Students should be in the classroom

As a former Garfield High School Bulldog, I applaud the Garfield faculty’s decision to stop administering the MAP tests [“Garfield High teachers drop required test,” NWFriday, Jan. 11].

Students are pulled out of class three times a year for these exams, taking up library computers from other teachers and wasting student time. The tests themselves were implemented by the late Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson, who was on the testing organization’s board when she brought them to Seattle.

Pupils spend enough time with standardized tests already — let them spend more time with teachers.

--Grant Bronsdon, Seattle

Test is not a worthy assessment

Now that the teachers at Ballard High School have joined with their colleagues at Garfield in saying no to the mindless, worthless MAP tests, I hope the district is willing to take their concerns seriously. There is absolutely no research that shows that using these tests leads to a better education for the students, and much research that shows that this intense use of testing actually interferes with teaching and learning.

Teachers have gone along with the testing policy for one reason: fear. They are afraid of being disciplined for speaking the truth, and that has allowed this harmful policy to continue. Publishers, politicians, and private-school advocates love the tests because they bring them big money and political cover, but none of them are educators and none of them are actually in the schools with the kids. Being rich does not make you an expert on education; it just allows you to buy elections.

The teachers are all for accountability and good assessment; the MAP offers neither. Stand with them, and for our children.

--Doug Selwyn (former Seattle schoolteacher), Plattsburgh, N.Y.