Buzzy UCSD Math Readiness Report Failed to Mention Calculator Ban

The article highlights the special report’s finding of a significant change in the administration of UC San Diego’s Math Placement Exam that was not acknowledged within the recent campus report about declining math preparation. It includes the following excerpt from Pamela Burdman:

“Evidently, UCSD’s math faculty decided midstream that they wanted to ensure that students could answer math questions without a calculator,” Burdman wrote. “The reasons UCSD made this switch may be perfectly valid. But a decline in students’ performance in the absence of calculators was entirely predictable, assuming that nothing else on the in-person, timed test had changed.”