BALTIMORE – State school officials recently gave five Baltimore middle and high schools the label “persistently dangerous,” placing them on the path to closure if conditions do not improve.

Under the No Child Left Behind Act, states can designate a school as “persistently dangerous” if they meet certain requirements. Once on the list, students are allowed to transfer to a different school if they choose.

However, the law allows the states to define “persistently dangerous” for themselves, and Maryland has one of the most comprehensive definitions in the country. For a school to receive the label in Maryland, at least 2.5 percent of the student body must have been suspended for arson, possession of drugs or weapons, assaulting a teacher or student, or sexual assault.

The five blacklisted schools are Calverton Middle School, Thurgood Marshall Middle school, Dr. W.E.B. DuBois Senior High School, Dr. Roland Patterson Academy and the Liberal Arts Academy at Walbrook Campus. All five made the list last year as well.

The city has already closed the school at Walbrook, and officials plan to close Thurgood Marshall and Roland Patterson by the end of the next school year.

Hamilton Middle School and Reginald F. Lewis High School were placed on probationary status. If conditions do not improve by next year, they will receive the label as well. The Academy for College and Career Exploration was taken off probation after the school took steps to improve its suspension rates.

Baltimore’s school chief executive officer Andres Alonso pointed out that schools can manipulate statistics. However, he plans to pay close attention to safety and suspension cases during the 2007-2008 academic year.

Only 46 schools from seven states in the nation have received the label. Maryland, with six, ranks third behind New York and Pennsylvania.

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