First Reading

Subject: Resolution No.

Resolution in Support of Immediate Elimination of the SAT-I as an

Entrance Requirement for the University of California

- Commissioners Eric Mar and Jill Wynns

WHEREAS: On May 16, 2001, the San Francisco Unified School District, along with

District students, teachers, community members, and broad support from the labor movement, including UESF and SEIU Local 790, secured the tremendous victory of winning reversal of the ban on affirmative action in the UC system, by a unanimous vote of the UC Board of Regents; and

WHEREAS: California is now a majority ‘minority’ state with a social responsibility to

provide an equal opportunity for all of its residents to attend the University of California, including its flagship schools, and other institutions of higher education; and

WHEREAS: Numerous studies have shown the SAT-I examination to be bias against

historically underrepresented people of color and working class people and a poor measure of student knowledge or ability to succeed; and

WHEREAS: The University of California Latino Eligibility Task Force, chaired by

Professor Eugene Garcia, former dean of the UC Berkeley School of

Education, has called for the elimination of the SAT as an entrance requirement, stating, “Eliminating the SAT requirement would greatly expand Latino student eligibility without compromising the integrity of UC’s ability to select those students who are most likely to succeed in its programs” (Report Number Five, July 1997); and

WHEREAS:  UC President Richard Atkinson, the Associated Students of UC Berkeley,

and student and faculty groups throughout the UC system have proposed to remove the SAT-I as an entrance requirement for students

applying to the University of California.

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: That the Board of Education of the San

Francisco Unified School District supports the immediate removal of the SAT-I as an entrance requirement for the University of California; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED: That the Board of Education of the San Francisco

Unified School District supports student and community efforts to substantially increase the enrollment of underrepresented students of color and working class students at UC Berkeley and throughout our institutions of higher education in California.

PLEASE NOTE: Per Board Policy P120, Sec. 8A (8.A.4), the Board may suspend its Rules in order to consider action to this resolution at First Reading.

11/13/01