A number of Florida community college students that are otherwise eligible to graduate may not be able to receive their associate degree after the Florida Legislature eliminated the College-Level Academic Skills Test (CLAST). This test was one way students could confirm their attainment of skills in reading, writing and mathematics—a requirement to receive a degree. Students can also meet the requirement by scoring at least a 500 each on the verbal and math sections of the SAT, scoring at least a 21 on the English and math sections and at least 22 on the reading section of the ACT or maintaining a minimum 2.5 GPA in two introductory communications and two mathematics courses. Eliminating the CLAST test leaves students with a lower GPA that didn’t take the ACT or SAT without an option to prove their competence.  The change will impact roughly 16,000 students.

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