California professor argues need for 'objective measures' after state drops ACT/SAT requirement
More than 1,400 University of California faculty members have signed an open letter calling on university leadership to reinstate SAT and ACT math requirements for incoming STEM majors, citing a sharp decline in student preparedness since the system adopted a test-blind admissions policy in 2021.
The petition, organized largely by STEM instructors, argues that eliminating standardized testing has masked serious gaps in academic preparation rather than addressing them. Faculty members report that significant portions of students entering introductory calculus and other STEM gatekeeper courses at campuses including UC Berkeley and UC San Diego lack foundational math skills, forcing instructors to spend valuable class time re-teaching material typically covered in middle school.
Karajean Hyde, co-director of the UC Irvine Math Project and a lecturer in education, said universities need objective benchmarks to gauge whether students are truly ready for college-level work. "A student's not just a single number or a single letter, but standardized testing can play an important role in ensuring one level of measuring where that bar is so that the bar doesn't move," Hyde said.
While Hyde is not directly involved in admissions policy, her work focuses on K-12 outreach and preparing future educators. She emphasized that an "A" grade no longer carries consistent meaning across school districts. "In the K-12 system, we're struggling a little bit with what does an 'A' mean? Does it mean they have content mastery? Do they work hard? Does it mean they do homework?" Hyde said. "And so we need to understand better who are those kids that actually know their content."
Neetu Arnold, a Paulson policy analyst at the Manhattan Institute, said widespread grade inflation in high schools has left universities without reliable signals of academic readiness. "I think these professors are dealing with the consequences of relying too heavily on grades, especially when grade inflation has made GPAs less informative," Arnold said. Without standardized metrics, Arnold added, instructors are forced to slow advanced lectures to bring underprepared students up to speed, which in turn widens gaps within classrooms and leaves high-performing students held back.
The consequences, faculty warn, fall hardest on the students themselves. Many are admitted into demanding STEM programs without the tools to succeed, leading to elevated failure and dropout rates in critical introductory courses.
The UC system initially suspended standardized testing requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The policy became permanent after a 2019 lawsuit — filed by advocacy groups who argued the SAT and ACT were biased against low-income students, students of color, and students with disabilities — was settled. The faculty signatories contend that dropping the tests has undermined the equity goals that drove the original lawsuit, because preparation gaps are now invisible until students arrive on campus. Hyde pointed to programs in Southern California that offer free SAT preparation to underserved middle and high schools as evidence that testing can help identify talent in communities that are often overlooked. "Standardized tests — they can play a great role in ensuring more equitable access for students to reach that bar," she said.
The UC campaign reflects a broader national reversal. Over the past two years, Dartmouth, Yale, Brown, and Princeton have all abandoned test-optional or test-blind admissions, with internal data showing standardized test scores remain among the strongest predictors of undergraduate success. Harvard's faculty recently voted to cap the share of "A" grades at 20 percent in an effort to push back against decades of grade inflation.
Hyde stressed that any effort to restore testing must be paired with earlier intervention. "I absolutely don't believe the bar should be lowered for what we're expecting out of our STEM students in the university system," she said. "My angle then is how do we ensure that students are coming ready to reach the bar that's needed at the university level."
The University of California Board of Regents had not responded to a request for comment as of publication.