"The number of first-year students at the University of California, San Diego, whose math skills fall below a middle school level has increased nearly 30-fold over the past five years, according to a new report from the university's Senate-Administration Working Group on Admissions. In the 2025 fall cohort, one in eight students placed into math below a middle school level, despite having a solid math GPA."
"The number of first-year students in remedial math courses at the university surged to 390 in fall 2022, up from 32 students in fall 2020. The remedial math course was designed in 2016 and only addressed missing high school math knowledge, but instructors quickly realized that many of their students had knowledge gaps that went back to middle or elementary school, the report states."
First-year students with math skills below middle-school level increased nearly 30-fold over five years at UC San Diego. In the 2025 fall cohort, 11.8 percent were placed into remedial courses below middle-school level despite solid high-school GPAs. Remedial enrollment rose from 32 students in fall 2020 to 390 in fall 2022, and reached 921 in fall 2025 across two remedial courses. The initial remedial course addressed only missing high-school math, but instructors found gaps extending to middle and elementary school. The deterioration coincided with COVID-era learning loss, elimination of standardized testing, grade inflation, and expanded admissions from under-resourced high schools. Other UC campuses show similar, smaller declines in preparation.
Read at Inside Higher Ed | Higher Education News, Events and Jobs
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