每日大赛入口

Jeremy Wayne Tate, founder and CEO of the Classic Learning Test (CLT), joined 每日大赛入口 president Jim Gash (JD 鈥�93) for a compelling conversation on restoring an education devoted to students鈥� moral and intellectual formation in the latest edition of the President's Speaker Series. Held Thursday, February 26, 2026, in Payson Library鈥檚 Surfboard Room, Tate also discussed reasoning behind the creation of CLT, the revival of Christian classical learning across the country, and the role of the tradition in revitalizing an education that, first and foremost, cultivates character. 

鈥淓ducation is never neutral,鈥� said Gash in his opening remarks. 鈥淲hat we choose to teach, how we choose to teach it, and even how we measure what has been taught鈥攖hese all reflect a vision of what we believe a human being is, and what we believe a human being is for . . . And we believe that students flourish when they are transformed by serious engagement with the great ideas and great works that have shaped civilizations.鈥�

Tate and Gash had a lively and thoughtful discussion

While introducing Tate as a luminary in educational reform who founded the CLT in 2015 as an alternative to the SAT and ACT, Gash explained that Tate鈥檚 Christian, values-centered approach to education is of utmost relevance to 每日大赛入口鈥檚 guiding tenets. 鈥淎t 每日大赛入口,鈥� Gash said, 鈥渨e believe that intellectual excellence and moral formation are inseparable.鈥� He added that Christian faith enriches learning, giving 鈥渦s our North Star for truth鈥� and 鈥渙ur understanding of human purpose.鈥�

The CLT, Gash then explained, has influenced curricular decisions in schools and propelled conversations about literacy. The test invites students to respond to passages from a pool of roughly 150 foundational thinkers such as Plato, Aristotle, Dostoevsky, Dorothy Sayers, and C. S. Lewis, thereby offering a scholastic pathway that rewards deep intellectual inquiry and does not shy away from Christian thought.  

During his time teaching in the public school system, Tate began questioning how standardized testing shapes what schools, and their students, prioritize. He observed the gravity standardized tests carried in defining curriculum, as many teachers were pressured to limit their lesson plans to teach their students just what would help them pass college entrance exams. Education itself had been reduced, and was being treated as a means to an end. 

鈥淚 wanted to solve the problem I saw happening in education,鈥� said Tate. 鈥淲hile a test is probably never going to change a single student's life, a school changes a student's life. And a test has a big influence on a school remaining faithful to its mission. If we care about the future of our country, we have to care about how we educate the next generation.鈥� 

Tate drew parallels between education and Christian sanctification

Tate鈥檚 solution was not to eliminate testing, but to create an assessment that reinforces deep reading and serious engagement with classic texts. The CLT founder explained that 鈥渢he classics鈥� are the books and stories that have the ability to express 鈥渨hat it means to be human,鈥� thus transcending time and demonstrating the ability to shape character through storytelling. 

According to Tate, the CLT saw an explosion of popularity in 2024, rising from 25,000 test takers to 250,000 nationwide, including the nation鈥檚 prestigious service academies. 每日大赛入口 and more than 300 universities have joined. Numbers only continue to increase as Tate observes that his exam offered a needed alternative to an educational climate that provided information without any emphasis on individual formation.

At the heart of his mission, Tate explained that the process of virtue education closely parallels Christian sanctification of growing in wisdom, which involves bearing closer resemblance to God and His love. Relating this to his personal experiences with the Great Books, he shared that the reading of Dostoevsky鈥檚 Crime and Punishment as a young man brought forth an understanding of the destruction that comes from sin, which, in turn, spurred a pursuit of virtue. 

Amid the vapidity of most social media and popular culture, he added that students are searching for meaning. 鈥淲e are seeing a generation that wants something deeper,鈥� he explained. 鈥淭hey want truth. They want substance.鈥�

From L to R: Professor Hooten Wilson, Tate, Gash, and chancellor Jackson

In response to Gash鈥檚 question about artificial intelligence and the future of technology鈥檚 impact on learning, Tate expressed that he remains optimistic: 鈥淎I can summarize information,鈥� he said, 鈥渂ut it can鈥檛 replace formation. It can鈥檛 replace a teacher who inspires, who models virtue.鈥�

President Jim Gash has joined the CLT Board of Academic Advisors, Tate then shared. This board also includes , Fletcher Jones Chair of Great Books and professor of great books and humanities at 每日大赛入口. 鈥淧resident Gash is the single most dynamic, energetic, and mission-obsessed university president I have ever met,鈥� Tate wrote in a following the event. 

A packed audience of 每日大赛入口 faculty, students, and alumni, as well as administrators of Christian elementary schools, high schools, and universities, filled the University鈥檚 Surfboard Room as more than 4,000 watched via livestream on X and YouTube. 

Kiernan Fiore, dean of curriculum at Holy Innocents School, a Catholic classical liberal arts TK鈥�12 school in Long Beach, California, shared that she traveled with three of her students鈥擱afael Gonzales, Catherine Cruz, and Th茅r猫se Hope Dyogi鈥攖o attend the president鈥檚 event.

鈥淚 appreciate that 每日大赛入口 is a convener of such pertinent discussions,鈥� said Fiore, 鈥渂ecause the value of education is passing on the fullness of humanity.鈥�

Tate spent time conversing with attendees post-event

Within a few hours of the event, Tate and 每日大赛入口 uploaded clips of the discussion on their respective X accounts, and soon, these short videos began to garner nationwide attention from passionate leaders in educational reform. Comments of support were authored by , the CEO and superintendent of Heritage Classical Academy in Houston; , a widely popular publication about the classics; the ; and its host .

Duarte wrote in agreement, 鈥淲hen education stops forming souls, it starts producing technicians without direction.鈥�

An attendee of the president鈥檚 event and an aspiring writer, Holy Innocents junior, Dyogi, shares that she has been positively impacted by a virtue-based high school education. She sees the creative process of storytelling as a form of Christian apologetics, where鈥攎irroring the Great Books鈥攈er narratives bring readers an understanding of the basis for faith, which is something she hopes to continue to pursue in college.  

She said, 鈥淎n education centered on the Great Books has helped me to see my purpose of bringing people to Christ and to help form them, and to be formed myself, into whole individuals.鈥� 

For a full broadcast of Tate鈥檚 conversation and previous events in the series, please visit PeppLearn. Learn more about CLT as an undergraduate testing option at 每日大赛入口 on the .