A Christian-Backed Test Is Being Pushed Into Public Universities. There’s No Evidence It Works.
The big picture: The Classic Learning Test, created by a religious scholar and backed by conservative activists, is being mandated by Republican state legislatures for acceptance at public universities. The test draws heavily from Christian theologians and Western canon. Its board is dominated by conservative and religious organization leaders. 183,000 students took it last year. There are no peer-reviewed studies demonstrating it predicts college readiness. Major public universities like UNC Chapel Hill now accept it.
Why it matters: Even the CLT’s own website says “teachers will teach towards the test.” If states require universities to accept it, the material it draws from — Christian theology, Western canon selected by a conservative board — will shape what gets taught in classrooms. That structurally advantages students from one religious and cultural background over others. AND from the party that’s spent years accusing the left of pushing ideology in schools, this is a remarkable act of hypocrisy.
The test: Created in 2015 by Jeremy Tate to “reconnect knowledge and virtue.” Pulls from 160+ authors going back to Mesopotamia. No calculators. Longer passages than SAT/ACT. More than two dozen authors are Christian saints, theologians, or religious thinkers. Tate: “I don’t think anyone in the West can be considered seriously educated without some knowledge of the Christian intellectual tradition, including the Bible.”
The people behind it: Advisors include Christopher Rufo and Hillsdale College leaders. Majority of board members work for Christian or conservative organizations. Gained traction in 2023 with DeSantis’s support. Embraced by the “classical education movement” — largely Christian and homeschool communities. Over 350 universities accept it (mostly private Christian colleges), but now UNC Chapel Hill and other public universities are on board.
The evidence gap: No peer-reviewed studies on CLT predicting college readiness. One unpublished study from a conservative Christian college in Pennsylvania looked at 235 students. It hasn’t appeared in any academic journal. It doesn’t compare the CLT to the SAT or ACT. The SAT and ACT have decades of data from tens of millions of students. Testing officials say the tests may not even be similar enough to compare.
The legislative push: Indiana and Arkansas passed bills requiring public universities to accept the CLT. Ohio is moving in the same direction. North Carolina, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Wyoming are on board. 183,000 students took it last year, up from 300 a decade ago.
By the numbers:
183,000 — students who took the CLT last year
300 — students who took it a decade ago
350+ — universities accepting CLT scores
235 — students in the one supporting study
0 — peer-reviewed studies on CLT predicting college readiness
160+ — authors in the CLT’s passage bank
24+ — of those authors are Christian saints, theologians, or religious thinkers
The bottom line: A test built around Christian theology and Western canon, backed by conservative activists, with no peer-reviewed evidence of effectiveness, is being mandated by Republican legislatures for public university acceptance. The CLT’s own website says teachers will teach toward the test. That means the material a conservative board selected will shape what students learn. It advantages kids from one tradition and disadvantages everyone else. AND the party pushing it is the same one that’s spent years accusing the other side of ideological indoctrination. The hypocrisy is the quiet part they’re not even bothering to say quietly anymore.
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