But why do schools fail? Do schools, like a rough pub, lose their way, gain a bad reputation which, no matter how hard they try, they find impossible to shake off?
Is it the community they serve, with deprived neighbourhoods, parents with little formal education and a lack of desire for their children to learn?
Or is it down to the quality of the people who run schools and teach in them?
If there was a simple answer, there would be no failing schools.
Roy Blatchford, a former inspector with responsibility for failing schools, now works with struggling schools through educational charity the National Education Network.
He says schools which struggle are nearly always on what the Americans call "the wrong side of the tracks".
"It is rare to find a school in difficulties serving a catchment area that is truly comprehensive - as opposed to being skewed towards the poorer families."
And this brings with it a whole raft of other disadvantages.
It makes it more difficult to recruit the best teachers, particularly in shortage subjects like design and technology, maths and science.
