By HOWARD BUCK Evergreen Public Schools has reached tentative agreement on a two- year contract for more than 1,600 teachers, the union said Monday. A general membership meeting is scheduled tonight. But teachers' ratification is more likely to come in voting at schools over the next several days.

By ISOLDE RAFTERY Susan Enfield tries to keep a happy face when test scores come in. They shed light on weak spots, she says, places to focus more teacher training. But when it comes to Sifton Elementary, Enfield, deputy superintendent of Evergreen Public Schools, doesn't hide her frustration.

By ISOLDE RAFTERY Seven years after President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act was signed into law, the academic gap among students of different races and incomes persists. The law demanded that school districts test their students every year and that those scores be made public.

By Howard Buck, The Columbian, Vancouver, Wash. Jul. 22--State education officials plan to put Washington's Class of 2013 on the path of a world-class math education when they meet this week at the Evergreen school district's administrative center.

By HOWARD BUCK Not one person among the nearly 100 huddled in an Evergreen Public Schools meeting room Wednesday night would argue the U.S. isn't mired in a deep mathematics funk.