Pat Hunter, a principal at Maple Elementary in Seattle, said she supports using student-achievement results to guide instruction and as a "small piece" of the overall evaluation.

WSJ: Seattle Teachers Protest Exams

Matt Carter, a teacher at Orca K-8 School in Seattle, has joined in the boycott because he thinks the MAP exam wastes his student's time and does not help guide his teaching.

WSJ: Seattle Teachers Protest Exams

The guide's league table is compiled using a number of criteria including student satisfaction, research quality, academic peer review, entrance qualifications held by new students, degree results achieved, drop-out rates and graduate employment levels.

BBC: University of Bath ranked third in Sunday Times guide