Welcome to the Freedom to Learn podcast.

I'm your host, Ginny Gentles.

This season, we're diving into what it means to return education to states, communities,

and families, and we're exploring what becomes possible when education is freed from union dominance and federal control.

The classic learning test is disrupting the standardized testing status quo and redefining how we measure college readiness, shape curriculum, and expand educational choice.

Today I'm joined by Michael Torres, Director of Legislative Strategy at the Classic Learning Test, who's helping lead that effort nationwide.

We cover the origins and design of the CLT, how it differs from the SAT and ACD, its rapid expansion through state policy, and what the evidence says about predicting college success.

We also dig into assessment choice, the role of testing in state school choice programs.

We talk about barriers to adoption and what's next,

including the classical baccalaureate.

Michael brings deep policy and communications expertise

to his work with service as a public affairs officer

in the US Navy and experience advancing

school choice initiatives before joining the CLT

to expand testing competition.

Michael Torres, welcome to Freedom to Learn.

Thank you so much for having me, Jenny. It's an honor to be here.

CLT. It's shaking up the standardized testing landscape. You all provide a classical alternative to the SAT and ACT. What does that mean? What is

CLT? That's a great question. So the classic learning test is a college admissions exam,

nationally standardized, nationally norm, just like the SAT and ACT. You'll see it assesses reading,

writing, and math, just like the other two exams.

But the differences come at how we assess those things.

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