The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board has approved the use of the Classic Learning Test, or CLT, for admissions at Texas public colleges and universities.
In a July 23 letter to university chancellors and presidents, Commissioner of Higher Education Wynn Rosser informed them that institutions may consider the CLT as a factor when admitting students.
“Institutions may currently consider standardized testing scores, including the CLT, as a factor in making admission decisions for first-time freshman who do not qualify for automatic admission pursuant to Texas Education Code, Section 51.803 and 51.804, international admissions, and returning students,” Rosser wrote.
The letter follows a study by the Texas A&M Public Policy Research Institute, which found the CLT “met the broad threshold for continued consideration but was at the lower bound of the technical-readiness benchmark.”
The study also noted that, because there is less available evidence on the CLT than on the SAT or ACT, additional time is needed to evaluate the correlation between students’ CLT scores and postsecondary outcomes.
Jeremy Tate, founder and CEO of the CLT, told the Higher Education Coordinating Board that the exam better aligns with Texas’ new social studies standards and instructional materials approved in late June.
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Tate also said approving the CLT would create an educational pipeline that “honors the pursuit of truth, goodness, and beauty.”
The Classic Learning Test was created in 2015 as an alternative to the SAT and ACT. The two-hour online exam evaluates students in verbal reasoning, grammar and writing, and quantitative reasoning using classical literature and historical texts.
Mandy Drogin, a senior fellow for the Government Reform and Oversight Coalition and K-12 education expert at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, told The Daily Signal that classical education provides students with a higher-quality education.
“The reality is, if there is an explosion of classical education, parents realize that this is providing a higher quality education, free of indoctrination, grounded in not only the classics, primary sources, but also the ability to think critically, and use persuasion and rhetoric to be able to participate as a member of society.” Drogin said.
Drogin also said students attending classical schools or receiving classical education are “scoring upwards of 25% better than students going through traditional schools.”
“It’s just a higher quality, more rigorous education where students are really going in depth into literature and history and civics, and economics, and all of these important issues that were ultimately the foundation of Western civilization, and, of course, America,” Drogin explained.
In 2023, the Texas Public Policy Foundation published a report on classical education that found more parents were choosing classical schools. One parent quoted in the report said they sought out classical education because of “the bold and clear teaching that truth is absolute. The school rejects that truth is relative and encourages children to discern the truth for themselves.”
“It’s a huge win as we’re trying to restore academic rigor and excellence into the education system as a whole,” Drogin said.
Texas now joins other state university systems, including those in Florida, Iowa, Indiana, Arkansas, Georgia, and North Carolina, as well as the University of Oklahoma and the University of New Mexico, in recognizing the CLT for admissions.
The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board plans to begin amending the Uniform Admission Policy to align agency rules with the review’s findings and applicable statutory requirements.
The proposed rules are expected to be presented to the board by January 2028. If adopted, they would take effect for students applying for fall 2028 admission.
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