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Woodlawn School in Northeast Portland won a $1.5 million federal turnaround grant in 2014 to help it raise student achievement. To get the money, the school district had to agree to remove Principal Robin Morrison; it moved Andrea Porter-Lopez, who previously headed high-performing Rieke Elementary, into the Woodlawn principal's position.

The

U.S.

Department of Education

to help a handful of schools with persistently low student achievement to improve.

Roughly nine schools will be chosen in January to receive the money over the course of about four years, said Tim Boyd, director of district and school effectiveness. Only those who were put on a list of "priority" and "focus" schools based on poor performance in 2011 and 2012 are eligible to apply, he said.

Boyd said Oregon asked the federal agency three times for permission to give the money to schools with the worst performance problems now, not with the worst performance five years ago. But the feds said no, he said.

Oregon was among just 16 states that won the federal School Improvement Grants to help their worst performing schools. Boyd said Oregon applied early and more states will likely be awarded grants in the coming months.

Oregon already has six schools with past performance problems that are receiving extra money in hopes it will turn them around: Woodlawn School in Portland; East Gresham Elementary; Warm Springs Elementary; Margaret Scott Elementary in the Reynolds School District; Prescott Elementary in the Parkrose School District; and Richmond Elementary in Salem-Keizer.

With limited exceptions, schools that win the grants have to replace their principal with a new leader.

Oregon awarded those six schools about $1.5 million each to improve how well they teach students to read, write and do math. But the state has decided to make smaller awards of about $500,000 over five years this time around, he said.

In Oregon and other states, schools that improved while they were receiving large amounts of extra money had trouble sustaining the improvements after the grant ends and they "run off the funding cliff," he said.

-- Betsy Hammond