The state education department today will release its first list of "persistently lowest-achieving schools," including five in Oakland and six in the Mt. Diablo district.
The announcement, expected at 10 a.m., will include nearly 190 schools with stagnantly low standardized test scores, said Hilary McLean, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Education.
The schools will be subject to severe sanctions under state and federal laws and will be required to implement one of four interventions. Three of the options include school closure, the replacement of the principal and at least half the staff and reopening the school as an independently-run charter.
One intervention, the "transformation model," is less drastic than the others. This option would require a school to improve its teaching and leadership capacity and increase instruction time without calling for staff changes.
The sanctions are required under state legislation that was approved as part of the Race to the Top bill package. They are also required under federal laws associated with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the School Improvement grant program for struggling schools, McLean said Friday.
Schools must begin implementing the changes in September to qualify for the grants, but there is no timeline if schools opt not to take the money, she said.
Troy Flint, a spokesman for the Oakland school district, would not release the names Friday.
He said the district administration was working with school administrators to "fully process the implications"
