Standardized testing has long been framed as a neutral measure of achievement. Yet, its origins in white supremacy reveal that it was designed to privilege white, middle-class norms while excluding others. For Black students in under-resourced schools, the consequences are especially severe. These assessments misrepresent their abilities, deny access to advanced programs, and contribute to cycles of exclusion and punishment that mirror the criminal justice system. Testing corporations and reform advocates wield hidden power by profiting from these systems and defining achievement without community input, and, most sharply, standardized testing exerts invisible power by shaping students’ beliefs about intelligence and worth, embedding deficit narratives in their consciousness.
Since the development of high-stakes standardized testing policies under the No Child Left Behind Act, federal agencies, testing corporations, and school administrators have gained disproportionate power over public education—using test scores to control curriculum, discipline, and school funding. This power structure not only reinforces racial hierarchies embedded in test design but also criminalizes academic failure, contributing to the school-to-prison pipeline by disproportionately excluding and punishing Black students in under-resourced schools.
Policymakers and organizations that impose testing requirements wield the most visible form of power in standardized testing. Standardized tests were created to maintain racial hierarchies, as Strauss (2021) demonstrates by tracing their roots to white supremacist ideology. She illustrates how bias was ingrained in the basic framework of American education when standardized assessments were developed to support white, middle-class values. Through accountability laws like No Child Left Behind, which influence curriculum and school financing, policymakers continue to impose these biased instruments. This is a form of visible power: Black students are disproportionately harmed by institutions that require testing as a policy, criminalizing academic failure. Schools that are deemed to be “failing” are subject to staff turnover, closures, and heightened surveillance, which destabilizes communities and perpetuates inequality.
Dunbar Elementary School in Atlanta, Georgia, is a victim of school closure. As part of the district’s efforts to close a $100 million budget deficit, the area has been targeted for closure. Atlanta Public Schools has suggested closing Dunbar along with other schools that serve primarily Black students, despite a 33 percent rise in enrollment and considerable community resistance. Families argue that the closure would be devastating for the neighborhood, depriving it of a critical resource and putting kids into overcrowded schools farther away. This closure is justified by enrollment figures and accountability indicators, which are frequently linked to performance on standardized tests. This case demonstrates how policymakers use test scores and budgetary constraints to control which schools survive and which are sacrificed. These closures exacerbate the injustices already present in the school-to-prison pipeline for Black youth by reinforcing instability, dislocation, and exclusion.
The companies that create, administer, and profit from standardized testing wield secret power that extends beyond legislators. Standardized tests, according to Taylor and Lee (1987), misrepresent the talents of African American students by neglecting language and cultural diversity. Testing companies like Pearson, Educational Testing Service (ETS), McGraw-Hill, and Houghton Mifflin define intelligence, favoring dominant communication standards while disregarding Black students’ cultural practices. This exposes hidden power. Exam sales and administration generate enormous profits for these firms. In addition, Pearson has won contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars to administer college-readiness and state exams, dominating the U.S. testing market. Test fees, study materials, and scoring services are significant sources of income for ETS, the organization that creates and administers the SAT and GRE. Ninety-six percent of state-level tests are written by four companies: Harcourt Educational Measurement, CTB McGraw-Hill, Riverside Publishing, and NCS Pearson (PBS, 2001). Companies spent at least $20 million on lobbying to obtain contracts and favorable legislation, and the testing boom driven by Common Core and No Child Left Behind generated nearly $2 billion yearly business (PR Watch, 2015).
These influential individuals promote injustice and deficit narratives by misclassifying Black students and preventing them from enrolling in advanced programs. Black children’s exclusion from educational opportunities is not accidental; rather, it is profitable. Policymakers gain power by using test results to support reforms and closures, while corporations benefit from test sales, repair programs, and preparation materials. The school-to-prison pipeline also supports economic exploitation, as jails benefit from a regular influx of young people and political leaders consolidate power through “tough on crime” rhetoric. In this way, the psychological injury to pupils directly translates into material advantage for those in power. According to Mallett (2015), test results are used as a weapon to support harsh policies and school closings, which destabilize Black communities and schools. When taken together, these sources demonstrate how policy agendas and corporate profit combine to maintain inequality.
The psychological and ideological impacts of standardized testing on Black students are the most harmful, invisible form of power. Taylor and Lee (1987) emphasize the psychological injury caused by linguistic bias, and USC Scribe (2022) links this harm to criminal prosecution and exclusion. The psychological toll is immense. Repeated exposure to low exam scores fosters anxiety, depression, and disengagement from school. Students frequently experience a sense of learned helplessness because they believe that, no matter how hard they work, a biased system will judge them as failures. Reduced motivation, increased dropout rates, and vulnerability to harsh punishment might result from this internalized inferiority. According to USC Scribe (2022), Black children who perform poorly on tests are frequently excluded, suspended, and eventually come into contact with the juvenile criminal system. In this sense, by instilling deficit narratives in Black children’s minds, standardized testing actively creates failure rather than merely measuring accomplishment.
Additionally, standardized testing promotes a competitive worldview that conceals structural injustices in addition to individual disengagement. Black students are informed that their shortcomings are personal rather than systemic, which upholds racial hierarchies and justifies exclusion. This ideological strength ensures the internalization of deficit narratives, shaping identity and long-term outcomes. Students’ conduct, academic engagement, and motivation to fight exclusion are all impacted when they start to perceive themselves as less capable. Black children are more likely to experience punitive discipline and eventually come into contact with the legal system as a result of the severe psychological and ideological toll. This illustrates the invisible power: when their talents are misrepresented, students internalize failure and shame, disengage from school, and accept exclusion as a given. Standardized testing is significant because it not only misrepresents talent but also molds identity and self-worth, instilling deficit narratives in children’s minds and perpetuating structural injustices.
Standardized testing interacts with severe discipline systems rather than existing in a vacuum. According to Mallett (2015), low test scores are often used as an excuse for zero-tolerance policies and school closures, which force teachers and children in underprivileged communities to relocate, as seen in Dunbar Elementary. Black kids are disproportionately affected by these “improvements” because they are more likely to attend underfunded schools and experience severe disciplinary actions. As a result, students are forced into surveillance and control systems, and intellectual struggle is criminalized. According to Mallett’s (2015) findings, the combination of punitive policies and standardized testing results in a real, tangible school-to-prison pipeline. Black kids are disproportionately drawn into juvenile justice systems due to institutional injustices that are perpetuated by testing and punishment rather than innate flaws.
The USC Scribe article (2022) gives a vivid picture of how standardized testing leads to the school-to-prison pipeline for Black youth. It defines individuals in the court system and school officials as visible powerholders who uphold rules that link discipline to academic achievement. These policies disproportionately impact black children; test-related academic tracking increases the likelihood that they will be penalized, expelled, or reported to the police. Black kids are frequently depicted as disruptive or underachieving, which shapes public image and policy without responsibility. The hidden power in the racism assumptions ingrained in testing and discipline practices causes students to internalize these narratives; they become disengaged from school and come to terms with their eventual exclusion, which gives rise to invisible power.
Standardized testing employs three different forms of power: visible, concealed, and invisible. Students internalize stories of failure when their talents are exaggerated, corporations profit from their widespread use, and policymakers compel inaccurate assessments through accountability regulations. These factors cooperate to sustain the school-to-prison pipeline by criminalizing intellectual struggle and upholding racial inequities. Instead of serving as a path to opportunity, education has evolved into a system of exclusion and punishment. Dunbar Elementary serves as a reminder of how these factors come together in actual communities, where financial constraints and accountability measures pose a threat to the closure of Black families’ roots. Overall, the broader implication is that, to affirm Black kids’ identities, transfer authority to communities, and prioritize justice over surveillance, deconstructing this system requires reconsidering evaluation. We can only start the process of ending the school-to-prison pipeline and establishing an educational system founded on justice and compassion by opposing the racism logic of standardized testing and the corporate profits that support it. Schools can become places of equity, compassion, and opportunity rather than exclusion and punishment when visible, hidden, and invisible power are addressed simultaneously.
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Kaelyn A. Dorsey
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