The Surprising Things Seattle Teachers Won for Students by Striking

Author:  Valerie Strauss

Friday, September 25, 2015   Washington Post

Seattle teachers went on strike for a week this month with a list of goals for a new contract. By the time the strike officially ended this week, teachers had won some of the usual stuff of contract negotiations — for example, the first cost-of-living raises in six years — but also less standard objectives.

For one thing, teachers demanded, and won, guaranteed daily recess for all elementary school students — 30 minutes each day. In an era when recess for many students has become limited or non-existent despite the known benefits of physical activity, this is a big deal, and something parents had sought.

What’s more, the union and school officials agreed to create committees at 30 schools to look at equity issues, including disciplinary measures that disproportionately affect minorities. Several days after the end of the strike, the Seattle School Board voted for a one-year ban on out-of-school suspensions of elementary students who commit specific nonviolent offenses, and called for a plan that could eliminate all elementary school suspensions.

Seattle Teachers Strike- A success for Teachers and Students

Jeff Bryant

Teachers unions are routinely vilified by pundits and politicians on the right and left these days. So when schoolteachers in Seattle began the school year by going on strike, the editorial board of The Seattle Timeswas quick to accuse the teachers of “demanding too much.”

The editors called the strike “illegal,” “disruptive,” and “a symbol of excess for those who oppose more school spending.”

What seemed to bother this august body most was that teachers’ demands would “have a negative effect on broader efforts to reform the state education system.”

Now that a tentative settlement is in place (to be approved by the teachers on Sunday), and it appears teachers have been victorious in getting most of their demands met, it’s apparent what teachers were fighting for were issues that are in the best interests of their students.

“It’s a win for public education in many ways,” says Jesse Hagopian, a prominent spokesperson for the striking teachers. In a phone conversation, Hagopian – a Garfield High School teacher, editor of the book More Than a Score: The New Uprising Against High-Stakes Testing, and recipient of the 2013 “Secondary School Teacher of Year” award – tells me in a phone conversation, “For the first time, our union was able to make social justice the center of the debate. We took a huge step forward.”

Not Just for Better Pay: Seattle Teachers Vote to Strike for Social Justice

Seattle Teachers win victory over standardized tests

National Day of Action to Support Seattle Teachers' Test Boycott

“We demand quality assessment!”

Wear Red on Wed for Ed!  Scrap the MAP!

*Join the event on Facebook!*

Click here for a list of events

Supporters will hold meetings, press conferences, rallies, take photos, and wear red to show support

Contact: scrapthemap@yahoo.com

For more info, visit:
http://scrapthemap.wordpress.com/

What: Educators, Students, Parents and supporters of Public Education nation-wide will take action in support of Garfield High School teachers and all teachers in Seattle Public Schools refusing to administer the MAP test.

Teachers at Garfield High School and other Seattle Public Schools have gained national attention and support for their stand against the Measure of Academic Progress, for its invalidity, waste of time and resources and its scandalous arrival to Seattle.  We call on supporters of public education nationwide to participate in actions in their locale to show their support for our effort to Scrap the MAP.  Supporters will hold meetings, rallies, take photos, and wear red to show support on February 6^th. 

Teacher boycott of standardized tests spreads

Teacher boycott of standardized test in Seattle spreads Valerie Strauss January 26, 2013 The Washington Post   A boycott of Washington state’s mandated standardized test by teachers at a Seattle school is spreading to other schools and winning support across the country, including from the two largest teachers’ unions, parents, students, researchers and educators.     , ,     A boycott of Washington state’s mandated standardized test by teachers at a Seattle school is spreading to other schools and winning support across the country, including from the two largest teachers’ unions, parents, students, researchers and educators. The decision by teachers at Garfield High School to boycott the state’s Measures of Academy Progress because, they say, the exams don’t evaluate learning and are a waste of time is fueling a growing debate about the misuse of standardized tests in public education.