Do We Still Need Affirmative Action?

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GPA (grade point average) and standardized tests scores are NOT neutral measures of merit. GPA is not a neutral standard of academic merit because the vast majority of black, Latino/a and Native American students attend K-12 schools that are separate and unequal. Their schools have much higher concentrations of poverty, fewer qualified teachers, higher turnover of students and teachers, a weaker curriculum (fewer honors and AP courses), much greater overcrowding and fewer overall resources.

Minority students who attend predominantly white K-12 schools face racial stereotyping, tracking, hostile climate and the burden of representing their entire race in the classroom.

Standardized tests are not neutral criteria because they are normed (made statistically consistent) using a method that advantages white students. White students have average combined scores that are respectively 125, 208 and 292 points higher than those of Native American, Chicano and African-American backgrounds. The tests also give an advantage to wealthy students. However, even black students from the highest income groups score lower than whites at the lowest income levels, which is one reason that so-called “socio-economic” affirmative action cannot substitute for race conscious affirmative action. Increased awareness of the class and racial bias in the tests is developing a growing consensus across the nation that standardized tests should not be utilized as a major factor in admissions decisions.

Test scores do not provide admissions officers with any additional information regarding the academic performance or potential of applicants. They simply act as sentinels at the doors of higher education to keep out black, Latino/a and Native American students. In a study of thousands of applicants to UC Berkeley’s famous Boalt Hall Law School, researchers found that black students with the same grade point average in the same major at the same selective college scored 9 points lower on the LSAT than their white counterparts – a gap wide enough to bar them from any law school if test scores are not evaluated in the context of the applicant’s race.

Given the racial bias inherent in both GPA and test scores, consideration of an applicant’s race is not a “preference”, but merely a modest measure to offset the bias that would otherwise exist in the admissions process.