Hillsdale Academy finished top five in the nation for two categories of the 2024 Classical Learning Test.

The current junior class placed first in the average national CLT10 scores by school after taking the test in the spring of 2024. The class of current freshmen at Hillsdale Academy had the 4th highest average test score by school in the nation.

“We use the CLT as a benchmark that tells our faculty where we’re doing well and where we can improve,” said Mike Roberts, headmaster at Hillsdale Academy. “What we try to stay away from is centering the education on testing, so we appreciate that the CLT does not innovate for innovation’s sake.”

CEO Jeremy Tate created the CLT as an alternative to the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) and the American College Testing (ACT) exams when he fielded requests from concerned parents as a college admissions counselor.

“Our goal with the CLT is to work with classical education, not against it, because the root of true education is virtuous young people who love God, country, and family,” Tate said. “Classical education should see students explore their moral imagination and grow in virtue. The CLT supports that.”

According to Soren Schwab ’12, Vice President of Partnerships at CLT, the CLT is on the same page as those classical schools across the country which prioritize curriculum over testing.

“No longer a niche movement, classical — and classical Christian — education is the fastest growing movement in the United States,” Schwab told The Collegian in an email. “Hundreds of top performing classical students now utilize the Classic Learning Test. The Academy is successful on the CLT, not because they spent countless hours on test prep, but rather because of their outstanding mission, vision, curriculum, and pedagogy.”

Roberts called standardized testing a helpful tool but spoke emphatically about the mission of Hillsdale Academy as it relates to the education of the whole person.

“The CLT is definitely a piece of what we do here at the Academy, but it’s not the end,” Roberts said. “Sometimes we think GPA or test scores are the goal of education, but a full education also takes seriously the questions concerning who students will become and how they will serve.”

Roberts said he thinks the CLT understands the true goal of classical education, but testing serves the curriculum, not the other way around.

“Hillsdale Academy will never change course for higher test scores because our goal is the classical education of our students,” Roberts said. “Luckily, I don’t see that being an issue as long as we partner with the CLT.”