New York, NY (May 3, 2017) – The National Association of Scholars recognized five U.S. high school students who earned top scores on a new classical alternative to the PSAT, the Classic Learning Test (CLT) 10.
These five students received a letter of recognition from the National Association of Scholars:
Anneliese Smith (Baton Rouge, LA) attends Sequitur Classical Academy, whose headmaster, Brian Daigle, is also Chief Academic Officer of Classic Learning Initiatives. Daigle said, “I am proud of Anneliese; her future is very bright indeed. And I am proud of the kind of national headway Classic Learning Initiatives is making to reclaim the standard of education at every level, influencing students like Anneliese to continue their studies in the best academic practices and principles.”
Jacob Peery (Little Rock, AR) attends Pinnacle Classical Academy. The school’s headmaster, Chad Muller, said, “We are incredibly excited for Jacob in his accomplishment on the CLT 10. Jacob has been at Pinnacle Classical Academy since it began in the fall of 2011; and it has been our joy to see him being built up in the training and admonition of the Lord through our distinctly Christian and classical paradigm of education.”
Hannah Gjolberg (Buckhannon, WV) attends Mother of Divine Grace (MODG) homeschool. Donna Gjolberg said, “At MODG, students focus on acquiring the art of learning instead of just accumulating a number of facts. Similarly, the CLT 10 seems to follow an analogous path of educational excellence.”
Aaron Allen (Hopkinton, NH) attends New England Classical Academy (NECA). Caroline Enzler, a faculty member at the school, said, “Aaron Allen is a well-rounded and accomplished student. He attributes his success to his education at NECA. At NECA students receive tools for learning and formation in right living so that they might go out and make a difference in the lives of others.”
Danielle Oktay (Ruckersville, VA) attends Regents School of Charlottesville. The head of the school, Courtney Palumbo, said, “We are grateful to partner with the CLT 10 in its inaugural year and excited to see how our students perform on this test for years to come. Congratulations Danielle and the CLT 10! Thank you to the National Association of Scholars for your commitment to education.”
The CLT 10 is a version of the Classic Learning Test for high school sophomores, designed as a competitor to the PSAT. It was offered for the first time in April 2017.
The Classic Learning Test uses content from core texts of Western civilization. A practice CLT test, for example, examines students’ understanding of passages by Charles Dickens, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Jonathan Edwards. The test’s founders, Jeremy Tate and David Wagner, created it as a competitor to the SAT and ACT, which they found to have a political and secular bias.
National Association of Scholars president Peter Wood congratulated the NAS Finalists: “Taking this new exam was a bold step; excelling on it showed spirit as well as knowledge and skill.”
Since 2014, the NAS has critiqued the College Board (which owns the SAT) for its biased treatment of history education in its Advanced Placement courses. Dr. Wood said, “We applaud the creation of an alternative to what the College Board has to offer, and we look forward to the growth of the CLT and CLT 10 in the years to come.”
Contact: Ashley Thorne / Executive Director / [email protected] / (917) 551-6770
About the National Association of Scholars: The National Association of Scholars works to foster intellectual freedom and to sustain the tradition of reasoned scholarship and civil debate in America’s colleges and universities. To learn more about NAS, visit www.nas.org.
To learn more about NAS’s critique of Advanced Placement courses, visit:
https://www.nas.org/articles/college_board_rewrites_advanced_placement_us_history_standards_and_histor (AP U.S. History)
https://www.nas.org/articles/the_disappearing_continent (AP European History)
About Classic Learning Initiatives: Classic Learning Initiatives exists as a small component of a much larger contemporary endeavor to repair the rupture between intellectual pursuit and virtue. The Classic Learning Test (CLT) offers students, colleges, and parents an alternative to value-neutral standardized tests. To learn more about the CLT, visit www.cltexam.com.
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Image: Parthenon by Martin Pilat // CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
