Hundreds of Math Professors Ask UC to Bring Back SAT/ACT

More than 800 professors in the University of California system, including seven of nine math department chairs, are calling on system leaders to reinstate SAT/ACT testing requirements for applicants to STEM majors, citing a “widening divergence in mathematical preparation levels within the same classroom.” 

In an open letter, the faculty members pointed to a November report from the University of California San Diego Senate-Administration Workgroup on Admissions, which revealed that the number of first-year students with math skills below a middle school level increased nearly 30-fold since 2020, when the system first suspended its standardized testing requirements. 

“We now observe 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 professors wrote. “UC has been a national leader in supporting under-resourced students to do well in mathematics. However, UC has finite resources and can help only so many students, and only when the preparation deficits they need to overcome are within reach.”

Exactly why math scores at UCSD fell so steeply is unclear. The report authors hypothesized that the COVID-19 pandemic and increased enrollment of low-income students at the university may be driving the changes. Just Equations founder Pamela Burdman pointed out in February that score declines over the past year may have something to do with UCSD’s decision to ban students from using a calculator on the math placement exam.

Still, the professors’ argument in the open letter rests largely on what they’ve experienced in the classroom. 

In a statement to the Los Angeles Times, a UC spokesperson said that the system “will continue to focus on strengthening instruction, collaboration and support” for math readiness. Ahmet Palazoglu, chair of the systemwide Academic Senate, also told the Times in a statement that he has heard “concerns raised by UC faculty about student preparedness for undergraduate study,” and he has called on the system admissions board to address “timely topics tied to students’ college readiness and UC’s admission process.”

The UC Academic Senate’s Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools is scheduled to meet June 5.