Vancouver Public Schools creates the Opportunity Zone to increase family and community engagement, ensure high-quality instruction, and provide flexible learning environments.
The Opportunity Zone includes 14 elementary, middle, and high schools with large concentrations of students affected by poverty and mobility. Opportunity Zone schools are closing achievement gaps. In 2010-11, a higher percentage of students in Opportunity Zone schools met growth targets in math than students in non-Opportunity Zone schools. In reading, students in Opportunity Zone schools performed equal to students in non-Zone schools for the first time that year. Overall performance improved in both groups of schools in both subjects.