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Sproul Plaza at the University of California Berkeley in Berkeley, Calif. on Thursday, September 12, 2024.<\/p>\n
Yalonda M. James\/The Chronicle<\/p>\n
The University of California said Thursday it will consider restoring admissions exams for freshman applicants, two weeks after more than 1,000 faculty members<\/a> signed an open letter expressing alarm at the poor math skills of students admitted since 2020, when UC stopped accepting the SAT and ACT standardized tests.<\/p>\n But UC is not expected to decide immediately on whether to reinstate the tests \u2014 a delay that some professors who signed the open letter<\/a> said could be too late for the class applying in 2027.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The debate comes as dozens of universities around the country have been reinstating\u00a0 the SAT and ACT entrance exams they suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic, including Stanford, where students entering this fall <\/a>had to submit scores for the first time in six years.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n On Thursday, UC announced what could be a lengthy process for reaching any conclusion of the issue. One\u00a0 faculty-led panel will study whether it makes sense to bring back the admissions exams, and a second will review the quality of the academic coursework \u2014 known as the A-G requirements \u2014 that high school students must complete to qualify for UC admission.<\/p>\n The panels will be established by UC\u2019s Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools, an influential group of professors, students and administrators known as BOARS<\/a> that oversees undergraduate admissions.<\/p>\n San Francisco Chronicle Logo<\/p>\n Make us a Preferred Source to get more of our news when you search.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n The panels\u2019 recommendations will then be reviewed by UC\u2019s Academic Senate and university leaders before a final vote by the Board of Regents.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIn recent years, it has become clear that academic preparedness for college is a growing challenge,\u201d Ahmet Palazoglu, a UC Davis chemical engineering professor and chair of the university system\u2019s Academic Senate, wrote Thursday to the Senate\u2019s Academic Council<\/a>. \u201cWhile recent faculty concerns have drawn renewed attention to these issues, BOARS\u2019 work is designed to address these challenges in a changing educational landscape.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Palazoglu said earlier that he had asked BOARS in March to begin looking into the problem after he became aware of faculty concerns.\u00a0<\/p>\n UC president James Milliken said Thursday that he and the regents will hear an update on the process in July.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere are few things more important on our agenda,\u201d Milliken said in a statement that called the panels\u2019 work a \u201c comprehensive, data-driven review\u201d supporting \u201cstudent readiness and success at UC.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s important that UC gets this right,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n On May 28, hundreds of faculty members from campuses across the UC system released an open letter urging UC to reinstate the tests right away so that the requirement would cover math and science applicants entering as freshmen in fall 2028.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The letter said that abandoning the admissions test requirement had created \u201cpreparation gaps so severe that instructors must reteach middle-school mathematics\u201d while also trying to teach college-level math.\u00a0<\/p>\n The professors cited a November report from UC San Diego<\/a> that found 1 in 12 students entering the UC system could not do middle-school math.\u00a0<\/p>\n UC Berkeley math professor Zvezdelina Stankova, an early signer of the open letter, told the Chronicle Thursday that the BOARS timeline is far slower than what the signatories believe is needed.<\/p>\n The new process \u201cinitiates a new round of studies and discussions that will take considerable time and are unlikely to reach conclusions soon enough to affect entering freshmen in fall 2028,\u201d Stankova said.<\/p>\n In a statement, UC pushed back on the idea that its academics might be substandard, noting that \u201cUC has some of the highest first-year retention rates and the highest two- and four-year graduation rates in the nation for students from all educational backgrounds,\u201d despite \u201cpandemic-related learning loss.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n More than 1,000 colleges nationwide made the SAT and ACT admissions tests optional during the pandemic. But a court barred UC<\/a> from using the tests at all through 2025, following a\u00a0legal challenge from students<\/a> who argued that the requirement gave an advantage to students who could afford test prep services and travel to exam sites.<\/p>\n That argument remains valid, UC Berkeley Law professor Jonathan Glater said this week in a Chronicle opinion piece<\/a> in which he acknowledged that \u201cthere is reason to worry\u201d about declining math and reading skills.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBut revisiting the decision to abandon the SAT is not the right response,\u201d said Glater, who in 2020 co-chaired a committee that explored the possibility of replacing the widely used SAT with a UC-created entrance exam<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cTaking SAT scores into account favors students whose families earn more and not students who may benefit most from a UC education,\u201d Glater wrote Wednesday, noting that SAT scores \u201cclosely track family income<\/a> and that family incomes reflect discrimination and histories of exclusion.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not fair,\u201d he said, which is essentially what the court found when it stopped UC from using admissions tests six years ago.<\/p>\n