Washington voters want more postsecondary access

Dear partners,

You've probably heard us refer to Washington STEM survey data that found nearly 90% of Washington high schoolers say they want to pursue education after graduation, but only about half actually do. That gap is the center of everything we do in our Washington State Initiative work.

This month's newsletter covers a lot of ground, all of it pointing in the same direction: what can we do to help students close the gap between their aspirations and current outcomes? A new statewide poll shows that Washington voters agree: they want more students to reach postsecondary education, not fewer. And they're paying attention: 68% disapprove of a recent $400 million cut to higher education. As the legislature works through a tight budget, that's a signal worth noting.

In addition to these poll findings, we highlight partner updates on expanding college access, strengthening financial aid support, and building the data infrastructure that helps us understand whether students are actually getting where they want to go.

Thank you for reading, and for the work you do.

In partnership,

Angela Jones
Director, Washington State & US Charters

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Washington voters speak: Education beyond high school matters

A new statewide poll from the College Promise Coalition shows strong public support for postsecondary education—and strong disapproval of recent budget cuts. As legislators work through a budget deficit, the numbers offer a clear read on where voters stand.

The headline numbers: Nearly 3 out of 4 Washington voters support the state's goal of reaching 70% postsecondary attainment by 2030. In addition:

  • 68% disapprove of a recent $400 million cut to higher education.

  • 77% say some education beyond high school is necessary for today's workforce.

  • 87% support career-connected learning and apprenticeships.

Why it matters: By 2030, projections show 70% of Washington job openings will require postsecondary credentials. Voters and advocates are sending the same message to the legislature from two directions at once.

  • Voter support for the 70% attainment goal cuts across party lines—92% of Democrats, 61% of independents, and 56% of Republicans agree.

  • The College Promise Coalition and 50 organizations recently urged legislators to protect and fund investments in higher education.

  • Recent budget decisions have diverted $400 million in Workforce Education Investment Act (WEIA) funds away from higher education, the same cut voters say they disapprove of.

Read more: Washington Voter Views on Education Beyond High School

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FAFSA Success Story: How Summit Public Schools reached the top of Washington's FAFSA rankings

Welcome to FAFSA Success Story, a regular feature highlighting innovation in FAFSA outreach and completion efforts.

Two Summit Public Schools campuses—Summit Atlas and Summit Sierra public charter schools—landed among Washington's top schools for FAFSA completion in 2025. The results didn't come from a last-minute senior-year push. They came from a system built over years.

What made it work: At Summit Public Schools, preparing students for life after graduation is both the mission and a design principle.

  • Every student has a dedicated mentor who meets with them weekly—covering goals, next steps, and financial aid navigation.

  • Summit aligned postsecondary planning tools, training, and timelines across schools. When the new FAFSA rolled out, teams tracked real-time guidance and provided targeted support.

  • Knowing that FAFSA barriers aren't equal, Summit also focused on early outreach and multilingual resources to reach students furthest from opportunity.

Why it matters: As Summit’s Dan Effland told us, “College access without affordability isn't real access.” FAFSA is one of the most critical steps in opening postsecondary doors, and one of the most uneven when students don't get support. Summit's model shows what's possible when postsecondary planning is built into school culture, not treated as a senior-year checkbox.

Read more: How small, caring schools drove a FAFSA surge in Washington

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Dual Credit Spotlight: Summer Running Start's numbers are in—and they're striking

Welcome to our Dual Credit Spotlight, a regular feature highlighting research, trends, and bright spots in expanding college access through dual credit programs.

Since the legislature expanded the Running Start program to summer months in 2023, the number of high schoolers earning college credits in the summer has grown by nearly 400%—to more than 9,300 students statewide.

  • As our grantee Stand for Children Washington notes in a recent blog, Skagit Valley College’s Summer Running Start enrollment has more than tripled in three years.

  • For students juggling work, caregiving, or changing plans between junior and senior year, summer access makes the difference between finishing a pathway or losing it.

Why it matters: Running Start lets students earn up to two years of college credit before high school graduation—tuition-free. Expanding access to summer sessions means more students can stay on track without sacrificing jobs or other responsibilities.

  • State Representative Dave Paul, who sponsored the legislation, calls it one of the most cost-effective tools available to reduce debt and shorten time to a degree.

  • Skagit Valley College's approach—close partnerships with local high schools, advising that bridges both systems, and trust-building with families—is becoming a model for the state.

Read more: Opening college doors wider: Summer Running Start expands opportunity in Skagit County and statewide

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Building a digital transcript system for Washington students

Washington students earn credits in many ways—traditional classes, dual credit, industry credentials, and local programs. But the state has no unified system to move that information reliably from high school to college. A Gates Foundation-funded pilot and a bill before the Senate aim to change that.

The current gap:

  • Course credits are interpreted inconsistently across districts and colleges.

  • Admissions decisions are delayed by manual processing.

  • Families face uncertainty about how high school courses count toward postsecondary programs.

The pilot: The Gates Foundation is funding a two-year pilot with WSIPC (Washington School Information Processing Cooperative) to test a fix.

  • In year one, WSIPC brought together K–12 districts, universities, community and technical colleges, and state agency partners—and reached consensus on a standard digital transcript format that works across sectors.

  • The pilot is now up and running. Participating districts can upload course-level transcript data to a secure environment; colleges log in to retrieve files for applicants.

  • This replaces a manual process that costs institutions thousands of staff hours a year—Eastern Washington University alone spends more than 1,300 hours annually processing transcripts that arrive as images or paper.

What's next: SB 6052, introduced this legislative session, would open the door to full statewide implementation by eliminating the need for hundreds of individual data-sharing agreements between districts and colleges.

Why it matters: A statewide digital transcript standard would let verified course and credit information move instantly and securely between K–12 and higher education—improving admissions, reducing administrative burden, and laying the groundwork for innovations like direct admissions and automated credit evaluation.

  • The Gates Foundation is committed to continued collaboration with WSIPC and Washington state partners to support this work.

Read more: Digital Transcript Project

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New ERDC dashboards make student outcomes data more useful

The Education Research and Data Center (ERDC) is one of the state's most important resources for tracking student outcomes across K–12 and higher education. Over the last two months, three ERDC dashboards got significant updates—making it easier for schools, districts, colleges, and education leaders to understand where students go and what happens when they get there.

High School Graduate Outcomes Dashboard: For the first time ever, this dashboard offers a provisional first look at where the most recent high school graduates headed by including Fall 2025 enrollment data from the National Student Clearinghouse. For graduates of the Class of 2024, you can explore data by gender, race/ethnicity, GPA, and program participation, and it can even be filtered by school district, county, Educational Service District, and legislative district.

Statewide Public Four-Year Dashboard: Updated in January with enrollment data through 2024–25 and completion data through summer 2024–25, this dashboard covers the types of students enrolled, retained, and completing credentials at Washington's public four-year institutions.

Earnings for Graduates Dashboard: ERDC updated this dashboard in February, providing a view of the typical earnings outcomes for graduates across fields of study, public institutions, and apprenticeships. This can be a useful dashboard for advising conversations: for example, a student interested in the trades can explore apprenticeship outcomes alongside university paths.

Why it matters: Most schools and districts don't have easy access to data on what their graduates do after they leave. These ERDC dashboards close some of that gap—giving educators, counselors, administrators, and policymakers a concrete, local picture of whether students are reaching postsecondary education and what it's leading to.

Explore all ERDC Dashboards: erdc.wa.gov/data-dashboards

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BlackPast.org: The world's largest online encyclopedia of Black history

February 2026 marked the 100th anniversary of Black History Month, first established in 1926 by historian Carter G. Woodson as Negro History Week. The Gates Foundation's Community Engagement team is proud to support a Seattle-based organization that has spent nearly two decades working to make accurate Black history accessible to the world.

BlackPast.org was founded by Dr. Quintard Taylor, a University of Washington historian who grew up the grandson of the formerly enslaved and the son of sharecropping parents who cherished education. Dr. Taylor built what became the most comprehensive online resource for African American and global Black history.

  • What started as a simple site where Dr. Taylor and his students posted research has grown into an encyclopedia with contributions from nearly 1,000 volunteer writers, reviewed by an international advisory board.

  • It has served more than 64 million users since its founding.

  • The site covers U.S. Black history and communities of African ancestry worldwide—searchable by region, era, topic, and more.

  • While Dr. Taylor passed away in September 2025, his legacy continues in several ways, including BlackPast.org.

Why it matters: Dr. Taylor often said: "As long as BlackPast exists, Black history will not be erased." The site is an invaluable resource for anyone who wants to go deeper than what standard search results surface.

Explore the website: BlackPast.org

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