LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Legislative Council recently voted to approve a contract worth up to $12 million to offer the Classic Learning Test (CLT) in high schools across the state for the next four years.
The contract is between the Arkansas Department of Education and Maryland-based Classic Learning Initiatives LLC. The contract begins on July 1 and ends in June 2030, with an extension available through June 2033.
Like the ACT or SAT, the CLT is a standardized test used for college admissions in the United States to measure high school students’ readiness for college. According to the CLT website, the test is “…designed to serve students from a variety of educational backgrounds…our assessments emphasize timeless academic skills and promote critical and logical thinking.”
According to Classic Learning Initiatives, the Classic Learning Test provides a more comprehensive measure of academic formation, accomplishment, and potential and offers a better test-taking experience: “By including reading passages from classic and historical texts, CLT exams offer a unique opportunity to engage students with the influential authors and ideas that have shaped history and culture.”
Its reading and writing passages draw heavily from classic literature and major historical authors such as Homer, Plato, Aristotle, Dante, Chaucer, and John Wyckliffe; early modern writers such as Erasmus, Shakespeare, and Thomas Hobbes; and late moderns such as Jane Austen, Charles Darwin, Fyodor Dostoevsky, J.R.R. Tolkien, Langston Hughes, and Mark Twain.
The CLT suite of tests is also approved for annual testing requirements for homeschool students and those using Education Savings Account funds.
Sponsored by state Sen. Jim Dotson, who represents District 34 (which includes parts of cities of Bella Vista, Bentonville, Centerton and Hiwasse in Benton County), and state Rep. Keith Brooks, who represents House District 78 (which includes portions of Pulaski, Perry, and Saline Counties), Act 724 of 2025 mandated Arkansas public and charter high schools to offer the CLT along with the ACT and SAT.
The cost will cover students’ testing fees. The online forms of the Classic Learning Test and its ninth and 10th grade version cost $34.50, while paper forms cost $44.50.
The actual amount that Arkansas will pay Classic Learning Initiatives will depend on how many students take the Classic Learning Test instead of the ACT or SAT.
More than 300 higher education institutions nationwide accept the Classic Learning Test for admissions. U.S. service academies have also announced that they would accept the exam for the 2027 admissions cycle. Currently several Arkansas colleges and universities accept the test, including The University of Arkansas, The University of Central Arkansas, Harding University, John Brown University, the University of the Ozarks, Williams Baptist University, Ecclesia College, Crowley’s Ridge College, and Arkansas Tech University.
The Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarship recognizes the CLT, with a qualifying score of 58, which is roughly equivalent to a 24 score on the ACT.
