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 …

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From May Day to Testing Day: Puerto Rico’s Teachers Battle for the Schools Their Students Deserve

On May Day, thousands of Puerto Rican teachers, parents, and students launched strikes and boycotts to push back against austerity measures that would close nearly 300 schools, lay off 7,000 teachers, convert public schools into privatized charters, and cut public sector pensions. I spoke with Mercedes Martinez, President of Teachers Federation of Puerto Rico, about …

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Police Attack Protesting Puerto Rican Teachers: Solidarity Against Disaster Capitalist Schooling

Thousands of teachers have been striking and protesting for school funding around the U.S.—from West Virginia to Oklahoma to Kentucky and Arizona and beyond. But many people are unaware of the ongoing struggles of the Puerto Rican educators. At the end of last week, police pepper sprayed members of the Puerto Rican teachers union (FMPR) …

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Seattle’s Garfield High School Opt Out Movement Scores Huge Victory over “Smarter Balanced” Common Core testing!

What will happen at Garfield High School with Common Core testing? I have been asked this question by people all over the country as they learned that this would be the first year that Common Core testing would come to Washington State. All year, teachers at Seattle’s Garfield High School have debated whether to administer …

Continue reading Seattle’s Garfield High School Opt Out Movement Scores Huge Victory over “Smarter Balanced” Common Core testing!

New Seattle Test Boycott Erupts: Nathan Hale High School votes to refuse to administer a Common Core test

Today, I found out from my good friend Doug Edelstein that his school community decided to collectively refuse to administer the new Common Core test, the SBAC, to 11th graders. Doug teaches at, and graduated from, Nathan Hale (in fact, my step-dad was a classmate of his).  The Nathan Hale Senate--a body made up of the …

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