Woke College Admission Standards Results In Poor Performance

One maxim is certain is life. For every action, there is a reaction. Often the best of intentions are behind actions taken to fix a problem. Often, the action taken to fix the problem leads to an unanticipated reaction that results in a situation that can be worse than the original problem. 

The University of California at San Diego (UC San Diego) has been ranked as high as number 6 among public universities in the US News and World Report rankings. Five years ago the administration at this esteemed university began to worry that there were not enough brown and black minorities accepted to their school so they decided to eliminate the SAT test as a requirement for admittance. 

The elimination of standardized tests has been a major focus of “woke” educators who believe that lowering standards will help boost minority enrollment. The lack of standardized testing in the admissions process is problematic because many high schools suffer from grade inflation. Grade inflation occurs as many high schools give out a high percentage of A’s in order to help their students. Without a standardized test, you do not have a true barometer of whether the students can handle the rigors of a top-line university. 

UC San Diego set up a joint faculty-administration committee to study the results of the lack of standardized testing in the admissions process. Not surprisingly, the committee determined that “Over the past five years, UC San Diego has experienced a steep decline in the academic preparation of its entering first year students.” The committee determined that this deficiency applied to math, writing and language skills. 

Over 12% of the incoming freshmen had math skills below high school level. That amounts to a thirty fold increase since UC San Diego eliminated the SAT requirement. For the students that needed remedial math, their high school average for math was an A-. Understand, the high schools were giving an A- score to students who ended up needing a remedial math class when they got to the university. 

These students did nothing wrong, but they should not have been admitted to UC San Diego. The bar was lowered to allow an acceptable percentage of minorities to gain admission. In many instances, this ends up as a disservice also to the admitted student who is not ready for the academic setting at UC San Diego and ends up dropping out with a debt load they must repay. 

This example is endemic to what has been occurring across our country. We as a nation have not faced up to the reality that our schools are not graduating students with the skill they need to succeed in college or in the workforce. 

Lowering the standards is not the solution. We must break the lock that unions have on our education systems. We would not allow unprepared pilots to fly our planes. We cannot allow unions to prevent our students from receiving a quality education. 

There is no easy solution, but in areas where alternative schooling is allowed through charter schools, the students are graduating with skills that prepare them for college or any career.