A recent University of California San Diego faculty report shows a 30-fold spike in freshmen needing remedial math classes alongside a sharp decline in writing skills since 2020.
Experts told The College Fix the crisis stems from a mix of pandemic disruptions, the abandonment of standardized testing, poor teaching methods, and a focus on equity over excellence.
Steve McGuire, an American Council of Trustees and Alumni fellow, told The Fix via email that he was “truly shocked that such an elite university is admitting students who are incapable of doing first or second grade math.”
He said this academic decline has been prevalent throughout the country for a variety of reasons. While the pandemic was certainly one of them, “DEI and social justice efforts that have substituted ideological goals for merit and excellence” also play a role.
Thus, he said, “it was not a surprise to learn that students are underprepared. This is a widespread problem. But the depth of the problem at UCSD was stunning.”
McGuire said universities must uphold and restore “standards of excellence.”
They must graduate students who excel in their chosen majors while building strong foundational skills and broad general knowledge through rigorous core curricula, he said.
He also told The Fix that while offering remedial support to underprepared students makes sense, universities must reinstate standardized testing and prioritize objective merit in admissions decisions.
“It is clear that there are many students being admitted to UCSD who sadly have no business being there at all. That points to the fact that this is a problem that goes beyond UCSD or higher ed too,” he said.
“The K-12 system is clearly failing many students, often also because equity is pursued over excellence. This needs to change,” McGuire said.
Other education policy experts agree that this problem is not limited to UCSD.
California Policy Center Research Manager Sheridan Karras told The College Fix via email that “a staggering 80 percent of students are placed in remedial courses” in the California Community College system.
“In the CSU system it’s about three in ten students, and in the UC system it’s less than one in ten students,” Karras told The Fix.
She attributes much of the current crisis to flawed instructional shifts that originated decades ago and have persisted in classrooms ever since.
“A major root cause is whole-word or ‘balanced literacy’ teaching methods, rather than traditional phonics, that gained popularity in the ’80s and ’90s, and still continue in many schools,” she said.
Additionally, teaching methods for math have undergone similar changes.
In the late 1980s, math instruction downplayed basic skills and direct teaching, shifting instead toward approaches like inquiry-based learning and student-centered discovery methods.
The following decades saw more changes in math teaching methods. In the late ‘90s, California shifted “back to proven approaches with a new set of standards and saw an increase in student performance.”
However, not long after in 2010, “the State Board of Education adopted a set of standards that reinstated the failed methods. California students are still affected by this 2010 change,” she said.
“The 2023 California Mathematics Framework, which provides guidance on how to teach math, leans into the same flawed ideas that focus on open-ended problems and cultural relevance, rather than teaching straightforward algorithms and the memorization of math facts,” Karras told The Fix.
She said she has personally spoken with teachers and tutors in California schools where fourth graders can’t do basic addition, and eighth graders don’t know what a paragraph is or how to write a complete sentence.
What’s more, the California Teachers Association has opposed efforts to remedy this problem, Karras said.
It rejected a bill that would “mandate the science of reading in California schools” and others “proposed to mandate dyslexia screening to provide early help to students who need it.”
Despite this, a bill passed last year that “contained some provisions for dyslexia screening.” The state also recently passed another bill that Karras said “may help strengthen reading instruction in California schools.”
Further, the policy expert said, “school districts don’t have to wait for the state to take action.”
Many districts have already started implementing the science of reading in their classrooms.
“I’ve personally spoken to teachers and tutors working in schools where fourth graders cannot do basic addition (like 8+3), and eighth graders don’t know what a paragraph is or how to write a complete sentence,” Karras told The Fix
She noted that this isn’t true of all California students, but it is widespread enough to cause serious concern.
The College Fix reached out to UCSD and the academic senate office for comment to learn more about the report, but received no reply.
The UCSD faculty report states the share of students needing remedial math courses surged from about 1 in 100 to 1 in 8 freshmen, prompting the creation of classes addressing gaps as basic as elementary and middle-school level, The College Fix previously reported.
It attributes the crisis to COVID-19 learning losses, the elimination of standardized testing in admissions, grade inflation, and expanded enrollment from under-resourced high schools.
Writing skills have also declined sharply, driving more students into remedial programs like Analytic Writing.
The report states that “this trend poses serious challenges both to student success and to the university’s instructional mission”.
It also warns that “Admitting large numbers of underprepared students risks harming those students and straining limited instructional resources.”
This piece was originally published by The College Fix on December 17, 2025.