Years ago, I wrote a column denouncing the decision of the University of California system to drop standardized testing in the cause of greater racial diversity. Now, hundreds of UC mathematics faculty have called for a return to such testing after reports showing a thirtyfold increase in students with math skills below high school level.
As written earlier, the University of California system was an early supporter of this disastrous move. It was heralded as a way to preserve diversity after voters in California repeatedly rejected race-based admissions and the Supreme Court appeared ready to bar such practices (commonly proven with reference to standardized test differentials among applicants).
Now, many professors in the California system have come to the same conclusion as some of us who denounced the move years ago. They have witnessed the drop in academic skills and abilities among incoming students.
These tests not only have the most significant predictive value for performance but also play an important role in the advancement of minority students. Former University of California President Janet Napolitano, however, overrode those conclusions.
Napolitano responded to such criticism with a Standardized Testing Task Force in 2019. Many people expected the task force to recommend the cessation of standardized testing. The task force did find that 59 percent of high school graduates were Latino, African-American or Native American but only 37 percent were admitted as UC freshman students. The Task Force did not find standardized testing to be unreliable or call for its abandonment, however.
Instead, its final report concluded that “At UC, test scores are currently better predictors of first-year GPA than high school grade point average (HSGPA), and about as good at predicting first-year retention, [University] GPA, and graduation.”
Not only that, it found: “Further, the amount of variance in student outcomes explained by test scores has increased since 2007 … Test scores are predictive for all demographic groups and disciplines … In fact, test scores are better predictors of success for students who are Underrepresented Minority Students (URMs), who are first generation, or whose families are low-income.” In other words, test scores remain the best indicator for continued performance in college.
That clearly was not the result Napolitano or some others wanted. So, she simply announced a cessation of the use of such scores in admissions. The system would go to a “test-blind” system until it developed its own test.
Ending standardized testing had an obvious secondary purpose: to frustrate new legal challenges to the use of race in college admissions. Last November, Californians rejected a resolution to restore affirmative action in college admissions.
We have also seen the dismal decline in standards at elite universities like Harvard, where faculty have been compelled to teach high school-level math classes to students.
Various schools have now reversed this ridiculous move pushed by faculty and administrators in the cause of racial diversity. The proponents of the change, such as Napolitano, have said little after they decimated the academic integrity and standing of their schools.
The UC faculty cited the UC San Diego Senate–Administration Workgroup on Admissions report, which found that 70 percent of these students are performing below a middle-school level.
Like Harvard, faculty are now teaching high-school-level math.
The declining performance reflects the failure of our public schools, which have also lowered graduation standards. The top-spending public school districts are also some of the worst-performing districts.
Just a thought — if you want to know why the schools are failing, perhaps it would help to examine the requirements, which vary by state, of what one needs to ‘know’ to obtain a license to teach at the high school level. I suspect what you will find is that at least 30 credits (a year in the classroom) must be in ‘education,’ while fewer than ten (less than a semester) need to be in the subject taught. If so, then the technique of teaching trumps knowledge of subject taught.
Whether this is still the case, I do not know, but it was the situation as recently as 2000, when last I checked. If so, there is no mystery regarding why so many students who have a high school degree are not prepared for university.
It is not a matter of those who can’t do, teach; it may just be a question of those who are only taught to teach, can’t.
Student to physics teacher: I don’t understand optical refraction, can you explain it to me?
Physics teacher: I don’t understand it either, but I know how to put together a lesson plan, how about I explan that?
Student: Sure, that’ll help me do well on the final exam.
Jonathan Turley’s arguments for reinstating standardized tests at the University of California overlook systemic K-12 learning loss, legal mandates, and the predictive validity of holistic admissions. While citing rising remedial math needs, Turley fails to account for COVID-19 disruptions and, contrary to his claims, research consistently shows high school GPA is a stronger long-term predictor of student success than test scores. The UC system’s transition to a test-blind policy was primarily driven by a 2020 court ruling ensuring equitable access for disadvantaged students, not simply an ideological agenda.
Sources please.
Turley fails to account…? George its an opinion piece, not a essay. BTW, you failed to account for your lack of sources in your rambling comment.
I told you so, oh, I told you so.
I told you someday you’d come crawlin’ back and askin’ me to take you in.
Please keep voting for me cause I’ve changed.
Please excuse us if we don’t believe a damned word you’re saying.
Now the bleeding hearts try to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.
Diversity was just an excuse for the failing education of the minority children by the lazy non caring
who want to make you think they care.
I told you so, oh, I told you so.
Come On Man! The Racist, Colonialist, Supremacists want to go back to standardized testing? NOOOOOOO! That is meant to keep the WO(MAN) DOWN and under the BOOT. The only to Freedom is through IGNORANCE and purposeful STUPIDITY! The Journey to being a country of MORONS has taken decades of hard work by teacher unions and wokies infiltrating the school system.
Give me just one generation of the children and I will change the nation. Two men said this.
One man who said this was Barrack Hussein Obama. I’ll let you guess who the other man is.
I’ll give you a hint. He lived in Germany.
You made that up. Need sources. Not thought through again.
Cutting to the chase, well articulated by phinca,, failure to address the global needs of the K-12 such that they’ve been able to acquire the basic skills sets needed to function effectively in a 21st Century society, as well as pursue advanced studies, just doesn’t add up. The global needs go beyond the curriculum in the class or the presenters therein. The issue is the ability to learn. Those who can do. Those who can’t, teach. Those who can’t teach, teach teachers. Beyond that, little much as been done to address the causes of ‘why children fail’, since the publishing of the book of the same title. Therein lies the rub.
Global needs? Where did you get that line? There is no intl. dept. of education and standards. Certainly not the UN or such. So that stmt. is void.
Why do Germans, Indians and Asians surpass Americans whites educationally and professionally? Their home countries made a point of supporting education.
I took “global needs” to mean the requirements of global markets in which nations compete. Markets don’t care about any country’s philosophy, their buyers make decisions based on merit. If the US falls behind, the buyers in the global market will buy from others. Maintaining competitiveness in global markets is vital to any nation’s future, including the US’s.
So you’re saying, countries won’t buy US because we’re stupid?
‘Instead of addressing the failure to educate kids in these communities, the push was to eliminate testing itself. As I wrote in 2021, “The deficiencies will remain — but the ability to expose them will be gone.” Those deficiencies are not evident in applications and admissions, but they are clearly manifesting themselves in classes.’
It isn’t restricted to any particular communities – this is simply pervasive in American primary school in 2026, across the board. There are many factors, but it’s a mess, and plenty of ‘non-minority’ students are just as deficient. When you see kids that are an exception, it’s usually because parents supplemented at home, or they got that rare teacher over 45 who hasn’t retired yet. The state of our schools in general is abysmal.
As I wrote in 2021, ???
About five decades ago, the University of Medicine and Dentistry in New Jersey adopted a policy of admitting students for reasons of equity, and found the need to give the college graduates courses to improve their academics before their first semester of graduate school. About the same time, again in New Jersey and again for reasons of equity, the Bar Exam was revised to allow for an increased passing rate. And about a decade ago, again in New Jersey, Princeton eliminated the requirement for students majoring in the classics to be competent in Greek or Latin. And, as we all know, inner-city public school students don’t have to be proficient in anything to receive a high school diploma. May the Loud Voices very soon quiet.
Building upon what Benisch observes, we are mired in mediocrity for the sake of division, exclusion, and indoctrination. The consequences of that are written in the annals of history, time and time again. Santayana counseled that those who fail to learn from them are doomed to repeat them. As Ben Franklin wisely observed…”a Constitutional Republic….if you can keep it.” Res ipsa loquitor.
Mediocrity. You hit the nail on the head. So it all stated, or after, with your generation? So, you and your fellow commenters here are living proof of that mediocrity?
Public education is failing students and then in turn higher education is failing them again by lowering standers, doing away with standardized testing, grade inflation (Harvard just recently voted to limit the number of A’s they give out). Higher education also fails to prepare college grads for the real corporate world.
Public education is failing students… Now, how do yo know that as a fact? Fox news? Or a teacher?
Several teachers I know.
Just several? And all from your home town, I assume? Just through conversation? And you conclude that your stmt. is valid for the entire country? Obviously you do not know what your talking about.
Public education is failing students… Now, how do you NOT know that as a fact?
It’s a widespread general understanding. Public schools suck and students are the victims.
The evidence is in the stupidity demonstrated daily and you might be their leader.
Can somebody wake up George. Please!
This year’s college freshmen were 7-8th graders when the Covid nightmare closed their CA school. Next year, it will be those cheated out of their 6-7th grade math education, then 5-6th. Mathematics is a highly-organized system of prerequisite knowledge — knowledge built vertically upon earlier knowledge. You can’t paper over a learning gap.
This gap could have been addressed if California’s Education leadership had not chosen social promotion and abandonment of standards as their management tactics. For example, back in the 2000s when getting a high school diploma required passing a high school exit exam (CAHSEE), learning gaps were addressed through summer school. You were forced to catch up.
In 2017, Jerry Brown signed law eliminating the exit exam, just as cell-phone-addiction-culture was overtaking the attention spans of incoming high school students. Silicon Valley techies brought on that crisis, and education leaders couldn’t stomach countering it forcefully, so in essence they threw in the towel.
About 30% of UC freshman arrive with truly pathetic math skills, and another 40% with sub-par problem-solving skills.
The top 30% are the ones who adapted well to online learning during covid, and resisted addiction to social media and gaming. Don’t make the mistake of thinking the entire UC establishment is doomed, because there are some incredibly bright, motivated well-adjusted young Californians ready to lead the future.
It’s just that they will find it much more difficult than past generations to employ the skills of their chronological peers, because they wasted their youth on inconsequential forms of self-gratification, while their education leaders’ commitment to their mission was weak and defeatist.
You got any sources for that lie?
Very rich from someone know as Anonymous who never provides a source to support her conclusions.
Contrarianism for the sake of contrarianism does not provide an argument. It is her sworn duty to battle a windmill that she perceives to be a dragon. Dementia?
Um… what no intellectual ( a stretch at that) contribution on the subject, just dishing out stupid childish responses. Stupidity run in the family? Apparently so.
Speaking of stupid childish responses….
Socialists don’t address the root cause of a problem, like requiring students, regardless of race, to learn basic math at a formative age.
Instead, Socialists manipulate outcomes by forcing Universities to accept unqualified students. Unfortunately for those students they then enter the very outcome based world of capitalism totally unprepared for its realities.
You got any logical proof and facts for that?
Socialists don’t address the root cause of a problem, Gotta ask, how the heck do you know that as a fact Ken? Have you attended a socialist university or worked in one?
Can anyone point out who the socialist universities are in the US? They’re called non-profits, but they sure don’t act like it. Do they?
Democrats always demand to be judged on their intentions, rather than results. It’s a recipe for disaster, and China is laughing.
Really?
China has its own serious problems, with youth no longer believing in “the system”. Only escapists are laughing at the other one’s failings.
and you got that precious insight from… Xi?
End Federal Aid to Cities, STates, Non-profits and colleges
Outlaw Public Unions
Stop rewarding Democrat Failure!
First of all, the PPRC left socialism about 3-4 decades ago and started a capitalist society which basically brought their nation out of poverty. XI has tried to re-impose more of the authoritarian state part but still uses capitalism so now the PPRC more resembles the classic fascist state like Germany 1933-1945.
Math, which I hate, is still incredibly important in a modern highly technological nation and is relatively easy to test for the appropriate skills. It’s kind of like a binary skill and you either have it or don’t. You can be taught the skills with appropriate teaching or you may simply be lucky to have a mind that clicks with math. But it requires skilled teaching and even before we left standardized testing it was not often taught well. We need the testing to know where our students are in their skills and we need standardized math teaching which is highly likely to be successful in teaching the appropriate skills. It’s rarely subjective so the DEI crowd likes to call it racist. Thats about like calling the ability to read and write racist.
From China to Nazis in one paragraph? Whew! Then claim reading and writing racist… double whew!
Math, which I hate, … was not often taught well. Because you suck at it you blame the teacher? How liberal of you. So based on that bit or inanity your comment is completely dumb.
GEB… seriously?
The math doesn’t lie. Worldwide, every school system has kids who get math and kids who don’t, whether you’re looking at Russia, Nigeria, Finland, or China. But about forty years ago, the U.S. decided to declare every student a math genius. The predictable result? Lowered standards and plummeting test scores. For colleges, this meant putting almost everyone through remedial math. Now, the very professors stung by their own bad policy are screaming foul. It just goes to show: when academics step out of their lane, they aren’t any smarter than your local lawn guy.
My lawn guy went the Holy Cross. BS in economics. Imagine that eh?
Funny but true
The Soviet Union failed economically and thus proved that the practice of socialism, as designed by Russian intellectuals, was a failure. This did not deter the group of American intellectuals who were educated in the 1960s. They gave birth to the ridiculous, non-intellectual, non-logical university faculties of today. Now with the rise of an economically much more sophisticated attempt at so-called socialism in the form of the People’s Republic of China, the poorly educated fools who dominate what this author refers to as our “elite” universities have placed the United States on a race to the bottom that has resulted in the populist revolt that has given us the Presidency of Donald J. Trump. I believe that the Pax Americana, created by the massive failure of European resource imperialism is facing its first challenge, the outcome of which cannot be foreseen. The situation in America is often compared to the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. That analogy is false. A better one would be that the situation is much more like the collapse of the Roman Republic.
The Soviet Union failed economically … Incorrect, it failed politically – old vs. new, and not because of CCCP socialism, the CCCP was communistic up until its final moments.
Everything else you note is complete and utter hogwash Jack.
Dear Anonymous. Your arguments have as much substance as your identity,
This “Anonymous” is never upbeat on any response he posts. . .kind of like a baby crying for their toy when their parents are trying to feed them.
. phantomboldly5cb0d04b6f .. .kind of like a baby crying for their toy when their parents are trying to feed them.
As does yours?
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.Any reply to the Anonomi is time better spent elsewhere. They are oftimes tales told by idiots, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing,
And yet here your wasting your better time replying to an anon. You ain’t too smart are you?
And yet here your [sic] wasting your better time replying to an anon. You ain’t too smart are you?
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YOU’RE= YOU ARE
Pot, meet Kettle.
😸😸😸
That’s all you got?
In that you’ve thrown down the gauntlet, let not your ego be massaged by this retort, in that I go out of my way not to suffer fools and knaves. I make the painful exception in this case for the sole purpose of setting the record straight in rebuttal. It was Porter G. Shepard I replied to but, of course, you knew that, didn’t you. So do the others.
Oh oh, someone’s pissed. Suffer fools … so says the fool. Gawd, you’re stupid.
You admit socialism failed. your excuses are hogwash. Commies are murderous, are you?
Of course the USSR failed economically. Centrally planned economies ALWAYS fail. Prices are determined by central planners rather than supply and demand. The result can only be a massive misallocation of resources. Shortages of some items. Gluts of others. And very little is produced outside of the most basic necessities.
The grocery shelves in the USSR were often bare. Stories about people hoping to get a loaf of bread often stood in line for hours and then were turned away empty handed. During the ’80s, I can remember the USSR importing HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF TONS of grain from the West to sustain livestock and bread. Similar dynamic with steel.
When Soviet leader Yeltsin visited a grocery in Texas he famously said there would be a revolution in the Soviet Union if the Soviet citizens saw American grocery stores. In his autobiography, Yeltsin said he felt “sick with despair” for the Soviet people as a result of his trip to the grocery.
Gawd you bought into the ancient capitalist propaganda. Imagine if actually had a brain … at least yo have the basis for a love novel.
The Soviet Union failed economically … Incorrect, it failed politically …
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Better to keep mouth shut and be thought the FOOL, than to open mouth and remove all doubt.
😸😸😸
Empty heads think alike. Obviously you’re practicing what you’re preaching.