When Cedar Classical Academy’s founding team began planning the school in 2016, we did not expect to adopt a standardized test for the school. We knew enough of the respective messaging and approaches of The College Board and ACT to be skeptical about their compatibility with our mission and goals for our own graduates. By promoting them and their associated test preparation, Cedar Classical Academy would spend students’ time and faculty efforts outside of our own mission to support a competing one.
This is not to say that the SAT and ACT have no place in a Cedar Classical Academy student’s education. Different additional tests might serve students’ and parents’ unique postgraduate goals, and we hope that parents feel free to pursue them. Within the walls of the school, however, we had determined not to pursue standardized testing.
Our disposition against standardized testing changed when we met Jeremy Tate in 2019. He had not resignedly made peace with standardized testing as a necessary evil. On the contrary, he spoke passionately about the untapped potential of an online college preparatory exam that uses classic literature and historical texts for the majority of the reading content. He believed that it was possible to use a standardized test to truly test a student’s foundational skills in language arts and mathematics rather than to merely test a student’s test-taking ability. This vision was exciting to him, and hearing him cast it was exciting to us.
Since then, the company behind the CLT has only grown in vision and influence. The test gained significant traction during the pandemic when the giant organizations behind the SAT and ACT were unable to pivot quickly enough to offer their tests online. CLT representatives have been far-reaching in the partnerships they pursue with thinkers, advisors, schools, and colleges. They have a robust online presence and are bold in defending not just classical education, but also homeschooling, collaborative and hybrid education models, and parent choice in education.
We respect this company and love their mission, but we love the test itself even more. The layout is clean, the books included are classic children’s books from our curriculum, and artwork included on the blank pages are beautiful. We truly believe that the time spent on the Classic Learning Test each spring is time well spent.
