to be controlling enrollment in the UC system,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
"airtime": "SUN 9pm-10pm",
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"meta": {
"site": "radio",
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
"airtime": "THU 10pm, FRI 1am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.commonwealthclub.org/podcasts",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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}
},
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"id": "forum",
"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
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"id": "freakonomics-radio",
"title": "Freakonomics Radio",
"info": "Freakonomics Radio is a one-hour award-winning podcast and public-radio project hosted by Stephen Dubner, with co-author Steve Levitt as a regular guest. It is produced in partnership with WNYC.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/freakonomicsRadio.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
"airtime": "SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/freakonomics-radio",
"subscribe": {
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
"rss": "https://feeds.feedburner.com/freakonomicsradio"
}
},
"fresh-air": {
"id": "fresh-air",
"title": "Fresh Air",
"info": "Hosted by Terry Gross, \u003cem>Fresh Air from WHYY\u003c/em> is the Peabody Award-winning weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues. One of public radio's most popular programs, Fresh Air features intimate conversations with today's biggest luminaries.",
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"link": "/radio/program/fresh-air",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/381444908/podcast.xml"
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"id": "here-and-now",
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510051/podcast.xml"
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},
"hidden-brain": {
"id": "hidden-brain",
"title": "Hidden Brain",
"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/05/hiddenbrain.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/series/423302056/hidden-brain",
"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
"subscribe": {
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"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/Science-Podcasts/Hidden-Brain-p787503/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510308/podcast.xml"
}
},
"how-i-built-this": {
"id": "how-i-built-this",
"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/howIBuiltThis.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this",
"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/3zxy",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510313/podcast.xml"
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},
"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
"imageAlt": "KQED Hyphenación",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
"meta": {
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"order": 15
},
"link": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/2p3Fifq96nw9BPcmFdIq0o?si=39209f7b25774f38",
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"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/6c3dd23c-93fb-4aab-97ba-1725fa6315f1/hyphenaci%C3%B3n",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC2275451163"
}
},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
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"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1492194549",
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}
},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/xtTd",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
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"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
}
},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Masters-of-Scale-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "http://mastersofscale.app.link/",
"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mindshift-podcast/id1078765985",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/464615685/mind-shift-podcast",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/stories-teachers-share",
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}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
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"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
},
"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "On Our Watch from NPR and KQED",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 11
},
"link": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1567098962",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw",
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"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/show/on-our-watch",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510360/podcast.xml"
}
},
"on-the-media": {
"id": "on-the-media",
"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm-3pm, MON 12am-1am",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/onTheMedia.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/otm",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "wnyc"
},
"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-media/id73330715?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-the-Media-p69/",
"rss": "http://feeds.wnyc.org/onthemedia"
}
},
"pbs-newshour": {
"id": "pbs-newshour",
"title": "PBS NewsHour",
"info": "Analysis, background reports and updates from the PBS NewsHour putting today's news in context.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/PBS-News-Hour-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "pbs"
},
"link": "/radio/program/pbs-newshour",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pbs-newshour-full-show/id394432287?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/PBS-NewsHour---Full-Show-p425698/",
"rss": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/feeds/rss/podcasts/show"
}
},
"perspectives": {
"id": "perspectives",
"title": "Perspectives",
"tagline": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991",
"info": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Perspectives_Tile_Final.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Perspectives",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/perspectives/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 14
},
"link": "/perspectives",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id73801135",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/432309616/perspectives",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/perspectives/category/perspectives/feed/",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93dzIua3FlZC5vcmcvcGVyc3BlY3RpdmVzL2NhdGVnb3J5L3BlcnNwZWN0aXZlcy9mZWVkLw"
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},
"planet-money": {
"id": "planet-money",
"title": "Planet Money",
"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
"airtime": "SUN 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/planetmoney.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/sections/money/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/planet-money",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/M4f5",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/planet-money/id290783428?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/Business--Economics-Podcasts/Planet-Money-p164680/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510289/podcast.xml"
}
},
"politicalbreakdown": {
"id": "politicalbreakdown",
"title": "Political Breakdown",
"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
"airtime": "THU 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Political-Breakdown-2024-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Political Breakdown",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/politicalbreakdown",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 5
},
"link": "/podcasts/politicalbreakdown",
"subscribe": {
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"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/e0c2d153-ad36-4c8d-901d-f1da6a724824/political-breakdown",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/572155894/political-breakdown",
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