Overview
- More than 550 UC STEM professors signed an open letter pressing the University of California president, Board of Regents and academic senate to reinstate SAT/ACT math for STEM majors, a move the letter circulated on Tuesday.
- The letter cites a November 2025 UC–San Diego report that says the number of students with math skills below high‑school level rose nearly thirtyfold in five years and that about 70 percent of that group test below middle‑school level.
- UC Berkeley diagnostic testing from 2021–2023 found nearly one‑third of first‑semester calculus students had severe preparation deficits, which faculty say forces instructors to reteach basic and middle‑school math in college courses.
- Signatories argue that restoring a math test requirement would better measure readiness, protect academic standards and prevent remediation from being shifted into college classrooms, and they frame the change as a step toward preserving equity in outcomes.
- The demand revives questions left by UC’s 2020 move to test‑blind admissions and the 2019 UC task force finding that test scores predict first‑year performance; UC Office of the President and the Board of Regents had not issued a public response at the time of reporting.