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The boss's husband STICKS IT TO THE MAN!!

Teacher shuns WASL, earns suspension -- and praise

A Seattle teacher's refusal to give the WASL has earned him a nine-day, unpaid suspension from his job -- and the admiration of WASL opponents around the state.

Carl Chew, a sixth-grade science teacher at Eckstein Middle School, said he knew he could be fired for insubordination for refusing to administer the annual standardized tests, which are used to gauge public-school students' academic performance and show progress toward meeting federal reading and math goals.

Still, Chew said his moral and ethical objections to the Washington Assessment of Student Learning have grown in recent years, and he decided that he finally had to take a stand.

"Each year I would give the WASL, and I would promise myself I would never do it again," he said. "I decided, 'I'm not going to wimp out this time.' "

Last week, he typed a note of explanation to his colleagues, met with school administrators and was temporarily reassigned to work in the district's Science Materials Center, preparing classroom science kits. Though he was later suspended, Chew, 60, said his decision not to give the WASL -- a first for a teacher in Washington -- was worth it.

"I know for some teachers it's not an option," he said. "But it's going to take a lot of different people to stand up and say no before something really changes."