47 schools on state's official "lowest-performing" list
State officials on Thursday released the official list of Washington's 47 lowest performing schools, which are eligible to receive three-year federal grants of $50,000 to $2 million per year.
Seattle Times education reporter
State officials on Thursday released the official list of Washington's 47 lowest performing schools, which are eligible to receive three-year federal grants of $50,000 to $2 million per year.
Most are in Central Washington, including four in the Yakima School District and seven in the Pasco School District, which represents a little more than one-third of Pasco schools.
In Western Washington, the Tacoma School District has four middle schools on the list and Seattle Public Schools has three — Cleveland High, Hawthorne Elementary and West Seattle Elementary.
The list is supposed to represent the state's "persistently lowest-achieving schools," judged by three years of reading and math scores, and, for high schools, by graduation rates. To be eligible for the federal grants, the schools also had to receive money or be eligible to receive money under the federal Title I program, aimed at supporting students from low-income families.
Some school officials took issue with how the schools were chosen, and questioned whether the measures truly captured the progress some of their schools were making. Still, most, if not all, applied for the federal grants, which could bring each school anywhere from $50,000 to $2 million a year for three years.
Like other Obama administration education initiatives, this one offers big financial incentives in exchange for accepting controversial requirements.
Districts that want the grants must agree to overhaul a school in one of four ways. In brief, they can: close a school, replace its principal and at least half its staff, turn it into a charter school (which is not allowed under Washington law), or "transform" it. The latter has a number of requirements, such as tougher teacher evaluations, a new instructional program and more learning time for students.
In addition to the Seattle and Tacoma schools on the list, other Puget Sound-area schools are:
