Struggling Fla. High Schoolers Take CLT to Graduate

A USA Today report found that struggling high schoolers in Florida are taking the Classic Learning Test, a K–12 academic progress exam and alternative to the SAT and ACT that has been embraced by conservatives, to graduate. Students unable to pass the state’s algebra and English exams or score high enough on the SAT or ACT instead are opting to take the CLT.

Mathematics education experts who evaluated the test said the CLT’s math section had a higher concentration of middle school–level math than the SAT or the ACT. Officials in at least nine Florida school districts attributed the exam to increased graduation rates since the test was introduced in 2023. Leesa Crescenzi, the former head of the math department for the Hillsborough County School District in Tampa, told USA Today that students had discovered there were enough prealgebra questions on the test that they could pass simply by answering the easy questions and then selecting B for all the remaining questions.

In Hillsborough County, one school board member, Nadia Combs, argued that the test allows students who aren’t prepared for work or college to graduate high school.

“If they think they’re doing well and they’re passing,” she said, “but at the end of the day when they get a job or they go to college and they’re not able to do well on a typical test, that’s concerning.” Combs voted to offer the test to more graduating seniors.

Jeremy Tate, CEO of Classic Learning Initiatives, the company that administers the CLT, disputed the idea that the test is easier than the SAT and ACT. The state decides what a student must score on the test to graduate; for the CLT, they must score 11 out of a total of 40 points. State officials told USA Today that Classic Learning Initiatives recommended that number. Florida plans to raise that score slightly next year.