Happy New Year of Struggle Against Corporate Education Reform: MAP test boycott tops lists of most important struggles of 2013!
2013 was the best year of my life.My younger son was born–on Martin Luther King Jr.’s, birthday, no less–only two days after my colleagues at Garfield High School announced that they were going to defy corporate education reformers by refusing to administer the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) test. Seeing my older son receive an unparalleled education at his play based preschool, while becoming a loving big brother; getting to know my magnetic, now almost one-year-old, son; and participating in the collective resistance of the MAP test boycott with my fellow educators at Garfield, made 2013 a defining year in my life.
There were many inspiring struggles to defend public education and create a more just society in 2013. The teachers in Seattle who refused to administer the district mandated MAP test, and helped ignite a national movement to curb the abuses of standardized testing, are honored to be included in these remembrances of the most important acts for social justice of 2013:
- Alternet named the MAP boycott the number one biggest win for public education in 2013!:10 Big Wins For Public Education in 2013: http://www.alternet.org/education/10-big-wins-public-education-2013
- Zinn Education Project named the MAP boycott as part of “A People’s History for 2013″