The Nation’s Report Card: How D.C. Bucked the Downward Trend

The recently released Nation’s Report Card, the U.S. Department of Education’s biannual National Assessment of Educational Progress, reveals America’s public schools are failing, continuing a serious downward spiral.  Yet the District of Columbia’s NAEP test scores hit a 20-year high.

Nationwide, a shocking two-thirds of eighth graders aren’t proficient in reading or math while one-third read at “below basic” level.  Meanwhile, District public school students’ proficiency rose from 7% in 2005 to 16% in 2020 to 20% in post-Covid 2024.  D.C. ranked dead last among America’s major cities 20 years ago but today is mid-range, posting 15th of 26 in math and 10th of 26 in reading, ahead of New York City, Los Angeles and Philadelphia.

Three transformative changes helped fuel the District’s remarkable educational renaissance.

First, 1995’s School Reform Act allowed public charter schools to open in D.C.  Independent of the traditional public school system, charters are held strictly accountable for improved student performance by the city’s charter board, which closes charter schools that don’t maintain high standards.  These taxpayer-funded, tuition-free public schools are free to develop their own curriculum and proved popular, educating nearly half of D.C.’s public school students today, up from 12% in 2004.

Second, 2007 legislation handed control of D.C. Public Schools from a remote, low-accountability Board of Education to the city’s mayor, initiating many effective reforms including raising teacher quality; holding principals accountable for students’ results; and closing chronically under-performing city-run schools.

Third, the share of public school seats provided by charter networks–with three or more campuses–grew.  Among charters, networks uniquely leverage greater size and scope to achieve stronger staff and leadership recruitment and retention; ensure educational program quality and consistency among multiple campuses; and deploy charter freedoms to innovate at scale, testing and replicating what works.

Recent Stanford University research demonstrates that District charter networks raise student proficiency more effectively than DCPS or stand-alone–one or two campus–D.C. charters.  D.C. students enrolled at charter networks added an equivalent of 50 instructional days in math and 12 in reading compared to DCPS peers.  More impressively, students served by D.C.’s four longest-established and largest charter networks gained an average of 80 more days of math and 23 days of reading than DCPS counterparts.

Such stronger learning experiences are especially important for Black and economically disadvantaged District students, who overwhelmingly fare poorly on NAEP’s test.  Stanford’s researchers found that nationally Black students enrolled in charter management organizations “made an additional 41 more days of learning in reading and 47 in math relative to the Black students in traditional public schools.”

Stanford’s detailed comprehensive national study matched performance data for 1,853,000 charter students in 32 states, including D.C., with comparable traditional public school students.

Sadly, despite D.C.’s overall NAEP test improvements, many of the District’s most vulnerable students are struggling academically.  D.C.’s Black eighth graders are only 12% proficient in NAEP Reading and Math scores, versus 81% of White eighth graders.

Reaching D.C.’s most disadvantaged students before they drop out requires setting new “North Star” joint public education goals for DCPS and District charters that are quantifiable and data-driven, since what can’t be measured, can’t be managed.  

Instead, over the next ten years the city should plan to join the top 25% of America’s cities on NAEP’s metric.  Also, within a decade, D.C. must raise its game by narrowing the city’s tragically high NAEP achievement gap between eighth grade Black and White students at or above proficiency now at 69% to the nation’s 24%.

Attaining these “North Star” ambitious goals requires the city to continue its bold political leadership with the city and charter board continuing to shutter still more underperforming public schools while adding high-quality seats in high-performing charter networks.  This can be achieved by inviting proven top-performing charters to expand student enrollment in the District, including better utilizing underused and vacant city-owned school space that should be made available to the educational programs delivering the strongest outcomes for students.

By renewing the District’s vibrant, pathbreaking school reforms, the nation’s capital could join the top-tier of U.S. cities academically.  Completing that journey from one of the nation’s worst cities in urban public education to among the best while sharing that success with the District’s to-date left behind underserved students would inspire both D.C. and the rest of the nation.