A study was conducted to explore the stability of the selected indicators of merit in relation to the explicit purposes of identifying merit schools in the Cincinnati (Ohio) Public School system Design for School Excellence Program. A school could achieve merit either based on high status in achievement, attendance, and attitude, or on gain scores on an indicator, thus making merit a realistic goal for low achieving schools. To measure the stability of status scores for each indicator, correlations between scores for the years 1986 and 1985, 1985 and 1984, and 1986 and 1984 were computed separately for elementary and secondary schools. Correlations are discussed in three groups: academic achievement (reading, mathematics, writing), attendance (student attendance, staff attendance), and attitudes (interracial understanding, discipline, teacher attitude, parent attitude, student attitude). Results showed that with the exception of writing and staff attendance, the indicators were stable enough to warrant their use in identifying merit schools. However, gain scores were not serving the purpose of providing a mechanism for low achieving schools. The negative correlations of gain scores between years showed that gain scores could not be used yearly as a way for low achieving schools to obtain merit. Furthermore, the status score to gain score correlations for the elementary schools indicated that gain scores were not specifically assisting those schools with low status scores. (KSA)