Richard Barrera, the leading candidate for California superintendent of public instruction, has stated he would oppose the restoration of standardized testing for University of California (UC) admissions, even as mounting concerns persist regarding the foundational math proficiency of incoming students. Barrera, a San Diego Unified School Board member since 2008 and currently a senior policy adviser to state superintendent Tony Thurmond, is competing against Chino Valley Unified school board president Sonja Shaw to succeed Thurmond as the state’s top elected education official.
Stance on University Admissions
During an interview with NBC LA’s Conan Nolan on Sunday, Oct. 4, Barrera affirmed his opposition to reinstating the SAT as a requirement for the UC system. When challenged by Nolan, who cited reports from math faculty at UC Berkeley and UCLA regarding students arriving on campus without a grasp of fundamental concepts, Barrera rejected the necessity of the exams. “Absolutely not,” Barrera said. “So math teachers at UCLA and Berkeley and every place else, part of your job that you get paid by the taxpayers to do is to teach our kids.”
When Nolan questioned whether university professors should be tasked with teaching basic subjects like fractions, Barrera argued that universities should prioritize support over exclusion. “Listen, we’ve got students who are coming up from incredible experiences, first generation students overcoming so many barriers to be on the campus,” Barrera said. “Those students are capable of learning quickly. What they need is a little support to be caught up. What they don’t need is to be excluded.”
The UC system stopped considering SAT and ACT scores in admissions decisions starting in 2020, following long-standing criticism that the tests created barriers for low-income, Black, and Latino students. Critics of the current test-free policy, however, argue that the absence of standardized testing removes an independent measure of academic preparation at a time when high school grade point averages (GPAs) are rising.
Divergence Between Grades and Proficiency
Questions regarding the accuracy of high school grades as a predictor of college readiness have intensified as the percentage of applicants reporting a 4.0 GPA or higher has doubled over the last decade. This trend exists alongside data showing that students are still struggling to recover from pandemic-era declines in reading and math performance. Education advocate Charles Cole, who graduated from high school in 2001, noted that while high grades assisted his own college admission, they left him unprepared for university-level work.
“I’m happy and grateful for the grades because it helped me get into college. But the level of preparation was a huge letdown,” Cole previously told The Post, describing his experience requiring remedial courses after earning strong marks in high school.
Data from the California Department of Education shows this gap. During the 2024-25 school year, approximately 57% of 11th graders met or exceeded standards in English on the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments. In contrast, only 30.5% met or exceeded standards in math. While these figures represent an increase from the 2021-22 pandemic lows of 54.8% in English and 27% in math, performance in both subjects remains generally below pre-pandemic levels.
Barrera, who has secured the endorsement of the California Teachers Association, maintains that the focus should remain on classroom support rather than utilizing standardized testing as a gatekeeping mechanism for higher education. The debate remains unresolved as the university system continues to operate without standardized testing requirements.
