Ah yes, standardized testing—our society’s favorite way to pretend it’s measuring intelligence, while actually just scanning barcodes for class. Let’s peel back the Scantron sheet and expose the social engineering under all that #2 pencil dust.
🎯 What Are Standardized Tests Supposed to Do?
In theory, they:
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Provide an objective measure of student performance.
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Allow fair comparisons across different schools.
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Identify merit regardless of background.
How wholesome. How fair. How deeply false.
🪓 How They Actually Reinforce Class Divisions
💰 1. Access to Prep = Higher Scores
Rich kids get:
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Private tutors
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Expensive prep courses (Kaplan, Princeton Review)
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Time to study (instead of working jobs or babysitting siblings)
Poor kids get:
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A free PDF from the College Board
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Maybe a beat-up prep book from 2007
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“Just do your best, sweetie”
So tests become a measure of access to resources, not potential. Which means standardized tests are just proxies for household income, dressed up in multiple choice questions.
SAT = Socioeconomic Aptitude Test
🏫 2. School Quality is Stratified by Zip Code
Schools in wealthier areas:
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Have better funding
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Smaller class sizes
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Advanced placement courses
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Test-prep built into the curriculum
Poorer schools:
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Focus on discipline and remediation
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Lack stable staffing
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Often teach the test just to boost stats
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Can’t afford resources for struggling or advanced students
And guess what? Property taxes fund schools. So poor neighborhoods = poor schools = poor test scores. A snake eating its own diploma.
📈 3. Test Scores Justify Inequity
Once the test scores come in, society does this cute little trick:
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Low-income students score lower → must be “less capable”
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High-income students score higher → must be “gifted”
Cue:
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College admissions using scores to gatekeep
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Employers filtering candidates by school prestige (which correlates with test scores)
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Policymakers blaming students instead of systems
Meritocracy in action—by which I mean, meritocracy as myth.
🧠 4. Cultural Bias Baked In
Tests assume:
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Familiarity with Standard English
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Cultural references from dominant (white, middle-class) life
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Confidence in test environments (which privilege kids trained to perform for authority)
Meanwhile:
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ESL students, neurodivergent kids, or students from immigrant or nonwhite backgrounds face a built-in disadvantage.
The test doesn’t ask: “Are you smart?”
It asks: “Do you already think like the ruling class?”
📉 5. Tracking and Labeling for Life
Your test scores determine:
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Which reading group you’re in at age 7
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Whether you get pushed toward college or “career-readiness”
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Which colleges even look at your application
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Scholarships, opportunities, internships
These are life-shaping outcomes built on the myth that a test taken by a 16-year-old under fluorescent lights can divine human potential.
Low score? “You're not gifted.”
High score? “Here’s a golden ticket.”
🧾 TL;DR:
Standardized tests:
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Pretend to be objective
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Actually measure privilege
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Sort students into life paths based on resources they already had
They are not just biased—they are engines of class reproduction disguised as gateways to mobility.
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