The Florida Education Board of Governors is set to vote on whether to approve a new college entrance exam that critics contend places too much emphasis on Christian and Western thought.
The Classic Learning Test (CLT), which was created in 2015, is accepted as an exam entrance option by over 200 colleges and universities across the country, most of which are Christian. The test focuses heavily on literature and humanities from Western society, with a particular emphasis on Christian authors, and has been promoted as an alternative to the SAT and ACT exams.
The Board of Governors is scheduled to vote on Friday on whether the exam can be an option for students seeking to obtain a higher education in Florida.
The test appears to be best-suited for students of classical education, which centers on Western works of literature that are often taught using the Socratic method. Several classical education schools across the country, however, have pushed far right viewpoints and ideals in their lessons.
Michigan-based Hillsdale College, for example, which founded a number of K-12 classical education charter schools throughout the U.S., has pledged to fight against what it claims are “leftist” and “distorted” teachings of American history, promoting Christian nationalist viewpoints instead. The college also helped formulate former President Donald Trump’s “1776 Report” (his response to the more inclusive 1619 Project), which educators and racial justice advocates have condemned for peddling white nationalism and whitewashing historical wrongs that were orchestrated by the U.S. More recently, an affiliated school in Florida fired its principal after a lesson was allowed depicting Michelangelo’s “David” sculpture, which some parents claimed is obscene.
The company that manages the CLT says its mission is to “reconnect knowledge and virtue by providing meaningful assessments and connections to seekers of truth, goodness, and beauty.” The company also maintains that the test doesn’t have a political bent.
However, the language that CLT uses to describe itself — including its claim that it’s part of the “larger educational freedom movement of our time” — is strikingly similar to language employed by far right conservatives seeking to drastically alter the country’s education system.
An analysis of the test also suggests that, much like its secular counterparts (the SAT and the ACT), the CLT gives an unfair advantage to students who have more financial or educational resources.
Akil Bello, senior director of advocacy and advancement at FairTest, denounced the decision to include the CLT as a testing option in Florida in an op-ed for Forbes.
“The elevation of the Classic Learning Test…is the latest example of [Florida Gov. Ron] DeSantis’s very public attempts to remake public education to align with his vision,” Bello wrote.
Bello laid out a number of issues with standardized testing, stressing that standardized tests have resulted in inequitable outcomes for students of color. The CLT has the same issues, she said.
“What is new in the adoption of the CLT is how blatantly its proponents have shown that their support of this test is guided by belief and ideology,” Bello said, noting that CLT board members themselves have described it as a Christian alternative.
“By approving the CLT, Florida’s powers-that-be are signaling they care more about belief in what the test might do, rather than actuality of what it’s shown to do,” Bello added.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
Last week, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy