The College Board, the organization that administers SAT exams, told higher education institutions last week that it is canceling Landscape. The tool was used by universities to find high school students from disadvantaged neighborhoods. It allowed admissions boards to consider socioeconomic status in their effort to diversify the student body without having race as a factor.

Landscape was under review by Students for Fair Admissions, the group whose lawsuit led to the Supreme Court overturning affirmative action

Students for Fair Admissions’s lawsuit against Harvard and the University of North Carolina that led to the U.S. Supreme Court overturning affirmative action, which banned race from being a factor considered in college admission.

“Any tool that allows admissions offices to consider race by proxy is a legal and reputation risk,” Edward Blum, the founder of Students for Fair Admissions, told The New York Times.

Yet, Landscape did not include racial demographics. It was “intentionally developed without the use or consideration of data on race or ethnicity,” the College Board noted as it removed the tool.

Instead, college admissions could use the tool to find an applicant’s address and high school, alongside data regarding the community in which they lived such as the median family income, the percentage of single-parent households and the crime rate.

According to a 2022 study, Landscape led to an increase of admissions offers for students hailing from disadvantaged neighborhoods and schools. It did not, however, contribute to an increase in enrollment of these students, except in cases in which the tool was used to shape financial aid offers.

Experts say Landscape was removed in an effort to align with the Trump administration’s anti-diversity efforts

“It is race-neutral and its use is perfectly legal,” according to Richard D. Kahlenberg, an expert witness for Students for Fair Admissions and the director of the American Identity Project at the Progressive Policy Institute.

Kahlenberg added that considerations of income class were allowed as a way to promote diversity by the Supreme Court when they overturned affirmative action.

The news comes as the Trump administration has led efforts to remove diversity and inclusion in education. For some, the decision by the College Board to remove Landscape is a way to avoid potential retaliation from the government.

It is “a politically savvy move to avoid risk,” Zack Mabel, a director of research at Georgetown University who helped develop Landscape, said.

“They will revert back to practices that tend to privilege students already coming from more privileged backgrounds,” unless the courts specify that it is legal for colleges to consider socioeconomic factors in admissions.