Researching Washington Schools

The Situation:

You have children who identify as persons of color.

You are investigating the schools in your area or considering moving to another area of Western Washington.

You have two main questions:

• What are my children going to experience?

• What actions should I be prepared to take if I'm unhappy about the situations in which we find ourselves?

The Task:

1. Choose a district or school to investigate.

2. Survey data about the district or school

   • Find the "easy data" about test scores, etc.
   • Look for the "hidden data" about school climate, community attitude, etc.

3. Research techniques and approaches which have been used recently by affected parties to effect change.

   • Look for the techniques utilized to bring issues to the attention of the schools.
   • Survey the "remedies" proposed by the schools in response to the issues.

   Note: You may have to look at surrounding districts or similar situations in other locations.

Starting Point:

Seattle-area schools tackle racial divide in education

If you have time, look at one or more of the following articles

• NAACP, schools team up to reduce racial gap
• Academic gap: Progress this time? Seattle educators differ on schools' new try for equity
• Decades of effort fail to close gap in student achievement

Possible Group Starting Points:

More students don't get their top pick of Seattle school

Kent schools once praised for diversity plans

Put this on the list: Students' behavior (Cleveland High School)

Civil rights suit settled in Puyallup schools

(Although it is way off topic, here is an article about Evergreen from last year by a Puyallup High School senior.)

School Search Resources:

Office of the Superintendant of Public Instruction (OSPI): www.k12.wa.us

School report card: reportcard.ospi.k12.wa.us

Seattle Times: seattletimes.nwsource.com

School guide: schoolguide.seattletimes.nwsource.com

Education page: seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/education/

Seattle P-I: seattlepi.nwsource.com

Special reports on education: seattlepi.nwsource.com/specials/education.asp

The News Tribune (Tacoma): www.tribnet.com

Education page: www.tribnet.com/news/education/

The Olympian: www.theolympian.com

Ethnic NewsWatch: 0-proquest.umi.com.cals.evergreen.edu:80/

U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: quickfacts.census.gov

Washington State Data Book: www.ofm.wa.gov/databook/