EDITORS' CORNER
California’s STEM professors are not the only ones demanding the SAT admissions requirement be reinstated, saying far too many college students cannot do basic math. Social science scholars want in on the action, too.
“We are University of California faculty from the social sciences, humanities, arts, business, law, education, and other non-STEM fields. We are writing to endorse our STEM colleagues’ earlier open letter regarding the math component of SAT/ACT and argue for also using the verbal reasoning component of SAT/ACT in undergraduate admissions,” according to a new open letter addressed to University of California leaders.
The professors call test-blind admissions policies a “failed experiment of the last six years.” The letter states:
The absence of SAT/ACT-math is felt well beyond STEM education. Many social sciences and applied fields, as well as some humanities fields, rely heavily on statistics and quantitative reasoning. Students without a solid grounding in algebra struggle in statistics, which affects learning across fields. Even some non-quantitative fields (e.g., analytic philosophy) require students to use forms of reasoning closely related to mathematical thinking. Not surprisingly, Table 6 of the Senate task force report shows that SAT-math predicts grades in social science classes, and to a certain extent in humanities classes, even after controlling for high school GPA and the verbal reasoning component of the SAT.
The Daily Californian reports that more than 120 humanities and social science professors across the UC system have signed the letter so far, which was released Thursday and has helped the controversy gain traction.
“The UC Academic Senate has announced that it plans to review UC admissions policies, specifically regarding the use of standardized test scores in freshman admissions and academic course requirements,” the Californian reported.
The humanities memo comes in the wake of a memo signed by over 1,400 STEM professors demanding the return of the SAT requirement, saying far too many students are wholly unprepared for the rigors of college math.
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