The release of a faculty report from the University of California, San Diego in November 2025 set off a firestorm of news coverage and op-eds about college-level math preparation. Much of the coverage has painted a deficit view of students, blaming the trend of declining math performance on UC San Diego’s increased enrollment of underserved students—a conclusion drawn from the report itself.
In this special report, Burdman examines the conclusion that the “excessive increase” in students needing precollege math courses was directly attributed to enrollments from LCFF+ schools. In fact, as UCSD’s own data reveal, even as the number of LCFF+ students was stagnant or declining, precollege math enrollments continued to rise. By exploring this pattern, Burdman uncovers a significant change in the administration of UCSD’s Math Placement Exam that was not acknowledged within the faculty report.
Highlighting the need for greater transparency around measures of math preparation, Burdman notes that a shift in placement testing conditions—prohibiting the use of calculators—may have contributed to the increased identification of underprepared students who were assigned to precollege courses in fall 2024 and fall 2025.
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