Higher education leader says Texas also may reinstate standardized testing requirement for college admissions
Texas’s public colleges and universities may begin using the Classic Learning Test as a factor in college admissions, the state Higher Education Coordinating Board informed leaders in a letter Thursday.
Jeremy Tate, founder of the Classic Learning Test, shared the board’s letter in an X post celebrating the news.
“Today, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board approved the Classic Learning Test as an alternative to the SAT and ACT,” Tate wrote.
“Texas now joins the state university systems of Florida, Iowa, Indiana, Arkansas, Georgia, North Carolina, the U.S. Service Academies, the University of Oklahoma, and the University of New Mexico as the major public institutions of higher education that recognize the CLT,” he wrote.
The CLT is based on classic Western literature and philosophy. It tests students’ skills in reading, grammar, writing, and mathematics, as well as critical and logical thinking, according to its website.
Since being introduced nearly a decade ago, the test has grown in popularity at Christian institutions and in conservative states. Its rise also coincides with concerns about “anti-racism” and other progressive ideas being embedded in the SAT.
The letter Thursday from Texas Higher Education Commissioner Wynn Rosser relates to a decision by many higher education institutions to stop requiring standardized tests for college admissions in recent years.
Rosser told public college and university leaders that a recent study by the Texas A&M Public Policy Research Institute “determined the Classical Learning Test (CLT), SAT, and ACT are of sufficient rigor and reliability to be used as criterion for college admissions in this state.”
Rosser said the higher education board plans to amend its admissions policy to reflect these findings and, if approved, schools would start requiring standardized testing again with fall 2028 admissions.
In the meantime, Rosser told the campus leaders that their admissions offices may choose to start considering standardized test scores “including the CLT.”
Over the past year, a number of universities have decided to reinstate standardized testing as part of their admissions processes, including most of the Ivy League.
On Thursday, Vanderbilt University also announced plans to reinstate its standardized testing requirement starting with fall 2029 applicants.
“Our review found that standardized testing, when considered as part of our holistic admissions process alongside a student’s academic record and other components of their application, provides valuable information that can help identify students who are best positioned to thrive at Vanderbilt,” the announcement stated.
Most universities, including Vanderbilt, stopped requiring standardized testing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, a growing chorus of academics have been urging their institutions to reinstate the testing requirement, pointing to students struggling to read whole books or solve basic math equations.
MORE: California STEM, humanities professors demand SAT/ACT be reinstated
