Since being named a California Distinguished School in the late 1990s, Davidson's test scores have been among the poorest in the San Bernardino city school system, which had more failing schools than every district in the state except Los Angeles.
For more than a decade, district and schools officials have thrown every potential solution they could muster at Davidson, from extra teaching aides and individualized attention, to new technology and data-tracking methods.
Then last year, the school's standardized test scores - already far below state standards - fell another
In many ways, Davidson's experience illustrates the excrutiatingly difficult task faced by the teachers and administrators whose job it is to figure out why a school is performing poorly and get things fixed.
"I don't want to get anyone in trouble, but it's pretty obvious to me there should be more changes at this school if they are not doing well on test scores," said Kerrie Oestreich, whose 8-year-old son attends Davidson.
To put together the list - which included 188 schools statewide and 11 in San Bernardino - the California
