In February of every year, the superintendent of public instruction will identify challenged schools in need of improvement.

(1) Challenged schools in need of improvement shall be the same schools identified for comprehensive supports through the WSIF.

(2) A subset of these schools shall be identified as persistently lowest achieving schools. Schools identified as persistently lowest achieving schools will meet the following criteria:

(a) The school is a challenged school in need of improvement;

(b) The school is in the lowest decile for combined student growth as defined in the WSIF;

(c) The school is in the lowest decile for combined student proficiency as defined in the WSIF; and

(d) The school is located in a district that serves a significantly higher proportion than the state average of students in the student groups targeted by the superintendent of public instruction for the highest rates of annual improvement in English language arts and math proficiency, as described in the federally accepted Washington accountability plan.

(3) The superintendent of public instruction will prioritize persistently lowest achieving schools as follows:

(a) Identifying the percentage of schools identified for improvement through the WSIF within each persistently lowest achieving school's district;

(b) Ordering the list from the largest to the smallest percentage.