Don't make us reteach middle-school math, say STEM profs at 'test-free' UC

Bring back the SAT/ACT testing requirement for University of California admissions, says an open letter signed by more than 900 professors. Would-be STEM majors are being admitted with "preparation gaps so severe that instructors must reteach middle-school mathematics while simultaneously teaching the material students need for sciences, engineering, economics, and other quantitatively demanding fields."

The number of incoming students with very low math skills has increased nearly thirtyfold, a UC San Diego report warned the Board of Regents. All the UC campuses are seeing many more unprepared students, including those who want to major in technical fields, the letter states. “Failing to measure preparation gaps does not remove barriers; it moves them into the classroom, where they become harder to overcome.”

“A lot of students have taken precalculus or calculus in high school, and they've basically been lied to by their school systems. They don't actually know these subjects at all." -- Alex Paulin, Berkeley math professor

Dropping standardized test scores for admissions was supposed to expand equity, writes

Gabrielle Temaat on College Fix. The University of California system stopped requiring standardized test scores for admission in 2020, and many other universities did the same.

However, highly selective universities such as Yale, Brown, Dartmouth and Penn have reinstated the SAT requirement, "after studies found standardized test scores to be the best predictor of students’ future academic performance." Princeton will reinstate the requirement starting with the 2027–28 admissions cycle, she writes.

Grade inflation -- and now AI cheating -- have made other measures of readiness increasingly unreliable. The open letter also wants UC schools to let STEM faculty oversee admissions for STEM majors and "test admissions criteria against student outcomes."

“The SAT/ACT mathematics requirement is not an obstacle to equity,” but “a prerequisite for it,” the professors argue. UC must be able "to provide its students with the education needed to become leaders in California’s scientific, technological, and economic future."

Berkeley is teaching "foundational math" to unprepared students, reports Alexander Rony.

“A lot of students have taken precalculus or calculus in high school, and they've basically been lied to by their school systems,” said Alex Paulin, a math professor. “They don't actually know these subjects at all — not enough to do remotely well in the classes here.”

He helped create the Solid Foundations Program, which runs summer and first-semester fall courses to prepare students for success in STEM fields, business and other majors.

Would-be elementary teachers say the foundations course has boosted their confidence about the math they'll someday be teaching, says math tutor Drisana Bhatia. The course is being adapted for high schools.