The Pennsylvania Department of Education has announced the 2013-2014 list of low-achieving schools in the state, based on the students' combined math and reading scores for the 2011-2012 Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests.
On the list, which includes 406 school buildings in 71 school districts, are the Panther Valley Middle School and Panther Valley High School in Carbon County and Mahanoy Area High School in Schuylkill.
The Panther Valley Elementary School was not on the list.
Career and technology centers, as well as charter schools are not included on the list.
Last year, Panther Valley and Jim Thorpe school districts were listed as low-achieving schools.
The Department of Education is required by law to notify school districts that have schools identified as low-achieving no later than Feb. 1.
Within 15 days of notification by the department, school districts are required to notify parents.
Students in low-achieving schools who meet all guidelines may be eligible to apply for a scholarship through the Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit program, which was started by Gov. Tom Corbett last year.
The goal of the program is to provide low- and moderate-income students in low-achieving schools the opportunity to obtain a scholarship, which is funded by businesses that make contributions to scholarship organizations, to attend a participating public or nonpub