OPINION | CASSIDY SYFTESTAD: In spirit of choice

Include college entrance exams


In March, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders massively expanded educational options for the parents of Arkansas' K-12 children. In signing the revolutionary LEARNS Act, she and the Legislature opened a portion of the state's public school education budget to families that wish to send their children to a school outside of our public school system.

If the experiences of other states are repeated here, Arkansas is about to see vigorous growth of enrollment in schools that embrace the classical model of education--and a new challenge for our state university system.

Writing in The Washington Post recently, educators Dr. Angel Adams Parham (University of Virginia) and Dr. Anika Prather (Johns Hopkins University) explained that "Classical education teaches the liberal arts and natural sciences through ancient methods of intellectual engagement, inquiry and dialogue ... ." Or as a leading scholar of education reform, Lance Izumi of California's Pacific Research Institute, has reported, quoting from Sacramento's John Adams Academy charter school, it is where "students 'read and study the greatest works, or 'classics' of the Western tradition' and 'investigate great American works highlighting the principles of liberty, virtue, morality, entrepreneurship, and democracy.'"

A classical approach to education allows students to explore primary texts in the original words of the pioneers who made important discoveries. Nothing compares to Galileo himself conveying passion in arguing that the Earth revolves around the sun. Why not learn about the early American experience directly from Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Sojourner Truth?

The classics are not about race or social status. They exist outside modern ideology and passing political disputes. They have endured precisely because they speak across generations and across demographics. Timeless works that embody the universal human experience and the enthusiasm of their original authors captivate young readers.

Around the nation, even as public-school enrollments have declined, many types of classical schools--charter schools, Catholic and Christian schools, home schooling, certain private schools--have seen their student bodies expand. Arkansas is likely to experience the same trend for a simple reason: Regardless of economic or ethnic backgrounds, in national tests students at classical schools show significantly higher levels of learning and comprehension than students at traditional public schools.

Even now, the numbers are significant. As of last year, 6 percent of the state's K-12 students were homeschooled, another 4 percent attend private schools, and the number of public charters has increased. Once the LEARNS Act takes full effect, more families will be able to afford to take advantage of such alternatives.

But as the number of classical high school graduates grows, a new issue arises. How does the increase of classically educated students impact the fairness of Arkansas' state university admissions process?

The standardized testing that is so central to college admissions is at the heart of the problem. The standardized university admissions tests currently used here in Arkansas and around the nation--the SAT and ACT--are geared to students whose high schools use what is called the Common Core curriculum.

As Jeremy Tate, education testing leader and founder of the SAT/ACT alternative classical college admissions test, explains, Common Core "emphasizes informational texts over classical or fictional texts." Put another way, Common Core focuses on students absorbing data. Classical curricula push students to examine the ideas needed to make sense of data and its significance in the human experience.

Each curriculum has its merits, but there is an apples and oranges problem to requiring all students statewide to take the same admissions test.

Tate's Classic Learning Test (CLT) is the accepted standardized college admission's test for classically educated high school students. Nationwide, more than 200 mostly Catholic and Christian colleges accept it as an alternative to the SAT and ACT in their admissions process. But only one state-sponsored college or university in the nation accepts it: Virginia's Christopher Newport University.

In Arkansas, which supports parents in finding more options for their children's education, expanding university admissions testing options to include the CLT (or other tests) aligns with the spirit of the LEARNS Act. It provides students with alternatives, allowing them to take admissions tests that match the curriculum and philosophy of education used in their schools.

The freedom to choose one's test (even to select one from a list) would be an extension of the school choice already awarded through LEARNS. It would be true to the spirit of school choice, which motivated our legislators in the first place.


Cassidy Syftestad is a Doctoral Academy Fellow in the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas.


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