From Fox News: A University of California San Diego report warns that roughly one in eight incoming college students can’t meet middle school math standards. It found that the number of students needing to take remedial math courses increased “thirty-fold” over the last five years.
Jeanne Allen, founder and CEO of the Center for Education Reform, says this isn’t a new problem. She said it’s a result of decades of unaccountable schools and a broken system that fails students long before they make it to higher education.
“It really, Sandra, should be shocking to most of us, but sadly, it feels like Groundhog Day again,” Allen told “America Reports” Thursday.
The report, done by the school’s Senate Administration Workgroup on Admissions, said Math 2 was created as a high school remedial class. But they found that “most students had knowledge gaps that went back much further, to middle and even elementary school.”
It also revealed that in 2024, 25% of students placed in Math 2 had a 4.0 average in high school math. This meant many students’ GPAs did not match their actual proficiency in the subject.
The University of California San Diego (UCSD) Senate-Administration Workgroup on Admissions released a report on November 6 with devastating details on the school’s massive failure to admit qualified students.
The report admits, “Over the past five years, UC San Diego has experienced a steep decline in the academic preparation of its entering first-year students — particularly in mathematics, but also in writing and language skills.”
One stunning image included on the report shows that 25% of the college students couldn’t even solve a first-grade math problem, and 98% couldn’t solve an 8th grade math problem.
Everyone is making a big deal out of the 25% of students in a remedial UCSD program who couldn’t answer Question 1 (1st Grade math). Personally, I’m more shocked by the 98% that couldn’t do Question 30, even if that’s 8th grade math.
IT’S COLLEGE. https://t.co/0kRmyHR997 pic.twitter.com/IJ1ww4jcZc
— Seth Horwitz (@Seth_Horwitz) November 13, 2025
The report also shows that nearly 1/5 students fail to meeting entry level writing requirements. pic.twitter.com/nrrhCGYloD
— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) November 11, 2025
The report focuses on the decline of math skills in particular.
They recently tested a group of their students.
Here are the percentages of students who correctly answered questions at each grade level: pic.twitter.com/SO7ny4BwJi
— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) November 11, 2025
This chart documents the increasing number of students placed in remedial math (math 2 and math 3b): pic.twitter.com/ZUDLljkSZr
— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) November 11, 2025
Another reason is the elimination of standardized test requirements coupled with high school grade inflation: pic.twitter.com/BuPczCfWN1
— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) November 11, 2025
Enrollment from these schools has increased system-wide and especially at UCSD: pic.twitter.com/sUEVCeSr0m
— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) November 11, 2025
Students from these LCFF+ schools make up a large chunk of those students needing remedial classes: pic.twitter.com/XVKsGAtJmj
— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) November 11, 2025
To be clear, this isn’t all UCSD’s fault, and it looks like the faculty have been doing what they can to address the issues but they can’t sustain it.
The math department and the report’s authors deserve a lot of credit for documenting the issues.
Link: https://t.co/SK8GZ0iEMA
— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) November 11, 2025
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