Learning Initiative, said they produced the Classic Learning Test in response to a demand for something different from the SAT and the ACT. Nicole Ault | Collegian
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — When Hillsdale College announced its acceptance of the Classic Learning Test on March 6, views on the college entrance exam’s website almost doubled, said Jeremy Tate, president and co-founder of the Classic Learning Initiative, the exam’s parent company.
“It was a game changer,” Tate said. “I think it communicated a lot of credibility to other schools.”
Along with 39 other colleges and universities, Hillsdale College will start accepting students’ CLT scores as an alternative to SAT and ACT scores for the class of 2022. The college found out about the CLT a year and a half ago and began to seriously consider adopting it in part because parents expressed concern about the SAT and ACT’s alignment with Common Core national standards, said Zachary Miller, senior director of admissions.
Hillsdale subjected the CLT to an extensive vetting process that made the college’s acceptance all the more meaningful, Tate said. Over the course of four months, a select committee at the college analyzed test questions, queried other colleges that have adopted the exam, compared scores with those from other standardized tests, and administered the exam to 38 current freshman.
“It went through intense scrutiny to make sure it was really a test that could measure a student’s preparedness for college, especially for Hillsdale,” Miller said.
Miller said the exam is different but on par with the other tests as an evaluation of students’ abilities.
“It’s truly a test that’s going to measure a student’s ability to reason and their aptitude, and that’s what we like,” he said, noting that the committee found questions on the CLT to be comparable in rigor to those on the SAT and ACT. “That’s what a standardized college entrance exam is supposed to do.”
Tate said he and David Wagner, CEO of the Classic Learning Initiative, founded the exam because they recognized a demand for something different — and better — than the SAT and ACT.
First offered in the fall of 2015, the CLT differs from the SAT and ACT both in content and in form. Consisting of three sections — verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, and grammar and writing — the 120-question exam takes 2 hours and 15 minutes to complete, Tate said. Students must come to designated testing centers, but they can use their own devices to take the exam online, and they receive their results the same day.
But the most significant differences are in content, Tate said, noting that the exam is not geared to match the Common Core curriculum.
“At the end of the day, the ACT, SAT, and CLT are academic standards that ultimately drive curriculum at the high school level,” Tate said. “The SAT and ACT put pressure on high school curriculum to conform to the Common Core.”
In contrast, Tate said, the CLT asks students to analyze classic texts from the Western tradition instead of modern texts that are often found on the SAT and ACT.
“We want to put kids in front of the greatest thinkers in the history Western thought, in front of really timeless material that’s stood the test of time,” he said. “They’re not just going to be prepping for a test; they’re going to be immersing themselves in the full richness of the Western intellectual inheritance.”
Miller said the college appreciated this distinction from the SAT and ACT.
“We like that the passages and questions in the CLT draw from some of the great minds of the Western tradition,” he said. “We think there’s a richness and a depth to that, which allows students to engage their minds.”
But Tate and Wagner said they want the test to be more than an alternative for families who don’t like the Common Core. They aim to provide good customer service, they said, noting conveniences they offer that the other tests don’t: an online platform, same-day results, and free score reporting to colleges.
Wagner said they’re trying to reach out to families and colleges, too, and starting an online book club with professors of partner colleges.
“We’re galvanizing a community — an approach to education, a worldview,” he said.
At the Classic Learning Initiative’s headquarters — a spacious apartment tucked away in Annapolis’ historic district — Wagner and Tate and their co-workers joke that they want to be the Chick-Fil-A of standardized testing — with customer loyalty and a reputation for providing excellent quality.
“We want to be the best test out there,” Wagner said.
