We applaud the move this week by Virginia Commonwealth University President Michael Rao to eliminate SAT scores as a criteria for admission.

In a major policy change announced Tuesday, Dr. Rao said applicants with a GPA of 3.3 or higher no longer will be required to submit scores from the test that he called “fundamentally flawed.”

While SATs still will be required for entry into some programs, such as engineering, and for some endowed scholarships, he said the tests no longer will be used to deny “a transformative education to students who we know would flourish here just because they don’t have a certain SAT score.”

We have long held that the SAT has been not only a source of angst for young African-American students looking to head to college. It also has been a major barrier to many realizing their potential by denying them entry into certain institutions.

Studies dating to the 1960s have shown that racial and cultural biases are built into the questions and routinely trip up African- American students. For example, a question on a recent test asked which analogy best matched the relationships:

1. “Runner:Marathon”
2. A) envoy:embassy
3. B) martyr:massacre
4. C) oarsman:regatta
5. D) referee:tournament
6. E) horse:stable

The SAT’s correct answer is C.

The SAT is not a test that measures aptitude, an array of ex- perts have long held. Nor is it an accurate predictor of academic success in college. It simply reflects the experiences of those who take the test or those who were coached well in high-priced SAT prep courses that are unaffordable and inaccessible to students from lower-income families.

Is it any wonder that African-American students have scored lowest on the tests for more than 20 years, behind Hispanic, Asian and white students?

Those who score highest on the test are students from privileged backgrounds — mostly white students, according to the experts.

Eliminating the SAT does not mean that VCU — and more than 800 other colleges and universities in the United States — simply open their doors to anybody who can afford tuition. It means that more emphasis will be placed on grades, recom- mendations and the other categories scrutinized for entry.

Dr. Rao gets a “B+” for starting down the right path. He’ll get an “A” if he goes further in his efforts to eliminate this testing barrier to education.