The Spokane Public Library and Spokane County Library District system provide the Spokane area with access to information and study space. Secondary education is provided by Spokane Public Schools with its six high schools, six middle schools, and thirty-four elementary schools. Public charter, private, and parochial schools offer more choices of study. Higher education in Spokane is served by the Community Colleges of Spokane system (Spokane Community College and Spokane Falls Community College) and two private universities, Gonzaga University and Whitworth University as well as various trade and technical schools. The University District in Downtown Spokane is also host to branch locations of regional universities such as Washington State University Spokane and its medical school, the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the total school enrollment in Spokane was 54,830 in 2011. Nursery school and kindergarten enrollment was 5,484 and elementary or high school enrollment was 30,548 children. College or graduate school enrollment was 18,798. As of 2011, 91.6 percent of people 25 years and over had at least graduated from high school and 29.2 percent had a bachelor's degree or higher.
Libraries
Serving the general educational needs of the local population are two public library districts, the Spokane Public Library (within city limits) and the Spokane County Library District. Founded in 1904 with funding from philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, the Spokane Public Library system comprises a downtown library overlooking the Spokane Falls and five branch libraries. Special collections focus on Inland Pacific Northwest history and include reference books, periodicals, maps, photographs, and other archival materials and government documents. The downtown Spokane Public Library branch located at 906 West Main has a collection size of 435,902 volumes and an annual circulation of 2,060,220 items per year. The first downtown library building, The Carnegie Building, still stands 5 blocks from the current Downtown library.
The libraries for the colleges and universities in Spokane include the Spokane Community College Library, Spokane Falls Community College Library, Gonzaga's Foley Center Library which has a collection size of 427,262 volumes and annual circulation of 48,889 items per year as well as their School of Law's Chastek Library and Whitworth's Harriet Cheney Cowles Memorial Library which has a collection size of 220,568 and an annual circulation of 19,672.
Elementary and secondary education Public school system
The vast majority of Spokane is within the Spokane Public Schools (District No. 81). - Text list
Spokane Public Schools was organized in 1889, and is the largest public school system in Spokane, and the second-largest in the state, as of 2014, serving roughly 30,000 students in six high schools, six middle schools, and thirty-four elementary schools. Within Spokane Public Schools, there are two Washington State Charter School commission approved independent charter schools to provide alternative choices to traditional high schools, these are Innovation High School in the independent PRIDE Schools district and the Spokane International Academy.
Some portions of the city limits to the north are within the Mead School District No. 354. That district has two traditional high schools, Mead High School and Mt. Spokane High School.
Some portions of the city limits to the west are in the Cheney School District.
Other major public school districts in the Spokane area include the Central Valley School District (which contains Central Valley High School, University High School, and Ridgeline High School), West Valley School District (West Valley High School), and East Valley School District (East Valley High School) in Spokane Valley. Smaller districts in the surrounding area include the Deer Park School District (Deer Park High School), Freeman School District (Freeman High School), Liberty School District (Liberty High School), Medical Lake School District (Medical Lake High School), Nine Mile Falls School District (Lakeside High School), Orchard Prairie School District, and Riverside School District (Riverside High School).
Spokane area public high schools
School name District Established Enrollment Notes Lewis and Clark High School Spokane Public Schools 1883 1,863 North Central High School Spokane Public Schools 1908 1,521 Houses the Institute of Science and Technology program for STEM John R. Rogers High School Spokane Public Schools 1932 1,514 Shadle Park High School Spokane Public Schools 1957 1,218 Joel E. Ferris High School Spokane Public Schools 1963 1,746 Mead High School Mead School District 1890 1,637 Mt. Spokane High School Mead School District 1997 1,596 The Community School Spokane Public Schools 2012 165 New Technology High School Innovation High School - (PRIDE Schools) 2015 498 Public nonprofit Charter school, IB World School, Grades 6-12 Note: Grade levels offered and enrollment includes the district's middle school, PRIDE Prep Middle School in addition to Innovation High School Spokane International Academy - 2015 501 Public nonprofit charter school, Grades K-12 West Valley High School West Valley School District 1924 932 Central Valley High School Central Valley School District 1927 2,250 University High School Central Valley School District 1960 1,747 East Valley High School East Valley School District 1960 1,133 Ridgeline High School Central Valley School District 2021 1,600
Note: This is not an exhaustive list. This is a selective list that is intended to focus on public high schools in school districts that have a presence in the city of Spokane and may include other major districts or high schools in the Spokane metropolitan area (Spokane County). Enrollment figures as of April 2021.
Private education
A variety of private and parochial elementary and secondary schools augment the public school system. Among the parochial schools, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane manages ten such schools in and around the area, among them being Gonzaga Preparatory School. Other parochial schools in the Spokane metro area include Upper Columbia Academy, a boarding high school offering a Seventh-day Adventist education, located to the south in Spangle, and the Northwest Christian School, a non-denominational Kindergarten-12th grade school, to the north in Colbert. The Saint George's School in north Spokane is one of the only K-12 independent secular private preparatory schools in Spokane and offers an International Baccalaureate program of study.
There are schools that exist to meet special needs and those that offer specialist education, such as Montessori schools, or an emphasis on a particular part of the curriculum. Private schools are subject to a state approval process. Examples include the Lilac Blind Foundation, Spokane Guild's School and Neuromuscular Center, and the Spokane Art School.
The Salish School of Spokane is a language preservation school that serves the Native American community of various tribal backgrounds and ancestry with language and cultural immersion experiences to increase intergenerational transmission of the endangered Salishan languages family in addition to traditional mentoring and academic support. The school offers a K-6 grade curriculum and plans to offer a secondary education.
Spokane area private secondary schools School name Type Established Enrollment Notes Gonzaga Preparatory School Roman Catholic 1887 860 Grades 9-12, NCEA Note: The Catholic Diocese of Spokane and Gonzaga-affiliated St. Aloysius Catholic School offers grades K-8 Palisades Christian Academy Seventh-day Adventist 1934 215 Grades PK-10 Upper Columbia Academy Seventh-day Adventist 1945 272 Grades 9-12, Boarding school Northwest Christian School Christian, Non-denominational 1949 642 Grades PK-12 Saint George's School Secular 1955 371 Grades K-12, IB World School, Cognia accreditation, NAIS Saint Michael's Academy Traditionalist Catholic 1968 131 Grades PK-12, Day school, Boarding school Valley Christian School Christian, Non-denominational 1974 297 Grades PK-12, ASCI Faith Baptist Academy Baptist 1985 128 Grades K-12 The Oaks Academy Christian, Non-denominational 1996 309 Grades K-12, ACCS Summit Christian Academy Baptist 2006 130 Grades K-12, offers Seal of Biliteracy certificate for Russian language proficiency, Cognia accreditation, ASCI
Note: This is not an exhaustive list. This is a selective list that intends to include private schools that provide instruction in part or fully for the high school grade levels 9-12 that are in the Spokane metropolitan area (Spokane County). Enrollment figures as of April 2021.
Colleges and universities
Higher education institutions in Spokane include the private universities Gonzaga and Whitworth, and the public Community Colleges of Spokane system (Spokane Community College and Spokane Falls Community College) as well as a variety of local branch campuses and technical institutes.
The Community Colleges of Spokane operate Spokane Community College (SCC), Spokane Falls Community College (SFCC), and the Institute for Extended Learning, which coordinates rural outreach, business and community training, adult literacy services, and Spokane County Head Start/ECEAP/Early Head Start. Spokane Community College began operations on September 16, 1963, on the site of the Spokane Technical and Vocational School (established in 1953) at Mission and Greene. During a period of growth, Spokane Community College built a second campus on Fort George Wright Drive (now Spokane Falls Community College), which the board of trustees decided to separate in 1970, creating two distinct entities. Both SCC and SFCC offer four-year bachelor of applied science degrees, SFCC in applied management and cybersecurity and SCC in respiratory therapy. As of 2020, the Community Colleges of Spokane serves approximately 20,000 students a year and offers over 120 degree programs.
Gonzaga University and Law School were founded by the Italian-born priest Joseph Cataldo and the Jesuits in 1887. Gonzaga offers 43 undergraduate degree programs, 26 master's degree programs, a doctoral program in educational leadership, and a Juris Doctor. Gonzaga is one of three schools that offer a Juris Doctor degree in the state of Washington. The school has a total enrollment of about 7,700.
Whitworth was founded in Tacoma, Washington in 1890 and moved to its present location in 1914 following a generous land donation by railroad magnate Jay P. Graves and $100,000 in support from the community. The move alleviated persistent financial difficulties owing to competition with the College of Puget Sound and Pacific Lutheran Academy which were also located in Tacoma. It is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church and had 2,500 students studying in 53 different undergraduate and degree programs as of 2011.
A variety of regional universities located elsewhere in the Inland Northwest have operations in Spokane's University District. The University District is the site of Washington State University Spokane (formerly the Riverpoint Campus); WSU Spokane is WSU's health sciences campus and houses the school's College of Nursing, College of Pharmacy, and Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine. Washington State University is Washington's land grant university with its flagship campus located south in Pullman. WSU Spokane shares the University District on the east end of downtown Spokane with some programs of Eastern Washington University (EWU), a regional comprehensive university with its main campus located southwest of Spokane in nearby Cheney.