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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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 …

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Ethnic Studies In Seattle: A look inside the classrooms of antiracist educators

The Seattle Public Schools recently wrote the below article about the powerful pedagogy of local educators who are piloting a new Ethnic Studies program.  The Ethnic Studies initiative in the Seattle Public Schools is the result of an on going movement that was birthed from the Black Lives Matter At School action last school year.  …

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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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