In this article, teacher Sarah Chambers explains how and why her school organized a boycott of standardized testing. The article is excerpted from “More Than a Score,” edited by Seattle teacher Jesse Hagopian.

Sarah said the idea of boycotting struck her when she saw a student slumped over his desk during the test, pulling out his eyelashes.

She writes:

“In that moment, I thought to myself, “This over-testing is child abuse.” I cannot inflict this mental and emotional harm on one more student. That’s when the word “boycott” first flashed across my mind.

“This is the story of how an emotion became a movement in which the parents, students, and teachers of Maria Saucedo Scholastic Academy organized to reclaim the classroom and demand that students are more than a test score.

“Boycotts do not just happen—they are organized. The testing boycott at my school was strategically planned with a multifaceted approach that included teacher, parent and student support. Although the planning and implementation of this strategy occurred in a one-month span, the agitation around over-testing and employee power in the school organizational structure was built over a couple of years.”

Parents, teachers, and students can learn from the story of Saucedo Academy.

And consider buying “More than a Score: The Néw Uprising Against High-Stakes Testing ,” which has many excellent essays about resistance to corporate reform.