Seattle 11th-grader Elijah Falk added it all up and decided: It made no sense to take the tests.

The Common Core-aligned Smarter Balanced exams, Elijah was told, were grueling — but Washington state didn't require this year's juniors to pass them to graduate from high school. In fact, the only thing compelling Elijah to take the tests this past spring was No Child Left Behind, the federal law. And, by federal standards, Elijah's school was all but certain to be labeled "failing" whether he passed the tests or not.

"If there's something you might risk failing but, regardless, you'll learn something or you'll be stronger because of it ... that's great," Elijah said in April as he organized a boycott of the tests at his school. "But if there's not a real benefit to passing or failing, then it's not worth it."

When testing day finally arrived in high schools across Washington, Elijah was one of more than 42,000 11th-graders — roughly half of the state's junior class — who did not show up for their exams. At least 22,000 of them formally refused to test. Many of the rest were AWOL.