Over 1,400 University of California faculty members beg to bring back standardized testing
Student achievement is abysmal and continues to decline. Without an honest assessment of what went wrong, we will never make the necessary changes to help children learn
A growing consortium of University of California (UC) professors is urging the state university system to bring back standardized testing. They warn that eliminating admissions tests has degraded academic readiness and forced instructors to teach “middle school math” to college undergraduates.
More than 1,400 UC faculty members have signed an open letter calling on leadership to reinstate the SAT and ACT mathematics requirements for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) majors, according to Fox News. The massive pushback follows a dramatic multi-year decline in student proficiency after the university discontinued requiring the tests in 2021.
“Education in America is a mess,” said Melanie Kurdys, a board member of United States Parents Involved in Education (USPIE) and Michigan PIE president. “Student achievement is abysmal and continues to decline. Without an honest assessment of what went wrong, we will never make the necessary changes to help children learn. Common Core is a failure. Despite rumors of its demise and repeal, it remains the structure of most state standards and the basis of pedagogy taught in colleges of education.
Students are not learning the basics in K-12 education. Student achievement in math has been in serious trouble since 2013. Many of us were surprised the universities did not push back on the very weak, unproven Common Core math standards back when the debate first started. Perhaps they believed enough gifted children would break through and be ready for college-level math.
The open letter, spearheaded primarily by STEM faculty, notes that instructors are witnessing preparation gaps so severe that they must dedicate finite university class time to remedial math instruction. Data cited from diagnostic testing across several campuses — including UC Berkeley and UC San Diego — revealed that a significant portion of incoming calculus students displayed severe foundational deficits.
Reinstituting the ACT or SAT is a step back toward accountability, but it will not solve the problem. It will just disclose the fact that most government schoolchildren are not learning math to a sufficient degree to enter college calculus-ready. They may not want the bar to be lowered, but apparently these professors missed the fact that the bar was severely lowered when Common Core was adopted in every state.
To hear more about education from USPIE’s Founder and President, Sheri Few, tune in to the latest episode of USPIE’s podcast, “Unmasking Government Schools with Sheri Few,” on Tuesday, June 23, where Few is joined by Alex McFarland, a Christian apologist, author, speaker and religion and culture analyst who has spent decades equipping Christians to defend their faith and think biblically about the issues shaping our nation. On this episode, Few and McFarland discuss youth discipleship, Christian faith in public life, and how parents should respond to the ideas being taught to children in the current government education system. Listen to “Unmasking Government Schools with Sheri Few” on YouTube, Facebook, Spotify and X.