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Fill in the blank. 7 + 2 = blank + 6. This is listed as a first-grade balancing equation. Not calculus, not trigonometry, not even pre-algebra. And yet, 25% of students at UCSD who took this quiz got this question wrong, at an R1 research university.
The number of students who are not able to to um perform at the high school level increased, and the number of students who cannot perform even at the middle school level increased enormously.
Middle school level. So what exactly is happening at UC San Diego? Why are their placement scores collapsing? And why are 900 freshmen basically walking straight into a math ambulance? Let's investigate.
So, UCSD recently put together this task force, and they came up with this full doc, which I'll link in the description below. In this doc, it states that over 900 incoming students did not demonstrate UC-level math readiness, and about 70% of them scored below middle school proficiency.
So, for those of you who need a math professor, 70% of 900 is basically 630. So, let me repeat that because it feels illegal. 630-ish freshmen at one of the top public STEM universities in the country scored below middle school math expectations.
So here's another math lesson. If we look at that in terms of a percent increase, that's a 2,300% increase in underprepared students in just 5 years. And UC's math department is not built for this. I guess no college math department is built for this, honestly.
So, I'm going to show you parts of the UCSD report, and hopefully it doesn't make you deeply uncomfortable because this isn't just like, "Oh my gosh, some kids forgot a little bit of math." This is a failure on a much grander scale.
So, first off, let's just look at how UCSD [music] kind of defines their math because they have some weird numbering systems, right? So, it used to be that a traditional student from any particular level, they would enroll in something called Math 3C. That's the equivalent of pre-calculus at the high school level, right? And so then 4C is pre-calculus for science and engineering. And then for students who want to go into any sort of STEM major, then they would take a math class starting at level 10 or above, right? And you can see all the different majors here on the side.
So it used to be that if students weren't ready, they would just take Math 3B, foundations for pre-calc, right? And that was it. But then within the past few years, they introduced this class called Math 2, which is intro to college math. That would maybe go over some algebra, pre-algebra, that sort of stuff. But then we're starting to see that a lot of these students in Math 2 are needing middle school and elementary remediation.
So then this table shows you kind of the fall enrollment, and you can see it from 2020 all the way to the fall of 2025. So you see back in 2020, only 32 students needed to be enrolled in this Math 2, right? So that's basically a normal classroom size, it's not that much. But then you can see over the years: 32, 191, 390, 490, 528, 665. And we can only assume if the pattern continues, the number is going to get closer to a thousand. Now we have a thousand students who are needing a ton of math remediation.
And then let's look further in this data. Then we see that these are students with their highest level of math reported. So for example, if the student reported Algebra 2 as their highest level math class, there's not that many across this entire table, right? So 29 of them had to enroll in Math 2. That probably makes sense, right? But then we scroll down and we see among the students, we see students who are taking calculus or the equivalent of calculus at the high school level. And 95 of those students, 20% of students who've listed calculus at their as their highest math class, they're getting placed in this remedial Math 2.
And then this particular chart is really interesting because it's showing the average math GPA of students who get placed in these certain level courses, right? So remember Math 10 is that calculus level or above, right? So kids who are getting placed in Math 10 or above have a 3.74 or 3.84 math GPA, which is mostly A's, right? And then you see that kids who are getting placed in Math 2, they have a 3.65 GPA. That's still more A's than there are B's in math classes. So something really is amiss here.
This is the most interesting graph because it's really colorful, but it breaks apart the top 20 majors among UCSD students, right? And then we're seeing how many of those majors are getting placed into Math 2. And we see among all the majors, biology students are getting placed at a growing rate. And then psychology is the second, and business economics is third. A lot of people go into biology because it's technically like a softer science, right? It's not as math-heavy as chemistry or physics, but it does require a foundational understanding of math. Same with business econ, right? A lot of students think, "Oh my gosh, business econ, I'm gonna become the next entrepreneur. I'm going to become Mark Zuckerberg or something like that." But they don't realize that a business econ major requires calculus in order to graduate from that major. And so you're seeing this really colorful chart showing that a lot of students even in STEM majors aren't necessarily ready to graduate from that STEM major.
So this is telling us a couple things when we're looking at the data from a large scale, right? It's telling us that there's a large-scale foundational skill loss when it comes to math. And it's also telling us that there's a lack of consistency in differentiating among students who are coming from all these different high schools in California and outside of California. Basically, in common English, it means that everybody's coming into UCSD with wildly different definitions of what constitutes Algebra 1. [music]
Well, we can separate in different categories, right? The first category that I'm going to talk to is GPA. GPA is basically stand-up comedy at this point, right? So, if we look at this chart that's comparing the math GPA versus the placement, we're seeing a correlation of 0.25. So, if you're one of those who's struggling with math and stats, here's what that means. In common English, GPA and real math are basically casual acquaintances. They're waving politely across the hallway at each other, but they don't sit together at lunch.
According to UCSD, they're seeing students with 4.0 math GPAs who are bombing their math placement tests. And then we're seeing students with maybe B-minuses who are outperforming them because GPA is not really a signal of academic success at high school anymore. It's kind of more of a vibe, and these vibes don't necessarily allow you to pass pre-calculus.
And so in this report that they came up with, they're writing that the current situation is not sustainable for their departments. Basically, right now, the professors are drowning in students who don't know how to do the essential math. Tutoring centers are being stuck with a bunch of students who need remediation. Advisors aren't able to advise the students properly because of this math thing. So, it's not just like a blip in the system. It's more like a broken ecosystem.
And part of this is ironic because UCSD is known as a STEM research institution. In fact, more than half of the undergraduates there are doing some sort of STEM major. So you can't major in bio, engineering, computer science, data science, economics if your algebra is a fever dream for you. You can't engineer a bridge when you're still panicking over how to add and subtract fractions.
So, this is the part that you need to hear if you're a parent or a student who is planning to go to college in the next few years. This is the part that you're probably going to hate hearing, but it's something that you might need to hear. Number one, GPA no longer predicts college readiness. In fact, modern GPA practices have turned into participation trophies at some high schools.
So, if you're looking at different high schools across the country, we're seeing implementation of no-zero grading where like 50% is the lowest a student can receive even though they didn't do the work. We're seeing students getting unlimited retakes on their tests. So, it's okay if I get an F on this test. I'll just retake it tomorrow. We're seeing grading floors, so like this 50% thing where students can't get below 50. Um, we're seeing teachers who are giving easier tests. It matches the homework exactly. I've heard teachers talking about just like, "I'm taking the exact questions and changing the numbers," and students are still not getting 100% on them. We're seeing a lot more leniency because of the pandemic. We're seeing math turn into project-based classes, which don't get me wrong, I actually don't mind project-based learning. I think it's great for the appropriate student, but when you're at a large-scale university like this, you can't do project-based learning when you're trying to teach 200 students calculus in the same lecture hall.
So, even in the past, when transcripts were a little bit less variable, it wasn't perfect, right? But it would give you a sort of window into your education. You know, GPAs would range between like 2.0 maybe to 4.5 maybe for the really, really smart kids. But now it almost represents like a highly curated Instagram feed or social media, right? We're seeing more and more students with perfect [clears throat] 5.0 GPAs. It looks great, but it doesn't really tell you much.
Number two, we need to understand that the UC system is not test-free. So the UC applications are test-free. They will not look at SAT or ACT scores when you're applying. Now, they will look at AP scores. So we need to get that fact straight, right? But then when you get on campuses for a majority of the STEM majors, how are you going to assess student success? Through tests. Right? Now, let's say you're doing humanities majors. Then you're going to need to be a strong writer by writing, you know, five-page, 10-page, 15-page research papers. But these campuses absolutely require tests to evaluate student readiness.
So now let's kind of discuss the causes that are leading to this sort of system. Let's look at the UCSD report. And in the report, it points to multiple systemic forces. Number one, they talk about wanting to admit more Californians to the UC system, which is really great, right? In the past, there have been so much of a complaint about, "Oh my gosh, we pay our tax money, we live in California, we can't even go to a UC." So they've been implementing systems to ensure that 80% of the undergraduate makeup will represent California. So this is really great for access, but it's terrible for consistency because now we're admitting students across all districts in California without necessarily understanding what is going to admit the top STEM talent because we're using GPA as a stand-in for math readiness.
So in California, we have these things called LCFF schools. They're Local Control Funding Formula schools. So the government sends more money to these schools because they're designated as high-need schools. So when you're sending this money to high needs, it goes to a bunch of different things. But the schools that tend to need the high need also tend to be less academically rigorous because these students have other things that they're dealing with, maybe food security, home security, internet security. So, it's not that these students are just capable of like going to a local tutoring center, paying for tutoring, um, or even just having a consistent place to do their homework. Many LCFF schools struggle with teacher turnover. There's limited access to advanced coursework. There's people with less experience teaching advanced math courses. And so when you have more LCFF students admitted to UC schools without this math support, then of course there are going to be gaps.
Here is the graph that they included in their report. So 2020 was the first year that UCs started removing the test requirement. And so you can see for San Diego over here, in 2020, about 13% of the class attended an LCFF school. And then you can see as of the class of 2024, that number rose to 25%. So we're definitely seeing an almost doubling of students who are coming from this school. Again, this is great for access.
So another cause is going to be grade inflation. So this is the "bruno" that not everybody talks about. So if you just look at reports from any of the past four or five years, you'll see a lot of damning evidence. Here is this link from ACT that's showing grade inflation across the past decade. So when you take the ACT, right, they ask you for some personal data, and then you can see that the percentage of students who have an A average has gone from 40% to 55% basically, um, in the 2010s decade.
And then over here, we have the Hechinger Report, which is basically showing us grade inflation isn't just across math, right? It's across all subjects. And here's one from UCLA's Higher Education Report showing that in the 1960s, right, 21.8% of students had an A+, A, or A- average. So that's what, roughly a 3.7 or above. And then that number shot up to 84% in this past year, right? So basically quadrupling the numbers who have a 3.7 or above in GPA.
Here are some of the the snippets that I've gotten from school reports. Um, I don't know if you know this, but when a high school submits an application to a college, usually a private school, right? They have this school report. So, even if you don't know where your GPA falls in the ranking, colleges will know just from their data collection and from the school report. So, this is a school report that's showing that of the 421 students who attend, 133 have above a 4.0, and then 60 have above a 4.5. So almost 200 students out of the 421 have a 4.0 or higher. This school is not as bad, right? This is 39 out of the 108 students. So it's closer to like 30-ish percent, 35% if you can do math, right? 35%.
So when you're seeing all these like social media clips of like, "Oh my god, I got rejected from this school with a 4.2, 4.3 GPA," you have to understand that that 4.2 or 4.3 probably doesn't even land you in the top 10% of your graduating class. And I hate to say this, but these increasing GPAs doesn't necessarily mean that students are getting smarter.
What I've been kind of noticing in my practice is that there's this sort of bifurcation of students. We do see students who are enrolling in multivariable calculus in 11th grade. Now, are all of them ready for it? Not necessarily. But we do see this small cohort of students who are pushing themselves really hard. And then we see a bunch of students who are going down this pathway, but they're not necessarily meeting the demands of those coursework. And I've been seeing it personally among my students.
This is the most controversial one, so please don't shoot the messenger. I'm going to try to present this as objectively as possible. But one contributing factor is what happened in 2020 when they removed requiring the SAT or ACT when it comes to admissions. So for a school like UCSD, what can they now rely on? That means they rely on GPA, the rigor of the courses that you're reporting. They're looking at your activities list, and they're looking at your essays. So among all of those, that basically means that they're relying on vibes for your application. Because let's be honest, out of all of those, only one of those is pretending to reflect a quantitative ability.
So, this isn't the morality of standardized tests. I get it. Tests have equity issues. There are equity gaps. There are access issues. The SAT has come under fire. It is a billion-dollar monopoly. Not even a duopoly. I guess you could call it that if you consider ACT, but it's kind of being outshined by College Board right now. Nobody is writing a love letter to the SAT. But here's the part that people are scared to say out loud: Test-free only works if the alternative signals mean something. They don't, as much anymore, right?
Algebra 2 used to mean you survived logarithms, quadratic equations, the emotional damage of rational functions and asymptotes. But now what does it mean? It means half the class was review that your teacher was making you watch a YouTube video on how to do the math. Your teacher passed you because the school district was afraid of failing too many students because it would be too discouraging.
And so then we have the activities and the essays. Well, what about the activities? The activities can be inflated. Students can come up with their own clubs and give themselves titles of president. Or students can write about how they spent their entire summer doing a community service project that didn't really exist. Please don't lie on your application, by the way, but that does happen, right? And then with PIQs, we have ChatGPT, which it doesn't do a good job of writing PIQs. And we have students who spend their entire summers working on this essay. So yes, essays do reflect a certain level of grit and students do put a ton of effort into them, but they don't represent math success.
So however flawed you think testing can be, it still acts as some sort of barometer, or let's call it a thermometer, right? It tells you roughly what the temperature is. But by removing that thermometer, we still kind of have this fever that's going on in the UC system, right? So we have this kind of fever outbreak that's going on, and UCs now need to fix it.
And then of course, we have the "panini." The "panini" that happened in 2020. This is kind of the quiet avalanche that nobody talks about. But if you look at some of this data that comes from the "panini," we see that there were huge math and English declines in 2020. So that fundamentally disrupted a lot of students' learning, and they never quite caught up. I'm not going to go too much into that because everybody knows about this. Okay.
Then we have the more recent thing, which is technology and AI. >> And then obviously you had increases in AI. So you're starting to be more dependent when you see a question. You're more likely to ask AI like, "Oh, can you help me answer it?" >> So basically AI allows you to solve math problems a lot more quickly, right? But then it also replaces math practice. In fact, when you're talking about technology, right, students are really adept at using their calculators. They're adept at using Desmos, right? Because Desmos is this really cool resource you can use to pass the SAT.
But here's the thing that shocks a lot of students. It shocked me when I went to college. When you go to college, a lot of colleges don't allow you to even use a calculator on your math test. I bought this brand new TI for my math class when I went to college, and I never used it. It just sat in my drawer, right? So students are overly reliant on technology and not as reliant on their brains because they are used to having this crutch. And so when you're outsourcing this practice, you lose your mathematical fluency.
So then all these forces collided into what's happening at the UC system right now, right? And so this is not just a UCSD problem. This is a United States problem. So then when we're talking [music] to people who are planning to go to college for a STEM major right now, we need them to understand the severity of the situation, and we need to understand what colleges are going to do in response to this.
So on the high school end, we need to make sure that students are challenging themselves to be ready for college, right? Making sure you're taking rigorous courses that are challenging you to think and understanding that retakes, open-note tests. Oh, I should have said that in the earlier section, but open-note tests are a thing in high school classes now, too. That didn't exist. Um, and so on the college end, what they're probably going to do is they're going to restructure things, right? They do not need a bunch of math kids who are not capable of doing math kids, clogging up their department. So, they're going to change their internal prerequisites, maybe, or they might block students out of a major if they can't pass a particular sequence. And so they might restrict impacted majors. And this is not because they're cruel and trying to punish you. They just don't want to teach calculus to somebody who doesn't understand that 7 + 2 is equal to 1 + 6.
So then what is UCSD going to do about it? They're going to propose a new sort of math index, maybe, to evaluate math readiness a little bit better. Um, they're going to look at earlier placement exams. They might re-evaluate their math requirements for admissions, or they might even consider reinstating the SAT or ACT because it has worked for some other colleges that went from test-optional back to test-required. Because let's face it, even if we put some of these students in remedial classes for an entire year, only some of them are going to be in a position where they're able to succeed at the math requirements for some common majors like bio, right? So, it's still too early for there to be evidence on whether this remediation is going to help these students, but I'm not entirely confident.
Also, I just need to point out that this issue is not relegated to remedial math. We also have a significant number of students who need remedial English writing. Two out of five students with severe deficiencies in math also required remedial writing instruction. The reason you're not hearing about that as much is because it's kind of been consistent since they did this report.
So then here's the question to you. If you're currently a student prepping for college, do you feel like you're prepared for college math based on your skills, not your GPA? Do you feel like you're learning enough to be ready for college? If you're the parent of a student who's planning for college, do you believe or understand that your student's grades reflect their mastery, or is it more a reflection of their school's current policy? Cuz I'm going to be honest, I trust a 4.7 GPA in 2025 a lot less than I trusted a 4.0 GPA 10 years ago.
If you want to look more deeply in the report, I've included a link to the report below. Sound off in the comments. Do you feel like you're math-ready, or does the system need a complete overhaul?