Hillsdale Academy’s senior class ranked fourth nationally based on its collective Classical Learning Test scores after taking the test in the 2022-23 academic year.
“It’s not the end-all-be-all,” Hillsdale Academy Headmaster Mike Roberts ’98 said. “But it’s a nice assurance that this classical education approach that we have, the Hillsdale College Program Guide and curriculum that we follow, is producing results with our students and our teachers that are rivaling any other school in the country.”
The Classical Learning Test is a standardized test designed to suit the knowledge and training of classically educated students. According to its website, it’s an “alternative to the SAT and ACT” and is composed of three sections: verbal reasoning, grammar and writing, and quantitative reasoning with an optional essay section.
“To perform well on a test like the CLT is a satisfying experience for our students because they know it closely aligns with the aims of classical education,” Assistant Headmaster Julie Apel said. “A thoughtfully written assessment like the CLT says something about what a well-educated student ought to know and what kinds of skills are developed through an education that centers itself on worthy content and sound reasoning.”
Roberts said Hillsdale Academy requires testing for all students — eleventh graders take the CLT, tenth graders take the CLT 10, eighth graders take the CLT 8, and elementary students take the CLT 3-6.
“We do not do this in place of the ACT and the SAT,” Roberts said. “We still take those tests, but it gives our students another option to take a standardized test that probably is closer to the type of education they’ve been receiving. It’s going to be actually more of an apples-to-apples type of comparison to the types of things that they’re studying on a daily and weekly basis.”
The CLT released its rankings based on the 2022-23 academic year in January 2024 and recognized the top 20 school-wide performances on the CLT, the CLT 10, and the CLT 8. Hillsdale Academy ranked fourth for the CLT and second for the CLT 8.
“The schools across our country that take the CLT are way above average compared to national norms,” said David Diener, professor of education and member of the board of academic advisers for the CLT. “So, Hillsdale Academy’s presence on these top CLT rankings is an exceptional honor.”
Apel said the rankings are a benchmark of the school’s success.
“To see our students perform at such a high level reflects both the students’ diligence in pursuit of their education as well as the commitment of our faculty to pursue excellence in teaching,” Apel said. “Formal assessments are never the full picture of an education, but it’s incredibly exciting to see our students knock it out of the park.”
The current senior class took the CLT last year as eleventh graders, and Roberts said 21 of them have been accepted to Hillsdale College. Hillsdale is among more than 250 colleges that accept the test. Most are private schools, but all state schools in Florida accept it, too, including University of Florida, Florida State University, and University of Central Florida.
“There are certain types of things we want to see — college acceptance, preparedness, who the kid becomes — and then some of these test scores are pretty neat too,” Roberts said.
Good test scores, while encouraging for students and teachers, are not the Academy’s primary goal, Roberts said.
“Right now our focus is that the CLT is a test that we’re going to take in every grade that it’s offered and it’s going to provide us a piece of information that will help us do our job better, but it’s not the end-all-be-all,” he said.
Roberts said the Academy does not “teach to a test.”
“Whether it’s an AP test or whether it’s the SAT or the ACT, as those types of tests change, then if you’re trying to chase those results and that was the end-all-be-all, then whoever’s making up those tests is driving your curriculum,” he said. “So we’ve kind of pushed back against that.
