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A growing group of University of California professors is urging the state university system to bring back standardized testing, warning that eliminating admissions tests has reduced academic readiness and forced educators to teach “middle school math” to college students.
More than 1,400 UC faculty members signed an open letter calling on leadership to reinstate SAT and ACT math requirements for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) majors. The major rollback follows a dramatic multi-year decline in student performance after the university was completely “blind” to 2021.
Karajean Hyde, Co-Director of the UC Irvine Math Project and Lecturer in Education, told Fox News Digital that important benchmarks are desperately needed to restore the foundation of education.
“I would say we need some ways to fit the whole picture,” Hyde said. “A student is not just a single number or a single letter, but a general assessment can play an important role in ensuring a single level of measurement of where that bar is so that the bar does not move.”
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The University of California Irvine professor argued that “there needs to be some targeted action” because of more than 100 faculty who want state officials to restore standardized test scores. (Stock via Getty Images)
Although Hyde is not directly involved in the university’s internal admissions decisions, his work focuses on K-12 educational access and preparing advanced STEM graduates to become future teachers.
The open letter, led primarily by STEM faculty, notes that teachers see preparation gaps so severe that they must devote limited university classroom time to teaching math. Data culled from diagnostic tests across several campuses—including UC Berkeley and UC San Diego—revealed that a large proportion of incoming math students showed significant foundational deficits.
Neetu Arnold, a Paulson policy analyst at the Manhattan Institute, told Fox News Digital that the “inflation” in high schools has left universities blind.
“I think these professors are dealing with the consequences of relying too much on grades, especially if the increase in funding levels has made GPAs less informative,” Arnold said.
Arnold noted that the lack of common metrics ends up hurting professors and students alike, leading to a distinct loss of academic rigor in all university classrooms. Because educators are forced to slow advanced courses to catch up with underprepared students, STEM courses have become increasingly popular, leaving classrooms fractured between those ready for college-level work and those missing basic skills.
This disparity, Arnold warned, ultimately creates unequal outcomes for students themselves. Many are accepted into highly demanding majors without the basic tools needed to succeed, leading to high dropout or failure rates in key security courses.
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The University of California agreed that it will no longer consider SAT or ACT scores when making admissions and scholarship decisions following a 2019 lawsuit filed on behalf of low-income students of color and students with disabilities. ((Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images))
Hyde echoed this concern, pointing out that an “A” grade no longer means the same thing in different school districts.
“In the K-12 system, we’re struggling a little bit with what does an ‘A’ mean? Does it mean they’re good at content? Does it mean they’re working hard? Does it mean they’re doing homework?” Hyde said. “And so we need to better understand who those kids are who really know their content.”
The UC system first instituted standardized testing requirements during the pandemic in 2020. The policy was made permanent following the settlement of a 2019 lawsuit filed by advocacy groups that argued the SAT and ACT were inherently biased toward low-income students of color and students with disabilities.
However, UC faculty signatories to the petition argue that eliminating the test hinders true equality by closing preparation gaps rather than solving them. Hyde emphasized that standardized tests can serve as a tool to identify talent in underserved areas, referring to successful local programs in Southern California that provide free SAT prep to middle and high schools.
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Hundreds of University of California (UC) professors have signed a petition calling for the reinstatement of SAT/ACT math requirements for students after they revealed that they are re-teaching basic math to incoming students. (Jeffrey Basinger/Newsday RM via Getty Images)
“Standardized tests – they can play a big role in ensuring equal access for students to get to that point,” Hyde noted, adding that basic standards should be raised from kindergarten.
“I absolutely do not believe that we should lower the standard of what we expect from our STEM students in the university system. My angle is how do we ensure that the students arrive ready to reach the level required at the university level,” he said.
The demand for the unit comes as top institutions across the country—including Dartmouth, Yale, Brown, and Princeton—completely changed their selective or blind testing policies in the past two years, citing internal data showing that standardized test scores remain the single best predictor of a student’s college success.
The University of California Board of Regents did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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Lindsay Kornick of Fox News contributed to this report.
