Committee hears hours‑long debate on recognizing CLT for admissions and state scholarships

Representative (sponsor) introduced HB 1064 as a bill to align scholarship policy with the University System of Georgia’s admissions decision to accept the Classic Learning Test (CLT) at many institutions. Sponsor said the change would provide an additional pathway for students to qualify for state scholarship and admissions criteria.

Michael Torres, policy director for Classic Learning Test, said CLT teams worked with independent researchers and university systems on concordance; he reported that a CLT score of 86 aligns with roughly a 1,230 SAT under the concordance his group submitted. Torres also described coordination with multiple university systems that have accepted CLT for admissions.

Representatives of ACT and the College Board (SAT) pushed back. Stephanie Guillory (ACT) warned that "with the lack of a valid concordance that links a CLT score to the ACT or an SAT score, what that means is that the fiscal impact of the QBE and the Zell Miller scholarship cannot be estimated," and that district use could create accountability and fiscal loopholes. Maureen Foreman (SAT) said the committee lacks the broad evidence base—concordance based on hundreds of thousands of students—needed to ensure score comparability and preservation of trends across systems.

Committee members asked for more data, including freshman‑index data for Georgia’s most selective campuses, longitudinal outcomes by test score band, and clearer fiscal modeling. The committee did not take final action; the chair said he wanted additional technical information before advancing the bill.