The first CLEP exams were administered in 1967, according to the College Board's online pamphlet on CLEP. CLEP and other college-level credit-by-examination programs were born in response to the large number of veterans coming back to the United States, many of whom sought higher education to advance their careers. Many of these veterans had acquired college-level learning in a nonacademic setting, so CLEP and other programs were designed to recognize that knowledge.
Columbia University, in 1957, was the first university to develop its own credit-by-examination program, according to the College Board's pamphlet on CLEP. Other universities, including Brooklyn College and Syracuse University, also developed their own programs in the following years. In the late 1950s, the Committee on Institutional Corporation led the charge for a national, standardized credit-by-examination program, and the College Board took over responsibility for what would eventually become the CLEP program in 1965.
The College Board established 50 national testing centers and administered the first CLEP tests in 1967. Only four people tested on the first testing date; however, the number of examinees rose steadily over the next few years. By 1972, more than 500 test centers administered CLEP exams and more than 9,000 candidates per year were taking CLEP exams. In 1974, the College Board and the Department of Defense struck a deal to provide funded CLEP exams to members of the military.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the number of CLEP examinees continued to grow. On July 1, 2001, the College Board implemented what it called "the most drastic change yet" for CLEP exams--a shift from the traditional pencil and paper examination to a computer-based model. Paper-based tests still remained available for "forward-deployed" areas. In January 2006, the College Board introduced the first new test in 15 years, Pre-Calculus, and a year later the company introduced the Financial Accounting exam, which replaced Principles of Accounting.
As of 2010, more than 2,900 universities accept CLEP credit, and students can choose between CLEP exams in 33 different subject areas, according to the College Board website. In keeping with the CLEP exam's traditional appeal among older students and military members, more than 55 percent of CLEP exam takers in 2008 to 2009 were older than 23. In July 2010, CLEP fees will increase to $77. The Defense Activity for Non-Traditional Education Support (DANTES) funds CLEP exams for members of any branch of the U.S. military and some eligible civilian employees.