UC Faculty Warn of ‘Severe’ Math Deficits, Demand Return to Standardized Testing for STEM
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A Crisis in the Calculus Classroom
More than 600 faculty members across the University of California (UC) system are sounding the alarm on a growing proficiency gap in incoming STEM students, arguing that the abandonment of standardized testing has left professors teaching middle-school mathematics to university freshmen. Led by mathematicians at UC Berkeley, the faculty group has issued a formal demand for the UC system to reinstate SAT or ACT requirements for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics applicants starting in fall 2027.
The push comes after six years of test-free admissions, a policy originally implemented to foster equity and remove barriers for students from lower-income backgrounds. However, the authors of the open letter argue that the unintended consequence has been a collapse in foundational readiness. According to the faculty, the lack of a standardized benchmark has made it nearly impossible to gauge whether incoming students possess the quantitative fluency required for rigorous degree programs.
The data supporting these claims is stark. Between fall 2021 and fall 2023, diagnostic exams administered to first-semester calculus students at UC Berkeley revealed that at least 20% of students exhibited significant mathematical deficits. At UC San Diego, the situation appears even more acute; a recent Academic Senate work group report documented a nearly thirty-fold increase between 2020 and 2025 in first-year students whose math skills tested below the high school level, with 70% of those students falling below middle-school benchmarks.
The Tension Between Equity and Readiness
The UC system’s move toward test-blind admissions in May 2020 was hailed at the time as a visionary effort to dismantle systemic bias. The Board of Regents argued that the SAT and ACT disproportionately disadvantaged students of color and those without access to expensive test-prep resources. However, this decision flew in the face of the UC Academic Senate’s own Standardized Testing Task Force, which had previously suggested that test scores could actually serve as a catalyst for increasing admission rates among disadvantaged students by providing a quantifiable metric of talent independent of high school grading inflation.
Zvezda Stankova, a teaching professor in the Berkeley mathematics department and a lead organizer of the letter, argues that the current policy is paradoxically harming the very students it intended to protect. Stankova describes a classroom environment where a significant portion of students are in “free fall,” lacking the basic tools to engage with college-level material.
“I don’t see SAT hurting diversity,” Stankova noted, suggesting that admitting students into high-pressure STEM environments without the necessary preparation is a disservice. “You give them a ticket, an entrance ticket to a great university system like UC, only that they fail. How is that diversity?”
A Shift Toward the Ivy League Model
The UC controversy mirrors a broader trend across American higher education. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, many elite institutions paused testing requirements. However, the pendulum is swinging back. In 2024 and 2025, heavyweights including Harvard, Stanford, Caltech, Brown, and the University of Pennsylvania restored their testing requirements, concluding that a holistic review process is most effective when balanced with standardized data.
Currently, the UC system allows students to submit scores for course placement only after an admissions decision has been reached. The faculty’s proposal seeks to move these scores back to the front of the process and, crucially, grant STEM faculty formal oversight regarding the readiness standards for their respective majors.
The Administration’s Response
The UC leadership has stopped short of endorsing a full return to the SAT, though they acknowledge the systemic friction. Rachel Zaentz, a spokesperson for the UC system, stated that the university will continue to focus on “strengthening instruction, collaboration and support” for math readiness through partnerships with K-12 institutions.
Meanwhile, Ahmet Palazoglu, chair of the UC systemwide Academic Senate, confirmed that the Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools is preparing a roadmap to address student preparedness. Whether this roadmap leads back to the SAT remains uncertain, but the internal pressure from the faculty suggests that the “test-blind” experiment is facing its most significant challenge since its inception.
