The Southwest Organizing Project followed Saul Alinsky one of his tradition of organizing which was identifying a controversial issue that led people compelled to act upon (Minkler, 2012, P.60). This issue that was identified was that standardized testing is not accurately assessing student knowledge and skills. They were also able to identify that this test was cultural bias due to its viewpoints(New Mexico Center On Law And Poverty, 2018). This comment idea led many students, parents, educators, and community members to come together to protest against standardized testing. One thing that made this protest successful is that the students are the ones who raised their concerns first (Fns News, 2015). Many of the students through New Mexico who walked out were not a part of an organization that helped them walk out, they were just students who felt compelled to take action. SWOP was just a resource student could use to help them further their moment, which some students took advantage of. Alinsky suggested organizations should listen to the community before acting on an issue, which SWOP was able to do  (Minkler, 2012, P.60). This movement was successful because the people and organizations listened to each other.

The Southwest Organizing Project helped empower students to take control over their education just like Ella Baker did with the youth in her community. In the article called Ella Baker and the Origins of “Participatory Democracy,” Muller talks about Baker using the method of participatory democracy; which consists of getting people involved, minimizing hierarchy, and calling for direct action (Muller, 2004, P.80). The Southwest Organizing Project found students who were interested in speaking up and taking action. From there the students were able to motivate others and stage a walkout in many schools in New Mexico. Some of the schools that participated in the walkout came from Santa Fe High and Capital High schools, which have a small number of enrolled Native students. Muller states that Ella believes that “people have the right to participate in the decisions that affect their lives,” which is a statement that SWOP follows (Muller, 2004, P.84). Students do not have the ability to make the decision on which test the state handout; however, they can speak up and voice their opinions to the people who do make those decisions. This awareness helped shine a light on the bias that the state standardized test contributes to, which led to the governor making changes on this test  (Project, 2016). 

Image #1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Mexico

Image #2: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/21395152/ella-baker-activist-joe-biden-speech-dncc