In the bleak days circa 2020, many universities abandoned admissions test requirements in the name of “equity.” They believed that certain races are inherently unable to compete, and therefore it was only fair to do away with tests as entrance requirements. The result has been a comprehensive disaster in higher education, made worse by the fact that, owing to grade inflation, there is no way other than the SAT and ACT tests to distinguish one high school senior from another.
Many colleges and universities, realizing their error, have reinstated entrance test requirements. The University of California has not yet done so. Which is why 1,000 Cal professors in the STEM fields have signed a letter calling for re-institution of the SAT:
Wow. 1,000 University of California professors signed an open letter to the Board of Regents demanding they bring back standardized testing after it was removed during covid for equity.
They reveal that many STEM students are BELOW Middle School level in Math!
“The SAT… pic.twitter.com/BouCUIKfEC
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) May 31, 2026
A few excerpts from the letter:
[I]n the last five years, the number of students whose mathematics skills fall below high school level increased nearly thirtyfold; moreover, 70% of those students fall below middle school levels, reaching roughly one in twelve members of the entering cohort.
So, in the supposedly elite flagship California system, 8% of the students admitted in STEM disciplines are below middle school levels in mathematical proficiency. I take it that means they are unable to multiply and divide.
We now observe preparation gaps so severe that instructors must reteach middle-school mathematics while simultaneously teaching the material students need for sciences, engineering, economics, and other quantitatively demanding fields.
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The widening abilities gap followed the 2020 elimination of the SAT/ACT, a temporary measure that has now become a permanent vulnerability. This outcome was explicitly predicted by the Academic Senate’s 2020 Standardized Testing Task Force (STTF) report, which warned that removing these tests would eliminate a vital predictor of college success and obscure the impact of severe high-school grade inflation. Unfortunately, the outcomes cautioned against in that report have now materialized in the data across our campuses. …
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The current admissions metrics, based primarily on GPA and essays, can no longer reliably distinguish readiness for university-level STEM majors in an era of severe grade inflation and Al-assisted application essays.
A big part of this story, of course, is that America’s public K-12 schools are almost unbelievably bad. They have largely been turned over to teachers’ unions for purposes of indoctrination rather than education, and I don’t think those of us who went to school in an earlier era can comprehend how inept they are. We probably shouldn’t be surprised that students who can’t do middle school math are being admitted into upper-tier STEM programs. That is how bad our education system is.
