ACT and SAT’s rising rival: How the CLT provides alternative to Common Core-based college entrance exams

By offering high schoolers a standardized test grounded in the liberal arts, a relatively new college entrance exam is challenging the duopoly of the ACT and SAT and may be gaining more traction this year as it garners support from elected state officials.  

The Classic Learning Test (CLT) came onto the academic scene in 2015, through the efforts of CEO Jeremy Tate, according to the CLT website. A high school English teacher at the time, Tate was struck by the idea of American education being “utilitarian” partially due to the current standardized testing system.

Michael Torres, the CLT Exam Director of Legislative Strategy, told CatholicVote in a March 28 interview that the SAT and ACT have dominated the college entrance assessment marketplace since the mid-1900s.

“Both companies have been protected from competition by state laws like the one in Texas that we are trying to change,” Torres said. “As the recurrent controversies over admissions exams continue and as both exams continue to reduce their rigor, it is beyond time to allow for fair competition.” 

Tate decided to work to remedy problems on the testing front by spearheading the new test.

“The demand among families for more classic approaches to education, especially thanks to school choice, shows that a test that is based in the same pedagogical philosophy and a very high standard of rigor is much needed,” Torres said.

Torres said the word “Classic” in reference means “tried and true.” Both the SAT and ACT lean on Common Core in their assessments; conversely, the CLT is based in the liberal arts tradition, using complex passages from classic texts in its Verbal Reasoning and Grammar/Writing sections. The CLT heavily focuses on geometry and trigonometry in its Math section. 

Torres told CatholicVote that from 2015 to 2022, the majority of students who used the CLT were students at non-public schools, who could take the exam as an admissions test into private universities. The CLT’s popularity among this academic demographic saw an uptick over the years, but a new wave of momentum came in 2023 when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis raised questions about the College Board’s AP courses containing progressive content.

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