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Anchor Lead: What if passing all of your classes in high school wasn't enough to get a diploma? That's what today's ninth graders face. They're the first class to have the extra task of doing well on the state's WASL exam in order to graduate in 2008. But as the deadline approaches, schools are discovering thousands of students are far behind in reading and math.

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Education reform has been underway in Washington state for more than ten years with a heavy emphasis on reading, writing and math…the main subjects tested on the WASL. Despite this, dozens of students are still entering Ballard High School in Seattle with a 3rd or 4th grade reading level.

Susan Waterworth is their reading teacher.

Waterworth: How in earth did we let these kids get into high school without learning how to read?

That's the question high schools all over the state are asking as they work to prepare the class of 2008 for the WASL exam. Waterworth's first encounter with high school students who couldn't read was in Anacortes, where she taught Language Arts.

Waterworth: I'm giving reading and assignments and getting this blank thing happening. And no work coming in and I'm looking for some really complicated reasons. Oh there's some really terrible thing at home, or whatever. And then I'm finally realizing it's not that they won't do their work, it's that they can't do their work.

Waterworth now runs the Read Right class at Ballard. It teaches more than 50 students at a time how to read, who for various reasons didn't master the skill in elementary school and have been masking their problem for years. In this special class students often start out with books that have just a few sentences on the page while listening to audiotapes to help guide them along.

Here, a student is reading a story out loud about surfing in Hawaii.

Waterworth: We are focusing on the author's meaning. If they read to us and they make a mistake, we say do it again. Asking them to look at the whole meaning of the story.

Under the pressure of state reforms and the federal No Child Left Behind law, schools are being forced to confront the fact there are thousands of students that have made it pretty far through the system who are illiterate and don't know basic math. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Terry Bergeson estimates 30 percent of today's ninth graders are not likely to graduate in 2008 if they don't get intense help now.

Bergeson: They need a respectful, caring educator to say, "You know what? I'm sorry we didn't figure this out before, but we're figuring it out now." And they are going to need intensive intervention.

This is what teachers at Auburn Senior High School are trying to do. They go over the 7th grade WASL scores of incoming students to see where kids are behind. If they didn't do well in math, they make up for lost time in a basic math class. The same goes for reading. For those who need more focused attention, there's a Ninth Grade Academy. It has small classes and kids have extra time with teachers. 15-year-old Thadious is in the academy. The fact that getting his high school diploma hinges on passing the WASL is still sinking in.

Thadious: "There's a lot of high expectations for us to graduate. We have to pass the WASL. I mean I don't know if I'm gonna pass you know? Cause I didn't find out till the end of my 8th grade year that we were supposed to pass the WASL in tenth grade. I wish they would have told us a couple of years back and had it done and ready to go."

State Superintendent Terry Bergeson says it would be a waste of time blaming elementary and middle schools for letting these students get by. She says instead, the looming deadline of 2008 is forcing high schools to tap their colleagues in middle and elementary schools for help.

Bergeson: "At Eisenhower High School in Yakima they have at least two second grade reading coaches who changed their jobs and went to Eisenhower to teach. They are teaching kids who are 15, 16 years old, who are reading at the primary grade level. And when the kids have no prayer of accessing that textbook, what is their school day like? Well, now we are getting serious about doing something about it."

At Ballard in Seattle, Read Right teacher Susan Waterworth is going to start tracking how her students do on the WASL. She's already encouraged by what she's hearing.

Waterworth: "Miss Waterworth, I got through the whole test this time. I've never done that before." "Miss Waterworth, I could actually understand the questions." For kids to come into your room excited about a test…oh, this is rare. So that was very gratifying"

This year every high school in Washington state will have to identify ninth grade students who are lagging behind and get them the help they need. It's required by a new state law. These plans will eventually have to be crafted for elementary and middle school students. A database is being set up so schools can easily identify struggling students by seeing how they perform on the WASL year to year.

The cost to put everything into action is more than $100 million dollars. Schools say they're are willing to try but are skeptical if they'll ever see the money needed to do the work.

Kirsten Kendrick, KPLU NEWS.