Seattle Teacher Revolt: Measures of Academic Progress Are Useless

To show their refusal to administer the Measures of Academic Progress test, three Seattle, Wa. public schools--Garfield High School, Orca K-8 and Salmon Bay K-8 have joined educators and students elsewhere in protesting this test, they dub, useless and conducing to conflicts of interest.

Many administrators believe that the $525 billion public school system leaves American children lagging their counterparts in countries like Finland andSouth Korea.

"This MAP test is leading (us) on a journey toward failure. It's leading us on a journey of conflict of interest and ethics violations," notes Garfield High School teacher Jesse Hagopain, according to softpedia.com.

Yearly testing in reading and math for elementary school students required by former President George W. Bush's 2002 landmark testing law, known as "No Child Left Behind," exposed stark achievement gaps in many schools, mainly along racial and economic lines, and spurred interventions to help struggling kids, stated Reuters.

Sandy Kress, a former advisor to Bush on the law and lobbyist for Pearson, a company that publishes academic tests, said focusing too much on test scores alone will, in the end, cheat students out of the kind of quality education that sometimes can't be measured by standardized tests, according to Reuters.

"If it's all back to just grades ... a lot of people will have an easy time for about 10 years, (but later) our kids will suffer dramatically," Kress said, reported Reuters.

Reps at universities across the nation have expressed their support for the teachers fighting the MAP. MIT, NYU, the University of Massachusetts, the University of Texas at Austin and some Chicago Public Schools are among those concerned about how it may affect the students, according to softpedia.com.

Educators who did not give the test by February 28, the last day winter MAP test scores are valid, could face disciplinary action, said Clover Codd, a top official with the Seattle School District, according to Reuters.

"We hear their concerns, we want to work with them, but we need to do what's right for our children," Codd said. "There may be two rights here," stated by Reuters.