'A Recipe for Idiocracy'

"Five years ago, about 30 incoming freshmen at UC San Diego arrived with math skills below high-school level. Now, according to a recent report from UC San Diego faculty and administrators, that number is more than 900-and most of those students don't fully meet middle-school math standards. Many students struggle with fractions and simple algebra problems. Last year, the university, which admits fewer than 30 percent of undergraduate applicants, launched a remedial-math course that focuses entirely on concepts taught in elementary and middle school."

"(According to the report, more than 60 percent of students who took the previous version of the course couldn't divide a fraction by two.) One of the course's tutors noted that students faced more issues with "logical thinking" than with math facts per se. They didn't know how to begin solving word problems. The university's problems are extreme, but they are not unique. Over the past five years, all of the other University of California campuses, including UC Berkeley and UCLA, have seen the number of first-years who are unprepared for precalculus double or triple."

Incoming college students increasingly arrive without basic math and quantitative-reasoning skills. At UC San Diego, freshmen with math below high-school level rose from about 30 to over 900 in five years, with many failing to meet middle-school standards. Students commonly struggle with fractions, simple algebra, and beginning word problems, and often lack basic logical thinking for problem solving. Universities have launched or revamped remedial courses focused on elementary and middle-school concepts. Similar trends appear across University of California campuses and at other institutions, prompting changes to summer programs and remedial offerings to address foundational gaps.

Read at The Atlantic