Photo by David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
University of California professors in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields are sounding the alarm about severe math deficiencies among their students. “We now observe preparation gaps so severe that instructors must reteach middle school mathematics,” says an open letter signed by more than 600 UC professors. The signatories believe that high school GPAs and essays can no longer serve as adequate signals of academic merit “in an era of severe grade inflation and AI-assisted application essays”. In response, the professors want the SAT reinstated in admissions for STEM majors to uphold academic standards.
This is a relatively new problem. The UC system stopped considering standardized tests such as the SAT and ACT as a temporary measure at the onset of the Covid pandemic in 2020, as the tests were unable to go ahead. This decision was made despite a warning by the Standardized Testing Task Force, which advised against the university making the test optional. But opposition to standardized tests had already been building for years, with concerns over perpetuating racial inequities. The pandemic permitted universities to systematically drop the tests, and intense pressure from progressive activists helped those temporary measures endure.
Now, like many decisions from the era that ignored research in favor of progressive ideology, universities are gradually reversing course. A handful of schools — including MIT, Stanford, and the University of Texas at Austin — have reinstated the SAT/ACT into admissions decisions. The College Board reports that more than 60 schools require standardized tests. Still, over 2,000 colleges do not consider standardized test scores.
Continue reading the entire piece here at UnHerd
______________________
Neetu Arnold is a Paulson Policy Analyst at the Manhattan Institute. Daniel Buck is a research fellow and the director of the Conservative Education Reform Network at the American Enterprise Institute.