Books
New Book Challenges Schools’ ‘High Stakes Testing’
By Donovan Smith
Special To The Skanner
News
J
esse Hagopian boasts a
lot of titles, but at the
core he is an educator.
Hagopian is a teacher at
Garfield High School in the
rapidly gentrifying Central
District in Seattle.
He recently released his
first book, “More than A
Score: A New Uprising
Against High Stakes Test-
ing,” which analyzes the
history of standardized test-
ing in America and its
close-ties to institutional
racism in the country.
The Skanner News’ Dono-
van M. Smith spoke with
Hagopian after an event he
organized last week with
the 1968 Games in Mexico
— to discuss his book.
The Skanner News: Give
our readers a general outline
of what your role in Seat-
tle’s education system has
been.
Jesse Hagopian: I teach
here at Garfield High
School and I’m co-advisor
to the Black Student Union
here. And two years ago our
faculty voted unanimously
to refuse to give a standard-
ized test Measures of
Academic Progress [also
known as] the MAP—we
thought it was harmful to
our kids. They threatened
all the teachers who refused
with a 10 day suspension
without pay. The teachers
didn’t back down, and
in Seattle. And that move-
ment helped to ignite a
movement around the coun-
try where more and more
teachers were refusing to
give the test; students are
walking out in mass like in
Colorado—they had the
largest walkout in probably
U.S. history against high
stakes tests recently; and
parents are opting their kids
out of the test, and it’s
become the largest move-
ment against high stakes
testing in U.S. history. So
my book is a chronical of
that movement. It has an
introduction by former
Assistant Secretary of Edu-
cation Diane Ravitch. It
also has the stories of the
parents who opted their kids
out—why they did it. The
There’s a recent study from Boston University
which reveals that the number one outcome of
attaching high stakes to high school graduation
is increased incarceration rates
Olympic legend John Car-
los — who famously raised
his fist for “Black Power” at
instead the district had to
cancel the test, and it’s now
gone from the high schools
stories of the kids who led
walkouts refusing to take
the tests and stories of
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
Teacher-activist Jesse Hagopian ties education reform to #BlackLivesMatter movement
John Carlos, 1968 Olympic medalist (in back) and writer Dave Zirin (on right)
pose with the Garfield High School Black Student Union and their advisor Jesse
Hagopian (second from left) before ‘Black Power to #BlackLivesMatter: A
Forum with 1968 Olympic Medalist John Carlos,’ hosted by the Garfield High
School BSU at the Quincy Jones Auditorium, Jan. 22. Speakers focused on the
relationship between events in 1968, the current #BlackLivesMatter movement,
and the significance of youth involvement in both.
teachers from around coun-
try refusing to give it. So
it’s a book that’s a testament
to the resistance to this cor-
porate education reform and
this multi-billion dollar test-
ing industry that’s trying to
reduce the intellectual
process of teaching and
learning to a single number.
And then they can use that
number to label our schools
‘failing’ so they can close
them, so they can deny stu-
dents graduation so they can
bust up the teacher’s union
and fire teachers. I’m just
glad that this book can be
part of that resistance to this
corporate reform.
TSN: The #BlackLives-
Matter movement is kind of
new. Does your in?
Hagopian: I think it real-
ly does, because people
should know the origins of
high stake testing. Where
does standardized come
See BOOK on page 11
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Page 8 The Portland and Seattle Skanner January 28, 2015