BUZZ
Key Takeaways
- Over 360 UC mathematics faculty advocate for reinstating standardized testing in admissions due to rising math deficiencies among students, with reports showing a thirtyfold increase in students with math skills below high school level.
- Faculty argue that current admissions practices fail to ensure adequate mathematical readiness for STEM majors, resulting in faculty having to reteach middle school math despite covering higher-level material.
- The letter emphasizes that standardized tests are essential for equity and academic readiness, countering claims that they hinder diversity, and calls for faculty oversight of admissions policies.
- The UC system removed standardized testing requirements in 2020, but several prestigious universities have recently reinstated them, citing improvements in predicting students' academic success.
Over 360 University of California mathematics faculty members signed an open letter calling on the Board of Regents to reinstate standardized testing requirements for admissions due to severe math deficiencies among their students.
“Over the past five years, we have seen a widening divergence in mathematical preparation levels within the same classroom. This trend indicates that current admissions practices do not provide a sufficiently reliable check on mathematical readiness for STEM majors,” the letter reads.
Citing the UC San Diego Senate–Administration Workgroup on Admissions report, the letter adds that the number of incoming students with math skills below high school level has surged nearly thirtyfold.
Further, 70 percent of these students are performing below middle school level.
“These findings are corroborated by data across our campuses. For example, for three consecutive years, 20-30% of UC Berkeley first-semester calculus students who participated in mathematical diagnostic testing displayed severe preparation deficits,” the letter reads.
As a result, professors are reteaching middle school mathematics while teaching higher-level material in demanding fields.
Further, the prevalence of underprepared students creates “polarized courses” that offer a weaker education to all students, the letter states.
It also adds that “The SAT/ACT mathematics requirement is not an obstacle to equity,” but “a prerequisite for it.”
“Failing to measure preparation gaps does not remove barriers; it moves them into the classroom, where they become harder to overcome,” it states.
The professors ultimately called for UC schools to use standardized tests to validate academic readiness, establish faculty oversight of admissions policies, and “test admissions criteria against student outcomes.”
The University of California system stopped requiring standardized test scores for admission in 2020.
Several other top universities across the U.S. have reinstated standardized testing requirements in recent years. They previously argued that such tests perpetuate systemic racial inequities, The College Fix previously reported.
In 2024, Yale, Brown, and Dartmouth reinstated the SAT requirement after studies found standardized test scores to be the best predictor of students’ future academic performance.
Princeton University decided to reinstate the requirement last year, starting with the 2027–28 admissions cycle.
The move came after a five-year review of data from the test-optional period, which showed that students who submitted test scores generally performed better academically at Princeton than those who did not.
Also in 2025, an announcement from the University of Pennsylvania stated that standardized testing in admissions would return “with the goal of bringing clarity and transparency to the application process.”
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