Anchor Lead:
Academically, the majority of poor and minority students come in last. Public school officials admit we've continued to tolerate this inequity. The new federal law known as "No Child Left Behind" mandates tough penalties for schools that FAIL to bring EVERYONE up to standards. The law is providing states more money. But it's also significantly increasing the Federal Government's roll in our public schools. In the first of our two-part series on education reform and federal control, KPLU's Jennifer Niessen looks at how Washington State is being impacted.

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JN: The massive 670 page law is a reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The long standing legislation was first passed in 1965 as a part of the "War on Poverty". It provides federal dollars targeted to improve the education of poor and minority students. Despite good intentions, a significant academic achievement gap still remains.

HICKOK: We in this country have allowed for far too long for mediocrity to prevail in far too many places.

JN: Doctor Eugene Hickok is second in command at the US Department of Education and is overseeing the implementation of the law. He believes No Child Left Behind is the beginning of a cultural shift that will make public education more accountable by clearly identifying schools that are struggling.

HICKOK: Failure should be impossible to ignore, and when schools aren't working things have to happen to change the way the things are done.

JN: Under the federal law, children in failing schools can be transferred to better performing public schools. Some schools are required to pay for tutoring. This can include private companies such as the Sylvan Learning Center.

Dr. Eugene Hickok. Picture courtesy USDE Website.

Hickok: Those are two options in federal policy that never existed before. JN: Testing is what determines whether a school isn't performing well. The No Child Left Behind Act MANDATES that states administer their own tests to students every year from the third grade through the eighth, and once in high school. The test used here is the "Washington Assessment of Student Learning Exam," also known as the WASL. Mary Alice Heuchele, with the State Office of Public Instruction, says because of the new law, the WASL results are now being broken down in great detail. HEUCHELE: All of the data that is collected by our state assessments must be disaggregated by every single ethnic minority group, by the poverty, by special education and by our English language learners.

JN: Dr. Hickok says this detailed approach will act like a fisherman's net, scooping up the kids who are still struggling and bringing them up to the surface.

HICKOK: When you disaggregate the test scores based on various socio-economic groups you'll find perhaps, African-American and Hispanics in that school experiencing huge achieving gaps. You wouldn't know that if you wouldn't disaggregate the data. So now with this new law it makes it more difficult to hide that problem.

JN: This means a school that appears to be excellent on the surface could be deemed "failing" if ALL students aren't able to make the same amount of progress in the tests year after year. This could be a problem for Washington, which has one of the most difficult assessments in the country.

Right now under the old federal standards the state has 58 failing schools. The Aki Karouse Middle School in Seattle's Rainier Valley is one of them.

Kerry Rotin, a music teacher at the school, is getting her novice violin players ready for a holiday concert. She doesn't want the school's hard work to go unrecognized under the federal government's new scrutiny.

ROTIN: You look at the cold hard numbers, and the funding, I'm concerned that we will wind up suffering under that. Where, if you look at the sheer work of folks like Ms. Caldwell, our principal, and just our staff, who is putting in huge, heroic steps, and the kids themselves, who have been working like mad just to catch up, we're making progress.

JN: The US Department of education wants quick results. But the State is still trying to figure out exactly how it will measure yearly progress.

The president of the State Teachers Union, Charles Hasse, fears No Child Left Behind will punish states, like Washington, that have challenging standards in place.

HASSE: Many states have been working hard for school improvement, North Carolina is a good example. Under this new federal law, fully 90 percent of the schools in North Carolina would be failing. That's an example of why we're saying now that the ultimate goal is to have schools fail.

JN: The ultimate goal is to have all students performing at state standards 12 years from now. The schools that leave even one group of children behind could wind up facing a number of tough penalties. These include state takeover, cuts in funding, replacing the school with a charter school, or turning things over to a for-profit company like "Edison" which currently operates more than 150 public schools from California to New York.

Critics of No Child Left Behind say the only way for Washington to escape the legislation's potential stranglehold is for the state to lower its standards, thereby making it easier for students to pass tests. Dr. Eugene Hickok says that would cheat a lot of kids.

HICKOK: If anyone wants to lower their standards so that once they have fewer schools that would not make progress under federal law. That to me, I would argue reprehensible. JN: Terry Bergeson who heads up Washington's Office of Public Instruction says that isn't going to happen here. However she is proposing changes to the high stake WASL exam taken by 10th graders. Students must pass this test in order to graduate in 2008. Bergeson wants students to have four shots at the test, and if they don't pass it after that, she wants an alternative assessment to be available. Regardless of what appears to be a softening of the state's rigorous standards Bergeson, strongly supports the new federal law's intent.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Terry Bergeson. Picture courtesy OSPI.

BERGESON: The over-riding thing that is so positive to me is the underlying belief that poor children, immigrant children, ethnic minority kids, that the achievement gap we have tolerated in this country for so long is terrible. And we have to eliminate it.

JN: But for that to happen, schools can't do it alone. Bergeson says deeply held prejudices need to be confronted.

BERGESON: It's the racism of our society, it's the expectations we have of our poor kids, somehow their brains are damaged because their parents don't have money in their pockets. It's just wrong and it's always been wrong.

JN: When it comes to the basic logistics of No Child Left Behind, Bergeson is worried about how the law will mesh with the state's reform efforts. The high cost of more testing is another huge concern.

A spreadsheet illustrates the financial impact additional testing will have on the state. Even though the feds are providing more money, Bergeson says it's not enough.

BERGESON: The difference between what they're giving us and what it's gonna cost us, based on the track record we've had over the last several years, will be over 10-million dollars in three years.

JN: For a state that's facing a multi billion-dollar deficit, the picture isn't pretty. But if Washington doesn't comply, it's at risk of losing more than 700-million dollars from the federal government.

Only Vermont has considered the idea of turning down these federal funds so it wouldn't have to bother with the law. States are still digesting the full weight of the legislation's pros and cons.

One benefit Washington is already reaping is new funding that's being used to launch a statewide student literacy program headed up by a well respected expert in that field. Nationally, the legislation also includes a 300 million dollar pot of money for the planning and design of Charter schools...a proposal that was voted down by Washington voters. Some wonder if this will prompt the issue to rise up again.

Funding aside, The No Child Left Behind Act will force educators, parents and politicians to re-examine the word "failing"...how it's defined...and what separates a failing school from a successful one.

Jennifer Niessen, KPLU News, Seattle

For more information, click the links below.

Federal Government websites on the No Child Left Behind Law
www.ed.gov/legislation/ESEA02/
www.nclb.gov/

Illinois State Board of Education website on the No Child Left Behind Law
www.isbe.state.il.us/nclb/htmls/highlights.htm

The Washington Education Association
www.wa.nea.org

The Center for Education Reform
edreform.com/news/esea.htm

The White House "No Child Left Behind" fact Sheet
www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/01/20020108.html

National Science teachers Association
www.nsta.org/main/news/stories/nsta_story.php?news_story_ID=47257