On January 19th of this year--Martin Luther King, Jr. Day--I was pepper sprayed in the face by an officer of the Seattle Police department. Now, we are filing a lawsuit in a federal court to seek justice. At this year’s Martin Luther King Day celebration, I was deeply honored to be asked to deliver the …
Month: June 2015
The Education of Zachary and the Soulful Struggle for “The Infinite Potential of All Children”
During the last days of the school year I wrote an essay for my website, I Am An Educator.com, about my kindergarten son opting out of the MAP test. I received an overwhelming number of positive responses to that piece, but none more powerful than from a mother from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Kelly Pylkas-Bock expressed her …
Scrap the MAP Test: My Kindergartener Joins the Opt Out Movement!
Last week the Seattle School District told my kindergarten son to take the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) test. Given my intense relationship with this specific standardized test--an exam that has forever altered the course of my life--this was a particularly unsettling moment for me. As an authentic assessment activist, I had helped organize a …
Continue reading Scrap the MAP Test: My Kindergartener Joins the Opt Out Movement!
“Stop Blaming Teachers, Start Funding Schools”: 30,000 Teachers Walk Out in Protest of Big Class Sizes in Washington State
The economic justice periodical In These Times recently ran this important article on the mass rolling strike wave of teachers and educators across Washington State--including now some 65 different union locals--who are standing up to a lawless state legislature that refuses to obey a court order to fully fund education. As I point out in …
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