A California economics professor is raising the alarm about the “learning deficit” he’s seeing in the classroom, arguing that the decision to scrap standardized tests in the name of “integration” is actually undermining the students they claim to be helping.
Cal State Long Beach professor Andrea Mays told Fox News Digital that the current cohort of college students, many of whom spent their middle school years studying online during the COVID-19 crisis, are arriving on campus unprepared for basic courses.
Mays spoke to Fox News Digital about the state university system’s decision to drop the SAT as a requirement for college admissions as playing a big role in that and that it has led to students coming to college unprepared and dropping out at high rates.
Mays says the dropout rate has increased “dramatically” and the chairs of other departments have told him it’s full, with 25% of students dropping out, and math is an important area where students come unprepared.
“I teach a class offered to non-economics majors,” explained Mays. “I can put on an index card how much math is required in my class, it’s not calculus, and they have trouble with it, they’re embarrassed, they’re exhausted, they come into my class, and they say, or in my office hours, and they say, I’ve never studied this stuff, I don’t know how to calculate a percentage change.”
“I can show them, but those students who come to me to ask for help, there are a lot of other students who are too shy to do that, and end up leaving the class.”
Mays, who recently wrote an opinion piece in the Orange County Register titled “Bring the SAT back to CSU – or admit we’re failing our students,” says the explanation he got for CSU’s plan to drop the SAT is that “we want to be inclusive.”
“I’m definitely committed to being involved on our campus,” said Mays. “We have a very diverse campus here. But I think it’s a fraud to tell people that what we’re doing is to bring everyone together when what we’re really doing is letting people in that we know they’re going to have a hard time with. They don’t know anything.”
In recent years, several activist groups have railed against the SAT and standardized testing in general, including the nation’s largest teachers union, and Fox News Digital asked Mays if that narrative is behind CSU’s decision not to require the SAT.
“That may have a small impact there without saying that, I’m not an expert on recent SAT changes, others have done that work looking at whether you can change the questions so that groups that don’t do well on certain questions, do better on other types of questions,” said Mays.
“There is definitely room for discussion about what kind of standard, is it law? Is it the SAT or something? The problem is that high schools are not the same,” said Mays.
“Not all high schools are doing well even if they say they are. So you’ll get students who get As in second algebra, and they come to my class and they can’t calculate a percent change. They can’t find the intersection between two straight lines, both of which are seventh and eighth grade math requirements. For students to go from high school to a four-year school and think they’re in four years and think they’re smart. at the end of the distribution of math and English ability.”
Acting Chancellor Steve Relyea in 2022 said that when the decision was made to remove the SAT and ACT, the goal was to “level the playing field” and provide “greater access.” The decision follows a year-long study by the Admissions Advisory Council, which found that the tests provided “negligible additional value” in predicting student success compared to high school GPA.
The program officially moved to “multifaceted admissions criteria,” focusing on GPA in certain high school courses, extracurriculars, and socioeconomic factors.
“Access without preparation is not an opportunity,” Mays wrote in his article. “It doesn’t matter. If CSU is serious about student success, affordability, and equity, it should be serious about measuring readiness — and acting on what it finds.”
Mays added, “Pretending that preparation gaps don’t exist is not fair.”
Mays told Fox News Digital that California’s strong and active community college system is a tool ready to be used as an “alternative” for high school dropouts, many of whom have lost years of schooling during the COVID-19 pandemic, and are not ready for college.
“Get into a community program and take a basic English class so you can write a sentence, you can write a paragraph, you can make an argument,” Mays said. “Take a basic math class that will carry over to a four-year university and learn how to do basic math that you probably didn’t learn in middle school online.”
The California State University System did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
“There’s no reason not to use the SAT as a filter to let students know whether or not they’re ready for a college-level career,” Mays told Fox News Digital.
