University of California math professors are sounding the alarm that students cannot handle basic math, forcing them to reteach middle school skills and demanding that standardized tests be brought back before the system collapses any further.
Story Snapshot
- More than 360 University of California mathematics faculty report “severe” math deficits and want SAT or ACT scores required again for science and engineering majors.
- Internal data show a nearly thirtyfold spike in freshmen testing below high school math level, with most scoring under middle school standards.[1][2]
- Professors blame test-free admissions, inflated high school grades, and political pressure to hit “equity” targets instead of academic readiness.[1][2]
- The fight exposes a deeper crisis in California’s education system that leaves taxpayers paying for remediation instead of real college learning.
Professors Confront the Fallout of Test-Free Admissions
Over 360 University of California mathematics professors have signed an open letter warning that their classrooms are filling with students who cannot perform basic math needed for college-level science and engineering.[1] The professors say that after six years without standardized tests in admissions, they now see “severe” skill gaps, with many students unable to handle material that should have been mastered well before high school graduation.[1] Faculty report spending valuable university time reteaching middle school math instead of advancing higher-level coursework.[1]
The professors are asking the University of California Board of Regents to reinstate standardized test requirements—such as the SAT or ACT—for applicants to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics programs starting with the fall 2027 admissions cycle.[1] They argue that standardized tests are the only consistent way to verify that applicants truly are ready for demanding quantitative majors, especially when high school grades have become unreliable indicators.[1][2] Their message is blunt: feel-good admissions policies are failing students, wasting tuition dollars, and eroding academic standards.[1][2]
Data Reveal a Stunning Collapse in Basic Math Skills
The warning from professors is backed by hard numbers coming from inside the University of California system itself.[1][2] A University of California San Diego Senate–Administration report on admissions found that between 2020 and 2025, the number of freshmen whose math placement scores fell below high school standards jumped nearly thirtyfold.[2] Even more striking, about 70 percent of those underprepared students tested below middle school level, despite most having completed the required college-prep math sequence in high school and earning high grades.[1][2]
The report ties this decline to several forces that conservatives have long criticized: the elimination of standardized tests, grade inflation in high schools, and political pressure from state lawmakers to prioritize demographic “representation” over demonstrated readiness.[2] Faculty note that when the University of California dropped test requirements in 2020, admissions officers leaned more heavily on transcripts and subjective factors that are easy to manipulate and hard to compare across schools.[1] That shift made it harder to screen out students who had been pushed through the system without genuine mastery.[1][2]
Equity Rhetoric Collides with Academic Reality
The University of California originally suspended the SAT and ACT in the name of equity, with the Board of Regents voting unanimously in 2020 to eliminate them as formal admissions requirements. Advocates claimed that test scores were unfair and that removing them would help low-income and minority students gain access to elite campuses. Faculty now counter that real fairness means telling students the truth about whether they are ready for the majors they are choosing, not admitting them into programs where they are almost guaranteed to struggle.[1][2]
The University of California eliminated standardized tests as an admissions requirement in 2020, aiming to increase diversity. Now, over 600 math and science professors have signed a letter urging the test requirement be reinstated.
👉https://t.co/eosRFMcjog pic.twitter.com/5grq7Bw0yd— Sacramento Daily Press (@SacDailyPress) May 28, 2026
The professors’ letter stresses that standardized tests can actually promote equity by giving hard-working students from weaker schools a way to prove their skills on a level playing field.[1] They urge the University of California to use tests alongside grades to validate academic readiness, and to study how different admissions criteria correlate with student success rather than chasing political targets.[1] Their stance echoes a national trend, as universities like Yale, Brown, Dartmouth, Princeton, and the University of Pennsylvania have recently restored test requirements after data showed that test scores are strong predictors of college performance.[1]
Parents, Taxpayers, and the Future of Higher Education
For parents and taxpayers, the situation raises deeper questions about what they are paying for in public higher education. When incoming students arrive at a prestigious university needing instruction below middle school level, professors must slow courses, dilute rigor, or watch large numbers fail.[1][2] That dynamic punishes prepared students, undermines degrees, and turns four-year programs into expensive remediation that should have been handled long before college.
Conservatives have warned for years that replacing standards with slogans would eventually hurt the very students politicians claim to protect. The University of California math crisis now provides concrete evidence: abolishing objective measures like standardized tests did not magically fix inequality, but it did hide serious problems until they exploded inside college classrooms.[1][2] As professors demand a return to testing, the real battle is over whether education policy will once again put mastery, merit, and accountability ahead of ideology.
Sources:
[1] Web – CA University Professors Discover Students Can’t Do Basic Math, Demand …
[2] Web – Citing ‘severe’ math deficits, UC faculty demand a return to SAT tests …
