UCOPE Recommendations for the Revised SAT and ACT and UC’s Entry Level Writing Requirement - Letter

Sep 14, 2026

UCOPE recommendations address how revised SAT and ACT components align with the University of California’s Entry Level Writing Requirement (ELWR). The document explains changes to SAT writing reporting, ACT ELA scoring, and fall 2017 suspension decisions while analyzing freshman admissions data against UC’s Analytical Writing Placement Exam (AWPE). It presents three committee recommendations, including an SAT EBRW pilot threshold, withholding SAT Essay for ELWR, and retaining an ACT ELA threshold to support consistent AWPE pass rates.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPDF

Pages3

Reading Time8 min

AccessFree to download

Background and context

ELWR and revised SAT/ACT components

Data analysis and committee process

Use of UC Analytical Writing Placement Exam (AWPE)

Recommendations

Recommendation 1: SAT EBRW pilot threshold

Recommendation 2: Do not use SAT Essay

Recommendation 3: Maintain ACT ELA threshold

Jim Chalfant Chair of the Assembly of the Academic Senate Telephone: (510) 987-0711 Faculty Representative to the Regents Fax: (510) 763-0309 University of California [Email: jim.chalfant@ucop.edu](Email: jim.chalfant@ucop.edu) 1111 Franklin Street, 12th Floor Oakland, California 94607-5200 August 7, 2017 STEPHEN HANDEL ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT, UNDERGRADUATE ADMISSIONS UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Re: UCOPE Recommendations for the Revised SAT and ACT and UC’s Entry Level Writing Requirement Dear Steve, At its July 26, 2017 meeting, the Academic Council endorsed the attached recommendations from the University Committee on Preparatory Education (UCOPE) regarding the revised Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and American College Test (ACT) and the University’s Entry Level Writing Requirement (ELWR) . Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. Sincerely, Jim Chalfant, Chair Academic Council Cc: UCOPE Senate Director Baxter Brad Queen, Chair University Committee on Preparatory Education [bradley.queen@uci.edu](bradley.queen@uci.edu) University of California 1111 Franklin Street, 12th Floor Oakland, California 94607-5200 July 20, 2017 JIM CHALFANT, CHAIR ACADEMIC SENATE RE: THE REVISED SAT AND ACT AND UC’S ENTRY LEVEL WRITING REQUIREMENT Dear Jim, UCOPE held a special videoconference on July 19th to make a decision about whether the revised Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and American College Test (ACT) will satisfy the University’s Entry Level Writing Requirement (ELWR) . The specific components of the SAT and ACT used for this purpose have recently changed. • SAT no longer provides a combined score on its writing section, but does provide an Evidence‐Based Reading and Writing (EBRW) score and a separate SAT Essay score. • ACT no longer provides a Combined English/Writing score, but does provide an English Language Arts (ELA) score. • Students were able to meet the ELWR by achieving a score of 30 or higher on the ACT ELAin the fall 2016 and fall 2017 admissions cycles. • For the fall 2017 cycle, UCOPE has suspended ELWR credit for the new SAT since score concordance data was not available. No threshold score for meeting ELWR via the SAT had been established, so students were not able to use this exam to meet the requirement. At its recent videoconference, UCOPE considered whether to revise the ACT ELA threshold and whether to set an SAT threshold going forward. UCOP’s Institutional Research unit analyzed data from the fall 2017 freshman admissions cycle to compare SAT EBRW, SAT Essay, and ACT ELA scores to scores on UC’s own Analytical Writing Placement Exam. The analysis (attached) covered students who plan to enroll at UC as indicated by submitting a Statement of Intent to Register, referred to as “SIRs” in this analysis. The committee voted on three separate recommendations as follows. Recommendation 1: Set a threshold of 690 on SAT EBRW for meeting the ELWR for a pilot period until more data are available. At this threshold, available data suggest that over 75% of students will pass the AWPE, consistent with the pattern in the last year of the old SAT writing test. Action: The committee unanimously voted in favor of Recommendation 1 after it had decided to set the threshold at 680, define the pilot period as the 2017-2018 admissions cycle, and stipulate that the pilot will include analysis and reporting of scores on the Evidence‐Based Reading and Writing (EBRW) score, a separate SAT Essay score, and the AWPE scores. UCOPE asked IRAP to do effect size analysis and to generate correlation coefficients comparing EBRW scores to AWPE scores, EBRW and SAT Essay scores to AWPE scores, and SAT Essay scores to AWPE scores. Recommendation 2: Do not use the SAT Essay score as a method for meeting the ELWR until more data are available. Currently available data show that even for a threshold at the highest score of 24, the AWPE passing rate was only 69%

FAQs

What change prompted the ELWR recommendations?

UCOPE addressed whether the revised SAT and ACT satisfy UC’s Entry Level Writing Requirement after the test components used for ELWR determination changed.

How did UCOP handle ELWR credit for the new SAT in the fall 2017 cycle?

ELWR credit for the new SAT was suspended because SAT score concordance data were not available and no threshold had been established.

What thresholds did the committee recommend for ELWR going forward?

It recommended a pilot threshold of 690 on SAT EBRW, not using the SAT Essay score for ELWR until more data exist, and maintaining a threshold of 30 using ACT ELA.

Sep 14, 2026

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