Renton High School faculty and parents had the unique opportunity to sound off on the No Child Left Behind Act with a federal representative recently.

U.S. Department of Education General Counsel Charlie Rose methodically took in the complaints, stresses and successes of Renton High School faculty.

“I love this collective bargaining,” Rose said to the faculty’s requests. “Each session is different.”

The Renton High School was one of two chosen in Washington state to participate in “Listening and Learning” sessions, which had a session for faculty and one for parents.

Principal Damien Pattenaude offered a presentation on how the school has changed in the past few years. In one year of concentrated effort, tardies are down and fights were cut by half, he said.

The following discussion revealed the teachers’ deepest struggles and new approaches to learning.

After several years of heavy faculty and administration turnover, Renton High teachers decided to start changing the school’s culture with Pattenaude’s strong leadership.

“That is the high quality approach…that we need to encourage,” Rose said.

Their hope is that a better school culture will encourage better student performance.

However, nothing stuck more than the two sticky notes math teacher Stacey Snyder placed under the projector. She then explained some background.

The notes were pie charts that demonstrated the changing student demographic in higher math courses, before and after teachers increased rigor in the lower math classes.

The more difficult math classes were typically dominated by white and Asian students. Now they reflect the school’s actual demographic with blacks and Hispanics.

Higher expectations bolstered more students into more difficult classes. However, Pattenaude explained another outcome of the rigor was a higher failure rate.

Only about 28 percent of Renton High sophomores passed the math portion of the Washington Assessment of Student Learning exams, compared the district’s 40 percent and the state’s 45 percent, all low numbers.

The school is unique to the district with high number of minorities, particularly English Language Learners, 8 percent, and special education students, at about 12 percent, according to the state Web site.

Though struggling, the teachers are working to find solutions.

“I’m a part of the school improvement team,” Snyder said. “This (meeting) now brings it to that next level.”