in january 2011, the pennsylvania department of education identified newport high as in the bottom 5% of the state's public schools, for student academic achievement. parents and students may be eligible for scholarships to transfer to another public or nonpublic school through the state's opportunity scholarship tax credit program passed in june 2012. the scholarships are limited to those students whose family's income is less than $60,000 annually, with another $12,000 allowed per dependent. maximum scholarship award is $8,500, with special education students receiving up to $15,000 for a year's tuition. parents pay any difference between the scholarship amount and the receiving school's tuition rate. students may seek admission to neighboring public school districts. each year the pde publishes the tuition rate for each individual public school district. fifty-three public schools in allegheny county are among the lowest-achieving schools in 2011. according to the report, parents in 414 public schools (74 school districts) were offered access to these scholarships. for the 2012-13 school year, nine public school districts in pennsylvania had all of their schools placed on the list including: steelton-highspire school district, sto-rox school district, chester upland school district, clairton city school district, duquesne city school district, farrell area school district, wilkinsburg borough school district, william penn school district and steelton-highspire school district. in 2014, monessen city school district had all three of its schools added to the list. funding for the scholarships comes from donations by businesses which receive a state tax credit for donating. in 2014, newport high school was removed from the low achievement list.