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UC San Diego Reports 'Steep Decline' in Student Academic Preparation 174

Posted by msmash from the grave-concerns dept.
The University of California, San Diego has documented a steep decline in the academic preparation of its entering freshmen over the past five years, according to a report [PDF] released this month by the campus's Senate-Administration Working Group on Admissions. Between 2020 and 2025, the number of students whose math skills fall below middle-school level increased nearly thirtyfold, from roughly 30 to 921 students. These students now represent one in eight members of the entering cohort.

The Mathematics Department redesigned its remedial program this year to focus entirely on elementary and middle school content after discovering students struggled with basic fractions and could not perform arithmetic operations taught in grades one through eight. The deterioration extends beyond mathematics. Nearly one in five domestic freshmen required remedial writing instruction in 2024, returning to pre-pandemic levels after a brief decline.

Faculty across disciplines report students increasingly struggle to engage with longer and complex texts. The decline coincided with multiple disrupting factors. The COVID-19 pandemic forced remote learning starting in spring 2020. The UC system eliminated SAT and ACT requirements in 2021. High school grade inflation accelerated during this period, leaving transcripts unreliable as indicators of actual preparation. UC San Diego simultaneously doubled its enrollment from under-resourced high schools designated LCFF+, admitting more such students than any other UC campus between 2022 and 2024.

The working group concluded that admitting large numbers of underprepared students risks harming those students while straining limited instructional resources. The report recommends developing predictive models to identify at-risk applicants and calls for the UC system to reconsider standardized testing requirements.
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UC San Diego Reports 'Steep Decline' in Student Academic Preparation More

UC San Diego Reports 'Steep Decline' in Student Academic Preparation

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  • I Blame... (Score:3)

    by SlashbotAgent ( 6477336 ) on Wednesday November 12, 2025 @02:51PM (#65790694)

    I blame Excel, AI, Republicans, and climate change.

  • If only there was a way to TEST for this... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by galgon ( 675813 ) on Wednesday November 12, 2025 @02:57PM (#65790708)
    From the report: "In 2020, the University of California Board of Regents, against the advice of the report by the Academic Senate’s Standardized Testing Task Force (STTF), voted to eliminate the SAT and ACT from admissions consideration. Beginning with the cohort entering in 2021, standardized test scores were no longer used in the admissions process. The decision aimed to broaden the applicant pool, based on concerns that otherwise qualified students were deterred from applying by standardized testing requirements. The number of applicants from California to the UC system did grow from 99,156 in 2020 to 116,805 in 2024, an increase of 18 percent (see Figure 4). The elimination of standardized testing resulted in more reliance on high school grades even though the STTF report notes the worrisome trend of grade inflation in many schools that had already been substantial in 2020.5 During COVID, grade inflation and lowered standards in California high schools likely accelerated. The disruption created by COVID made it very difficult to objectively evaluate students. Many classes moved from letter grade to pass/fail for that period, and teachers often felt compelled to lower grading standards in acknowledgement of students’ special challenges.6"

    • "otherwise qualified students" -- what other qualifications are relevant?

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Pascoea ( 968200 )
        Every other qualification besides SAT/ACT scores. GPA. HS Class selection. AP Class selection. Extracurricular participation. Volunteer work. Your application letter. For those who don't perform well on standardized tests, or just don't want to take them, but are otherwise good candidates for post-secondary education? Or were you hoping for another bullshit rant against anything that even looks like DEI?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        They mean able to complete the course they are applying for, not a specific qualification.

    • Re:If only there was a way to TEST for this... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by sabbede ( 2678435 ) on Wednesday November 12, 2025 @03:19PM (#65790814)
      I'm amazed by the bastardized logic in play. For example, students who were deterred from applying because there was a test involved were not at all qualified to go somewhere where they would be taking tons of tests. Bad at taking tests = bad at college, don't go. Why make that complicated?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Pascoea ( 968200 )
        I suck at standardized tests. My ACT scores, particularly outside of math, were middling at best. I did just fine at college. And maybe there are just people out there who don't see the value in payin $100 for the privilege of sitting in an uncomfortable char filling out a bubble-sheet for 8 hours?

        • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

          by sabbede ( 2678435 )
          You took the test and passed. You demonstrated, among other things, that you can sit and do something tedious and or stressful for 8 hours. This was a skill relevant to both college and any future career. You demonstrated academic qualifications. You got into college and did "just fine".

          I think you're telling me that I'm right.

          • Re: (Score:3)

            by Pascoea ( 968200 )

            You took the test and passed.

            My composite score would have automatically disqualified me from most "selective" colleges. So I guess you could say I failed the ACT, by UCSD's standards.

            I think you're telling me that I'm right.

            You're entitled to your opinion.

            You got into college and did "just fine".

            I did get into a college, yes. Certainly not one that was considered "selective", like the one we're discussing here.

            People with college aspirations still take the ACT/SAT, or at least they did 5 years ago when my kid was going through that process. This college isn't necessarily "broaden[ing] the applicant pool, based on

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        It's not that simple. If they get into college with their costs paid, they may have a much better opportunity to study than they did living at home. It's also the point where children become adults at age 18, a point of major change in their lives.

        • Kids who weren't sufficiently educated to graduate high school are not going to magically become good students just because they've been placed in the role of college student. I don't know why you think it would. Do you have any evidence that suggests a kid who failed to learn for 12 years would suddenly do a 180 in year 13? And be able to catch back up?

  • My kids school just shut down. They got a packet of worksheets each Monday and a one hour zoom meeting each Friday for two years.

  • Chickens coming home to roost (Score:3, Interesting)

    by alkurta ( 1417115 ) on Wednesday November 12, 2025 @03:11PM (#65790754)

    During the height of Covid, my local high school was NOT going to flunk anyone not meeting standards. Students were given multiple opportunities to meet the bare minimum standards. A 20% grade average was deemed good enough for a passing grade.

  • Wouldn't SAT testing filter out these students? Or is that considered to be classist or something?

  • Maybe stop graduating students who aren't (Score:3, Insightful)

    by sabbede ( 2678435 ) on Wednesday November 12, 2025 @03:15PM (#65790786)
    qualified to graduate? If they can't do 8th grade math, how did they graduate high school? They shouldn't have been allowed to do so, they clearly hadn't learned anything yet.

    Not only are these students unqualified to be in college, they were not qualified to graduate high school. That's two things that are broken. When I was in high school, not being able to do 8th grade math meant not graduating the 12th grade. Why did that change? Why hasn't it been changed back?

    • The system(s) can't handle that low of a graduation rate. The public school district has 9 elementary schools with around 300 students each. It has 4 middle schools with around 600 students each. The district is forced to close 2-3 of these schools this year due to lack of funding. The buildings could not handle the increase in remedial students, much less the staff.

      • So, California trashed its education system so badly that y'all can't see a way to recover? Maybe they have, but continuing to graduate students who can't perform at a Jr. High level is not going to do anything but make it worse. It's not unsolvable, the solutions are simply unpalatable to the current political leadership.

        Graduating students that should graduate and sending them to college to take ELEMENTARY classes is not a solution. It's a vain attempt to sweep the problem under the rug. It can not

        • True, and I agree, but they need to be funneled to a new school for kids who don't read so good or learned math wrongly. Remedial school. This is not a new thing in most education systems. Students need to move along, not repeat grades. If you get held back a year, it's just a repeat in a system that failed. If you put these students in a training program that fixes the fundamentals of math and reading/writing/comprehension, depending on their needs, there's a better chance of some kind of positive outcome.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by misexistentialist ( 1537887 )
      It's not politically correct to fail minority students (and there are a lot of them now) so no students can be failed, even for nonattendance. This ideology is not going away so most practical solution is to shut down the public schools.
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • Do you see how those are completely different situations? One is an individual parent worried about their child (rightly or wrongly), the other is a government policy applied to every student. Maybe that first kid needs to be held back, maybe it's just a dumb example of a parent fighting the wrong battles. Nobody will ever know if the government says that no student can be held back.

    • Re:Maybe stop graduating students who aren't (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Moridineas ( 213502 ) on Wednesday November 12, 2025 @04:51PM (#65791158) Journal

      My oldest son goes to a high school on the other side of the country. It has an award winning Engineering magnet program. Every year multiple students from this school go to Ivies and other top 25 schools.

      Simultaneously, ~55% of the school is poverty level, ~45% is low English proficiency, and about 30% of the students are considered habitually absent (meaning a minimum of 10 _unexcused_ absences).

      My son is taking APs, very intensive engineering classes, and participating in multiple extracurricular activities.

      In the same school building, more than half of the students regularly rank in less than the 30th percentile on both math and English end of grade tests.

      What I commonly hear from teachers and administrators--if you're a teacher teaching classes of the poverty level non-English speakers, what good does it do to fail them? They're just going to drop out anyway. Maybe if you encourage the kids along, a few will get something out of it?

      It's an awful situation to be in. The school has at least a dozen ELL teachers. The school offers pretty much all the standard freshman courses (English, US History, etc) in both Spanish and English versions. This drains so many resources from other parts of the school. The arts program operates on a shoestring and all the arts programs are constantly fundraising to keep the lights on.

      The soccer team is damn good, though..

      • "if you're a teacher teaching classes of the poverty level non-English speakers, what good does it do to fail them?"

        By weeding out the non-performers you can provide the (few?) others who can do the work and learn with an opportunity to do just that.

        • By weeding out the non-performers you can provide the (few?) others who can do the work and learn with an opportunity to do just that.

          There is basically no, or very little, support for this position, and even stating it publicly would get you called a racist.

          I just don't see a solution.

      • So they let them pass. This results in the present chaos.

        • I think that plays into it too. In many--most--school districts, teachers effectively have tenure--it takes serious malfeasance or illegality to get fired.

          Years of bad performance isn't enough.

          I think part of the solution has to be dramatically increasing teacher pay but you also have to make the working environment better.

          • Don't fall for the "teachers aren't paid" line. Maybe increase their starting salary, but they're actually paid pretty well. For the most part, a teacher's salary is the average salary for the district. In some places that means $40k/y, some places that means $75+k/y, it all depends on where the district is. And they get the summers off.

            Cops and firefighters are usually on the same pay schedule (civil service is like that) and work much longer and harder hours. It ain't the pay.

            • Oh, I don't disagree with that at all. My state is a bit of an outlier, in that our teachers ARE more lowly paid than national averages, but then my locality is one of the higher paying supplements to teacher pay.

              Why do I say pay is a problem? I've seen what happens to many good teachers. They get burned out from having to deal with trouble maker kids who if they get disciplined or get bad grades the parents go ape shit with allegations of racism, sexism, abuse, whatever. They get burned out from dealing wi

              • I'm fine with giving teachers bonuses for good performance, there just needs to be some mechanism to prevent cheating. Which has been an issue in nearby (to me) Atlanta. I wouldn't want to just fire teachers for being the worst at a school, I can envision a great school where the worst teacher is better than any I ever had. But some way to remove bad teachers with tenure must exist. These aren't university professors for whom tenure was invented and makes some sense, these are primary and secondary teac
      • The attitude of those teachers and administrators is a major problem. What good does it do to fail them? They have to try again until they get it right, and thus actually learn something in the process. Passing them anyway means they don't learn anything, and nobody will get anything out of it. Well, the people being paid to fail at teaching them benefit, but they're the only ones and shouldn't be paid for that anyhow.

        It's an awful situation that they put themselves in and don't understand how to get

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by cusco ( 717999 )

      Around 2003 National Geographic did a survey and found that around a third of graduating high school seniors couldn't find the Pacific Ocean on an unlabeled globe. This has been coming for a while.

      • And we sent them out into the world like the education system had done its job.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by cusco ( 717999 )

          Hell, most Americans think our is the best education system in the world. Of course those people also think we have the greatest healthcare system and the most honest government so it sounds like the educational system has done the job our masters wanted.

          • Who thinks we have the best education system anywhere? I've never heard that from anyone, ever. The closest I've ever heard anyone argue was, "it's not actually as bad as it looks when compared to other nations".

            Were they speaking specifically about post-secondary education? We do have the top universities.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by cusco ( 717999 )

              China now has most of the top technical universities in the world. Professors are leaving US universities for one in China, including the top rated US tech schools like MIT and Stanford.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Indeed. When everybody graduates, the degree becomes a complete joke. And that is really bad for society, with long-term effects.

      The reasons are typically too many people incapable to admit things are broken (and here: admitting that their kids may not be so smart). Denial kills everything because it kills feedback loops.

      • Ah, feedback loops. Know what else breaks those? Trying to wag the dog by turning your metrics into experimental variables. They saw a racial disparity in college admissions, but instead of recognizing that as a metric for both racial discrimination and the quality of lower schools, they thought manipulating that value directly would fix the problem. Now everything is based on untestable assumptions, and the quality of education has collapsed.

        I'm wondering if they took the wrong lesson from the Stanfo

  • This lines up with school disruptions.

    I'm sure that's not the only contributing factor, but I'm also pretty sure you don't upend kids' lives (don't forget the impact on parents - lots of people lost jobs, which also disrupts kids schooling) across multiple years without disrupting their math training.

    Oh, also, the shitbag trolls here are funny. Now that they can't pretend the white kids aren't pig-ignorant, this is suddenly all about testing.

    • School disruptions shouldn't impact whether or not a university is getting students that need elementary level remediation. Those students shouldn't be making it to the college applications process. They shouldn't be out of high school.

      That schooling was disrupted is no excuse for these districts to be graduating students that haven't learned anything yet. It is no excuse for admitting them into college, where they will incur debt as they are taught things they should have learned for free. Just thin

  • Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Wednesday November 12, 2025 @03:46PM (#65790900)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • No, it's a consequence of COVID and a series of political decisions that made it unlikely that students would be educated. The kids who fell a year behind should have been held back a year. That's the sane and established response to a student falling behind. It worked for generations. California doesn't seem to hold students back anymore, instead they are graduated without being able to do elementary math. That there are students starting college who cannot perform elementary math isn't because of Cov

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      The outcome isn't inevitable. If the money is there to support them, to help them make up that lost time, recovery is possible.

      COVID broke an already struggling school system.

  • a. The elimination of standardized testing (like SAT/ACT) led UCSD to rely more heavily on inflated high school grades, which did not reflect true academic readiness, thus admitting students with lower skill levels.

    b. State political pressures to increase access and diversity led to admitting more students from underrepresented, low-income backgrounds who often came from lower-resourced high schools with less academic preparation.

    c. Social media usage and screen time, including texting and watching sh

    • college for all is the real issue that needs change!

      We need to have more tech / trade schools that are not college.

      Jobs need to stop saying you must go to college for all jobs.

      Student loans need to go to an point where the schools and banks take at least part of the risk.

    • 4. A political unwillingness to hold students back when they are not ready to move on to the next grade. Apparently on the basis that it will make them sad if they are held back. Even though promoting them anyway ensure they only fall further behind and eventually get pushed out into the world with no education. Which is, I suppose, somehow not worse than being sad for a few months because you got held back.

      Unrelated note - my favorite way to order lists is: A., 2., D., and so forth. Like when I lis

  • The college entrance exam I took required writing an essay on whether cell phones should be allowed in schools.
    I guess we know the answer now.
    Pandemic, Trump policies, the expiry of Federal funding that wasn't well planned for, tax cuts for the wealthy, Crypto-christian extremists, general lack of motivation in a world where social media influencers get paid more for a little fan service than hard working wage slaves.

    • Re:phones on airplane mode (Score:4, Informative)

      by Moridineas ( 213502 ) on Wednesday November 12, 2025 @04:43PM (#65791114) Journal

      So everyone and everything is to blame except removing standardized testing as an admission criteria in California (2021), schools in CA being closed for in-person education for ~2 years due to Covid, and perhaps most importantly, California adopting a a radical new math curriculum that focused on equity and removing cultural barriers in math education. (See, e.g., EdWeek [edweek.org]

      Right, it's Republicans (all those nasty California Republicans who dominate state and local governments) that have put us in this mess!

  • The main one is that they took fewer kids from good high schools and more kids from bad ones. What makes a high school good or bad? The attitudes and abilities of the students, which are strongly correlated with the wealth of their parents. These also fall generally along racial lines, but then America sets income opportunities, from above and below, largely along racial lines.

    • The main one is that they took fewer kids from good high schools and more kids from bad ones. What makes a high school good or bad? The attitudes and abilities of the students, which are strongly correlated with the wealth of their parents. These also fall generally along racial lines, but then America sets income opportunities, from above and below, largely along racial lines.

      --
      Musk is a Nazi: salutes, dog whistles, nationalist beliefs, natalism, history revisionism. Looks, talks, and quacks.

      So I have a serious question for you (this comes on the heels of me doing a deep dive on PISA testing results, and it honestly has been weighing heavily on my mind lately).

      I 100% believe that socioeconomic factors are probably the single biggest factor in academic success.

      Is there any possibility that average population-wide genetics play a role in academic success? (I very much do NOT want to use the word "race" because I think it's basically meaningless). Is it possible that, on average, Americans with a

  • High schools, except for a few, are no longer about academics. They are about social matters.

  • UC San Diego has a good reputation. Not Harvard good, but it is one of the best public educations in the US. I am seriously surprised, especially considering their average Math SAT is 700.

    Considering that the cost is double for non-California residents, I bet the problem is Californian education system. Disappointing considering how much money they spend on it.

    • UC San Diego has a good reputation. Not Harvard good, but it is one of the best public educations in the US. I am seriously surprised, especially considering their average Math SAT is 700. /quote.

      It makes you wonder what the student distribution looks like. Presumably not a remotely normal distribution if the avg SAT is 700 and "one in eight" freshman need this remedial math class.

  • The problem is the education system (Score:4)

    by Murdoch5 ( 1563847 ) on Wednesday November 12, 2025 @05:19PM (#65791310) Homepage
    I'm in Ontario, Canada, and this will be a subjective post, as I don't have evidence.

    I have been at parent teacher nights where teachers are proud of their incompetence. The grade 5, 6 and 7 teachers were laughing that they didn't understand the math curriculum, and one of them made a joke (paraphrased) “word problems are difficult to understand, so I get together with other teachers, and try to understand them.” Why? This is primary school math, there is no excuse for any adult to struggle with any of it. If by grade 4, you can't compute 1×1 12×12 in under 1-minute, on a test sheet, you're falling behind, by grade 8, you should be comfortably performing simple variable algebra in your head, without a calculator.

    When it comes to reading comprehension, for some reason, we take that seriously. No child would be hugged, and cuddled, and comforted if they couldn't read. When they can't multiply 5×5, in grade 8, they get treated like the world is against them. I don't know if it was just Ontario, or it was all of Canada, but, you teachers were asked to complete a basic math test, elementary math test, and the teachers sued the government over it. Think about that, teachers, who we trust our children to, sued, because numbers are scary? “https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-court-mandatory-teacher-math-test-1.7042352”, then we wonder why our kids are functionally retarded? They can name 50 f'ing genders, have in dept know about butt plugs and rainbow dildos, but can't perform grade 2 math, by grade 12?

    • I have been at parent teacher nights where teachers are proud of their incompetence. The grade 5, 6 and 7 teachers were laughing that they didn't understand the math curriculum, and one of them made a joke (paraphrased) “word problems are difficult to understand, so I get together with other teachers, and try to understand them.” Why? This is primary school math, there is no excuse for any adult to struggle with any of it. If by grade 4, you can't compute 1×1 12×12 in under 1-minute, on a test sheet, you're falling behind, by grade 8, you should be comfortably performing simple variable algebra in your head, without a calculator.

      I attended a (public) middle school teacher meeting about two years ago. The 8th grade math teacher said "I am supposed to be teaching XYZ for the 8th grade statewide standardized math test. I can't do it. Around 1/3 of my students can't multiply two numbers. They don't know." (She went on in this vein--it wasn't laughing or flippant, it was a cry for help)

      She didn't say 1/3 of her students struggled with some of their multiplication tables, or algebraic concepts, it was that they literally didn't know how

      • I absolutely believe you! My grade 11 daughter struggles with grade 3 math concepts, and that bothers me because in primary school all of her teachers congratulated her on her exceptional grasp of math concepts, she got over 90% in grade 5, 6, 7 and 8. Exceptional? She can't multiply in her head, if I walk up to her and ask something simple like 4×5, it will take her a good 30 seconds to come up with 20, and she'll question that after she says it. Our primary schools went to zero homework, years a

        • Answer the question "why aren't you currently a maths teacher in a school" and you'll have answered your questions about why maths teaching in school is typically poor.

          • Why? Simple, I'm an engineer working in the field. If you're an adult, you should be qualified to teach primary math, without argument. Do you ever see the same attitude taking with literacy? If an adult couldn't read at a grade 3 level, people wouldn't think it was funny because "math is hard" , if you're a primary school teacher, you need to be qualified, we pay them enough, average of 95k / year.

    • Thats a bunch of bullshit. I am wondering if you are really Canadian or your ISP is somewhere in Asia. (P.S. The fact you brought up sex tells me you are the pervert, not the people you are complaining about. Do not do that - it is weird and strange.)

      The modern 'word problems are not 1x1, 12x12 or other stuff.
      Instead they demand you solve the problem a specific way and do NOT care if you get the 'numerical answer' right if you did it a way they did not teach.

      Or they do things like ask you why Albert though

      • Based on what? If your a teacher and you struggle to answer the majority of word problems, you're unqualified. By grade 4 you should be well versed in your multiplication tables, and by grade 8 able to compute simple variable based algebra in your head. The teachers can't even handle basic math, and to prove my point, a bunch of teachers sued over having to take an basic math test. For the record I'm in Ontario, Canada, in Simcoe County.
  • Most people interpret this as: "kids these days are dumber" and "education is getting watered down".

    Those are incorrect conclusions. Not what this means at all. This says something about UCSD itself, and not much at all about K-12 education. UCSD is a near-ive-league, world-class school. One of the very best on the planet. If they're seeing more students that need remedial math, it means is that.... wait for it.... UCSD IS DELIBERATELY ADMITTING MORE WEAK STUDENTS.

    This has been happening for the las

  • So let me get this straight. We have a large amount of students coming in that both can't do math and need remedial writing courses. The school has no problem letting ANYONE in, as they will just get a government backed loan. The UC wins regardless if the student ever finishes or not.

    Seems to me, they are just insuring their income stream stays nice and healthy.

    Education has to start at home at a young age. The parent really does need to take whatever time they can and teach the kids to read BEFORE they get

    • So let me get this straight. We have a large amount of students coming in that both can't do math and need remedial writing courses. The school has no problem letting ANYONE in, as they will just get a government backed loan. The UC wins regardless if the student ever finishes or not.

      Seems to me, they are just insuring their income stream stays nice and healthy.

      Not really. The UC system has way more applicants than it can accept, and it has been that way for decades. As such, they already know they have the "income stream" that is "nice and healthy".

      What this really means is that the UC system is doing a much worse job then they previously did in "selecting" the students into their system that are ready to meet the requirements without needing remedial math and writing.

      In other words, the UC system changed how they were selecting people for acceptance, and the

      • Also, it is bringing to the forefront a long running battle that is waging in academia. Students have all been taught from a very young age that if they work hard, get themselves prepared, strive for and achieve excellent grades that they will get into the best colleges (i.e. the concept of meritocracy, where those that put in all the work and have the gifts for excelling in academic study and life would be rewarded for their efforts by being able to get into the highest rated colleges).

        Yes, a lot of the s

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Seems to me, they are just insuring their income stream stays nice and healthy.

      Yep. Commercial education is something that does not work.

  • I can't see this without thinking about how "Ace" Rimmer was held back in school, and prat Rimmer was not.

    These students needed to have been held back, not promoted again and again. They have been done a terrible disservice by people who, in their foolhardy weakness, thought they were helping.

  • The UC system and falling enrollment probably has something to do with this. Throughout the state, fewer kids are going to college. Because UCSD is one of the most desirable (and hard to get) schools, it receives an outsized impact of worse students coming in as the number of students thins out. Under UC system, you apply to the whole system with preferences of what school you want and then get assigned a school based on your qualifications. SD historically attracts some of the best students because it's a

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