Category: Standardized Testing

Our Opt-Out Letter: “These standardized tests can’t measure our son”

On By I AM AN EDUCATORIn opt-out, Smarter Balanced Assessment, Standardized Testing, Uncategorized1 Comment

This is the opt-out letter we wrote for our son. I sent it to the principal of my son's middle school asking that he be dismissed from the Smarter Balanced test, explaining our reasoning, and attempting to build common cause in a struggle for a larger purpose for education. While this letter is deeply personal to me and describes a lot of the very specific reasons why my son won't be taking these tests, I encourage you to meditate on your own children's beautiful qualities and then write your own opt-out letter to your school principal.

#COVIDTestingNotStandardizedTesting: Schools Need #VaccinationsNotExaminations

On By I AM AN EDUCATORIn COVID-19, FairTest, opt-out, opt-out, Standardized Testing, UncategorizedLeave a comment

While corporate education reformers prattle on about a need for more high-stakes testing to evaluate “learning loss,” what students truly require is the redirection of the billions of dollars wasted on the testing-industrial complex toward supporting educators and students: to gain access to COVID-19 testing, contact tracing, and vaccinations, as well as psychologists, nurses, social workers, trauma counselors, after-school programs, restorative justice coordinators, and more.

Why as a Black high School teacher I’m endorsing Bernie Sanders: The campaign to “fix the hole in the soul of America.”

On By I AM AN EDUCATORIn Bernie Sanders, Education Funding, education justice, Standardized Testing1 Comment

I have spent my entire adult life as a teacher and organizer in support of educational justice, racial justice, and other movements for social justice—from building teacher’s union struggles to better fund our schools, to the antiwar movement, to Occupy Wall Street, to the struggle for marriage equality, to immigrant rights, the Black Lives Matter …

Continue reading Why as a Black high School teacher I’m endorsing Bernie Sanders: The campaign to “fix the hole in the soul of America.”

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

On By I AM AN EDUCATORIn exit exam, MAP test boycott, More Than a Score: The New Uprising Against High-Stakes Testing, opt-out, SBAC, Standardized Testing, Uncategorized2 Comments

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 …

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

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

On By I AM AN EDUCATORIn MAP test boycott, SBAC, Seattle Eduction Association, Social Equality Educators, social justice unionism, Standardized Testing, Testing Boycott, Uncategorized, Union15 Comments

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!