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Classic Learning Test Archives - North Carolina Coalition for Charter Schools

Feb 12
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UNC now accepts the Classic Learning Test (CLT)

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Students from CCS-Whiteville during one of the school’s annual FASTAR competitions. Photo courtesy of CCS-America.

UNC system institutions now accept the Classic Learning Test (CLT) as a college entrance exam and alternative to the ACT or SAT. This is big news for our high schoolers attending public charter schools with a classical focus!

We wanted to spread the news–and we heard it first from Classical Charter  Schools of America‘s newsletter. In partnership with the Roger Bacon Academy, CCS-A runs a network of charter schools in North Carolina, including CCS-Leland, CCS-Whiteville, CCS-Southport, and CCS-Wilmington.

Here’s the update on CLT from Jessica Lopez, dean of classical humanities at CCS-A:

A college admissions test measuring skills that are emphasized in classic curricula just got the nod from the University of North Carolina (UNC). The test, known as the Classic Learning Test or CLT, targets critical thinking, grammar reasoning, classic writings, and traditional math. These vital skills contrast with the common core and progressive education ideas tested in the SAT and ACT tests.

The CLT is now accepted by all 16 UNC institutions, and this gives our classically educated students a distinct edge for scoring higher on this admissions test.

We led North Carolina with our classically oriented application in 1999. In 2024, we first took the CLT8 and finished in the top 20 schools nationwide. The other top 20 finishers were all high-tuition private schools, unlike our tuition-free CCS-America schools.

The next year 2025, our classic educated eighth-grade Leland and Whiteville students led the nation by achieving first and third places on the CLT8 test. The CLT8 previews the CLT admissions test and confirms that our students are blazing a pathway for their success.

The CLT is accepted by a number of other state university systems, all the United States military academies, and more than 300 institutions overall.

More on this topic

CCS-America schools are Coalition member schools.

Mar 13
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Two N.C. classical charter schools earn top testing honors

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Founder Baker Mitchell (center) with CCS school leaders. Photo: Facebook/CCS Leland.

Congratulations to two Classical Charter Schools of America (CCSA) schools for winning top honors on the Classic Learning Test (CLT8)! The N.C. charter schools, CCS-Leland and CCS-Whiteville, tied for first and third, respectively, in a ranking of test performance for more than 250 schools across the nation. The CLT8 assesses the performance of eighth graders in the areas of Verbal Reasoning, Grammar and Writing, and Quantitative Reasoning, according to CCSA.

Screenshot source: CLT 8 rankings.

We share more information below from a Classical Charter Schools news update:

CCS-Leland and CCS-Whiteville have tied for #1 and #3, respectively, among more than 250 schools nationwide in the Classic Learning Test’s (CLT8) 2025 CLT8 School Rankings.

Of the 20 highest-scoring schools, they are the only public, only charter, and only tuition-free schools. All the other top-ranking schools are private schools charging from $6,200 to $36,000 in yearly tuition.

The three-hour CLT8 is designed to measure eighth-grade students’ readiness for high school. Much of the content on the exam is drawn from classical literature, grammar, classical mathematics, and historical texts, all of which are central in CCS-America’s classical curriculum.

“We couldn’t be prouder of our students and staff for their hard work, which has led to this confirmation of our curriculum’s effectiveness,” CCS-America founder Baker Mitchell, Jr. said. He noted that a majority of the students who took and excelled on the CLT8 were students who had attended the schools since the beginning of their education, allowing them to enjoy a substantial academic edge from CCS-America’s innovative and carefully sequenced classical curriculum.

Jessica Lopez, Dean of Classical Humanities, added, “Last year, we were excited to see CCS-Leland rank in the top 20 nationally in the 2022-23 CLT8. That was our first time participating in the exam. This year, we are thrilled to see both Leland and Whiteville students achieve such outstanding results. It is clear that the dedication to our unique classical curriculum and innovative methodologies by CCS-America’s deans, academic coaches, teachers, and especially our students has paid off tremendously.”

“Out of the hundreds of schools that take the CLT8 every year, CCS-Leland and CCS-Whiteville’s recognition in Classic Learning Test’s 2025 School Rankings is a remarkable achievement,” said CLT officials.

Congratulations to Leland and Whiteville for such an outstanding accomplishment! Learn more about the CLT8 using the link below.

What is the CLT8 and how did we do?

Congratulations to CCS-Leland and CCS-Whiteville!

Both schools are Coalition member schools.

Feb 22
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CCS-Leland Earns Top 20 Honors Nationwide on the Classic Learning Test

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A North Carolina public charter school has earned a berth among the “top 20” schools on a rigorous, nationally standardized test. Middle schoolers at Classical Charter Schools-Leland, a Coalition member school, earned scores on the Classic Learning Test (CLT 8) in 2023 that were higher than any other public school in the nation. All other schools ranked on the top 20 list were private schools that charge tuition. Congratulations, CCS-Leland!

The Roger Bacon Academy, the charter network behind CCS-Leland, attributes student success on CLT to the intensive–and longstanding–efforts of the school’s curriculum leaders:

CCS-Leland’s scoring in the elite Top Twenty is due to the twenty-five years of continual development by RBA’s Curriculum Department under Jessica Lopez, Dean of Classical Humanities, and Ali Cause-Nance, Dean of Math/Science, along with the coaches and teaching teams dedicated to educating the children of North Carolina.

Source: The Roger Bacon Academy, “Classic Learning Test (CLT) 8: What is it? How did we do?”

RBA has developed a table (above, and in a memo summarizing test scores) showing the ranking by location, school type, and tuition level. CCS-Leland is one of just three North Carolina schools on the list, and the only public school.

About the Classic Learning Test

CLT 8 is a diagnostic and summative assessment for 7th and 8th graders across the nation. Designed to evaluate high school readiness, CLT assesses student learning in several core areas: verbal reasoning; grammar and writing; and quantitative reasoning. The test incorporates robust, rigorous texts from classic literature. Think Virgil, Chaucer, and Tolkien, as examples of cited authors across CLT exams. View a CLT 8 practice test.

For college-bound high schoolers, CLT has gained traction as an alternative to the SAT or ACT. More than 250 colleges now accept CLT scores in lieu of SAT or ACT scores. Florida’s state university system approved CLT in 2023 as a college admission test. (Read more here.)

What’s CLT like? Education researcher Daniel Buck, writing in The Hill, sums it up:

Created in 2015, the CLT hopes to revive what we consider an education of old — logic, grammar, Shakespeare, Tolstoy. In format, it resembles its competitors, featuring passages with multiple choice questions. Yet students instead read the likes of Plato on tyrannical man or St. Teresa of Avila on the virtues of a humble life.