Anchor Lead:
States are predicting once the No Child Left Behind Act goes into full effect, the majority of public schools around he country will be deemed failures.
In Washington, many of the schools that are failing according to the federal government are in the most remote corners of the state.
In the second part of our series on Education Reform and Federal Control KPLU's Jennifer Niessen visits the Quinault Lake School District on the Olympic Peninsula.

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JN: Driving along Route 101, the evergreen trees are so tall they make you feel as though you've shrunk in size. Then they peal away to acres of clear cut...doted with tree stumps. This patchwork of the Olympic National Forest and logging land is what escorts you to the Quinault Lake School District.

Majestic Cedars on the Olympic Peninsula

The entire district, kindergarten though 12th grade, is under one roof housing 272 students. It's the modern equivalent of the one room school house. According to the federal government, based on WASL test scores, Quinault Lake is failing. The label "failing" is relatively new to the school, and to the surrounding town. Life here used to be better. Beth Deneker is the school's co-principal. DENEKER: The biggest change started with our loss of our economy. This was a timber driven economy, where most of the wages were family level wages, where father could go out and work, mom stayed at home or could help out in the school...Once the timber was taken away by the federal government we didn't have those jobs. JN: In the late 1980's and early 90's families moved away to pursue work. What's left are mostly minimum waged jobs in the service industry at some of the lodges surrounding Lake Quinault. DENEKER: When that change happens, the emphasis on education isn't as strong. Their emphasis in on survival.

JN: Under No Child Left Behind, the "school district's" survival could be at stake. If students fail to make progress over four consecutive years on the WASL, Quinault Lake could eventually be taken over by the state or turned over to a for profit company.

The legislation lets students at Quinault Lake transfer to better performing schools. But that won't work, because the nearest better performing school is an 80 mile round trip. Students can also hire professional tutors. The only problem is, there aren't any around. This means students must rely on on-line distance learning.

JONES: I've been a small schools superintendent for a lot of years. I never seem to be amazed by what the federal government decides to put on us. They're out of touch. They really are.

JN: John Jones is the district's "co"-superintendent. His job-shared title is a reflection of his biggest concern about No Child Left Behind...which is finding and hiring staff. He agreed to come out of retirement to share the responsibilities of the job. The person who had the position before commuted five hours from Bellingham. Jones expects the challenge of finding people willing to work in such a remote area to deepen with the new federal legislation. In about 4 years, every teacher in a public school classroom must be certified in each subject they're instructing.

Washington State's Olympic Penisula, the yellow arrow points to Quinault Lake

The No Child Left Behind Act says they need to be degreed in their area that they're teaching and that's going to hamper us even more. That's something that the not only the feds need to look at, but the state needs to look at. Who does that fall back on? Who owns the constitutional obligation to provide that?

Jones says trying to fill empty positions is difficult and disheartening.

JONES: For example, we were trying to fill and 8th grade block position...language arts, reading, math. We had one applicant for the position. One.

Holly Nelson teaches 4th grade. She grew up here and went to school at Quinault Lake when times were good. She wants to give her students the tools to carve out a better life.

NELSON: It's really my hope to instill hope in these children. Right now they're hopeless. And what I really mean by that is they don't have goals. Many of them don't have dreams. They don't know what the world can offer them.

Nelson says it's not just the kids' futures that are at stake, it's the entire community.

NELSON: Quinault's not a bad place, it's a wonderful place. I came back but we need to think of our community in 20 years. What are we going to need, what type of people are we going to need to make this a thriving community one more time...just hopes. Uh.

JN: Quinault Lake began trying to turn things around well before the No Child Left Behind legislation passed.

Sue Cohn is a mentor from the State's office of public Instruction.

COHN: If our work has not impacted what you are doing in the classroom then we need to question how it is we are doing this and if we're doing what we ought to be doing.

JN: This is one of the many meetings she has with Quinault Lake's Staff.

She's an experienced educator who has made a three-year commitment to work with the district. Her goals are align the district with state standards and to boost lagging WASL test scores. Everything from new, more challenging curricula to new teaching methods and better communication skills is a part of the district's evolving makeover under Cohn's guidance.

Quinault Lake, WA

She sees the small student body as a great asset and says there's no reason to loose a child. COHN: We have them from kindergarten through 12th. We're all in one building together. So one of the blessings I think is we have the ability to really follow a student's growth over time ...that doesn't come in a big school setting. It just doesn't.

JN: Despite a year of hard work on everyone's part, last Spring's WASL test scores were disappointing. They actually went down.

But success isn't always be measured by the results of a test. Students are noticing the school turning a corner for the better.

Sixteen-year-old Cindy Gage explains what her teachers were like not too long ago.

GAGE: It's not like they told you you sucked or anything, but they kind of did in a way. They ignored everything good you'd do, and they'd just be like, "you screwed up on this" just like yelling at you about it. It didn't help me to do better. It was just like, well they don't care about anything good I do, so I didn't care as much.

JN: Gage says those negative attitudes are going away.

GAGE: Now they're more...if you screw up on something they tell you what you did good, but you need to work on this. I'm a super sensitive person when it comes to things like that so that's really important for me.

JN: Educators say one of the frustrating things about federal and state reform is that subtle progress like this is important, but not given any credit in a system so reliant on testing. Another bright spot the district hopes will lay a solid base for learning is a new preschool. Quinault Lake has never had one before.

Now, students can get a jump on their ABC's...counting and learning the difference between the colors blue and green.

Vicki Shepard is one of the pre-school's teaching aids.

SHEPARD: I wish they had done it years ago. It's a great program. It gets them used to socializing and being with other kids. I'm amazed at how quite it is when you get 20 kids together. These guys are pretty good. I'm amazed.

JN: She and everyone else here are banking on these little tykes to keep the community afloat. They can't afford to leave any of them behind, because they are the town's future. Shepard and the rest of the staff say they have the will they need to meet the standards set by the No Child Left behind act.

Time is the only thing working against them.

Jennifer Niessen KPLU News, Quinault, Washington.

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