Veritas Academy will administer the Classic Learning Test on Saturday, November 11 (also on February 3, April 21, and May 19).  I want to encourage you to read up on this new college admissions test.  It is being developed for use alongside (and even in place of) the popular SAT and ACT tests.  While there have always been concerns about the ability of the ACT and SAT to truly assess college readiness, in the past decade the concerns have grown exponentially as these tests have increasing become “values neutral” and tied to “Common Core” standards.  There is a groundswell of interest in replacing the SAT and ACT with a test that looks at more than a student’s ability to regurgitate academic content.  The CLT is based on the concept that virtue, ethics, maturity, sound thinking, and a grasp of great ideas are all critical in measuring a student’s academic formation, accomplishment, and potential.  Even if your child is not yet in the college testing and application mode, it will benefit you to read about the issues surrounding the SAT, ACT, and the CLT.  The issues with these tests reflect the greater issues with education in our country.  The attitudes, mindsets, and worldviews that have reduced education to vocational training, that view our children as mere cogs in the economy, and that have turned our high schools into assembly lines for the accumulation of credits, are the same attitudes, mindsets, and worldviews that shape the ACT and SAT. 
Here are three links to helpful articles about the CLT and college testing.
–A Test for Classical Christian Students by Mark Bauerlein at FirstThings.com.
–Get Ready to Ditch the SAT and ACT by Robert Holland at TheFederalist.com.
–Reclaiming Intellectual Freedom with a New Alternative to the SAT by Jeremy Tate at the National Association of Scholars (NAS.org).