Six hundred teachers of mathematics in the University of California system have sent out an appeal calling for the reinstatement of standard testing for applicants to STEM college courses, reported the Lost Angeles Times. They argue that the absence of such tests over the past six years has left professors uncertain about students’ readiness. They warned: “We now observe preparation gaps so severe that instructors must reteach middle-school mathematics while simultaneously teaching the material students need for sciences, engineering, economics, and other quantitatively demanding fields.” Further: “Basic mathematical fluency is analogous to literacy; without it, success in university-level STEM becomes structurally unattainable for students.”
Many colleges, including Ivy League Dartmouth and Harvard, have already reinstated SAT (originally, Scholastic Aptitude Test, but no longer so designated) testing, but the California teachers expect an outcry from those who are opposed to testing. Yet this is just the tip of the iceberg with regard to the deterioration of the U.S. educational system over the last few decades. All of the major professional organizations in engineering and science, including the National Academy of Sciences, have raised serious concerns about the state of the nation in K-12 education. Recent reports have not only indicated a general failure among K-12 students in mathematics but also in reading.
Older observers will recall a Blue Ribbon Panel on education, “A Nation at Risk,” created under President Ronald Reagan. Whatever its faults, it concluded 43 years ago that a foreign enemy designing to undermine the U.S. could not have done a better job than had been done domestically.