Spokane County United Way Works to Eliminate Inequities for Low-income and Diverse Students
Education is the cornerstone for individual and community success. We know that on average almost 1,000 students fail to graduate on time each year in the county. Of these 1,000 students 80% are low-income or minority students. Currently, our county-wide high-school graduation rate is 85% and while this is a remarkable improvement in recent years, students are not achieving this basic goal in their education. It is up to government, public, private, nonprofit sectors, and families working together to create a place where every child can be successful in school and in life.
Spokane County United Way is focused on cutting the high school graduation opportunity gap in half for low-income and minority students.
We can’t focus on high school completion as the sole measure of success. High school dropouts are 12 years in the making. Tackling the education challenge requires reframing education as a birth to 21 continuum. We are working with partners to improve the access to and the quality of early childhood education, and opportunities for our most vulnerable families. Our work brings partners together that focus on reading at grade level, summer learning opportunities, high quality youth programs for success in and out of the classroom, mentoring programs, and system level change. Our approach reaches across the educational continuum, and brings together local partners for focused efforts. It brings best practices into our community and has resulted in national funding to support these efforts, and creates collaborative relationships with shared goals to create change.