The Alameda County Superior Court announced Wednesday that it would be enacting the next phase of its transition to public, in-person services beginning May 24, according to a press release issued by the court.
As part of the ongoing process, the probate clerk’s office, located in the Berkeley Courthouse at 2120 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, will reopen with one public window being accessible from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Research terminals will also be made available in 30-minute increments, with the number of people allowed inside of the courtroom at once being limited for the purpose of social distancing compliance.
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Arguing that appropriating billions of dollars alone will not ensure action, community organizations and parents from Los Angeles and Oakland are asking an Alameda County Superior Court judge to order the state to immediately provide computers and internet access and address the mental health needs of children who have borne the brunt of the pandemic.
The May 3 request for immediate relief comes six months after the plaintiffs sued the State Board of Education, the California Department of Education and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond. Now, they are seeking a preliminary injunction to force the state to respond. Superior Court Judge Winifred Smith has set June 4 for a hearing.
California scraps SAT and ACT tests. Is it legal?
In a move that will favor Black applicants for admission, the University of California has agreed to no longer consider SAT or ACT scores when making admissions and scholarship decisions. Most colleges and universities are confident they can discriminate against White and Asian applicants without ditching these tests. They believe they can, in effect, award free points (hundreds of them in the case of the SAT) to Black applicants to make up for the poor scores these students achieve as a group.
But in the California state system, that move, however well disguised, would be highly problematic, given the state’s ban on racial preferences a ban California voters upheld by a goodly margin last November. Ditching the tests seems to solve the problem.
UC settles student lawsuit, agrees not to use SAT, ACT scores in admissions
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Students take a practice test during an SAT Prep class held at Berkeley High School in Berkeley, Calif., Thursday, Feb. 11, 2016Brittany Murphy/The Chronicle
The University of California has agreed to no longer consider SAT or ACT scores in admissions and scholarship decisions, under a legal settlement with students announced Friday.
The agreement puts to rest the on-again-off-again question of whether UC could use the tests. And it ends a 2019 lawsuit from low-income students of color and students with disabilities who argued that they were at a disadvantage compared with applicants who could afford test prep services or travel easily to exam and class sites.