RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) – The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction published its list of the lowest-performing schools and districts this week.

The state defines a low-performing district as a district with more than 50 percent of its schools identified as low-performing. A low-performing school has a school Performance Grade of “D” or “F’ and growth status of “Met” or “Not Met,” according to the state.

In all, the state had nine low-performing school districts.

The lowest-performing district was the Innovative School District. The district is unique in that it only has one school. It was created in 2016. Its purpose is to improve student outcomes in low-performing schools by taking those schools out of their districts and placing them under the control of the Innovative School District.

The second-lowest performing school was Weldon City Schools. It was one of the state’s smaller school districts with just four schools. Three of the four are low-performing. Within the district, Weldon Elementary Global Academy and Weldon STEM High School Career Academies have been identified as “recurring low-performing schools”.

For Wake County Public Schools, 16.6 percent of schools were identified as low-performing. In Durham, 22.4 percent of schools were identified as low-performing. In Cumberland County, 28.8 percent of schools were identified as low-performing.