In a recent San Francisco Standard op-ed, University of California, Berkeley mathematics professor Zvezdelina Stankova sounded the alarm regarding what she describes as a disastrous decline in student preparedness resulting from the UC system’s progressive “test-blind” admissions policies. Stankova pointed out that by the second week of the semester, large lecture halls reveal alarming gaps in foundational knowledge, with some incoming undergraduates lagging five to eight years behind in mathematics. Instead of exploring advanced concepts like integrals and differential equations, professors are forced to spend critical office hours teaching basic algebra and fractions typically mastered in middle school.
The policy shift began in 2020 under former UC president Janet Napolitano, who phased out standardized testing partly out of equity concerns, thereby eliminating a common academic benchmark across California’s thousands of high schools.
However, Stankova and thousands of other UC STEM faculty members argue that this approach has backfired significantly. They contend that the SAT and ACT are not obstacles to equity, but rather essential prerequisites for it, and that ignoring preparation gaps simply shifts barriers into college classrooms where they become far more difficult to overcome.
Stankova backed these concerns with striking diagnostic data showing a sharp downward trend in calculus readiness. Between 2018 and 2020, 71% of tested Calculus I students were deemed ready or nearly ready, with only 0.14% falling below basic algebra. By contrast, among students tested between 2021 and 2023 under a different diagnostic, readiness fell to 51% overall and dropped to 44% in 2023, with a staggering 17% failing to answer any of the eight tested topics correctly.
This growing crisis at UC Berkeley mirrors broader national trends. While elite institutions across the country rushed to adopt test-optional or test-blind policies around 2020, a counter-movement is currently underway. Institutions such as Columbia University and other Ivy League schools have recently reversed course to reinstate standardized testing requirements for undergraduate applicants. In response to mounting pressure from faculty and deteriorating readiness metrics, University of California President James B. Milliken announced that the UC Board of Regents and the Academic Senate are conducting a comprehensive, data-driven review to strengthen student preparation and academic success across all ten campuses.
Apparentley the well is being poisoned…
