A new report from the University of California San Diego's Senate–Administration Working Group on Admissions finds a portion of its first-year students have math skills that are below the level of a middle schooler.
In the fall of 2020, 32 students were in remedial math courses. That went up to 390 in 2022, and this year, 921 UC San Diego students are enrolled in remedial math courses.
Lance Christensen, vice president of education policy and government affairs for California Policy Center, relays that other UCs are tracking similar trends, but UC San Diego's problem is significantly worse.
"For far too long, our K-12 system, especially in California, has ignored the fundamental skills that are necessary for a student to become a competent citizen," Christensen tells AFN. "Numeracy and literacy are the two main pieces, and unfortunately, instead of trying to fix the problem, they have covered it up with the band aids of grade inflation and social promotion."
He says rather than address the students' problems, schools have passed them along to colleges and universities across the country, especially those like UC San Diego that are regional in nature.
Speaking as a father of five children, most of whom are in higher levels of math, Christensen says it is frustrating when teachers cannot teach at the level necessary to explain these skills -- but that is what happens when schools of education cannot produce or provide teachers that have the skills necessary to pass on math.
In addition to the "complete failure" of Common Core math, he says we are dealing with a new generation of children who are "digital natives."
"Most of the math they're doing is not long hand; they're finding their answers not on Google anymore, but on ChatGPT and other AI platforms," Christensen explains. "We should be very concerned that our kids are not making the connection they should with math in their own personal lives, but they're automating everything and then wondering why we can't have really good conversations as a public about finances and taxation, family budgets, and those kinds of things."
The working group has reportedly put forward a number of recommendations for addressing these shortcomings, including using a "math index" based on historical placement data and transcript-based variables to "predict students' likelihood of placement into remedial math."
Establishing feedback mechanisms with high schools and requiring math placement testing by June 1 for incoming students is among the other recommendations.
Christenson urges parents to stop assuming their teachers are experts and to step in and get involved enough to help with their children's education.
