Jaimee T. Mendillo
As a Social Studies teacher at Nathan Hale School in New Haven, I work with a diverse and intellectually curious group of seventh and eighth grade students. In the 2023-24 school year, 50.1% of our students identified as Hispanic, 14.5% as Black, 1.6% as Asian, 4.2% as two or more races, and 29.6% as White. In the 2024-25 school year, our school was designated a Title I school, reflecting the increasing economic challenges our families face. These demographic and economic facts reflect the structural and cultural realities that shape how our students experience education. With this in mind, I developed this unit to help eighth grade students explore and reflect on one of the most powerful forces shaping their academic lives: standardized testing.
This unit, Challenging the Standard: Testing & the Fight for Educational Justice, invites students into a critical examination of the history of standardized testing and its ongoing role in public education: how it came to play such a central role, and how it continues to shape student identity, opportunity, and self-worth. Most students have internalized narratives based on their test scores; messages that tell them who they are, how “smart” they are, and what they can or cannot become. This unit is about unpacking those messages and asking where they come from, who created them, and whether they are fair, just, or accurate.
My goal is for students to think deeply and critically about the systems they are asked to participate in – often without consent, context, or question – and to activate their agency in asking the important questions that can drive change in systems that do not serve their interests. Through investigation, reflection, and discussion, students will come to see that standardized testing did not emerge in a vacuum. They will explore how testing in the United States was shaped by early 20th-century ideas about intelligence and human value; ideas closely tied to the eugenics movement. Students will learn that many early testing practices were designed to sort, exclude, and reinforce existing inequalities, rather than support learners equitably.
One of the most meaningful components of this unit is the opportunity for students to reflect on how standardized testing has affected them personally and collectively. They will journal about how these assessments have affected the way they view themselves and their learning. They will explore questions such as: What messages do these tests send about who is smart or capable? How do labels like “proficient” or “basic” shape our identities as learners? What emotional and social impacts do these assessments carry? What would more equitable ways to measure student achievement and growth look like? Students will discuss these questions with peers and collaborate to imagine and propose more just systems of assessment.
The unit culminates in an activism project, allowing students to apply what they have learned and take meaningful action. Whether through writing letters to educational leaders, creating and launching awareness campaigns, or designing more equitable and inclusive assessment models, students will be encouraged to advocate for changes that better reflect their abilities and aspirations. I want my students to practice civic engagement and develop their voices as powerful tools for change within their schools and communities.
This unit is grounded in my belief that students are capable of deep critical thinking when they are given the tools, context, and permission to question systems that shape their lives – especially systems that do not serve them. Standardized testing is one such system. Students deserve the opportunity to imagine, and help build, systems that do. By examining the roots of standardized testing in eugenics and its enduring legacy in modern education, my students will gain both historical understanding and the confidence to challenge the status quo and envision something better. In the U.S., where educational inequities have long been shaped by race, class, and institutional power, this is more than an academic exercise. It is essential, transformative work.
