Seattle schools back down from standardized test after protests

By Eric M. Johnson

SEATTLE (Reuters) - The Seattle public school system, facing a rebellion that stoked the national protest movement over standardized testing in U.S. public schools, is backing away from the contentious multiple-choice exam for its upcoming school year.

Teachers, educators, and students at several Seattle schools staged a boycott in January against the computerized Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) test, saying it was not aligned with the state's curriculum and produces "meaningless results" upon which teachers' performances are evaluated.

The school system, which serves more than 45,000 students, had initially threatened protesting teachers with punishment, including a possible 10-day unpaid suspension, according to a memo obtained by Reuters. It later softened its stance, saying no teachers would be penalized.

"High schools can opt out for the next academic year but they have to show evidence of another way to assess and monitor students," Seattle Public Schools spokeswoman Lesley Rogers said on Tuesday, referring to the test which is currently required twice a year in Seattle.

The backlash fueled the bitter national fight over how best to improve U.S. public schools, which leave many American children lagging their counterparts in countries like Finland and South Korea.

The boycott had garnered support from labor unions and was mirrored in cities on both coasts, where students protested over state-required exams they must pass to graduate.

Elsewhere, more than 500 school boards in Texas - and several large school districts in Florida - have passed resolutions demanding a reduced focus on standardized tests.

"This is a very big step for creating some sanity in testing as opposed to this endless test fixation that has taken over America," Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, told Reuters.

Standardized tests have played an ever more prominent role in public schools over the past decade and, increasingly, they carry high stakes, such as factoring into teacher evaluations and deciding if a student can advance to the next grade or earn a high-school diploma.

To prepare students for those high-stakes exams, and to monitor their academic progress more closely, many school districts - like Seattle - give additional standardized tests throughout the year.

Even as he announced the move backing off the MAP test requirement for the next academic year, Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Jose Banda, cited a survey by the local teachers' union that showed a majority of members found the MAP effective in identifying at-risk students and in measuring growth.

"Using data is important in our work as educators," Banda wrote.

Nearly 600 students abstained from the test, not counting the spring testing cycle, which began on April 22, the district said.

(Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Paul Simao)

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Seattle schools back down from standardized test after protests

By Eric M. Johnson

SEATTLE (Reuters) - The Seattle public school system, facing a rebellion that stoked the national protest movement over standardized testing in U.S. public schools, is backing away from the contentious multiple-choice exam for its upcoming school year.

Teachers, educators, and students at several Seattle schools staged a boycott in January against the computerized Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) test, saying it was not aligned with the state's curriculum and produces "meaningless results" upon which teachers' performances are evaluated.

The school system, which serves more than 45,000 students, had initially threatened protesting teachers with punishment, including a possible 10-day unpaid suspension, according to a memo obtained by Reuters. It later softened its stance, saying no teachers would be penalized.

"High schools can opt out for the next academic year but they have to show evidence of another way to assess and monitor students," Seattle Public Schools spokeswoman Lesley Rogers said on Tuesday, referring to the test which is currently required twice a year in Seattle.

The backlash fueled the bitter national fight over how best to improve U.S. public schools, which leave many American children lagging their counterparts in countries like Finland and South Korea.

The boycott had garnered support from labor unions and was mirrored in cities on both coasts, where students protested over state-required exams they must pass to graduate.

Elsewhere, more than 500 school boards in Texas - and several large school districts in Florida - have passed resolutions demanding a reduced focus on standardized tests.

"This is a very big step for creating some sanity in testing as opposed to this endless test fixation that has taken over America," Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, told Reuters.

Standardized tests have played an ever more prominent role in public schools over the past decade and, increasingly, they carry high stakes, such as factoring into teacher evaluations and deciding if a student can advance to the next grade or earn a high-school diploma.

To prepare students for those high-stakes exams, and to monitor their academic progress more closely, many school districts - like Seattle - give additional standardized tests throughout the year.

Even as he announced the move backing off the MAP test requirement for the next academic year, Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Jose Banda, cited a survey by the local teachers' union that showed a majority of members found the MAP effective in identifying at-risk students and in measuring growth.

"Using data is important in our work as educators," Banda wrote.

Nearly 600 students abstained from the test, not counting the spring testing cycle, which began on April 22, the district said.

(Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Paul Simao)

View the original article here

Mexico arrests 4 leaders of teachers protests

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Mexican prosecutors say four leaders of violent teachers protests have been arrested on charges of sedition, terrorism, rioting and property damage.

The Attorney General's Office of the southern state of Guerrero says the four have been sent to federal prisons in other states.

The office said Friday that other arrest warrants are pending in the case of protests last month in which demonstrators blocked highways, battled police and trashed the offices of political parties.

The protests are being led by unionized teachers in Guerrero who oppose an educational reform law that will introduce teacher evaluation and reduce the unions' power in hiring decisions.

The teachers are demanding the law be changed, saying a simple test can't be allowed to determine teacher performance.

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Protests mark anniversary of Trayvon Martin's shooting death

SANFORD, Fla./NEW YORK (Reuters) - Demonstrators symbolically wearing hoodies gathered in New York and Florida on Tuesday to mark the anniversary of the shooting death of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin, reviving a national discussion on gun laws and racial profiling.

Actor Jamie Foxx joined Martin's parents and several hundred protesters for a candlelight vigil in New York City's Union Square, while a smaller crowd estimated at 110 to 125 met at a park in the Florida town where Martin died, vowing to continue to agitate for an end to racial discrimination.

"We want you know we love you and we won't leave you," Foxx told Martin's mother, Sybrina Fulton, in New York.

Neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman shot and killed Martin, 17, in the Orlando suburb of Sanford on February 26, 2012, and initially went free based on his claims of self defense. Then a national outcry forced the city's police chief to resign and the governor to appoint a special prosecutor.

Zimmerman now faces second-degree murder charges and a June trial. He has maintained his innocence, and supporters say he has been unfairly tainted as racist, noting the neighborhood had been hit by a wave of break-ins and that Zimmerman is of mixed race - his father is white and his mother Afro-Peruvian.

In Sanford, the case triggered deep emotions, and protesters staged a candlelight vigil and moment of silence at 7:15 p.m., the time Martin was killed, at Fort Mellon Park.

"There are no excuses for violence against our children. Let us take the tragedy of Trayvon's death and use it for good," said organizer Geri Hepburn, a white parent of a teenage son who became politically active as a result of the shooting.

The crowd was small compared to the thousands who filled the same park at the apex of public outrage of the killing last year, when the story dominated national news for weeks.

SYMBOLIC HOODIES

In New York, demonstrators recreated the "Million Hoodie March" of last year, when people wore hooded sweatshirts in the style worn by Martin the night of his death, when Zimmerman called police to report a suspicious looking person in his gated neighborhood and defied a police admonishment not to follow him.

Martin was on his way home to the house of his father's girlfriend, and the hoodie became a symbol of what critics considered racial profiling.

"We are all Trayvon Martin," demonstrators chanted at Tuesday's vigil.

James Flood, 33, a black bartender and screenwriter, said he was constantly the victim of racial profiling and wanted better for his 11-year-old son.

"My skin color cannot change no matter how much money I make. I still get profiled," Flood said. "It has to stop."

Zimmerman, 29, who was released on bail, remained out of sight on the anniversary.

Thrust into the national spotlight, Martin's grieving parents, Fulton and father Tracy Martin, have become national advocates for stricter gun control laws and critics of Florida's Stand Your Ground law.

The law, passed in 2005, allows people to use lethal force in self defense if they are in fear of serious bodily harm. More than 20 states have since passed similar laws.

Police cited that law in initially declining to arrest Zimmerman, which sparked celebrity protests and popular demonstrations across the country, turning the case into international story.

Zimmerman's attorney plans to invoke the Stand Your Ground law at an April 29 hearing at which a Florida judge could determine if the law applied to Zimmerman, possibly granting him immunity and averting a criminal trial.

(Writing by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Steve Orlofsky and Cynthia Osterman)

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