Number of schools – 67
Number of students - 31,068
Percentage of students in poverty – 48%
Percentage students of color – 14.75%
Percentage students who are English Learners – 3.43%
Teachers – 1,877
New Teachers 2005-06 – 70
Teacher Experience – 13.3 years

Spokane is the largest urban school district in eastern Washington, with 6 high schools, 6
middle schools and 35 elementary schools. The school district is the largest employer in the
city. Spokane hires more than 100 new teachers each year. The district and the education
association began a joint effort three years ago called Careers in Teaching (CiT) in order to
better support teachers at the beginning of their career. Spokane presently has ten full-time
release mentors, although requests for services far outweigh their capacity.

For Spokane, the profile of the teacher workforce is similar to that of the state but reveals
much higher retention rates across nearly all experience levels.