Seattle teachers boycotting test score a victory
Teachers in Seattle protesting a state-mandated standardized test that they think is useless have scored a victory: The test will, starting next year, no longer be required for high school graduation.
Jose Banda, superintendent of schools in Seattle, just told principals of the district’s high schools that it will be up to their school’s leadership team whether or not to give the Measures of Academy Progress, and scores will no longer be a graduation requirement. The tests have been given this year, so the new policy starts in 2014, the Seattle Times reported.
Still, teachers said, the boycott did not win a full victory because district officials are still planning to give the MAP two times a year in elementary and middle schools. “This fight is far from over,” one teacher said.
The boycott of the MAP test started in January at Garfield High School and has spread to a total of six schools in Seattle while earning student support and national attention. The Garfield teachers originally gave these reasons for boycotting the test:
We, the Garfield teachers, respectfully decline to give the MAP test to any of our
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