Over 280 University of California STEM faculty members have signed an open letter calling on the UC Board of Regents to
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Anonymous
Not all professors agree with this. I don’t know why they’re recommending the SAT when the UC system was supposed to be developing its own rigorous exam designed by UC faculty. |
Anonymous
They looked into the CAASPP as an alternative. The CAASPP is California's state-wide academic barometer test given to different grades, like 8th, 11th. The same racial disparities that afflicted the SAT were found in the CAASPP. The use of standardized testing is a very sensitive one in California because there is the belief that white supremacy has infected the entirety of how academic achievement is measured and that whatever path California takes has to be completely distinct from all past iterations. The UC system looked at developing its own test but decided against it. |
Anonymous
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Imagine paying $85,000 a year for this:
The faculty letter says: “Students entering calculus courses increasingly lack mastery of prerequisite algebraic and trigonometric concepts.” “Many students who completed high school calculus are unable to perform symbolic manipulations expected for success in university-level calculus.” “Faculty across departments report a significant deterioration in quantitative preparedness among incoming students.” “Calculus has become a major barrier to persistence in STEM majors because students are arriving without the mathematical foundations these courses assume.” |
Anonymous
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First you had 15% of the students at UCSD who can't perform middle school math.
Now, you have wholesale mediocrity. This is crazy. |
Anonymous
And that’s their problem. I don’t doubt UC admissions when they say they have data on each high school spanning decades. Developing their own test means an ability to accurately assess where the skill gaps remain in California public schools and having a quantifiable way to make recommendations rather than throwing out “x% of students failed and aren’t ready.” Gaps will always exist, because income isn’t uniform across racial lines. We need to get past the inequality part and start solutions. The SAT is alright- it really leaves a lot to be desired in terms of rigor and substance over form. |
Anonymous
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"For example, for three consecutive year, 20-30% of UC Berkeley first-semester calculus students who participated in mathematical diagnostic testing displayed severe[b][u] preparation deficits."
Ouch. |
Anonymous
How are state exams not catching this? How are students taking calculus but not able to do 2x=8? I know in Texas you only need a 30% to be proficient on the state exams. Is something similar happening in California? |
Anonymous
Ridiculous statement |
Anonymous
+1, sounds like this is is a deeper issue than just standardized scores. It sounds like teachers aren’t teaching anything but giving out good grades, and previous standardized exams are being ignored for student promotion. One could think of 20+ answers to this problem without the SAT even being in the conversation. |
Anonymous
Don’t take the bait. |
Anonymous
Losers always look for excuses. |
Anonymous
When the Regents of UC decided to keep the ban permanent, this is what happened: https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2020/05/uc-sat-act-standardized-test-requirements/ “The main reason we are looking at SATs is because they are racist,” said Kum-Kum Bhavnani, chair of the Academic Senate. “No one disputes that.” But she stressed that a senate report released in February found that “the way in which the UC uses them stops them from being racist (and) actually provides some independent indicator of possible ways of thinking about the work.” |
Anonymous
It's more than income. Black students from the highest earning families score about the same as white students from the lowest earning families on the SAT. If you waved a magic wand and blew away the racial income gap, the SAT gap would narrow slightly but not disappear. The problem is more intractable than most people realize. When affirmative action was around, liberals tended to support it because they were in denial about how big the gaps actually were, and figured it was just a small thumb on the scale. Conservatives tended to oppose it because they were also in denial about how big the gaps actually were, and figured URMs could just work a little harder to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Both were wrong, and the UC system is finding out the hard way. |
Anonymous
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Don't worry. While the UC's banned the used of the SAT, they still accept AP exam scores for admission purposes...with this caveat:
https://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/admission-requirements/ap-exam-credits/ap-credits/ "Students should be aware AP test scores lower than 3 will not adversely affect their chances for admission." The UC's are a joke. |
Anonymous
There’s a lot of research showing that these gaps close when you have the white and black student in the same school. The gap explains a difference in choices by upper middle class black and white parents, not an inherent gap by race (which would imply black people are dumber). One can spout all day about how these issues are cultural, but I find this unproductive and divisive. Everyone of every income level can do calculus I, as long as their brains aren’t pan fried by some intellectual disability. Learning algebra isn’t unique to white and Asian people; it’s something we should all feel comfortable doing, but don’t because we’ve been fed divisive lies about ability, talent, and yes victimhood. -black person whose major required calculus in every course. |