New College First In FL To Accept ‘Christian’ Alternative To SAT, ACT

SARASOTA, FL — New College of Florida is the first public college in the Sunshine State to accept the Classic Learning Test as an alternative to the College Board-administered SAT and ACT exams.

Students applying for the fall 2024 semester may submit scores from the CLT to NCF, the Sarasota college said in a news release.

“As New College strives to become a world-class liberal arts educational institution, adding the CLT as an accepted testing option for admissions will ensure we are reaching and welcoming students from all walks of life,” interim President Richard Corcoran said in a statement. “Not only is this a tremendous opportunity for New College, but with the growing popularity of the CLT among Florida homeschoolers and classically educated students, we believe this is an exciting step for educational choice and freedom in our state as well.”

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CLT leaders have indicated that the exam, designed for juniors and seniors preparing to enter college, is rooted in Christian ideology.

Jeremy Tate, the company’s founder, told the Miami Herald that the SAT has become “increasingly ideological” and has “censored the entire Christian-Catholic intellectual tradition” and other “thinkers in the history of Western thought.”

A board member for CLT, Chad Pecknold, tweeted in February, “Proposal: We need an alternative to the College Board that orients people to the perennial truths of the great classical and Christian tradition. Reality: The (CLT exam) already exists, and every serious homeschool, high school, and college should be using it!”

Since his feud with the College Board over an Advanced Placement African American Studies course began earlier this year, Gov. Ron DeSantis and Republican leaders have explored alternatives to the SAT and ACT for all public colleges and universities, according to reports. He’s also considered doing away with AP courses.

In a Jan. 12 letter to the College Board, which oversees AP coursework, the Florida Department of Education’s Office of Articulation claimed that the course violates state law and questioned its historical accuracy, CNN reported. State officials wrote in the letter that the course is “inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value.”

Tweeting about the course in January, Manny Diaz Jr., Florida’s education commissioner, said the course was rejected because it is “filled with critical race theory and other obvious violations of Florida law.”

He added, “We do not accept woke indoctrination masquerading as education.”

In February, the College Board slammed comments about the AP course, a pilot program, made by FDE officials, DeSantis and other state leaders.

“There is always debate about the content of a new AP course. That is good and healthy; these courses matter,” the not-for-profit organization said in a statement. “But the dialogue surrounding AP African American Studies has moved from healthy debate to misinformation.”

DeSantis and his administration have also been in the news for the changes made to New College in recent months.

In January, he appointed six new conservative members to NCF’s Board of Trustees, setting up a clash of the college's liberal philosophy and the Republican governor's aim to reshape it as a conservative school focused on the classics.

The governor’s communications director, Taryn Fenske, told Florida Politics that New College has been “completely captured by a political ideology that puts trendy, truth-relative concepts above learning.”

His press secretary, Bryan Griffin, added, “Starting today, the ship is turning around. New College of Florida, under the governor’s new appointees, will be refocused on its founding mission of providing a world-class quality education with an exceptional focus on the classics.”

Since then, among various changes at the college, its former president, Patricia Okker, was ousted, and DeSantis appointed his former education commissioner, Corcoran, to serve as its interim president during his conservative overhaul of NCF.