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Eighth graders at Stone Middle School recently transformed their classroom into a museum, replacing a traditional civics test with projects connecting current events to lessons about American government.

Each student selected a news topic and tied it to the U.S. Constitution or one of the three branches of government. They created models and explanatory signs to demonstrate their understanding.

The project is part of Fairfax County Public Schools’ work as a Virginia Department of Education School Division of Innovation. That designation allows participating schools to use locally developed assessments instead of the eighth-grade Civics and Economics Standards of Learning test.

Social studies teacher Hannah Connor said the performance-based approach gave students multiple ways to demonstrate what they had learned.

Henry focused his project on the Artemis II space mission. He said he enjoyed building the display, writing about the mission and exploring his classmates’ ideas.

Sydney examined lawsuits against Ticketmaster, using the dispute to explore concerns about competition among businesses.

After completing their displays, students toured the classroom museum, reviewed one another’s work, left comments and asked questions. Connor said that process helped them learn from their peers as well as from their own research.

The projects required more than recalling information, according to FCPS instructional services manager Christie Day. Students had to explain their reasoning and communicate their ideas to others.

FCPS is among several Virginia school divisions experimenting with alternative ways to measure student learning. The Virginia Department of Education is monitoring the work, and lessons from these projects could influence future assessment options across the state.

At Stone Middle School, the experiment offered students a new way to show their civics knowledge—by building a museum rather than filling out a test.