California's Academic Crisis: How UC's Elimination of Standardized Testing Preceded Dramatic Decline in Student Preparedness

BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front)

A November 2025 UC San Diego faculty report revealed that nearly one in eight incoming freshmen (11.8%) require remedial math courses covering middle school-level material—a thirtyfold increase since 2020. The University of California eliminated standardized test requirements in May 2020 citing equity concerns and racial bias, transitioning to "test-blind" admissions by 2023. However, the UC system has not reinstated testing requirements, even as elite universities like Harvard, Yale, MIT, Dartmouth, and Brown have reversed course and mandated SAT/ACT scores again. The crisis reflects compounding factors: COVID-19 learning loss, grade inflation, elimination of objective admissions metrics, and increased enrollment from under-resourced schools—raising fundamental questions about academic preparedness and institutional mission.

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UC San Diego Report Exposes Thirtyfold Increase in Students Lacking Basic Math Skills as Elite Universities Nationwide Return to Testing Requirements

December 6, 2025

The University of California San Diego released a sobering faculty report in November revealing that remedial math enrollment has surged from under 1 percent to nearly 12 percent of incoming freshmen in just five years. The crisis has forced the prestigious research university to redesign courses to teach elementary and middle school mathematics—making it the only UC campus offering credit-bearing courses for elementary-level math remediation.

The report from UC San Diego's Senate-Administration Working Group on Admissions paints a troubling picture: between fall 2020 and fall 2025, students whose math placement exam results fell below middle school standards increased nearly thirtyfold. In fall 2024, 42 percent of students in the remedial Math 2 course had passed precalculus or calculus in high school, while 25 percent earned 4.0 GPAs in high school math—yet demonstrated proficiency below eighth-grade levels.

"We are basically setting them up for failure," Professor Akos Rona-Tas, who helped author the report, told KPBS. "Many of these students would have been much better off going to say community college and taking the transfer route."

The 2020 Decision

The timing coincides precisely with a watershed moment in UC admissions policy. On May 21, 2020, the UC Board of Regents voted unanimously 23-0 to phase out SAT and ACT requirements, with then-President Janet Napolitano declaring that "the right test is better than no test but a flawed test should not be continued to be required."

The decision followed a two-year review initiated in July 2018, when Napolitano asked the Academic Senate to evaluate standardized testing practices. The elimination was driven by concerns about racial equity and socioeconomic disparities in test performance.

"The main reason we are looking at SATs is because they are racist," said Kum-Kum Bhavnani, then-chair of the Academic Senate, during the May 2020 Board of Regents meeting, though she noted the bias could be mitigated through holistic admissions review.

A May 2021 legal settlement in the case Kawika Smith v. Regents of the University of California cemented the policy, stipulating that "no University of California campus will consider SAT or ACT scores in determining whether to offer admission" through spring 2025.

The UC system became fully "test-blind" by fall 2023, meaning scores submitted by students are not reviewed at all in admissions decisions. Plans to develop a UC-specific standardized test by 2025 were abandoned in November 2021.

The Perfect Storm

The UC San Diego report attributes the dramatic decline to multiple converging factors:

COVID-19 Learning Loss: Remote instruction during 2020-2021 severely disrupted K-12 education, particularly in mathematics. The report notes that "gaps in knowledge are most visible in under-resourced schools in poor areas that already were struggling before the pandemic."

Grade Inflation: Without standardized test scores, admissions officers relied heavily on high school transcripts—which proved unreliable indicators of actual proficiency. Students in Math 2 averaged a 3.65 GPA (A-minus) in high school math courses despite demonstrating middle school-level skills.

Increased LCFF+ Enrollment: UC San Diego dramatically expanded admissions from schools covered by California's Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF+)—public schools where over 75 percent of students qualify for free lunch, are English learners, or are foster youth. By 2024, 31 percent of UC San Diego's in-state students came from LCFF+ schools, up from 17 percent in 2020—the second-highest rate in the UC system after UC Merced.

Elimination of Objective Metrics: The removal of standardized testing left admissions officers without a uniform benchmark to assess academic readiness across diverse high school contexts.

System-Wide Crisis

UC San Diego's crisis is not isolated. According to the faculty report, approximately half of UC campus math chairs surveyed reported that students unable to start in college-level precalculus increased twofold between fall 2020 and fall 2025, while the other half reported threefold increases.

A Public Policy Institute of California report from April 2025 found that only 22 percent of California graduates were rated college-ready based on standardized test scores for reading and math—a three-point drop from 2019.

The California Department of Education's 2025 School Dashboard showed improving high school graduation rates even as college readiness declined, raising questions about academic standards.

National Reversal

While the UC system maintains its test-blind policy, elite universities nationwide have reversed course:

• MIT reinstated testing requirements in March 2022
• Georgetown brought back requirements for the class of 2026
• Dartmouth announced reinstatement in February 2024 for the class of 2029
• Yale followed with a "test-flexible" policy in February 2024
• Brown reinstated requirements in February 2024
• Harvard announced reinstatement in April 2024, reversing its commitment to remain test-optional through 2026

These reversals were driven by research suggesting standardized tests improve both meritocracy and diversity. A 2023 paper by Harvard economist Raj Chetty and colleagues found SAT scores strongly predicted college success and could help identify high-achieving, low-income students who might otherwise be overlooked.

"Standardized tests are a means for all students, regardless of their background and life experience, to provide information that is predictive of success in college and beyond," said Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Hopi Hoekstra.

MIT reported enrolling its most diverse class after reinstating testing requirements.

Political Pressure Mounts

The UC system now faces pressure from multiple directions. In February 2025, the U.S. Department of Education under the Trump administration issued a "Dear Colleague" letter stating that eliminating standardized testing to achieve racial diversity violates the Equal Protection Clause if motivated by racial considerations.

In March 2025, the Justice Department announced compliance investigations into admissions policies at Stanford University and three UC campuses: Berkeley, Los Angeles, and Irvine.

UC Berkeley's Board on Admissions and Relations with Schools (BOARS) began reevaluating standardized testing in December 2024 and January 2025, with some faculty favoring reinstatement. UC Berkeley formed a task force to analyze the issue.

A September 2025 research report by Saul Geiser of UC Berkeley's Center for Studies in Higher Education argued against reinstatement, stating that "high school GPA is the stronger predictor of college success" and that "UC has seen gains in low-income, first-generation, and underrepresented minority enrollment without declines in the academic performance of entering students."

The Human Cost

The UC San Diego report warns that the university's capacity to remediate underprepared students "is not limitless."

"If we take seriously our mission as an engine of social mobility, we must be prepared to support students who have been underserved by their prior schooling," the report states. "But our capacity is not limitless. We can only help so many students, and only when the gaps they need to overcome are within reach."

Students who place into remedial math face dramatically lower chances of completing STEM degrees. Over 900 students were enrolled in combined Math 2 and Math 3B courses in fall 2024—representing 12.5 percent of the incoming class.

Many will not graduate but will still incur student debt. The report notes that students from LCFF+ schools made up over half of remedial math enrollments, reaching 68 percent in some years.

Expert Analysis

"Every force in American education has been working toward this moment," wrote Frederick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute. "COVID was catastrophic, but the rot began long before."

Rick Hess noted that the crisis represents the convergence of pandemic learning loss, the elimination of standardized testing, grade inflation, and politically-motivated admissions expansion.

"The UCSD faculty report is admirably blunt: 'Admitting large numbers of underprepared students risks harming those students and straining limited instructional resources,'" Hess wrote. "The professors who wrote this report deserve enormous credit for saying aloud what the broader education establishment will not: we are setting students up to fail."

Uncertain Future

The UC system has not announced plans to reinstate standardized testing, despite mounting evidence and national trends. The settlement preventing consideration of SAT/ACT scores expired with spring 2025 admissions, opening the door for policy changes.

However, any return to testing would require Board of Regents approval and would likely face significant political opposition from equity advocates who view standardized tests as perpetuating inequality.

The UC San Diego report recommends implementing a "math index" in holistic admissions review and better communication with high schools about actual student preparation levels.

The crisis raises fundamental questions about the tension between access and readiness, equity and excellence, and the proper role of objective academic metrics in college admissions.

As California grapples with these challenges, one thing is clear: the elimination of standardized testing in 2020, combined with pandemic disruption and grade inflation, has created a perfect storm that is now washing underprepared students into elite universities—with potentially devastating consequences for their academic and financial futures.

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Fact-Check Notes on Interview Claims

CLAIM: "12% of kids can barely do math at middle school level"
VERDICT: ACCURATE - The UC San Diego report confirms 11.8% of fall 2025 freshmen placed into remedial math below middle school level, and the figure reached 12.5% for combined Math 2 and Math 3B enrollment in fall 2024.

CLAIM: "In 2020, the University of California system decided not to use standardized testing"
VERDICT: ACCURATE - The UC Board of Regents voted unanimously on May 21, 2020, to phase out SAT/ACT requirements, becoming test-optional for 2021-2022 and test-blind by 2023.

CLAIM: Pete Peterson "is the dean of public policy at Pepperdine University"
VERDICT: ACCURATE - Pete Peterson serves as the Braun Family Dean's Chair at Pepperdine School of Public Policy, appointed in March 2016.

CLAIM: "Charlie Kirk was murdered"
VERDICT: ACCURATE - Conservative activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated on September 10, 2025, while speaking at Utah Valley University. Tyler James Robinson, 22, was charged with aggravated murder.

CLAIM: Many elite universities "stopped using standardized testing" and have "returned to using those tests"
VERDICT: ACCURATE - Harvard, Yale, MIT, Brown, and Dartmouth all eliminated testing requirements during COVID-19 and have reinstated them for classes entering 2025-2029.

CLAIM: UC system has not returned to standardized testing
VERDICT: ACCURATE - As of December 2025, the UC system remains test-blind with no announced plans to reinstate SAT/ACT requirements, though some campuses are studying the issue.

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Sources

Primary Documents

1. University of California San Diego Senate-Administration Working Group on Admissions, "Report on Academic Preparation," November 2025. Available at: https://ucsdguardian.org/2025/11/17/admissions-report-finds-academic-preparedness-deficiencies-in-incoming-ucsd-students/

2. University of California Board of Regents, "University of California Board of Regents unanimously approved changes to standardized testing requirement for undergraduates," Press Release, May 21, 2020. https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/press-room/university-california-board-regents-unanimously-approved-changes-standardized-testing

3. Kawika Smith v. Regents of the University of California, Settlement Agreement, May 2021.

News Reports

4. Namvari, Sierra and Logan Aghai. "UC San Diego finds 1 in 8 incoming freshmen performing below a middle school math level." Annenberg Media, November 17, 2025. https://www.uscannenbergmedia.com/2025/11/17/uc-san-diego-finds-1-in-8-incoming-freshmen-performing-below-a-middle-school-math-level/

5. Zahniser, David. "UC San Diego, a giant in science, is struggling with freshmen who can't do basic math." San Diego Union-Tribune, November 15, 2025. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/11/15/uc-san-diego-a-giant-in-science-is-struggling-with-freshman-who-cant-do-basic-math/

6. Burke, Lilah. "UC San Diego Sees Students' Math Skills Plummet." Inside Higher Ed, November 12, 2025. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/11/12/uc-san-diego-sees-students-math-skills-plummet

7. McGreevy, Patrick. "The UC nixes SAT, ACT as standardized test requirements." CalMatters, May 22, 2020. https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2020/05/uc-sat-act-standardized-test-requirements/

8. Watanabe, Teresa. "In historic action, UC moves to drop SAT/ACT and develop a replacement exam for admissions." EdSource, May 22, 2020. https://edsource.org/2020/in-historic-action-uc-moves-to-drop-sat-act-and-develop-a-replacement-exam-for-admissions/632174

9. Quintana, Chris. "University of California votes to phase out SAT and ACT." Inside Higher Ed, May 26, 2020. https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2020/05/26/university-california-votes-phase-out-sat-and-act

Elite University Testing Reinstatement

10. Murakami, Kery. "Harvard reinstates standardized testing requirement, following Yale, MIT." Axios, April 11, 2024. https://www.axios.com/2024/04/11/harvard-standardized-testing-requirement-sat-act

11. Rosenheck, Jake. "Harvard College Reinstitutes Mandatory Testing." Harvard Magazine, April 11, 2024. https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2024/04/standardized-tests-for-admission-reinstated

12. Moody, Josh. "In Sudden Reversal, Harvard To Require Standardized Testing for Next Admissions Cycle." The Harvard Crimson, April 11, 2024. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2024/4/11/harvard-sat-act-admissions-requirement/

13. Carapezza, Kirk. "Harvard reinstates testing requirement for admissions." GBH News, April 11, 2024. https://www.wgbh.org/news/education-news/2024-04-11/harvard-reinstates-testing-requirement-for-admissions

Research and Analysis

14. Chetty, Raj, David Deming, and John Friedman. "Diversifying Society's Leaders? The Determinants and Causal Effects of Admission to Highly Selective Private Colleges." Opportunity Insights Working Paper, 2023.

15. Geiser, Saul. "Why the SAT is a Poor Fit for America's Public Universities." UC Berkeley Center for Studies in Higher Education Research & Occasional Paper Series, September 30, 2025. https://cshe.berkeley.edu/news/new-rops-report-challenges-return-sat

16. Hess, Frederick. "A Sad Collapse in Student Preparation at UC San Diego Was Inevitable." American Enterprise Institute, November 2025. https://www.aei.org/education/a-sad-collapse-in-student-preparation-at-uc-san-diego-was-inevitable/

17. Public Policy Institute of California. "College Readiness in California," April 2025.

Charlie Kirk Assassination

18. "Assassination of Charlie Kirk." Wikipedia, Updated December 6, 2025. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Charlie_Kirk

19. Kapur, Sahil and Allan Smith. "Poll: Majorities across parties say 'extreme political rhetoric' was a contributor to Charlie Kirk's killing." NBC News, November 17, 2025. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/poll-majorities-parties-extreme-rhetoric-charlie-kirk-killing-rcna243560

20. Detrow, Scott. "The killing of Charlie Kirk adds to a time of political upheaval and violence." NPR, September 11, 2025. https://www.npr.org/2025/09/11/nx-s1-5537908/political-violence-charlie-kirk

21. "Charlie Kirk assassination prompts outcry over political violence." NBC News, September 11, 2025. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/live-blog/live-updates-shooting-charlie-kirk-event-utah-rcna230437

UC System and Trump Administration

22. Elite Educational Institute. "The University of California Under Pressure — Why the SAT/ACT May Be Coming Back." May 9, 2025. https://eliteprep.com/blog/the-university-of-california-under-pressure

23. U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights. "Dear Colleague Letter on Race-Based Admissions," February 14, 2025.

Pete Peterson Biography

24. Pepperdine University. "Pete Peterson." Faculty Profile. https://publicpolicy.pepperdine.edu/academics/faculty/pete-peterson/

25. Pepperdine University. "Pete Peterson Named Dean of School of Public Policy." Press Release, March 17, 2016. https://www.pepperdine.edu/newsroom/articles/pete-peterson-named-dean-school-public-policy.htm

Why 12% of UC San Diego Students Can't Do Basic Math - YouTube