An organization of college basketball coaches is urging schools to dump the SAT and ACT standardized tests, because they claim the tests are “racist.”
The National Association of Basketball Coaches is moving to end the tests used to help place students in the nation’s universities and colleges because of “longstanding forces of institutional racism” in the tests, the group noted in a statement.
The group’s committee, chaired by South Carolina coach Frank Martin and Harvard coach Tommy Amaker, said in a statement that the tests “no longer have a place in intercollegiate athletics or education at large.” The elimination of the tests, they said, would be “an important step towards combating educational inequality.”
“I am proud of the continued efforts of the Committee on Racial Reconciliation, and look forward to engaging further with the NCAA on this crucial topic,” said NABC executive director and former Oregon State coach, Craig Robinson. “We feel it is prudent for college athletics to address a standardized test structure that has long had disproportionately negative impacts on low-income and minority students.”
The group added that the COVID-19 hysteria has made it difficult for students to take the SAT and ACTs.
“COVID-19 has made finding a safe, accessible SAT or ACT testing location very difficult for most rising seniors,” the group said. “Those with the most additional burdens and disadvantages of all kinds because of COVID-19, not just in finding a safe testing location, are low-income and underrepresented minority students.”
The NCAA had already eliminated the test scores for Division I and Division II athletes because of the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.
This committee also recommended that students be required to take “black history” courses in high school to be eligible for college sports.
Martin and Amaker based their recommendations on an article in The Atlantic that claimed that the tests are ” used to enforce power systems.”
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