Huge Victory for Washington State’s Students: Exit Exam Requirement Struck Down!

Cue Pomp and Circumstance because many more Washington State high school seniors will be walking across the stage and handed a diploma! Beginning with the class of 2020, high school students are no longer required to pass the "Smarter Balance Assessment" high-stakes standardized test to graduate. They will still have to take at least one …

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Standardized Testing Battle in Seattle: Union votes for a complete moratorium on all standardized tests!

I am bursting with pride for my union. The Seattle Education Association voted at this week's Representative Assembly to support a resolution calling for a moratorium on all standardized testing!  This vote comes in a long line of organizing and opposition to high-stakes testing in Seattle. In 2013, the teachers at Garfield High School voted …

Continue reading Standardized Testing Battle in Seattle: Union votes for a complete moratorium on all standardized tests!

Common Core Testing During Ramadan: Hungry for an end to the Islamophobia & racism of high-stakes testing

The following statement was sent to me by Shannon Crowley, an elementary school teacher in the Seattle Public Schools.  She raises a disturbing reality of yet another way that high-stakes standardized testing is negatively impacting our students of color.  I will just preface her story by saying that Muslims all around the world began to …

Continue reading Common Core Testing During Ramadan: Hungry for an end to the Islamophobia & racism of high-stakes testing

Graduation Not Incarceration: No to exit exams in Washington!

Some 6,000 high school seniors in Washington are at risk of not graduating because they haven't passed one of the myriad of high-stakes tests, including the Smarter Balance Assessment Consortium (SBAC) Common Core aligned language arts and math exams, as well as a biology end-of-course exam. These students could have met all the other requirements, …

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Common Core Testing Meltdown in Seattle: Teachers speak out on technological breakdowns, loss of class time, & civil rights violations

Before the testing season began, educators in Seattle knew that because of the lack of proper preparations, IT support, technological upgrades, and training - and due to the outlandish number of tests administered this year - testing pandemonium would ensue. Last week the Social Equality Educators (SEE) put a call out for teachers to share their …

Continue reading Common Core Testing Meltdown in Seattle: Teachers speak out on technological breakdowns, loss of class time, & civil rights violations