by Jon Styf
Tennessee students could have a third option for a college entrance exam along with the ACT and SAT if legislation that Rep. William Slater, R-Gallatin, is proposing passes in January’s session.
Slater plans to again propose a bill allowing the Classic Learning Test as an option for students at public colleges and universities along with qualifying for the state’s Hope Scholarship program.
Florida became the first state to pass legislation mandating the acceptance of CLT scores a year ago for both public higher education and the Florida Bright Futures and Florida Medallion scholarships.
Slater is the dean of adult and online studies at Welch College in Gallatin, which accepts the CLT for entrance and scholarships. His House Bill 2403 on the CLT last year was sent to subcommittee before Slater took the bill off notice.
The CLT began in 2015 and is similar to the SAT and ACT in some ways but aims to emphasize foundational logic and reasoning skills while using reading passages from classic and historical texts.
Slater said he looked into the test after learning about it from a colleague and was pleased with what he found.
“This is a valid, reliable test,” Slater said. “It’s new, so reliability has to take place over time … but it looks like they are on the right track.”
CLT scores range from up to 120, so the state requirements would use concordance of the numbers to create standards.
Tennessee awarded $314.5 million to assist 70,633 students with HOPE scholarships in the 2022-23 fiscal year. The students needed at least a 3.0 grade-point average throughout high school with a composite ACT score of 21 or SAT score of 1060.
That would mean a 67 or higher score on the CLT.
Slater said he has been a proponent of the test for several years, has met with CLT staff and, competitively, he wishes he could have helped Tennessee to become the first state to allow the test for admission to its public colleges and universities.
“I was interested in getting CLT legislation going, at least the idea of it, even before the CLT folks because I thought ‘Why not?’” Slater said.
Slater said that he’s a “school choice purist” who wants to give students more options rather than less, so this isn’t an anti ACT or anti SAT push.
– – –
Jon Styf is an award-winning editor and reporter of The Center Square who has worked in Illinois, Texas, Wisconsin, Florida and Michigan in local newsrooms over the past 20 years, working for Shaw Media, Hearst and several other companies.
