I guess the SATs do make sense?

Duh!

The Academy Rethinks the SAT

University of California faculty say that when tests were dropped, student learning fell.

By The Editorial Board

May 28, 2026

Six years ago, in the 2020 year of progressive pandemic madness, the University of California led the Ivory Tower movement to drop standardized tests as an admissions requirement in the name of equity. The experiment has been a failure, as more than 750 professors in STEM disciplines across the UC system now admit in a cri de coeur to reverse course.

“We now observe preparation gaps so severe that instructors must reteach middle-school mathematics while simultaneously teaching the material students need for sciences, engineering, economics, and other quantitatively demanding fields,” the professors write in an open letter to the Board of Regents signed by seven of nine chairs of UC math departments.

The Board of Regents in May 2020 moved to scrap the university’s SAT/ACT requirement on the spurious rationale that tests discriminate against minorities. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who appoints most regents, had claimed the tests exacerbate “the inequities for underrepresented students,” even though a faculty senate report found otherwise.

Test scores “add substantially to UC’s ability to predict student success” beyond high school grades, especially for minority groups, the faculty report said. It stressed that the university “does not appear to use standardized test scores in a way that amplifies racial disparities.” Without test scores, admissions would hinge on inflated grades, extracurricular activities and essays.

Those warnings have borne out. The new faculty letter says that “for three consecutive years, 20-30% of UC Berkeley first-semester calculus students who participated in mathematical diagnostic testing displayed severe preparation deficits.” Drop standards, and learning mastery declines. Imagine that.

The letter stresses that current admissions standards cannot “reliably distinguish readiness for university-level STEM majors in an era of severe grade inflation and AI-assisted application essays.” Eliminating the test requirement has resulted in admitting students to STEM programs “without a reliable measure of whether they are prepared to succeed. This serves no one well.”

“Failing to measure preparation gaps does not remove barriers; it moves them into the classroom, where they become harder to overcome,” the professors write. “Obscuring preparation gaps harms both students individually and the University collectively. It offers the appearance of access while undermining the chance of success.”

A major goal of eliminating the test requirement was to end-run the state constitutional ban on race-based preferences. Another was to obscure educational disparities caused by the state’s union-run public-school system that disproportionately harm minorities.

The letter amplifies alarms raised by a UC San Diego report last fall that found one in eight of the school’s freshmen had math skills below high-school level (defined as geometry, algebra and algebra 2), a 30-fold increase since 2020. Incredibly, one in 12 lacked middle-school math skills, and 94% had completed an advanced math course and received an average A- in their high-school math classes.

Eroding admissions standards and obscuring academic deficiencies set students up for failure. Maybe Mr. Newsom can explain to Californians why he supports a system that leaves students unprepared for college, as well as for life in a competitive world.