ARVIN, Calif. -- A dozen schools across Kern County are on the preliminary list of the persistently lowest-performing schools in California, the state superintendent's office announced.

Schools in Wasco, McFarland, Maricopa, Oildale, Buttonwillow and other communities were on the list. Two of Arvin's three elementary schools were also on the state-sanctioned list, which dismayed school district officials.

"We have been working for many years on school improvement in Arvin and have made steady growth," district superintendent Jerelle Kavanagh said. "That's what makes it even more disappointing to be on such a list."

Both Sierra Vista and Bear Mountain elementary schools were on the lowest-performing list, which was compiled through an analysis of standardized testing over a three-year period.

The list was created for California's application for the School Improvement Grant program through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The grant program allows school districts to apply for funds to help the schools, but it comes with a catch. To accept the grant, the school district must adopt one of four models for reform, as set forth by the California Dept. of Education:

Turnaround Model: The local educational agency (LEA) undertakes a series of major school improvement actions, including but not limited to replacing the principal and rehiring no more than 50 percent of the school's staff; adopting a new governance structure; and implementing an instructional program that is research-based and vertically aligned from one grade to the next, as well as aligned with California's adopted content standards.

Restart Model: The LEA converts a school or closes and reopens a school under a charter school operator, a charter management organization (CMO), or an education management organization (EMO) that has been selected through a locally determined rigorous review process using state educational agency provided guidance. (A CMO is a non-profit organization that operates or manages charter schools by centralizing or sharing certain functions and resources among schools. An EMO is a for-profit or nonprofit organization that provides "whole-school operation" services to a LEA.) A restart model school must enroll, within the grades it serves, any former student who wishes to attend the school.

School Closure Model: The LEA closes a school and enrolls the students who attended that school in other schools in the LEA that are higher achieving. These other schools should be within reasonable proximity to the closed school and may include, but are not limited to, charter schools or new schools for which achievement data are not yet available.

Transformation Model: The LEA implements a series of required school improvement strategies, including replacing the principal who led the school prior to implementation of the transformation model, and increasing instructional time.

Arvin is probably not going to apply, Kavanagh said.

"The expectations from the federal government are quite powerful, strong and upsetting ways to turn around a school's achievement," she said.

Local officials say the ways to improve are drastic, and in some cases, may not be best for students.

"The idea of pushing our schools to do better is a good one, but labeling them as failing is an injustice to them because they are not failing," Kern County Superintendent Christine Frazier said. "They are working really hard to meet the challenges of the children and the schools that they're in."

Arvin was already under scrutiny from the state in January, when the Board of Education reviewed corrective actions Arvin and three other districts across the state, including McFarland, were taking to improve performance. Two board members met with district staff last month to get more information about what Arvin is doing to improve.

"We are not expecting any further sanctions from the state program," Kavanagh said. "We're expecting good results and an opportunity to continue in the state accountability program."

The 12 Kern schools on the list account for around 5 percent of the county's student population, Frazier said.

The list will be certified at a state school board meeting Thursday in Sacramento. In the same meeting, school board officials will discuss a progress report it requested from Arvin in January regarding the corrective actions in the state's accountability program.