In brief: Graduation rate up a bit in state

SEATTLE – More kids are graduating from high school in Washington, but a new report set to be released today says about 21,000 students still attend high schools where four out of 10 students do not earn a diploma in four years.

Washington has improved its statewide on-time graduation rate from 72.2 percent in 2002 to 73.7 percent in 2009, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University and a public policy organization called Civic Enterprises.

The number of schools graduating 60 percent or fewer students in four years decreased by 17 during that period. The number of kids attending schools with such low graduation rates was cut in half.

That wasn’t good enough to make the list of most improved states, according to the report. But Washington is taking a variety of approaches toward improving its graduation rates, according to Nate Olson, a spokesman for the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

The work focuses on both keeping kids in school and helping them achieve. For example, a guidance program called Navigation 101 helps them develop a plan in eighth grade to aim themselves toward graduation, college and career.

Blaze forces family from rental home

More than 20 Spokane firefighters responded to a house fire that forced seven residents to evacuate the building at 2511 N. Hamilton St. on Sunday evening.

The blaze began on the second level of the wood-frame rental house occupied by four adults and three children.

There were no injuries, Spokane Fire Department spokesman Brian Schaeffer said. Crews put out the fire by 7:30 p.m. Sunday.

Spokane’s Red Cross disaster relief team was arranging housing assistance for the displaced family.

Fire crews responded by 5:30 p.m. Thirteen units with 22 firefighters responded, Schaeffer said.

The fire’s cause hadn’t been identified Sunday night.