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On Friday, Jose Banda, the superintendent of Seattle Public Schools, announced on the school district’s website that “There will be no discipline of any test administrator.”
Jose referred to the fact of several Seattle schools boycotting the Measures of Academic Progress ( MAP) test, holding the test did not follow the curriculum and procedures of Washington State, and thus provides “meaningless results” of a teachers’ performance.
The Seattle Public Schools had initially threatened to punish protesting teachers with a 10-day unpaid suspension, but since then the school district has revised its position. The official stance then changed to holding that only educators responsible for administering the test may be punished but not protesting teachers.
However, with Friday’s announcement the school district made it clear that test administrators would also not be punished.
The school district also announced that testing might be modified and reduced for some students and that only ninth-grade students who are found below grade-level in state reading examinations will have to attempt the reading portion of MAP.
The protest by the teachers had fuelled an intense debate on how “No Child Left Behind” is resulting in American children being left behind their counterparts from countries like Finland and Korea.
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The Seattle protest had received support from the biggest teachers’ unions in the country and across many schools.
Several large school districts in Florida and at least 500 school boards in Texas are demanding reduction of focus on standardized tests.
Across the Seattle public school district, a total of 459 parents opted out their children from the test and 133 students refused to take the test without parent involvement.
