The Math Problem | 041 | Is It Really a Problem?
Reframing the “rampant” lack of math preparation.
Before I get into the University of California, San Diego’s “rampant” student math preparation problem headlines and the moral panic…There’s my story.
I was a C+ student in a New York City high school. I worked 40 hours a week while enrolled. After graduation, I went straight into the Marine Corps. Years passed without doing any math at all. Eventually, I enrolled at a California community college.
What many people don’t know is that Veterans Centers often had, and still have, a whiteboard labeled “Friendlies.” In military terms, friendlies are those who are not the enemy.
That board listed faculty names.
It wasn’t about which instructors were “easy” or even explicitly veteran-focused. It was about who cared. Who explained things clearly. Who treated students with dignity. Who believed we could learn, even if our high-stakes assessments suggested otherwise.
That list mattered. It saved me.
Despite gaps in my math preparation, it was quality teaching, not test scores, that made the difference. Care, clarity, and commitment carried me forward when metrics alone would have written me off.
That’s the lesson I don’t want us to forget.
That said, there has been intense attention on the University of California San Diego’s so-called “math problem.” In short, UCSD initially reported an increase in the number of entering students who were below college-level math. That claim quickly triggered a familiar backlash: accusations of “lowering standards,” calls to reinstate the SAT, and a broader narrative about elite institutions failing.
Before accepting that framing, consider a simple thought experiment.
Imagine that, without warning or preparation, non-STEM PhD faculty were required to take the SAT math section, while STEM PhD faculty were required to take the verbal section. Now imagine that many performed poorly.
It’s worth asking: what would the conversation sound like then?
When I posed this scenario to ChatGPT, the likely responses clustered into predictable frames:
Reform Agenda
“Proof of good SAT scores from a long time ago doesn’t matter. There’s no excuse to perform poorly. Faculty must be assessed annually.”
Systems Reflection (productive)
“Test performance ≠ teaching competence or disciplinary expertise.”
Credentialing & Vetting Pressure
“Public accountability. If faculty can’t demonstrate basic skills, require proof.”
Professional Development Surge
“Strengthen assessment fluency.”
Neurodiversity & Assessment (justice conversation)
“Standardized snapshots misread diverse cognitive strengths and teaching skill.”
Institutional PR & Damage Control
“Outlier event. Data misinterpreted.”
Cultural Panic & Political Weaponization
“Universities failing. Elites exposed.”
The parallels are hard to miss.
Whether the anxiety centers on faculty flunking a surprise SAT or students arriving at college with uneven preparation, the core lesson is the same: decontextualized snapshots are a poor proxy for capability, potential, or responsibility.
They tell us little about who can teach well or who can learn deeply.
According to Pamela Burdman, UCSD’s internal report did identify a real increase in underprepared students, but the public reaction flattened the issue. Early media coverage amplified incorrect figures, overlooked later corrections, and treated the situation primarily as an admissions failure rather than as part of broader, pandemic-era declines in math achievement seen nationally and globally. Ultimately, the revised data showed that roughly one-twelfth (8.33%), not one-eighth (12.5%), of entering students were below college math levels, a meaningful difference that received far less attention.1
This is where community colleges quietly model a better path.
Community college faculty routinely teach students who are too often written off elsewhere: reentry veterans, foster youth, formerly and currently incarcerated students, student-parents, and students navigating poverty. There is always room for improvement, but few sectors of higher education are as committed to continuous pedagogical refinement, assessment redesign, and instructional equity.
I’m not arguing that UCSD’s concerns should be dismissed. I am arguing that elite institutions (whatever that means) have much to learn from community college faculty who have worked at the intersection of access, rigor, and improvement, especially during COVID and post-COVID.
In fact, UCSD doesn’t need to look far. Local math faculty at Cuyamaca College have demonstrated what sustained instructional improvement can look like in practice, with results that show up in student success outcomes. And one remarkable math educator I’ve had the privilege to interview, Kelly Spoon from San Diego Mesa College, is practically in UCSD’s backyard.
Check out teaching & learning resources.
And one more thing: ensure students take the right math for their path.
(Damn it! I really should’ve trademarked that phrase years ago.)
Please stop defaulting non-STEM students into calculus sequences they do not need. Unless a clueless “elite” transfer institution explicitly requires calculus regardless of major, non-STEM students should be placed into statistics. Full stop.
Pathway-aligned math is not about lowering standards.
It’s about relevance and student success.
And if a math department’s statistics instruction at a given institution is weak, there is a practical solution: allow students to take statistics through psychology, where the course often fulfills quantitative reasoning requirements and where faculty tend to be more attentive to pedagogy and grading practices that focus on learning, not on points.
The goal isn’t to protect departments or traditions.
The goal is to protect students’ time, momentum, and confidence by aligning math to purpose.
That alignment matters more than we’ve been willing to admit.
Let’s connect on LinkedIn.
Onward…
Dr. Al Solano
Founder, Continuous Learning Institute | About
Host, Student Success Podcast
A meaningful test of success is how helpful we are in contributing to our fellow human being’s happiness.
Burdman, P. (2026, January 27). Beyond the Numbers: Placing Math Preparation in Context. Just Equations.