The Florida Board of Governors voted Friday to require that state universities accept the Classic Learning Test as an admissions exam, allowing an alternative to the longtime SAT and ACT exams.
The only vote against the regulation, which came as the result of legislation passed in May 2023 and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, was from the newest governor, Amanda Phalin, the representative for the Advisory Council of Faculty Senates.
Phalin said that while the CLT may prove to be a viable alternative to the SAT and ACT, she feels there still isn’t enough empirical evidence to prove so.
“I’m simply concerned because the test’s reliability and validity have not been independently demonstrated or verified,” Phalin said, stressing that she doesn’t oppose the CLT at this moment because of its focus or content.
Phalin brought up the fact that while more than 1 million students take the SAT and ACT tests each year, respectively, and the tests have been around for decades, the CLT is less than ten years old.
In a statement minutes after the meeting ended, Board of Governors spokesperson Tony Lee said that with its strong emphasis on classical education, the CLT will open doors to Florida colleges and universities.
“Because we reject the status quo, today’s decision means we are better serving students by giving them an opportunity to showcase their academic potential and paving the path to higher education,” Lee said. “As this assessment focuses on critical thinking skills, Florida will lead the way in filling our state and nation with bright and competitive students.
The CLT is a three-section exam on verbal reasoning, grammar and writing, and quantitative reasoning, or math, that has been pushed by conservative politicians and religious activists.
How Florida students will fare on the alternative test, CLT for short, isn’t known yet. But the new exam comes at a time when Gov. Ron DeSantis has been overhauling K-12 schools and colleges and universities, spawning lawsuits over conservative changes in education.
Taryn Boyes, a spokesperson for CLT, said earlier that the test has mainly been accepted by private, liberal arts universities, many of which tend to be religious, but insisted that the test in itself is not ideological.
“This is not a Christian test, and we are not a Christian company,” Boyes said.
This article originally appeared in florida phoenix