At a time when business leaders across the country are saying they can’t find enough qualified workers to compete internationally, a recent report from the University of California San Diego that shows many students at the top-tier public university can’t do elementary school math is alarming. The report lists COVID-19 shutdowns as a leading cause of the decline in student ability, but the rot goes much deeper and should sound an alarm that extensive reforms are needed.
The UC San Diego Senate-Administration Workgroup on Admissions Final Report found that the share of students performing below middle-school math levels has exploded, rising nearly thirtyfold, from less than 1% in 2020 to about 1 in 8 by 2025. To underscore how alarming this is: 25% of students could not correctly solve the equation 7 + 2 = [ ] + 6.
Beyond COVID-19, which played a part, the report points to the elimination of standardized testing, rampant high school grade inflation, and mandated admissions expansions from underrepresented high schools as key drivers of the decline. All these factors clearly contribute to the problem…