The decision about how and when to open schools to in-person instruction has been a key question for policymakers throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The instructional modality of schools has implications not only for the health and safety of students and staff, but also student learning and the degree to which parents can engage in job activities.…

Lopez Island is located in the archipelago of San Juan Islands off the northwest coast of Washington State. Breathtaking mountain vistas, sparkling shorelines, forests, and pastoral landscapes filled with sheep and orchards attract many tourists to San Juan County each year. This isolated community can only be reached by traveling on ferries,…

This study evaluates how welcoming thirty American cities--the twenty-five largest and five smaller "hotspots"--are to "nontraditional" problem-solvers and solutions. It assumes that the balky bureaucracies meant to improve K-12 education and hold leaders accountable are so calcified by policies, programs, contracts, and…

Americans change residences frequently. Residential mobility can reflect positive changes in a family's circumstances or be a symptom of instability and insecurity. Mobility may also change neighborhoods as a whole. To shed light on these challenges, this report uses a unique survey conducted for the "Making Connections" initiative. The…

Many U.S. states provide public funding for charter schools--deregulated and privately managed schools operating in direct competition with government-run schools. While the impact of charter schools on student achievement and sorting has been intensely studied, less is known about the demand for these alternatives. Using precinct-level returns…

Communities That Care (CTC) is a prevention system designed to reduce adolescent substance use and delinquency through the selection of effective preventive interventions tailored to a community's specific profile of risk and protection. A community-randomized trial of CTC, the Community Youth Development Study, is currently being conducted in 24…

Learning about local government seems boring and irrelevant to most young people, particularly to students from high-poverty backgrounds. The authors explore a promising approach for solving this problem, Storypath, which engages students in authentic learning and active citizenship. The Storypath approach is based on a narrative in which students…

The characteristics and interactions of Bushler Bay (rural Washington) locals and public employees are examined in terms of the concepts of universalism and particularism. Models of social organization held by these populations are also examined, and the role of scientific analysis in the conflicts characterizing their interaction is discussed.…

Colleges and state higher education agencies too often lack accurate information about the socioeconomic status (SES) of their students. This paper describes the methodology that Community College Research Center (CCRC) researchers used to estimate the SES of individual students in the Washington State community and technical college system using…

As one of the final papers of the National Study of American Indian Education, this report is a description of the Makah Indian community and school at Neah Bay, Washington. Included in the community description are current population factors, historical background, and economic factors. The educational portion of the document gives historical…

The Smart Investment 2002 Public Opinion Survey measures public opinion about the importance and effectiveness of college programs, interest in possible future participation in colleges classes, satisfaction with information received from other colleges, and other topics. The survey was conducted on the phone and used 1,190 adult Washington…

Number 14 of the 1st series of the Final Report of the National Study of American Indian Education, this community background report concerns itself with the Taholah, Quinault Reservation in Washington State. Information was collected via observation, interviews, and questionnaires. Described are the community of Taholah; population…

This handbook provides guidelines to help school districts to assess local conditions and needs relating to multicultural education. Part 1 contains an evaluation checklist outlining information to look for and questions to ask in evaluating a school. The checklist considers: 1) school philosophy, objectives, and educational commitments; 2)…

The Washington State Council for Postsecondary Education was required to examine the educational functions and the administration of the Joint Center for Graduate Study (JCGS), Richland, and also upper-division educational services to the Tri-Cities area of Richland, Pasco, and Kennewick, Washington, by Washington State Senate Resolution 1975-130…

Rural Amrica has been experiencing dramatic changes in the transition toward a socially and culturally diverse society. This study is a first effort to explore multicultural reform in rural schools. Multicultural education is the process by which the school environment is modified to accommodate cultural differences as well as to teach the role…