Social media groups buzzed on Tuesday January 14th about the district’s decision to offer the Classical Learning Test (CLT). Many parents expressed concern over the districts choice of test citing the test is not widely accepted like the ACT and SAT. Other parents are concerned with the material used in the test.
Classical Learning Test Background
Classical learning test was created by Jeremy Wayne Tate. Tate explains in multiple interviews found online that the test was designed to replace the SAT and ACT. Tate explains the test is different than SAT in that it focuses on classical text such as Shakespeare and Aristotle.
CLT states on their webpage that it is not religiously or politically affiliated. However, a look at Tate’s Twitter (X) suggests that he views his religion as something which the nation should be focused on and is the “revolution we’ve been waiting for.”
CLT states a long list of board members. The prominent ones are Kevin Roberts (founder of the Heritage Foundation) and a variety of presidents and deans from Christian colleges and universities. There is not much diversity to represent other cultures, experiences, or perspectives. While we did not find any discussion on this we feel that this places students from other walks of life at a disadvantage for this test.
The College Board states that the CLT test does not meet industry standards for college acceptance. The College Board continues to state that this test does not meet concordance standards in multiple areas. They explain the importance of concordance is to ensure that the tests are reliably compared to each other to ensure that students taking the tests aren’t advantaged or disadvantaged.
The CLT website has a list of 280 schools that accept their test. Due to Florida legislation in September of 2023 all Florida universities must accept this exam. However, many universities across the nation do not accept this exam. For example, a student may get a scholarship to University of Alabama, Kentucky University, or Duke University for sports, academic, or a variety of other strengths. These universities, along with most out of state universities, do not accept this exam. The burden of testing cost and finding a location for an acceptable exam is placed on the student and their family.
Leon County Schools
Our taxes pay for an entrance exam to be administered. The district decided to administer this exam instead of a more widely accepted exam. Neighbors are concerned about the district’s choice for this as the exam. Many of our parents were told that the principals decided the exam by a vote. However, other parents have been told the testing coordinators decided.
Regardless, our parents are scrambling to find testing locations, transportation, and funding for their students to take the SAT or ACT.
If this test was more widely accepted, our parents wouldn’t be as concerned about the choice. The issue arises in the majority of the colleges that accept this test are Christian and private colleges. Many of our students are looking at state universities and not private or Christian colleges. This choice in test puts all our students at risk of not being accepted into Universities across the country.
We have placed a public records request for the communications around this test. Normally we would wait until we received that request to publish a piece on the subject. However, we feel that our parents, our students, and our community should be made more aware of this change and the impacts due to the fast approaching test date. This is an important conversation that our community should be having due to the impacts it will have on our students.
What Actions Can We Take?
The date for testing is fast approaching for our students to take this exam. Our district and community should have already had a conversation about this change. While our district states they want the community involved they continue to publish AI Podcasts full of propaganda and now an email list to update the community. However, they are discussing a limit to speaker time and these emails do not offer genuine feedback from the community.
Our neighbors feel left in the dark and our voices silenced.
Now is the time to write the Board. Express to them their power in these choices. Let them know the importance of these entrance exams and how spending money on an entrance exam that isn’t widely accepted is just another waste of taxpayer money.
- Email all the Board members here: Personstobeheard@leonschools.net
The next school board meeting is February 25th 2025 at 6pm.
Our students and community deserve the opportunity to be admitted to any college in the country.
