Even the New York Times is calling for the University of California to bring back the SATs since its DEI admissions experiment is an utter failure.
In May of 2020, the University of California Board of Regents voted unanimously to stop using SAT or ACT scores as a consideration for admissions (UC). The results have been disastrous.
It is so bad that the editorial board at the New York Times is calling for SATs. The policy was known as “test blind.”
University leaders wrongly claimed that it would make admissions fairer and more equitable.
The results have been terrible. At the University of California, San Diego, a faculty group last year reported “a steep decline in the academic preparation” among entering students. Last fall, for example, nearly 12 percent of first-year U.C.S.D. undergraduates were not qualified to take pre-calculus, a low-level class, up from only 0.5 percent in 2020. “The key problem is that many of the students coming in do not know algebra,” said Mina Aganagic, a Berkeley physics professor. More than half of entering Berkeley students who took a math placement test incorrectly answered basic questions (such as solving for x in x²> 4).
Last fall, for example, nearly 12 percent of first-year U.C.S.D. undergraduates were not qualified to take pre-calculus, a low-level class, up from only 0.5 percent in 2020. “The key problem is that many of the students coming in do not know algebra,” said Mina Aganagic, a Berkeley physics professor.
They couldn’t even read and write.
Reading and writing skills have also deteriorated, and professors say they must spend time teaching elementary skills.
“After the SAT was dropped, I got students who could not write a sentence,” said Janet Sorensen, an English professor at Berkeley. There have obviously been several recent worrisome education trends, including smartphone distraction, artificial intelligence cheating, and Covid school closures. Yet the declines in preparedness among University of California students are larger than the regression elsewhere, which underscores the role of the test-blind policy.
Some of the world’s greatest research institutions are providing remediation to students who might not be intelligent enough to begin with.
California’s top public universities have essentially randomized aspects of the admissions process, admitting unprepared students while rejecting many who could thrive there. The change has damaged the university’s mission of fostering social mobility and training the next generation of scholars. Some of the world’s greatest research institutions must increasingly focus on remediation (New York Times). Note: The regents meet next on July 14, which precipitated the editorial.
Hundreds of faculty members want standards back, but the university leaders and trustees are ignoring them. They are dunces.
Hundreds of faculty members describe the situation as an emergency. More than 1,500 science and mathematics professors, including the chairs of more than 60 departments, have signed a letter asking the university to reinstate the test requirement. More than 700 humanities and social sciences professors have signed a similar letter. They noted that A.I. has made student essays a less useful part of a college application. “As faculty, we are best positioned to see the consequences of six years of test-blind admissions,” the professors wrote.
Will they listen to the NY Times?
