In the 1920s and 1930s, Yale University and Connecticut became international centers of Eugenics research, policy advocacy, and public education. From New Haven, leaders of the American Eugenics Society advocated for the sterilization, incarceration, exclusion and denigration of huge swaths of the public.

The legacy of the Eugenicists’ work continues to shape public education today, through standardized tests (originally created by Eugenics advocates), child development, health care, and psychology, and curricula used in many fields, from music education to genetics to statistics. 

This history is especially relevant in civics courses, modern U.S. and world history units, Black/Latinx studies courses, and historical context for biology and other science courses. Study of this topic will help teachers and students understand the racist and nativist policies and ideology and its influence on policy and systems.