It鈥檚 a bright spring day at tiny Rail Road Flat Elementary School, but teacher Randall Youngblood鈥檚 mood hasn鈥檛 yet lightened. The trouble had flared up the previous week when he鈥檇 left his class of 4th, 5th, and 6th graders in the hands of a substitute. Or, to hear him tell it, the other way around.
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鈥淭hey savaged him,鈥� the teacher sighs, leaning on his desk at the back of his small portable classroom. 鈥淚t was brutal.鈥� From accounts he鈥檚 been able to piece together, half the class started the day being generally nasty to one another, and tensions built steadily from there, culminating in a fistfight between two 5th graders and a loud curse that got a student sent home for the day. 鈥淭his is a very dysfunctional group when they get any leeway whatsoever,鈥� he says.
It doesn鈥檛 sound like the same group of kids who have helped make the 100-student public school, tucked into an almost invisibly small town in northern California鈥檚 Sierra Nevada foothills, one of the highest-achieving schools in the state.
鈥淢r. Youngblood?鈥� Sierra Crum, a blond 5th grade girl, springs up to his desk, apparently with a question about the current class assignment to list similes for several words on the board.
鈥渊别蝉?鈥�
鈥淐an I use your name for 鈥榠rritated鈥� ?鈥�
Youngblood makes a little snort of amusement and assent, chuckling and shaking his head to himself as the girl spins back to her desk, a mischievous grin playing on her lips. This is what he loves about his students鈥攖heir energy and spirit. It鈥檚 what has helped make Rail Road Flat Elementary, despite its size, poverty, and social isolation, a state nominee last year for 鈥渘ational model of excellence鈥� status, based on the school鈥檚 recent history of high standardized test scores.
But as becomes apparent in a lapse like the previous week鈥檚, it鈥檚 only strong discipline that keeps that energy channeled. Discipline and the kind of teach-to-the-test learning that鈥檚 become endemic in the era of No Child Left Behind. Such rote learning often gets frowned upon in the schools of better-educated, more affluent communities. Here, though, in a 549-person town named for a type of mule-drawn rail-and-mining-cart arrangement that鈥檚 been obsolete for a hundred years, 鈥渨hatever works鈥� is clearly working.
Hunched over her desk in Youngblood鈥檚 half of a portable trailer, a girl is steadily filling a page with penciled printing. Letter after letter, line after line, she writes the same sentence over and over again: 鈥淚 will keep my hands to myself.鈥�
Nearby, a boy is doing the same thing, though with wobblier handwriting: 鈥淚t is in my best interest to obey school rules.鈥�
Making sure they do, their teacher is forever on the move, prodding here, scolding there. Patrolling the room while explaining assignments to his 6th graders, he shoots a preemptive look at the 5th graders in the opposite corner who look like they might be getting ready to misbehave. After 21 years here, he knows how to keep his kids continuously on task.
鈥淏rad, you do not need to verbalize every thought!鈥� Youngblood reprimands a student.
鈥淣o,鈥� he says flatly to another child鈥檚 request that the in-class assignment be modified.
鈥淪amantha, save it!鈥� he barks to a little girl.
鈥淚 think a lot of these kids are coming in without the discipline that kids with stable, two-parent households have,鈥� he says by way of explaining his firm hand in the classroom. Not that he鈥檚 unsympathetic. The 47-year-old teacher has known nearly all the kids since they were in kindergarten鈥攊ncluding what kind of challenges they face at home鈥攂ut he鈥檚 found that coddling isn鈥檛 an option. 鈥淭here is a need for structure,鈥� Youngblood explains. 鈥淚f I was teaching in another socioeconomic group, it might be different.鈥�
Rail Road Flat was a thriving town a century and a half ago, but when gold stopped coming out of the ground in bulk, most moved on. Its current residents live among idyllic surroundings鈥攕ecluded hillsides splotched with open meadows and forests of evergreen and broad-leaf鈥攂ut life is still hard here. The unemployment level is above 40 percent, and what work there is, mostly retail and service- sector jobs, tends to be nearly an hour鈥檚 drive from town. About 19 percent of the town鈥檚 residents live below the poverty line. Only 6 percent hold post-secondary degrees, making economic mobility difficult.
Against such a backdrop, the children鈥檚 standout academic performance is that much harder to figure. Kimberly Edwards, a consultant and NCLB liaison at the California Department of Education, couldn鈥檛 quite believe the standardized-test numbers the school was racking up.
鈥淲hat impresses me is the fact that ... 60 percent [of students qualify for] free and reduced-price lunches,鈥� she says. David Day, also a CDE consultant, agrees. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e very good,鈥� he notes. 鈥淸But] I鈥檓 not sure that what you can learn from this school, you can learn from the numbers.鈥�
The secret, if there is one, is only to be found at the school itself.
MapQuest has never heard of Rail Road Flat, so it pays to ask for directions. To reach the little village, it takes an hour of uphill driving from the vast Central Valley, starting on the state highways but quickly shunting off onto a succession of progressively thinner secondary roads until you find yourself on a shaded, winding country route. The center of town springs into view over a small rise as the road slows, then threads a tight cluster of demure buildings: first the now-defunct Eureka School (established 1896) and Rail Road Flat Community Hall, two drab wooden buildings together on the right. On the left is the Rail Road Flat Caf茅, the Rail Road Flat General Store (established 1920), and the post office. Behind these, a modest herd of buffalo roams among the trees, sometimes venturing down near the road. The biggest structure in sight is Rail Road Flat Elementary鈥檚 gym; that building, a small office, and three temporary trailers constitute the school.
By the time the 8 a.m. bell rings, all of Youngblood鈥檚 students have filed into his middle-trailer classroom鈥攖he one with a homemade plastic label on the door admonishing THINK THINK THINK. Inside, they鈥檙e already hard at work checking their algebra homework answers. Then it鈥檚 on to in-class problems, which Youngblood runs through with the drive of a drill instructor, and tonight鈥檚 homework: percentages, rates of speed, calculating the surface area of a cube, and the algebraic order of operations. After that, it鈥檚 language hour, with assignments in spelling and vocabulary. Next come exercises on compound sentences and similes, followed hard by a spelling test.
Even at recess, students can occasionally be seen sitting cross-legged by themselves, hitting the books in a quiet corner of the blacktop. From the beginning of the school year until the end, it鈥檚 a relentless, hard-hitting rhythm that doesn鈥檛 perceptibly slacken, even after the California Standards Tests are over. Don鈥檛 look here, in other words, for strategies to engage students鈥攖he students had better be engaged, or there are consequences ready and waiting. 鈥淭here鈥檚 nothing entertaining about it,鈥� Youngblood says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a grind, really. We come in, and we work all day.鈥� His modus operandi and his theory of teaching are identical: 鈥淛ust plow ahead.鈥�
鈥楢 grind鈥� is what one expects the students will think of such an unvarying routine of work, but the social isolation of this townlet doesn鈥檛 allow for much comparison of who鈥檚 got more homework. Every kid here and every kid they know goes through the same drill, and for most of them, this is the way it鈥檚 always been: Steady funding declines and heavy testing are just the natural state of things.
That鈥檚 not to say they never get in trouble, even when there鈥檚 no substitute to take advantage of. On any given day in Youngblood鈥檚 class, there鈥檚 a healthy chance that 5th grader Brad Carlson will have his name on the board for misbehaving. He often becomes moody and sullen in class and is prone to outbursts鈥攊t was Brad who hurled a swear word while fighting in class last week.
But the 11-year-old is also known for topping his classmates鈥� math scores鈥攕omething Youngblood likes to remind him of, calling him 鈥渙ur biggest hope鈥� only half-jokingly. Claiming to relish homework problems, Brad says he wants to be a math teacher, and maybe that鈥檚 why he doesn鈥檛 seem to mind the class鈥檚 heavy emphasis on drill-and-kill learning. In his mind, school and standardized testing are inseparable.
鈥淚 enjoy it,鈥� he says.
So does fellow 5th grader Zach Glorioso. He sees the potential applicability of the algebraic formulas and scientific concepts Youngblood teaches to the adventure-quest video game he鈥檚 designing, which features Mooch, a half-man, half-monkey superhero of Zach鈥檚 own creation. But he wishes there were a little more flexibility in class for such creative projects.
His eyes drop and his tone softens as he talks about his work in progress. 鈥淚鈥檓 getting this all down now, on the computer, because I know that when I get older, I won鈥檛 think the same,鈥� he says, chipping away at some unfinished homework during recess. As it is, he often spends more time at home with video games than schoolwork and sometimes shows up without it. As punishment, he has to trudge next door to teacher Kathy Risso鈥檚 1st and 2nd grade room, where he sets to work in the corner, scowling at himself all the while.
There also have been more-tangible sacrifices for the students. As greater and greater academic expectations have been heaped upon this tiny school, it has had to meet those standards with declining resources. Ironically, says principal Ed Collett, Rail Road Flat Elementary鈥檚 success over the past four years has actually shrunk the amount of state discretionary money it gets鈥攆rom $98,000 in 2000-01 to $47,000 last year鈥攕ince the funds are earmarked for school improvement. And with per-capita income averaging $18,454, the community isn鈥檛 exactly flush enough to funnel extra local tax money into the schools or to set up a foundation to offset state aid reduction.
Though most of Youngblood鈥檚 students are too young to remember better times, a brief rundown of all that鈥檚 been lost in the past few years makes it clear those figures aren鈥檛 just numbers on paper. Among other things, Collett says, in 2001 the school held as many as 15 student assemblies a year. They were valuable opportunities to present student awards and stoke school pride, but now the school can afford to convene only four. Field trips, too, have taken a hit. Five years ago, there were several annually. Now, Collett notes, kids are lucky to get three, and each of these is funded entirely by the teachers, aides, and students.
Youngblood particularly mourns the passing of the faculty-run campus basketball league. Every student played, and, the way Youngblood sees it, the games taught discipline and invaluable life lessons, including this one: When the referee makes a call, you keep playing, even if you don鈥檛 agree with it.
But as state funding lagged behind the costs of running practices and games, maintaining equipment, and coordinating a schedule, the expense became harder to justify. For a while, teachers and parents found ways of pulling through, Youngblood recalls. But the steady financial drain called a halt to basketball about seven years ago, and while the hope of revival lingered for a time, it died out shortly after the coming of NCLB. 鈥淲ith all the standards we鈥檙e required to cover, it was hard to rationalize finding time for that,鈥� Youngblood laments. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not going back.鈥�
Accepting setbacks and persevering despite them is a useful object lesson, but he knows that discipline and hard work will get anyone only so far. On some afternoons, he sees teenagers lingering across the street at the general store, and he鈥檚 aware of the local drug problem, which spreads up from the Central Valley, a regional hotbed of methamphetamine production. He sees the patterns repeat themselves鈥攆ormer students faltering, dropping out, getting into trouble. Once his 6th graders leave his classroom of order and learning, bound for adolescence in the shadow of poverty and few appealing job prospects, he knows there鈥檚 nothing he can do to keep their worlds from crumbling around them. And there鈥檚 no referee he can appeal to even if he disagrees with the way the game is going. He just keeps playing, working his team, and hoping they鈥檒l keep on improving.
鈥淭here鈥檚 just that whole emotional thing that you can鈥檛 really touch,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 just have to assure them as best I can鈥攃onvince them that they鈥檒l succeed.鈥�
