A new standardized test that prioritizes history and classical knowledge has exploded in popularity in recent years. Now, it could challenge the SAT and ACT’s monopoly over what testing metrics colleges use to decide which applicants to admit.
Until recently, the Classical Learning Test (CLT) was primarily accepted by a small market of Christian colleges and universities. But now – in part thanks to changes by the Trump administration – the military service academies and more than 300 other universities are accepting the CLT as an alternative to the SAT or ACT.
While the legacy standardized tests are hyper-obsessed with “career readiness” and have been accused of watering down questions in recent years, the CLT looks to not only test academic knowledge but also reorient education toward preserving traditional American values. Education leader Jeremy Tate developed the test after his own experience running a standardized testing prep company. He became disillusioned about the “college and career readiness” focus of the SAT and ACT.
As Tate and other critics of the education system have explained, schools’ reputations (whether fairly or not) are closely tied to student performance on standardized tests. Therefore, schools have an incentive to “teach to the test” in order to maximize scores.
The goals of the standardized tests inevitably become the goals of the education curriculum itself. While preparing students for college may be a noble goal in the abstract, if only “college” skills are the focus of standardized tests, then schools will not teach other valuable skills, such as logic and rhetoric, that are necessary to maintain a healthy democratic society.
Writing all the way back in 2016, Tate explained: “the content of the SAT/ACT reflects an impoverished philosophy of education that stands in sharp contrast to the traditional or classical understanding of why we educate our children.”
Rather, he argued, “the formation of the human person, the formation of the heart in virtue,” should always stand “paramount when considering the rationale for education,” as taught in the “Western Tradition.”
Students taking the CLT encounter problems that are very different from the rigid questions on the SAT and ACT. “CLT tests have included passages from C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, Augustine, and Flannery O’Connor,” Tate wrote. “The passages engage the moral compass and conscience of a student rather than his or her intellect alone.”
The test draws from an impressive, if not a little intimidating, list of authors throughout the centuries. Other featured authors include Homer, Plato, Aristotle, Charles Dickens, and Jane Austen, as well as Toni Morrison and Martin Luther King, Jr.
It is no surprise that this test, which started off serving a market of Protestant and Catholic colleges, has since become an effective counterweight to the SAT and ACT duopoly. In 2024, the SAT replaced long, multi-question reading passages with short, 25-150-word paragraphs, each followed by a single question – an apparent watering down of expectations after scores began declining. The ACT also now gives students more time and fewer questions to reduce “speed-related stress.”
Accordingly, more schools are now turning to alternatives like the CLT to learn which students actually have the best chance to succeed. For the first time ever, the military service academies will accept CLT test scores for the 2027 admissions cycle.
“The CLT is the gold standard, and our academies need to attract the very best,” Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced in 2025.
Other leaders have also pushed for its acceptance, explaining the test’s value.
“Requiring our military academies to accept the CLT will help cultivate a new generation of leaders who are not only exceptionally capable but deeply grounded in the principles that make America strong,” Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL) said last year.
She wants to see Congress pass a requirement that the service academies accept the test so that a future president cannot undo the Trump administration’s action. As she explained to Fox News, “America’s service academies should represent the highest ideals of our nation — courage, integrity and intellect. The Classical Learning Test upholds those same ideals.”
Throughout the country, universities and state leaders are coming to this same realization.
As of March, more than 300 universities accept the CLT. Every public university in Indiana must accept the test following a new law signed last month by Governor Mike Braun.
“The effort slots Indiana in with several other red states that have embraced the test, which aims to promote the ‘Western intellectual tradition’ some believe has been abandoned by existing standardized tests,” the Indianapolis Star reported.
Indiana follows Florida, which in 2023 became the first state to require its public universities to accept the test. Arkansas also recently voted to offer the test to all high schoolers, and the University of Arkansas system currently accepts the results for admission. Ohio legislators are also moving forward a bill to require public universities in the Buckeye State to accept the CLT.
Critics will argue that the test is “conservative” or focuses too much on Western Civilization. They also will argue that there is not enough data to say whether the test accurately predicts a student’s propensity to succeed in college.
But the real scrutiny should be on the SAT and ACT. Despite decades of those tests having an ironclad grip on college admissions offices, multiple reports suggest students, even some at elite colleges, are struggling to finish an entire book.
The Classical Learning Test, by emphasizing critical thinking skills and an appreciation for the foundations of Western Civilization, has the ability to disrupt the broken educational system – and reform American culture as well.
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