Gen Z college freshmen cannot do 5th grade math

This is pretty simple imo, every school in the UC system is test blind, they are not allowed to view test scores in admission. All the students who are accepted have almost perfect GPAs at the high level UC's but can't submit a test score, so a large amount of students from schools who inflate their grades end up there who might not be as skilled in math as they are claimed to be on their high school transcript.

Will be interesting to see how this impacts graduation rates. For years California schools had some of the highest graduation rates in the US since they had color blind admission policies. Since the test blind policy was implemented in 2021, we will just now begin to see the impact on graduation rates.

Having also taught college for close to 20 years, I agree mostly with oregon oldtimer. The smart students are still pretty smart. However, the middle tier (B/C's) are not comparable to even 5 years ago. Teaching in the sciences, the clear lack of critical thinking is gone. They can't pay attention for longer than 15 minutes, 20-30% have some type of accommodation, and they can't function without their phone. Although I agree K-12 is a problem, I would also put the onus on the parents. Phones need to be out of the classroom (many parents want their kids to have the phone at all times), kids need to be held back if they lack skills, and basic discipline needs to return (expel kids who are a problem). These are all things that parents would be up in arms about. Ask any middle school/high school teacher and most would agree with all the above. However, administration has caved to the parents long ago. Parents suck. Kids need to learn how to fail. Not everyone is a super star.

That's racist!

Inability to do basic arithmetic can only be due to the use of calculators in school.

It seems like it has become the norm to "learn" more and more advanced topics in high school without first mastering the basics.

When I was a kid, maybe 10% of my high school class took calculus in HS, and those were really only the kids who were gunning for Ivies or the kids who wanted to do highly mathematical majors in college. Today, it seems like every college-bound student thinks they have to take calc in HS.

And yet sooo many of these kids who passed a calculus class in high school show up at college with no ability to do any math of any kind. Probably 80% of my intro econ students purportedly know calculus, but MANY of those students struggle with the incredibly basic math necessary for freshman microeconomics (which is really nothing more than simple algebra).

Admissions offices need to be way less impressed with advanced coursework listed on a transcript and way more demanding when it comes to knowledge of the fundamentals. I don't care that you took calculus, organic chem, and anatomy & physiology in high school. I care that you can actually DO basic algebra. The rest you can learn once you're here.

I teach university juniors in physiology and I can't count the number of times I have had a student ask me how to calculate their exam grade. I give 40 points consisting of 32 questions, of which they got 24 correct. When they ask what their grade is I have actually said, "what day in the 4th grade did you miss?" Several students will snicker and roll their eyes but I also realize that several others are just too embarrassed to ask.

I've only been reported to higher administration one time and the student said that I was making a racist statement. Little did the student know, but my wife and I are both white and we have 4 adopted black kids. The Provost actually laughed when he saw the complaint. BTW - the student was failing the class and then quickly dropped the course and changed her major before the deadline. No bad grade and we all get a trophy!

yeah but tenured teachers who work 7:20A-2:15P for 180 days a year aren't PAID ENOUGH. Even though they get a generous pension and full benefits it just ISN'T FAIR.

Lost years of education due to COVID stopping in person attendance?

I'm a phd student in math at one of the better-known UCs (not SD). I've been TAing math classes here since 2022, and it's painfully obvious that the academic capability of my undergrads has fallen off a cliff over the last few years.

Dropping (and failing to re-institute) the SAT will go down as one of the worst decisions the UCs could've made. My undergrad alma mater dropped SAT requirements for a year or two during Covid and switched back after freshmen started failing core calculus requirements for the first time ever. My current department's response to a massive drop in freshmen calculus scores was to lower grade cutoff thresholds to keep pass rates in-line with pre-2020 iterations of the courses.

It's really bad. Glad SD published this (or shoutouts to whoever leaked it and forced the school to get ahead of a more-brutal exposé). Hopefully it'll get them to go back to having an actual screening process for prospective undergrads.

An alarmingly high percentage of kids with high school B averages arrive at college with D-level knowledge/ability and D- to F-level habits and attitude compared to 25 years ago, when they were far from perfect, and probably C-minus/D-minus compared to the period 5 to 10 years ago.

And this is why some hiring managers want to see a post-secondary degree for high school graduate level jobs. It is not uncommon for high school grads to be illiterate. It isn't just the school system that is failing kids, their parents share equal blame.

The SAT doesn't really cover the high end of high school math, it covers basics of algebra, geometry and functions that students could have already learned in middle school

There's no material in it to reflect the students who do well in math up through calculus. They'll either max it out, or carelessly miss one or two

UC Riverside and UC Merced are all illegals. UCs are some of the most corrupt Universities in the USA. Democrat run, pander to illegals/DACA and extremely low performing blacks. My son went to UCSD last year. The campus is all Chinese amd Indian nationals. Its about 2% white. Newscum Sanders to illegals on everything.

Cathedral Catholic School near Del Mar in North county SD is well known for massive grade inflation, immoral behavior! You pay the Catholic Church tuition, and in return, everyone is guaranteed a 3.7 GPA or higher.

ah yes, the NYPost, the historically very trustworthy news source

Knowing stuff is woke these days.

It looks like at least part of reason for the low SAT scores is because some states are requiring even their most woefully unprepared students to take the exam. Not everyone should go to college. Trade school is a viable option and in a lot of cases the best option....

worldpopulationreview.com

SAT Scores by State 2025

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"Top 10 States with the Highest SAT Scores
According to the College Board, the average SAT score in 2022 was 1050. Participation rates ranged from 1% in Mississippi and North Dakota to 100% in the District of Columbia Lower participation rates in some states can be for a few reasons, including that more students may opt to take the ACT and that only the highest-performing, most prepared students take the SAT. Because cultural and socioeconomic factors and the quality of schools vary greatly between districts and states, average SAT scores vary greatly.
The following ten states had the highest average SAT scores: Wisconsin (1252), Wyoming (1244), Kansas (1238), Utah (1233), Mississippi (1226), Minnesota (1225), Nebraska (1222), Kentucky (1219), South Dakota (1219), and North Dakota (1212). Other states with average scores over 1200 include Montana, Tennessee, and Missouri. All thirteen of these states have participation rates between 1% and 6%, most likely indicating that only the highest-performing students took the SAT in 2022.
The following ten states had the lowest SAT scores: West Virginia (938), Oklahoma (951), Delaware (968), Idaho (968), Rhode Island (971), New Mexico (976), Illinois (981), Florida (983), the District of Columbia (985), and Michigan (1000). Participation rates were much higher among these states, with most states having 84% to 100% participation, except for Oklahoma, which had 17%, New Mexico with 42%, and Delaware with 65%."

We found the children left behind I reckon.