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A growing consortium of University of California professors is urging the state university system to bring back standardized testing, warning that the elimination of admissions tests has degraded academic readiness and forced instructors to teach “middle school math” to college undergraduates.
More than 1,400 UC faculty members have signed an open letter calling on leadership to reinstate the SAT and ACT mathematics requirements for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) majors. The massive pushback follows a dramatic multi-year decline in student proficiency after the university went completely “test-blind” in 2021.
Karajean Hyde, Co-Director of the UC Irvine Math Project and a Lecturer of Education, told Digital that objective benchmarks are desperately needed to restore academic baselines.
“I’d say we need some objective measures to go along with the whole picture,” Hyde said. “A student’s not just a single number or a single letter, but standardized testing can play an important role in ensuring one level of measuring where that bar is so that the bar doesn’t move.”
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A University of California Irvine professor argued that there “needs to be some objective measures” in light of over 100 faculty calling for state officials to reinstate standardized test scores. (iStock via Getty Images)
While Hyde is not directly involved in the university’s internal admissions decisions, her work focuses heavily on K-12 educational outreach and preparing undergraduate STEM majors to become future educators.
The open letter, spearheaded primarily by STEM faculty, notes that instructors are witnessing preparation gaps so severe that they must dedicate finite university class time to remedial math instruction. Data cited from diagnostic testing across several campuses—including UC Berkeley and UC San Diego—revealed that a significant portion of incoming calculus students displayed severe foundational deficits.
Neetu Arnold, a Paulson Policy Analyst at the Manhattan Institute, told Digital that “grade inflation” in high schools has left universities flying blind.
“I think these professors are dealing with the consequences of relying too heavily on grades, especially when grade inflation has made GPAs less informative,” Arnold said.
Arnold noted that the lack of standard metrics ultimately hurts both professors and students, resulting in a distinct loss of academic rigor across university classrooms. Because instructors are forced to slow down advanced lectures to catch up underprepared students, STEM courses have become increasingly polarized, leaving classrooms fractured between those ready for college-level work and those missing baseline skills.
This disparity, Arnold warned, ultimately creates inequitable outcomes for the students themselves. Many are admitted into highly demanding majors without the foundational tools necessary to succeed, leading to higher drop-out or failure rates in critical gatekeeper courses.
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The University of California agreed to no longer consider SAT or ACT scores when making admissions and scholarship decisions after a settlement for 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 these concerns, pointing out that an “A” grade no longer means the same thing across different school districts.
“In the K-12 system, we’re struggling a little bit with what does an ‘A’ mean? Does it mean they have content mastery? Do they work hard? Does it mean they do homework?” Hyde said. “And so we need to understand better who are those kids that actually know their content.”
The UC system initially halted standardized testing requirements during the pandemic in 2020. The policy was made permanent following the settlement of a 2019 lawsuit filed by advocacy groups who argued that the SAT and ACT were inherently biased against low-income students of color and students with disabilities.
However, UC faculty signatures on the petition argue that eliminating the test has actually hindered true equity by masking preparation gaps rather than solving them. Hyde emphasized that standardized tests can act as a tool to spot talent in underserved areas, referencing successful localized programs in Southern California that provide free SAT prep to dozens of middle and high schools.
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Hundreds of University of California (UC) professors signed a letter demanding the reinstatement of SAT/ACT mathematics requirements for students after revealing they are re-teaching basic math to incoming students. (Jeffrey Basinger/Newsday RM via Getty Images))
“Standardized tests – they can play a great role in ensuring more equitable access for students to reach that bar,” Hyde noted, adding that foundational standards must be raised starting in kindergarten.
“I absolutely don’t believe the bar should be lowered for what we’re expecting out of our STEM students in the university system. My angle then is how do we ensure that students are coming ready to reach the bar that’s needed at the university level,” she said.
The faculty’s demand comes as elite institutions nationwide—including Dartmouth, Yale, Brown, and Princeton—have completely reversed their test-optional or test-blind policies over the last 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 Digital’s request for comment.
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‘ Lindsay Kornick contributed to this report.
