Three Cedar Rapids schools among “lowest-achieving” in state

The Iowa Department of Education list of persistently lowest-achieving schools in the state released today includes three Cedar Rapids schools.

All three schools - Metro High School, Wilson Middle School and Roosevelt Middle School - are listed in the second tier of the list and were on it last year as well.

The designation is required by the No Child Left Behind Act, as well as the federal stimulus law, which qualifies the identified schools for improvement grants.

According to the Iowa Department of Education, schools ranked as “persistently lowest-achieving” in the second tier are institutions that either have a graduation rate less than 60 percent during the last three years, or score too low on math and English profficiency benchmarks during the same period.

Schools from Dubuque, Davenport and Waterloo also are on the list.