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University of California freshmen are increasingly flunking introductory math classes, with nearly one in five students earning a failing grade, withdrawing or otherwise failing to pass — almost double the rate from five years ago, new data revealed.
17.8% of freshmen taking introductory math courses across the University of California system failed to pass in the 2025-26 academic year, up from just 9.2% in 2020-21, EdSource reported.
The figures come as California continues to struggle with lackluster academic performance in its public schools, raising fresh questions about whether students are arriving at the state’s prestigious universities with the skills they need to succeed.
The courses included in the figures range from calculus and precalculus to preparatory math classes covering subjects such as algebra and trigonometry.
The failure rate has climbed substantially since the UC system dropped the SAT and ACT as admission requirements. The 2020-21 academic year was the last in which the standardized tests were required for freshman admission.
The rate jumped to 13% in 2021-22 before dipping slightly to 12.6% the following year. It climbed to 15.3% in 2023-24, eased to 14.9% in 2024-25 and then surged to its highest level in 2025-26.
“California Can’t grade their way out of an education crisis,” Sonja Shaw, a Republican candidate for California state superintendent of public instruction, told the Post.
“Dropping the SAT and ACT has let far too many students arrive unprepared for even introductory math,” Shaw said, arguing that the nearly doubled failure rate was evidence that schools were advancing students without ensuring they had mastered basic skills.
The numbers vary dramatically across the UC system’s nine undergraduate campuses.
UC Merced had the highest share of freshmen who failed to pass introductory math, with 36.4% falling short in 2025-26 — more than double its rate of about 16% five years earlier.
UC Riverside experienced one of the sharpest recent increases, with its rate jumping from roughly 8% the previous year to about 20%. UC Santa Cruz also saw a substantial rise, from around 12% to approximately 19%.
Meanwhile, UC Santa Barbara recorded the lowest failure rate, at 8.2%.
UC Davis, UC Irvine and UC San Diego had rates clustered between roughly 16% and 18%, while UC Berkeley came in near 13% and UCLA around 11%.
Joel Hass, a mathematics professor at UC Davis, said the results were unsurprising and reflected a growing divide between students who arrive academically prepared and those who struggle with foundational material.
“There is a wider range of interest and preparedness,” Hass said. “We still have a good number of highly qualified students, but also many who are unprepared for college. The preparedness gap between these groups is large.”
Hass said some university instructors were being encouraged to offer remedial courses covering material students should have learned years earlier.
Just 49.3% of California students met or exceeded state English language arts standards in 2025-26, while only 38.4% achieved proficiency in math, according to results released by the state.
Although both figures improved slightly from the previous school year, they remained below pre-pandemic levels. In 2018-19, 50.9% of students met English language arts standards and 39.7% were proficient in math.
The state spent about $134 billion on K-12 schools from all sources in 2025-26, or roughly $26,450 per student, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office.
“The failure of high schools, and more generally K-12 education in California, is a scandal. The state now sends students who might thrive by first going to the community colleges to UC campuses where they are unprepared for a serious academic environment,” Hass told the Post.
Over 1,400 UC faculty — mostly in STEM — are urging the system to bring back SAT or ACT requirements for science, math, technology, and engineering applicants, citing “severe” math deficits among incoming students.
“Over the past five years, we have seen a widening divergence in mathematical preparation levels within the same classroom. This trend indicates that current admissions practices do not provide a sufficiently reliable check on mathematical readiness for STEM majors,” faculty wrote in their June letter.
UC is still test‑blind for current applicants, but a formal review of standardized testing in admissions is scheduled to finish by June 2027, with recommendations to the Board of Regents expected in fall 2027
Hass also pushed back against arguments that the SAT and ACT create barriers for disadvantaged students, saying the exams can help identify talented applicants whose abilities might otherwise be overlooked.
“SAT and ACT tests can open doors for talented students who have suffered from poor instruction in poor quality schools,” Hass said.
Rather than placing students in university courses before they are ready, he suggested that some could benefit from strengthening their academic foundations at community colleges before transferring to a UC campus.
