© Betty UdesenKris McBride, Garfield's academic dean and testing coordinator, at left, and Jesse Hagopian, Garfield history teacher and a leader of the school's historic test boycott.
Parents, students, and teachers all over the country have joined the revolt to liberate our kids from a test-obsessed education system.Life felt eerie for teachers at Seattle's Garfield High in the days following their unanimous declaration of rebellion last winter against standardized testing. Their historic press conference, held on a Thursday, had captured the attention of national TV and print media. But by midday Monday, they still hadn't heard a word from their own school district's leadership.
Then an email from Superintendent José Banda hit their in-boxes. Compared with a starker threat issued a week later, with warnings of 10-day unpaid suspensions, this note was softly worded. But its message was clear: a teacher boycott of the district's most-hated test - the MAP, short for Measures of Academic Progress - was intolerable.
Jittery teachers had little time to digest the implications before the lunch bell sounded, accompanied by an announcement over the intercom: a Florida teacher had ordered them a stack of hot pizzas, as a gesture of solidarity.
"It was a powerful moment," said history teacher Jesse Hagopian, a boycott leader. "That's when we realized this wasn't just a fight at Garfield; this was something going on across the nation. If we back down, we're not just backing away from a fight for us. It's something that educators all over see as their struggle too. I think a lot of teachers steeled their resolve, that we had to continue."
Parents, students, and teachers all over the country soon would join the "Education Spring" revolt. As the number of government-mandated tests multiplies, anger is mounting over wasted school hours, "teaching to the test," a shrinking focus on the arts, demoralized students, and perceptions that teachers are being unjustly blamed for deeply rooted socioeconomic problems.
"You're seeing a tremendous backlash," said Carol Burris, award-winning principal of South Side High School in New York City and an education blogger for
The Washington Post. "People are on overload. They are angry at the way data and testing are being used to disrupt education."