REPORT: UC San Diego Freshmen Arriving With 4.0s Can't Round Numbers or Add Single Digits
Hoodline ^
Posted on 11/15/2025 2:25:09 PM PST by TigerClaws
A stunning report from UC San Diego has exposed a dramatic collapse in academic readiness that should alarm anyone who cares about California's education system. The numbers are jaw-dropping: between 2020 and 2025, the share of incoming freshmen requiring remedial math instruction for skills below middle school level surged nearly thirtyfold—from about 1 in 100 students to roughly 1 in 8.
The 54-page report, released November 6 by the university's Senate-Administration Working Group on Admissions, paints a troubling picture. According to the report, these students arrive with solid high school math grades—many sporting 4.0 GPAs—yet can't handle arithmetic that elementary schoolers should know. In 2024, students in the remedial Math 2 course averaged a 3.65 math GPA, an A-minus.
The reality check came through placement testing. When UCSD's math department assessed Fall 2023 students in remedial courses, the results were sobering: 25% couldn't solve "7 + 2 = ___ + 6," and 61% couldn't round 374,518 to the nearest hundred. These aren't college-level concepts—they're grade school fundamentals.
How Did We Get Here? Inside Higher Ed reports that UCSD's problem mirrors issues across the UC system, though San Diego's situation is "significantly worse" than other campuses. While about half of UC campuses saw remedial math enrollments double or triple between 2019 and 2024, UCSD experienced a tenfold increase.
The report identifies several culprits. The COVID-19 pandemic devastated K-12 learning, with disruptions to education hitting under-resourced schools particularly hard. California's statewide math proficiency scores plummeted in 2022 and haven't recovered, the report notes.
But the pandemic alone doesn't explain the crisis. In May 2020, the UC Board of Regents eliminated SAT and ACT requirements, severing what had been, for all its flaws, a standardized measure of academic preparation. The decision aimed to promote equity, but it left admissions officers flying blind.
The Grade Inflation Problem Without test scores, UC campuses leaned heavily on high school GPAs—just as grade inflation reached epidemic levels. Research from ACT shows the average high school GPA climbed from 3.17 in 2010 to 3.36 in 2021, while standardized test scores fell. The gap accelerated during the pandemic, when many schools adopted lenient "do no harm" grading policies.
"Grade inflation is a persistent, systemic problem," ACT's chief executive Janet Godwin said in announcing their findings. The data revealed inflation was especially pronounced in lower-income schools and among Black students—the very populations equity initiatives aimed to help.
UCSD's report confirms this disconnect. Of students placing into elementary-level math remediation in Fall 2024, only 6% had completed just the minimum required courses. The other 94% went beyond: 42% took calculus or pre-calculus, and 44% finished statistics courses. On paper, they looked prepared. In reality, they weren't.
The LCFF+ Factor UCSD's crisis has been amplified by aggressive recruitment from California's Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF+) schools—high-poverty institutions where more than 75% of students qualify as low-income, English learners, or foster youth. These schools receive additional state funding to address student needs, but they also face severe resource constraints.
Starting in 2022, UCSD dramatically increased LCFF+ enrollment, admitting about 1,800 students annually from these schools—more than double the previous year and far exceeding other UC campuses. By comparison, UC Berkeley enrolled fewer than 1,000 LCFF+ students, and UCLA fewer than 1,100. UCSD's LCFF+ enrollment exceeded even UC Riverside, traditionally the system's access leader.
The timing couldn't have been worse. These schools, already struggling, suffered disproportionate learning losses during the pandemic. In 2021-22, just one in eight LCFF+ enrollees at UCSD needed remedial math. By 2025-26, it was one in three. Of the 921 students in Math 2 and Math 3B this fall, 492—more than half—came from LCFF+ schools.
Tough Choices Ahead "We can only help so many students, and only when the gaps they need to overcome are within reach," the report states bluntly. "Admitting large numbers of students who are profoundly underprepared risks harming the very students we hope to support, by setting them up for failure."
The data bears this out. Students placing into Math 2 face DFW (D/F/Withdrawal) rates of 24% in Math 10A, climbing to 41% in Math 10C and over 51% in Math 20C. Few students starting in Math 2 have successfully completed engineering degrees—a stark reality check for students admitted to STEM majors.
The workgroup recommends developing a "Math Index" to predict remedial placement risk before admissions decisions, capping remedial math enrollment at 300 students by 2026-27 (down from 921 this year), and requiring early summer placement testing. They also call for reassessing math requirements by major and providing feedback to high schools whose grades wildly misrepresent student preparation.
The National Trend While UCSD's situation is extreme, the pattern extends nationwide. Harvard, Yale, MIT, Dartmouth, and Brown have all reinstated standardized testing requirements after brief test-optional experiments. The reason? Research showing test scores, despite their imperfections, outperform grades and essays in predicting college success.
"The virtue of standardized tests is their universality," Harvard economist David Deming explained. "Not everyone can hire an expensive college coach to help them craft a personal essay. But everyone has the chance to ace the SAT or the ACT."
The UCSD report makes a similar recommendation, calling for the UC system to reconsider its ban on standardized testing. "The right test is better than no test," the document argues, noting that without objective measures, admissions has become a crapshoot that ultimately harms disadvantaged students most.
What's at Stake This isn't just about one university or one state. It's about what happens when good intentions—expanding access, promoting equity—collide with the hard reality that academic preparation matters. UCSD is proud to serve "the full spectrum of California's population," the report notes. But serving students means preparing them to succeed, not admitting them to programs they can't complete.
The uncomfortable truth hiding in these statistics? Current policies may be widening, not closing, opportunity gaps. When students from under-resourced schools arrive unprepared, they struggle, drop out, or switch majors—outcomes that defeat the purpose of holistic admissions. Meanwhile, grade inflation makes it harder to identify genuinely talented students from any background.
The math doesn't lie, even if grades increasingly do. The question facing California and higher education nationwide is whether we're willing to face that reality—and do something about it.
TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: arth; california; californiaschools; closekthru12; closepublicschools; dumbingdown; math
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1 posted on 11/15/2025 2:25:09 PM PST by TigerClaws
To: TigerClaws
Unbelievable. Randi Weingarten should be in prison.
2 posted on 11/15/2025 2:28:25 PM PST by Rummyfan (Ok In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support lthe civilized man.? so t tv)
To: TigerClaws
The paradox is that with all kinds of resources on the Internet, and with AI it’s easier than ever to learn things, if you just put in the time.
3 posted on 11/15/2025 2:33:31 PM PST by dfwgator ("I am Charlie Kirk!")
To: TigerClaws
“A stunning report from UC San Diego has exposed a dramatic collapse in academic readiness that should alarm anyone who cares about California’s education system. The numbers are jaw-dropping: between 2020 and 2025, the share of incoming freshmen requiring remedial math instruction for skills below middle school level surged nearly thirtyfold—from about 1 in 100 students to roughly 1 in 8”
The UC system gladly accepts their tens of thousands of tuition money.
4 posted on 11/15/2025 2:33:52 PM PST by DAC21
To: TigerClaws
I bet everyone of them can name all 76 pronouns though
Academic priorities you know !
5 posted on 11/15/2025 2:34:33 PM PST by cuz1961
To: TigerClaws
Can't Round Numbers or Add Single Digits
The digits have to at least be in a relationship.
The one comfort is that, given the right environment, most of what is necessary in elementary education can be learned by an adult in months, and by the end of one year people can have enough of an adult education to take care of themselves in the real world. All the other intellectual stuff, they have the rest of their lives to learn.
6 posted on 11/15/2025 2:35:30 PM PST by chajin ("There is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12)
To: TigerClaws
This has been going on for years. Why we decided to homeschool 30+ years ago
7 posted on 11/15/2025 2:35:42 PM PST by Chickensoup
To: TigerClaws
8 posted on 11/15/2025 2:39:01 PM PST by SkyDancer ( ~ Am Yisrael Chai ~)
Under-resourced schools? Baloney! In elementary school teaching the basics: reading, spelling, writing. arithmetic, logic, geography, critical thinking and &etc. takes minimal resources. But does require actual teaching, not coddling or allowing disruptive students to stay in classes. And don't promote the ones who can't pass the grade-level.
9 posted on 11/15/2025 2:40:04 PM PST by curious7
To: TigerClaws
As long as the government employees are laughing their way to the bank and no one complains about losing half their money to taxes, who cares?
10 posted on 11/15/2025 2:40:58 PM PST by fruser1
To: TigerClaws
Disturbing and dangerous.
11 posted on 11/15/2025 2:41:29 PM PST by Karliner (Heb 4:12 Rom 8:28 Rev 3, "...This is the end of the beginning." Churchill)
To: TigerClaws
And they’re loaded with melanin, right?
12 posted on 11/15/2025 2:43:26 PM PST by Bullish (My tagline ran off with another man, but it's okay... I wasn't married to it.)
To: TigerClaws
Yes, but they got “A’s” in important subjects like using pronouns, and non-gendering.
13 posted on 11/15/2025 2:47:59 PM PST by PGR88
To: TigerClaws
When students from under-resourced schools arrive unprepared, they struggle, drop out, or switch majors—outcomes that defeat the purpose of holistic admissions.
How so? DEI recruit comes in, gets four F's and a D in her first semester, drops out, puts "Attended UC San Diego" on her resume, nobody dares to ask questions or probe any deeper at the job interview, and she gets hired over dozens of more qualified applicants. Their scam is working exactly as intended.
14 posted on 11/15/2025 2:50:53 PM PST by Mr. Jeeves ([CTRL]-[GALT]-[DELETE])
To: TigerClaws
No surprise coming from the Gavin Nobrain’s CaliFUBAR
To: TigerClaws
--- "The question facing California and higher education nationwide is whether we're willing to face that reality—and do something about it."
STEM is necssary, even vital to the nation. The rest of the stuff, not so much.
To: TigerClaws
Yay, equity! Everyone’s a moron.
17 posted on 11/15/2025 2:55:02 PM PST by rfp1234 (E Porcibus Unum)
To: TigerClaws
These school admins and teachers need to be personally sued into poverty.
18 posted on 11/15/2025 3:01:30 PM PST by HYPOCRACY (Wake up, smell the cat food in your bank account. )
To: TigerClaws
0 is a round number. 3, 5, 6, 8, and 9 are kind of roundish. That’s just basic math!
19 posted on 11/15/2025 3:06:12 PM PST by Moltke (Reasoning with a liberal is like watering a rock in the hope to grow a building.)
To: TigerClaws
They’ll go right into Dorkbamacare jobs.
Or Congress.
20 posted on 11/15/2025 3:07:15 PM PST by Da Coyote
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