Crucifixes and half-finished bottles of high-end bourbon line the shelves and windowsills of the headquarters for higher education\u2019s <\/b>next conservative darling.<\/p>\n
The 200-year-old brick home in historic Annapolis feels more like a private club than an office where a staff of 70 runs the Classic Learning Test, an alternative to the SAT and ACT now accepted by more than 350 colleges. Stacks of books by authors like Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway flank leather chairs and velvet couches, setting the scene for the sort of intellectual discussion the test\u2019s makers hope to inspire in students.<\/p>\n
Founded in 2015 by a pair of Marylanders, the Classic Learning Test has become popular among Christian schools and homeschooling families across the U.S. and has logged more than 500,000 test-takers. Its founder and CEO asserts that the test, known as the CLT, is neither politically affiliated nor religious. But it has been embraced by conservative leaders, a sign that the college admissions process remains an ideological battleground. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe CLT is conservative in some sense,\u201d said CEO Jeremy Tate, \u201cif you mean preserving and championing the ancient vision for education.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tate spent his teen years in Arnold and returned to Maryland in 2007 after earning a bachelor\u2019s degree from Louisiana State University. He was working as a college counselor at Mount de Sales Academy in Catonsville several years later when he began to feel that the mainstream tests forced educators to ignore the classics, like poetry, Greek and Latin.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are all things that make a culture rich and substantial,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
School should be about the \u201ccultivation of wisdom, the passing down of an intellectual and cultural inheritance,\u201d Tate said, rather than just test and job market prep.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe testing really is the thing that shapes academic focus and curriculum at a secondary level,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you change it, it has all these downstream and upstream implications.\u201d<\/p>\n
And so he created his own. <\/p>\n
The CLT is structured similarly to the SAT and ACT, but with longer passages that test students\u2019 reading comprehension skills. While SAT reading passages range from 25 to 150 words, CLT\u2019s run 500 to 600 words. <\/p>\n
The test\u2019s academic board recommends readings to the test\u2019s development team from authors they believe have \u201cshaped history and culture\u201d \u2014 like John Paul II\u2019s \u201cOn the Christian Meaning of Human Suffering\u201d and Adam Smith\u2019s \u201cAn Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.\u201d <\/p>\n
\n How would you do on the Classic Learning Test?
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\n Try out a sample section<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The academic board is packed with conservative leaders, including Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts and activist Christopher Rufo, who was involved in the ouster of Harvard University President Claudine Gay and alleged that Haitian migrants in Ohio were eating cats and dogs. The board includes some liberal viewpoints, Tate said, like Cornel West, an activist he called \u201cas left as they come.\u201d<\/p>\n Audrey Beardsley, a professor at Arizona State University who studies standardized tests, said the CLT has a \u201creligious foundation that is very clear.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt taps into the conservative ideologies of today, the narrative that we\u2019ve gone too far left and this type of test will take us more back to the right,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n David Blobaum, co-founder and co-owner of Summit Prep, a test preparation company, said the CLT has \u201cgotten lucky from the polarization in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n There are a lot of conservative states, he said, who \u201cwant to give the middle finger to the SAT and ACT by accepting the CLT exam.\u201d<\/p>\n Florida was the first. In 2023, the state\u2019s public university system approved the exam for undergraduate admissions, instantly driving up the test\u2019s popularity. Blobaum said that likely stems from Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2019 disdain for AP African American Studies, which is operated by the College Board, the parent company of the SAT. <\/p>\n Tate said his staff \u201cdoesn\u2019t even try\u201d to recruit Maryland schools to use the test. It\u2019s \u201cseen as a red state thing\u201d by Maryland lawmakers, he said. Just three schools in the state accept it: St. John\u2019s College, Mount St. Mary\u2019s University and the U.S. Naval Academy. <\/p>\n The CLT is accepted at public universities in Oklahoma, Texas, Wyoming, North Carolina, Indiana, Georgia and Arkansas, but still lags far behind its competitors. Last year, 250,000 people took the CLT, compared to the 2 million who took the SAT and 1.38 million who took the ACT.<\/p>\n Blobaum said he tries to talk students out of taking the CLT, not because of a potential political or religious slant, but because he says the test is too difficult.<\/p>\n \u201cI do not think it\u2019s a good fit for an average student,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s very dense text.\u201d<\/p>\n Most of the students he tutors who take the CLT are homeschooled or go to small Christian schools, he said. It\u2019s especially popular among homeschoolers because the test is usually taken remotely. It\u2019s also only two hours; the SAT takes 2 1\/2 hours and the ACT takes three.<\/p>\n St. John\u2019s, a private liberal arts school in Annapolis, was a good fit to accept the CLT because of its Great Books curriculum<\/a>, said Ben Baum, the college\u2019s vice president for enrollment. The curriculum requires that students read works <\/b>from authors like Aristotle, Jane Austen and Homer, then discuss the text and ideas in a roundtable format. <\/p>\n \u201cThe model at St. John\u2019s is to put people in a classroom having really tough conversations with each other about great books,\u201d he said. \u201cThat only works if students have different perspectives and opinions. Part of our mission is to bring people who are different from each other to have those conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n St. John\u2019s acquires names of CLT test-takers and sends them emails and advertising for the college. About 10 students out of the 220 who enroll in the first-year class apply with the CLT each year, Baum said.<\/p>\n Accepting students who take the CLT is one way the admissions team at the college promotes viewpoint diversity, Baum noted. <\/p>\n \u201cFor us, it\u2019s an opportunity to speak to an audience that\u2019s hard to reach: homeschooled students and students from classical or religious schools,\u201d Baum said.<\/p>\n Though Tate and CLT co-founder David Wagner chose history-rich Annapolis for their company headquarters, they\u2019re considering Texas or Arizona for their next venture: a CLT equivalent to advanced placement, also known as AP, high school classes.<\/p>\n The expansion is part of CLT\u2019s goal to one day overtake the ACT and SAT in popularity. A bronze plaque in the Annapolis office puts a date on it: 2040. <\/p>\n This reporting is part of The Banner\u2019s Education Hub, community-funded journalism that provides parents with resources they need to make decisions about how their children learn. <\/i>Read more<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"April](\"https:\/\/www.thebanner.com\/resizer\/v2\/KUAE3SQ7KJGC5G7BN4ZVAZPXQI.JPG?auth=4131466a975bc5210bbfb4a3b5ed1008b2fe2cf04cc014a4aa42fc02fb2b8784&quality=85&width=1536&smart=true\")
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