Another Florida Blow for Higher-Ed Freedom. By accepting the Classic Learning Test as an SAT alternative, the Sunshine State has further loosened the progressive hold on education.

James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal ^ | October 5, 2023 | Grace Hall and Graham Hillard

[karpov]

The higher-ed policies of Florida and Governor Ron DeSantis have been a lightning rod for liberal rage for quite some time now, and the intensity has only heated up with DeSantis’s presidential campaign.

First, Florida scuffled with the College Board, designer of Advanced Placement courses, over the content of a Critical Race Theory-intensive African-American Studies class. Next, the Sunshine State argued publicly with the organization over its AP Psychology offering, which, like all courses, must abide by the state’s Parental Rights in Education law.

Yet the latest higher-ed news out of Florida may be the most significant of all. Effective immediately, high-schoolers who wish to apply to the state’s public universities may ignore the College Board-owned SAT and take the relatively new Classic Learning Test, instead. The Martin Center and other education reformers generally support the SAT as a merit-based admissions tool. Nevertheless, as the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board suggested last week, Florida’s acceptance of a new SAT competitor begins to correct the fact that “the College Board has accumulated a worrisome amount of power.”

Indeed, Florida’s changes to higher-ed policy have generally been reasonable and moderate, despite progressive claims to the contrary. For example, the state requests that courses taught to minors must have parental oversight and be subject to Florida law—hardly the stuff of political radicalism.

[RoosterRedux]

“Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted.” —Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

The Marxists in the U.S. have had significantly more than 4 years. They have been indoctrinating children in K-12 through college for 50 years now (and even more for universities like Columbia).

[Joe Brower]

Florida Freeper

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[FarCenter]

The ACT is an alternative to the SAT.

[Billie Bud]

I’ve said for years now SAT is scammy and so is college board. They want a one way ticket into college. I’ve sat in on SAT prep classes (kids are coached on how to answer the questions to improve their scores). It’s conceptual and not about learned content very much.

I’m all for an alternative that takes a whole student approach, learned content, conceptual ability, AND portfolio work. It would end this debacle of pushing everyone into college and real, usable degrees would be an actual achievement. .

[GOPJ]

DeSantis is doing good in Florida... wish he had waited four years to run for President. Who knows...

[Freee-dame]

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