this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2023
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United States | News & Politics

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Florida’s public universities will now permit the Classic Learning Test in admissions, offering a conservative-backed alternative to the SAT and ACT. Florida is now the first state university system in the country to allow for the Classic Learning Test (CLT), which has gained recent popularity among the state’s Christian and charter schools.

The classical education model — not to be confused with “classics” or “classical humanities” — focuses on a return to “core values” and the “centrality of the Western tradition.” The Florida state university system’s board of governors on Friday approved the test for use in undergraduate admissions.

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[–] Silverseren@kbin.social 80 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The national university system should de-accredidate any university that uses this test.

[–] Ertebolle@kbin.social 28 points 1 year ago (3 children)

That's done regionally, unfortunately, and I expect that whichever one accredits schools in the South is going to quickly be taken over by conservative jackasses if it hasn't been already.

(OTOH, employers and graduate programs are free to assign whatever level of credibility they wish to any given university's diploma)

[–] plz1@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, like a FL under grad seeking a Master's in New England? GTFO

[–] ElleChaise@kbin.social 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's what I've been wondering, can't other states essentially ‘lock in’ participants of schools abusing the system? If you want to go to god school, you can only use that education in god land with the fairy folk, the rest of us on Earth can simply deny the legitimacy of those credentials in real education settings, forcing real changes; or at least keeping the crazy at arms length.

[–] plz1@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

That's how accrediitadtion is supposed to work. We shall see, I guess.

[–] Hugin@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

That is incorrect. Universities are a collection of colleges and each college is accreted individually by a national accreditation board. So in north America colleges of engineering are accredited by ABET.

While I was getting my ABET accredited engineering degree my university was launching a new college of medicine. They were new so unaccredited and had to do a ton of work to get the program accredited.

One of the best ways to avoid scam schools is to check if the degree is accreted by the respective organization for the field.

[–] candybrie@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Is it really? I'm only familiar with ABET, which is national, but only for engineering and technology. I figured other subjects would have similar accreditation boards. Surely some other fields like medical and law do?

[–] insomniac@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The schools institutional accreditation is different from program accreditation.

[–] candybrie@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Does institutional accreditation matter in the face of program accreditation?

[–] insomniac@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

You probably don’t have one without the other and national institutional accreditation used to be the hallmark of online scam schools. But I don’t know, I’m not a universityologist.

[–] Hyperreality@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I don't live in the US. Due to historical/religious reasons, the government here doesn't do standardised testing in schools and gives schools quite a lot of freedom. Graduate from the worst school and you can still go to university (with some exceptions for stuff like med, but I digress).

What my university did, is simply schedule a really horrible statistics course on the monday morning, first year, first semester, course book thicker than the bible. Same thing for most courses. You're studying German? Enjoy learning advanced grammar at 8AM. You're studying history? Roman history with a side of Latin at 8AM. The overfull auditorium emptied within weeks as people dropped out.

Maybe universities in Florida should do something similar. Rather than refusing students, have them quit. Certainly a financially disastrous way to learn the limits of the power of prayer and the relevance of the bible to statistics, but the Lord works in mysterious ways.

And as any fitness business will testify after the month of january, it's an excellent business model having the majority who drop out subsidise those who don't. Really allows you to improve the level of service you can offer those who don't quit.

[–] PeepinGoodArgs@reddthat.com 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't understand how this works.

Are they funneling people from the worst schools into these weed-out classes? Because that doesn't sound fair at all.

[–] Hyperreality@kbin.social 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

No. Everyone gets a weed-out class.

It functions as a defacto entrance exam. Like a navy SEALs bootcamp where everyone's allowed to enter, but those dumb or deluded enough to think they can make it, run away screaming once they finally realise they don't have what it takes.

Certainly better than having the weed-out classes later on in your studies, especially when you're writing your (graduate?)master's thesis/research.

[–] PeepinGoodArgs@reddthat.com 2 points 1 year ago

Oh okay. I think when I was learning Spanish I was taught about some international universities that had extremely difficult entry exams as another to weed out a ton of applicants. The cost of attending was relatively low.

I thought that was a good model, too.

[–] DevCat@lemmy.world 65 points 1 year ago (5 children)

How long before universities in blue states stop accepting students who relied on these pieces of crap?

[–] Sweetpeaches69@lemmy.world 41 points 1 year ago

I hope immediately.

[–] HipHoboHarold@lemmy.world 25 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Also, jobs. Like I know in general most places don't give a shit. If it's a shitty for profit university, maybe. But for the vast majority of the time, it doesn't matter...

But this seems to be a little different. Maybe some of them should start caring about this.

[–] Shdwdrgn@mander.xyz 18 points 1 year ago

I can only hope for an interview to go something like this:

"This position requires a college degree, but all I see on your resume is this worthless garbage from Florida. Did you ever get a real education? Let's find out, explain evolution to me..."

[–] name_NULL111653@pawb.social 14 points 1 year ago

I had a classical education (full of Christian dogma of course), but we were still expected to know evolution, psychology, secular philosophy, logic, etc. And we still had to do well on the ACT. And the critical thinking and philosophy I learned helped me to escape indoctrination, to the point that theology classes showed me why I'm not a Christian. So I'm not against "classical education" in general - it's when they put religious and political indoctrination above actual classical academics like in this case that it's an abomination.

[–] TigrisMorte@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago

How long 'til Businesses stop accepting the FL Diplomas on resumes?

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

Not just Blue states. You ain’t getting into Ohio State with bs like that

[–] SuddenlyBlowGreen@lemmy.world 53 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

"As this assessment focuses on critical thinking skills, Florida will lead the way in filling our state and nation with bright and competitive students."

Christian

Critical thinking

Pick one.

[–] Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world 26 points 1 year ago (1 children)

To be fair, Christians / conservatives seem to be very critical of allowing people to think.

[–] SuddenlyBlowGreen@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Is having the ability/right to think part of the bible/cobstitution? No? Nuff said. /s

[–] JoeBigelow@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 year ago

The only passing grade is failure

[–] brihuang95@sopuli.xyz 20 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] itsgroundhogdayagain@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] Ertebolle@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago (4 children)
[–] itsgroundhogdayagain@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

I was thinking more "David Goes to the Dentist" than Queen

[–] TheButtonJustSpins@infosec.pub 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] Cynicivity@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] agent_flounder@lemmy.one 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] oddityoverseer@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Look up to the skies and see

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[–] iforgotmyinstance@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Reality is whatever the rich dictate it to be.

[–] kimpilled@infosec.pub 15 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Did they not realize kids are gonna call it the “clit”?

[–] Ertebolle@kbin.social 23 points 1 year ago

Conservatives have no idea what that is or where to find it

[–] slurpeesoforion@startrek.website 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

"How'd you score on the CLiT?", has a strange ring to it.

[–] name_NULL111653@pawb.social 8 points 1 year ago

Classical Learning (and indoctrination) Test - CLiT

[–] SzethFriendOfNimi@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

What’s that?
-Kids who had no sex education

[–] retrieval4558@mander.xyz 5 points 1 year ago

I read it as CuLT...

[–] agent_flounder@lemmy.one 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

All I can say anymore is...

FloridaBugsBunny.gif

[–] candle_lighter@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't understand how this is a "Christian SAT" other than than that it's popular with Christian schools.

[–] DevCat@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They are eliminating anything that they consider "woke" or liberal from the curriculum. The whole point of this is Christian indoctrination. Remember, in the long run we win.

[–] candle_lighter@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

But how is the CLT known as the "Christian SAT" other than that it's used by Christian Schools?

I don't see how adding another option is Christian Indoctrination unless said option itself is religious which nothing on the test or website is as far as I can tell.

Yeah, from what I can tell, it largely relies on classic literature for its passages instead of coming up with new passages, but otherwise it's very similar.

I think it's great to have another option for students to take. I took the ACT and SAT and got a similar score for each, but if the CLT does a better job at measuring something a student is good at, maybe it could help them get into a program they want.

I don't see anything Christian about it, other than that many private schools are backed by a Christian denomination, and it's much easier for a private school to change acceptance criteria than a public school.

[–] JimmyBigSausage@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago

Y’all-Qaeda

[–] Plibbert@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

Yaaaaay, theologically based facisim here we come!

[–] iforgotmyinstance@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Disgusting.

I don't see what the issue is. The CLT looks like it's basically the SAT, but it's newer and uses snippets from classical literature instead of new passages. Other than that, it measures largely the same thing.

I guess there's a stigma against it because it's used largely by private religious schools? But a lot of large private universities have ties to religion, and it's probably way easier for a private school to try out something new than for a public school, so that association doesn't necessarily mean the test has anything religious in it.

I'm all for having another big test kids can choose to take. The school I went to accepted both the ACT and the SAT, and students were allowed to submit one or both (I took both and submitted my ACT, though I got a similar score on each). I imagine that schools that try this new test will likely do the same, keep accepting the SAT, but also accept the CLT.

If anyone is actually familiar with the test itself, could you fill me in on what makes this a bad test? You know, other than association with Christian private universities.

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