Florida is on verge of allowing a right-wing alternative to the SAT

Coming soon to Florida: an alternative college entry exam backed by the state’s right-wing governor, Ron DeSantis. 

Florida’s public university system is expected to greenlight the Classic Learning Test, an exam typically used by home-schooled students and accepted by Christian schools. But Florida officials, including DeSantis, have advocated for the CLT to be used as a more widespread college entry exam in Florida in place of the SAT, which is administered by the College Board, or the ACT.

DeSantis and his administration have warred with the College Board, primarily over its Advanced Placement course on African American history, amid the administration’s efforts to remove references to social justice movements, whitewash acts of racist violence and downplay the impact of slavery on Black people. 

And as NBC News reports, DeSantis has shown support for the CLT by signing “a bill this year that opened the state’s Bright Futures college scholarship program to accept Classic Learning Test scores, in addition to ACT and SAT results, to determine eligibility.”

Promoting the CLT as an alternative to the SAT or ACT could be another way to further marginalize traditionally underrepresented voices, given its focus on Western ideals. 

The Miami Herald describes the CLT’s curriculum as one that has existed for decades and “emphasizes a return to ‘core virtues’ and subjects like math, science, civics and classical texts. It puts a strong emphasis on the ‘centrality of the Western tradition’ — or a historical focus on white, Western European and Judeo-Christian foundations — and ‘demands moral virtue of its adherents.’”

The New York Times describes the curriculum as one that places “emphasis on the Western canon and Christian thought.” (The Times included a sample of the test you can take here.)

Earlier this year, a top education official in Florida was clear in framing the Classic Learning Test as part of Florida’s assault on inclusive curricula. 

David Mack, who at the time was serving as senior chancellor of Florida’s Department of Education, tweeted “CLT not CRT!” — a reference to critical race theory — in February as reports emerged that officials were looking at using the Classic Learning Test in college admissions. Mack’s role as senior chancellor gave him immense power over Florida’s institutions of higher learning. 

The company behind the CLT describes the test as being part of “the larger educational freedom movement of our time,” employing language that right-wingers have used in describing priorities such as promoting charter schools, denouncing teachers unions and whitewashing historical bigotry.  

The Classic Learning Test may ring a bell for ReidOut Blog regulars. It came up in my June report on Christian theologian Cornel West’s bizarre presidential bid, which has garnered ample support from right-wing extremists. West is an academic adviser for the organization behind the CLT and has co-written multiple op-eds with its founder, Jeremy Tate. One particularly unsettling op-ed, in the conservative-learning Wall Street Journal, showered praise on DeSantis for what West and Tate called a “revolutionary” defense of the classics.

Along with West, the Classic Learning Test’s board of academic advisers includes conservative education activists Christopher Rufo and Mark Bauerlein, along with a host of others. If they all have their way, a right-wing test glorifying the Western world could become a new standard for acceptance in Florida colleges and universities.

Folks like Cornel West may think this is revolutionary. I think revolting is more like it.