Overview
- UCSD documented that 665 freshmen this fall—8.5% of the class—were placed in Math 2, up from 32 students, or 0.5%, five years ago.
- The report cites COVID-era learning loss, the elimination of SAT/ACT in UC admissions, grade inflation, and more admits from under-resourced high schools as key contributors.
- Faculty warn that enrolling large cohorts of underprepared students risks harming those students and straining limited instructional resources.
- Diagnostic examples included some freshmen missing simple addition and failing to round 374,518 to the nearest hundred, with many also needing remedial writing.
- Recommendations under consideration include transcript-based placement indices, earlier required testing, and redesigned remediation, as statewide dashboards report rising graduation and readiness even as PPIC data show declining test-based college readiness.