COLUMBIA, S.C. - A state-run school for troubled youth in McCormick County targeted for closure by the governor's efficiency panel has received one of the state's highest marks for public schools.

The John de la Howe School received an excellent rating on school report cards released last week by the state Education Department and Education Oversight Committee.

Fewer than one in five South Carolina schools received an excellent rating. Other South Carolina schools for at-risk youth - Wil Lou Gray Opportunity School and the Department of Juvenile Justice schools - were rated good.

Teachers at John de la Howe have worked hard to prepare students for questions likely to be on standardized tests, said Principal Susan Bussell. The results are showing up: Five of seven students passed all three parts of the high school exit exam this year, compared with three of eight in 2002.

"What we've been doing with our curriculum is focusing on the state standards," Bussell said. "And those are important to know with or without a test."

Gov. Mark Sanford's Commission on Management, Accountability and Performance has recommended merging John de la Howe, which enrolls 80 students on an average day, with Wil Lou Gray, which helps about 335 high-school-age students earn GEDs.

The MAP Commission, created by Sanford to reduce waste in government, estimates the John de la Howe School spends $70,000 per student.

School officials put that number at $15,121 per student, according to report card data in 2001. The school did not report per-pupil spending in 2002 or 2003.

Wil Lou Gray spent $19,669 per student, according to report card data. The MAP Commission said Wil Lou Gray spent $10,000 per student.

Sanford is reviewing the recommendations of the MAP Commission and has not decided what he will propose for John de la Howe, governor's spokesman Will Folks said.

"It's obviously positive anytime schools earn excellent ratings," Folks said. "The question as it relates to the John de la Howe school is are they earning that ranking through an efficient use of taxpayer dollars."

Meanwhile, teachers at the John de la Howe are going about their business as usual. The MAP Commission's recommendation for merger was one of many in the 200-page report, and nothing has been decided about the school's future, Principal Bussell said.

"We're doing the best job we can to educate the kids while we have them," Bussell said. "I think our teachers are doing a real good job of that and our report card reflects that. What we're doing here is real valuable."

It's too early to say whether merging the schools would be beneficial, school officials say. "Right now, it's just really a concept," said Wil Lou Gray Director Pat Smith.

South Carolina's special schools are rated using criteria different from that for traditional schools. Also students tend to change year-to-year, even week-to-week, leaving schools without a reliable way to track yearly progress.

EOC officials are still studying whether an "excellent" at one of the schools is justly comparable to an "excellent" at a typical South Carolina school.

South Carolina high schools are rated using exit exam scores and elementary and middle schools are rated based on Palmetto Achievement Challenge Test scores.

The standardized tests used to calculate ratings at the three special schools are often designed to evaluate how much a student improves over a short period of time, said Jo Anne Anderson, executive director of the state's Education Oversight Committee.

Only John de la Howe's rating is partly based on PACT and exit exam scores. Each school developed its own criteria by considering what best demonstrated its students' development, Anderson said.