Here is a summary of the key points from the article:
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Florida is considering becoming the first state to accept the Classic Learning Test (CLT), a conservative-aligned alternative to the SAT and ACT, for admissions at its public universities.
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The CLT was created in 2015 and emphasizes humanities, morality, and classical literature. It has grown popular among Christian schools and conservative groups.
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Florida’s consideration follows conflict between Gov. Ron DeSantis and the College Board over a disputed AP course. DeSantis wants alternatives to College Board products like the SAT.
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The CLT’s founder says the test counters progressive influence in education. Critics argue it focuses on outdated methods and texts.
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Supporters worry the test’s growth in red states like Florida politicizes it as a conservative exam versus the SAT as more liberal.
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If approved in Florida, the CLT would expand its reach significantly as an alternative to the dominant SAT/ACT. But some say its overall influence is still small compared to those major tests.
As a Western European casually reading headlines on social media, it’s mind boggling what’s happening now in Florida. From my outside perspective it seems like Florida is shaping up to be a fascist Christian state, with all kinds of laws and policies specifically made to target racial and sexual minorities and liberals. What’s next: religious minorities and intellectuals? I’m sure it must feel the same for a lot of you across the ocean. How is it possible that people like DeSantis are in power? Is it because of years of extreme polarization? Surely it can’t be that the majority in Florida is this intolerant and hateful, right? Do you think there is even the slightest chance that DeSantis will be the next president?
You only really need about a 3rd of the population to control things. These far right extremists are all testing the waters on how far they can go, and unfortunately the supreme court is corrupted to the point they’re starting to tear down our legal system. There is no accountability. Lower levels of government can strong arm their opponents out, enact illegal legislation, and rig it so they’ll never lose. It’s straight up fascism. It’s gotten so extreme because they’re reaching the tipping point of either being ousted or taking over full rule of the country. I’m desperately hoping the demographics are changing fast enough, and that people are seeing the catastrophy unfettered capitalism and greed brings, but it’s a fight that’s close enough to be very scary.
He probably won’t make it out of Florida. Florida is the place where east coasters go to retire so it’s full of 70 year old retirees. Them combined with venezuelan and cuban migrants who are rabidly anti-communist give him a solid fat right block that supports him in all this stupidity. Good thing is that you don’t see those conditions outside of Florida where the average person is mildly disgusted by most of it.
The CLT was created in 2015
But the summary fails to mention by whom. The article thankfully does.
It is developed by Classic Learning Initiatives. But the company doesn’t have its own wikipedia page, despite clearly having written this page. The only name listed is the “creator” of the CLT Jeremy Tate; who also doesn’t have his own Wikipedia page.
That’s a lot of anonymity for the company that:
“orients people to the perennial truths of the great classical and Christian tradition.” - CLI Board Member and Professor of Theology Chad Pecknold
Tate, the founder and CEO of CLT said the College Board has “censored the entire Christian-Catholic intellectual tradition” and other “thinkers in the history of Western thought.”.
Pecknord has previously described liberalism as a “religion” of “moral poverty” and called for “an all-embracing form of life coordinated and ordered to the love of God and neighbor”
They’re hard-core Catholics trying to look generic Christian so they don’t scare off the Evangelicals but also not so Christian they scare off the secular completely either.
Florida does it again.
There’s a lot of scary Handmaid’s Tale language just in those quotes. “Moral poverty,” jfc.
On the one hand, I completely support competition to the college board. It’s a bloated organization that profits off a monopoly. On the other hand, the CLT is some hard-right christo-fascist bullshit. So fuck the CLT
I don’t see SAT/ACT going anywhere. CLT may start being accepted as an alternative, but it’s not going to be taken except by the most hardcore red schools. Even then, it just doesn’t make sense since every college OOS uses the SAT/ACT. Good on DeSantis for doing…literally nothing helpful, again.
Once the FL colleges accept it, watch for a push to only provide it in the high schools, then the average FL students end up only being able to apply in-state. The colleges get pushed more conservative, and FL ends up churning out “educated professionals” heavily and deliberately biased as conservatives.
FL ends up churning out “educated professionals”
Who’s going to educate them? If that happens, a bachelors degree from USF will be worth about as much to an employer as one from DeVry.
It doesn’t test Latin? I went to a “classical education” school and Latin was a big deal. Our senior curriculum was, IIRC, AP English Literature, AP Calculus, AP Chemistry, AP French Language, AP Macroeconomics, Latin, Ethics (once? a week), Art History (twice? a week, one semester), Art (ditto). As you can see, our administration strongly approved of College Board’s testing scheme. I think the students who had enough years of Latin had the option to move on to Classical Greek, but I was personally only in third year Latin.
Most of the faculty were very progressive, so it may not have been typical of other “classical” institutions.
Shocked the lawmakers could find it
I wish the article compared some of the questions of the SAT/ACT with the CLT, since I know neither.
Kinda like this:
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SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test)
Reading Section:
“In lines 10 - 20, the author most likely uses the word ‘arduous’ in order to…”
Math Section:
“If 3x - y = 12, what is the value of 8^x / 2^y ?”
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ACT (American College Testing)
English Section:
“Choose the word or set of words that, when inserted in the sentence, best fits the meaning of the sentence as a whole. Despite his desire to travel during his week off from work, Ted was __________ the prospect of spending so much money on a plane ticket.”
Math Section:
“The equation 2x + 3 = 15 has what solution for x?”
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CLT (Classical Learning Test)
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Verbal Reasoning:
“Choose the word that best completes the analogy. Hammer is to nail as knife is to: a) Fork, b) Spoon, c) Cut, d) Plate.”
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Grammar/Writing:
“Identify the error in the following sentence: ‘Despite the rain, he decided to went out without an umbrella.’”
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Quantitative Reasoning:
“In a game, if a player scores 5 points in the first round, 10 points in the second round, 15 points in the third round, what would be the total points scored after 10 rounds if the pattern continues?”
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Literary Analysis:
“In Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, how does the character of Mr. Darcy evolve over the course of the novel?”
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