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Earlier today, in a show of support for a group of Seattle teachers who are refusing to administer a standardized computer test to students, United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) urged its members to wear red and participate in what was called a “national day of action.” Watch a video of the teachers at Seattle’s Garfield High:

The test that’s got Seattle teachers so fired up is a computer-based standardized test called Measures of Academic Progress, or MAP. The teachers are boycotting the exam because they feel its measurements of student improvement are disconnected from state standards and classroom lessons, and that the test they consider unreliable is unfairly used to evaluate their job performances. They say they’re not opposed to other standardized tests — only this one.

The teachers’ fight against MAP echoes, at least in some ways, UTLA’s opposition to Academic Growth Over Time (AGT) student assessment program. Though Superintendent John Deasy lead the development of AGT with a plan to create a more comprehensive measure of student progress than a one-dimensional standardized test, the teachers union fought hard –and won– its battle to keep AGT scores out of individual teacher evaluations. Read more about the MAP testing boycott here.