Classic Learning Test to challenge education monopoly through new baccalaureate program, scoring system 

With American students earning the lowest math and reading scores in more than 20 years, an organization focused on restoring classical, traditional education is launching the Classical Baccalaureate to challenge monopolies in collegiate scoring. 

The Classical Baccalaureate, or CB, is an initiative of the Classic Learning Test, an organization that offers standardized testing for students in classical education as an official alternative to the ACT or SAT.  

The new CB program, which promises to form “souls not just transcripts,” has a twofold mission: to give high school students in classical education greater recognition for their coursework and to better equip classical schools with a universal model for curriculum and testing, said Alex Julian, director of the Classical Baccalaureate, in an interview with The Lion. 

“The core mission is to give students more of the sort of college recognition, scholarships and acceptances that they deserve broadly,” Julian said, explaining that many colleges discount the accomplishments of classical education and instead focus on AP exam scores and other standardized measures. 

Because of colleges’ reliance on Advanced Placement and similar scores, many classical schools attempt to “serve two masters,” Julian said. Those schools offer classical curricula rooted in tradition while simultaneously requiring AP coursework that conflicts with their core values and often leads to “mission drift,” he said. 

CB will support classical schools’ core values by offering “Enduring Courses” that serve as equivalents to AP courses while complementing classical curricula, Julian said. 

“We want to give this model to existing classical schools in a way that doesn’t require them to significantly change what they’re doing right now, but instead wraps around their mission, rather than compete with their mission,” he said. 

CB will also provide newer classical schools with consistent curriculum and content based on the classical model, Julian said. 

“There’s not really a national model for a high-quality charter that can be used in all areas, and CLT could provide that,” he said. 

An International Baccalaureate alternative 

In addition to offering an alternative to AP classes through Enduring Courses, CB includes an evaluation scoring system comparable to the International Baccalaureate, a worldwide standard for high school student assessment. The IB diploma program awards participating students a diploma score, which Julian said is examined more closely than GPAs or standardized test scores by colleges and universities, including Ivy League schools. 

The IB diploma score evaluates students’ junior- and senior-year coursework, an extended essay, completion of a theory of knowledge course and a creativity, activity and service project, according to the organization’s website. CB models itself after the IB diploma program because colleges widely understand the score and the work behind it, Julian said. 

“We want to take those existing elements of the diploma program, and then just translate those into classical,” he said. 

Julian said IB’s extended essay closely resembles the senior thesis required at many classical schools. Adding a junior thesis would allow students to submit an overall CB score during the college application process, he said. Under CB’s developing model, a classical seminar course would parallel IB’s theory of knowledge class, and a civics project requiring engagement with state legislatures or a governor’s office would replace IB’s creativity, activity and service requirement. 

A benefit of CB, Julian said, is that it integrates Enduring Courses into the broader program, allowing students to earn the equivalent of AP scores and an IB-style diploma score through their regular coursework. 

“For IB, you take your course exams that contribute to your diploma score,” Julian said. “For us, you take your course exams, and that contributes to your diploma score, and you can get college credit because you’re effectively taking AP courses.” 

Julian said establishing CB as a recognized alternative to IB and AP programs will require college-by-college and state-by-state efforts. More than 300 colleges nationwide already recognize the CLT as an alternative to the ACT or SAT, he said, and those relationships could help CB gain broader acceptance. 

“We have to use the relationships we built through CLT to have colleges accept CB,” he said. 

CLT also plans to work with state legislators to pursue laws recognizing CB and Enduring Courses as valid measures for college admission and scholarships, Julian said. 

“Legislation around scholarships can provide pathways for Enduring Courses and the Classical Baccalaureate to get scholarships,” he said. “These are all pieces of the puzzle that we’re building right now.” 

The CB program initially began as a partnership between CLT and Arcadia Education, an education operations firm. Julian, who previously worked for Arcadia, joined CLT this month as director of the Classical Baccalaureate after the scope of the project expanded. Arcadia and CLT, as mission-aligned organizations, continue to collaborate on various initiatives, Julian said. 

For now, Julian said CLT is focused on building CB “as quickly as possible” to meet the needs of classical schools, which have experienced a strong resurgence in recent years. 

“We want to build this to meet the demand for high-quality classical education in this country,” Julian said. “And so, if that means expanding the program to meet demand in different sectors at different levels – primary, secondary, public, private, Christian – we want to be able to meet that. The growth of classical education and the school choice movement is deeply inspiring to us, and we want to be able to have a hand in that being successful.”