The Racist Foundations of Standardized Testing

Introduction

Standardized testing is often framed as a neutral, objective measure of merit. It's a tool used to sort, compare, and select the "best" students. On the surface, standardized testing seems to be an objective measure of a student's abilities, but the more I researched this topic, the more flaws were revealed.

Our class materials hint at its history, especially through discussions of eugenics and racialized claims about intelligence, but digging beyond the course readings revealed just how deliberately the tests were created to reinforce racial hierarchies.

The Legacy of Eugenics in Modern Testing

The racial logic behind standardized testing never really disappeared, it’s only evolved into new a form. From the start, these tests were designed to reflect white, middle-class norms, making it nearly impossible for Black, Indigenous, or immigrant students to perform well on “neutral” questions (Rosales & Walker, 2021). Eugenicists saw these scores as “scientific proof” of racial superiority, and early universities actively used them to restrict the admission of “undesirable ethnicities.”

This makes it impossible to treat standardized testing today as a simply flawed (but fixable) system. Its very design was a racial sorting mechanism. Even as society distances itself from eugenics, the structure of standardized tests continues to reinforce social and socioeconomic hierarchies, but in more subtle ways.

Why "Meritocracy" Doesn't Explain Test Score Gaps

Wayne Au’s Meritocracy article first introduced me to the concept that modern testing promotes a narrative that everyone succeeds or fails purely on personal effort (2016). But in actuality, this “objective” framework actually denies structural inequalities, which allow racial disparities to be blamed on students instead of the systems.

This analysis resonates with what I’ve personally seen growing up in Canada. There is an underlying assumption in North America that hard work alone guarantees academic success. However, this overlooks the realities of those who had access to tutors, well-funded schools, stable housing, mental health support, and teachers who reflect their identities. This isn’t an issue of individual grit, it’s an issue of unequal conditions.

Canadian Context

When we shift the focus to Canada, it becomes clear that standardized tests like EQAO

operate within a highly unequal school system. Schools serving racialized and low-income

communities receive fewer resources, experience higher teacher turnover, and often lack the

support needed to prepare studnets for high-stakes tests.

In fact, racialized students face “unequal access to funding, learning supports, and culturally

relevant curriculum,” which contributes to persistent gaps in provincial test scores (Canadian

Human Rights Commission, 2023).

Research shows that Ontario schools in low-income neighbourhoods receive less fundraising

money, fewer extracurriculars, and fewer enrichment opportunities, which were all factors

strongly correlated with EQAO results. When standardized test results are then used to label

these schools as “underperforming,” the cycle reinforces itself: poor results justify further cuts, causing scores to decline even more.

I remember taking the EQAO test myself, and it felt like a major milestone in elementary school. Much of our classwork was structured around preparing for EQAO-style questions, as if the curriculum revolved around the exam. Growing up in Cornwall (a small town with an underfunded high school), I notice now how these tests reflected a broader structural issues in my town. Our school consistently scored below the provincial average, and even this year's 2025 Ontario High School Report Card ranked it 649/742 schools, highlighting how persistent these patterns are (Cowley et al., 2025).

If you're interested in learning more about educational racism, check out my other blog post on it!

Discussion Question

Think about a time you took a standardized test. Do you think the results felt like an accurate measure of your ability, or more a reflection of your environment and support system? What factors shaped your performance?

References

Au, W. (2016). Meritocracy 2.0: High-stakes, standardized testing as a racial project of neoliberal multiculturalism. Educational Policy, 30(1), 39–62. https://doi.org/ 10.1177/0895904815614916

Canadian Human Rights Commission. (2023). Discussion paper on systemic racism. https:// www.chrc-ccdp.gc.ca/resources/publications/discussion-paper-systemic-racism

Cowley, P., Emes, J., & Shang, M. (2025, November 27). New Fraser Institute rankings of Ontario secondary schools out today. Fraser Institute. https://www.fraserinstitute.org/studies/report-card-ontarios-secondary-schools-2025

Rosales, J., & Walker, T. (2021, March 20). The racist beginnings of standardized testing. National Education Association. https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/racistbeginnings-standardized-testing