Hundreds of University of California faculty members are calling on the university system to require standardized math test scores from applicants to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) majors.
Nearly 1,000 faculty members have signed the open letter. More than 200 of them are from UC San Diego.
The UC Board of Regents voted to eliminate the requirement in 2020. In their letter, the faculty call it “a temporary measure that has now become a permanent vulnerability.”
Those who wanted to drop the requirement said students from wealthier families often have an advantage. That’s because they can afford things like test prep and tutors, said Youlanda Copeland-Morgan, who was UCLA’s vice provost for enrollment at the time.
“Students from under-resourced schools share textbooks, use broken Bunsen burners, and don't have test prep and can't afford tutoring,” she told the board in 2020.
But faculty members argue standardized tests ensure students get admitted to the right school for them within California’s public university system.
“The SAT/ACT mathematics requirement is not an obstacle to equity; rather, it is a prerequisite for it,” they wrote in the letter. “Failing to measure preparation gaps does not remove barriers; it moves them into the classroom, where they become harder to overcome.”
In November, a UC San Diego Academic Senate group reported that more and more students are taking remedial math courses. They said admissions staff are relying more heavily on high school grades, and that COVID may have caused more grade inflation.
“We now observe preparation gaps so severe that instructors must reteach middle-school mathematics while simultaneously teaching the material students need for sciences, engineering, economics, and other quantitatively demanding fields,” the letter reads.
In a statement, UC Academic Senate Chair Ahmet Palazoglu said faculty plan to work with state and K-12 leaders on college readiness.
“In light of concerns raised by UC faculty about student preparedness for undergraduate study, in March I called upon our systemwide faculty Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools (BOARS) to address timely topics tied to students’ college readiness and UC’s admissions process,” Palazoglu wrote. “BOARS is in the process of proposing a roadmap of policy work and partnership-building with other state and K-12 education leaders in the next academic year and beyond.”
UC faculty members noted other universities have reinstated an SAT/ACT requirement. They include the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University and Johns Hopkins University.
This week, Yale University announced it would require applicants to submit test scores starting with its next admissions cycle.
