Texas public colleges may immediately weigh Classic Learning Test scores when evaluating certain applicants, Texas Commissioner of Higher Education Wynn Rosser told chancellors and presidents in a July 23 memo (PDF File).
The CLT is an alternative to the SAT and ACT built around longer reading passages from authors ranging from Plato to C.S. Lewis, and it now sits alongside the two dominant exams as an option Texas institutions can consider.
Texas is the second-largest public higher education system in the country, so a green light there meaningfully expands the CLT’s footprint at a moment when colleges are reinstating testing requirements across the board. Roughly 350 colleges already recognize CLT scores, including all 12 Florida public universities.
The Details
Rosser’s letter says institutions may currently consider standardized test scores, including the CLT, for first-time freshmen who do not qualify for automatic admission under Texas Education Code Sections 51.803 and 51.804, plus international and returning students.
Texas residents in the top 10% of their high school class generally earn automatic admission to the state’s public colleges, where in-state tuition and fees average about $10,800 a year. The University of Texas at Austin is the exception and admits only the top 5%.
By The Numbers
The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board approved the underlying study on July 22.
Conducted by Texas A&M University’s Public Policy Research Institute and required by SB 1241, it found the CLT, SAT and ACT all carry “sufficient rigor and reliability to be used as criterion for college admissions.”
On predictive validity (how well a score forecasts first-year performance) reviewers scored the SAT and ACT at 4.0 and 3.8 out of 4 points, respectively. The CLT received 1.4.
The Catch
The study called the CLT “organized and promising” but rated it moderately risky because it is “less mature than SAT and ACT.”
Reviewers said the three exams should not be treated “as equally ready, equally comparable, or equally defensible for statewide admissions use.”
The CLT’s Texas-specific evidence came from a single study of 259 students linking composite scores to first-year GPA, a small sample next to decades of data behind the SAT and ACT prep ecosystem.
How This Connects
Test scores are not just an admissions hurdle. Many schools that stayed test-optional still require scores to compete for merit aid, which makes exam choice a direct money decision for families trying to maximize merit-based scholarships.
The average Texas borrower already carries about $32,400 in federal student debt, and roughly 54% of the state’s graduates leave school with loans. Students weighing the CLT should confirm that every school on their list accepts it before taking it in lieu of the more widely recognized exams.
The coordinating board has not formally changed its Uniform Admission Policy. It is convening a negotiated rulemaking committee to align the rules with the study, with proposed rules going to the board no later than January 2027. If adopted, the changes would apply beginning with fall 2028 admissions, meaning today’s high school sophomores are the first class that would face the revised standards.
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Editor: Colin Graves
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