About two dozen schools in the District and its suburbs have been labeled by their states as the worst of the worst, opening them to millions in federal stimulus dollars for reform.

Among the most surprising of the 25 picks is Alexandria's T.C. Williams High School, and among the least surprising are four long-troubled D.C. high schools: Anacostia, Eastern, Spingarn and Dunbar. In D.C.'s Maryland suburbs, each of the 14 designated schools is in Prince George's County.

"The reality for many years is that we are not serving all of our students well," said Alexandria Superintendent Morton Sherman. "Thisnew classification should not be a surprise."

The schools' new federally mandated classifications are hardly worthy of a banner above the main entrance: "Persistently lowest-achieving schools."

That label reflects multiple years of minimal progress and academic performance in the lowest 5 percent of all schools in the state. In the District, high schools with graduation rates below 60 percent also received the designation.

But while the schools share the same label, the results are hardly comparable among states. T.C. Williams landed at the bottom of Virginia's barrel with 84 percent of students scoring proficient in reading and 77 percent in math. In D.C., Spingarn brought up the rear with only 17 percent proficient in reading and 15 percent in math.