Elementary Schools in District of Columbia Public Schools

This dataset covers 79 elementary schools in the District of Columbia Public Schools in Washington, DC. Most serve pre-kindergarten through 5th grade, though the group also includes eight PK–8 education campuses, one PK–K school, and one 1–5 school. Total enrollment is 30,660 students, averaging about 388 per school. Lafayette Elementary School is the largest at 923 students, while Lorraine H. Whitlock Elementary School is the smallest at 162.

Performance varies dramatically across the district. At the top, Ross Elementary School posts the highest ELA proficiency in the city at 84.4%, along with 87.1% math. Janney Elementary School, Lafayette Elementary School, Key Elementary School, and Maury Elementary School all exceed 80% in both subjects. Oyster-Adams Bilingual School is the strongest PK–8 campus with 73.1% ELA and 66.5% math. At the other extreme, Miner Elementary School, Turner Elementary School, Savoy Elementary School, and Ketcham Elementary School all fall below 10% proficiency in most subjects—an achievement gap of roughly 70 to 80 points between the district's highest- and lowest-performing schools.

Notably, higher spending and smaller classes do not guarantee better results. Maury Elementary School spends about $20,859 per student and reaches 80.6% proficiency, while Miner Elementary spends roughly $40,196 per student and scores near 5% proficiency. J.O. Wilson Elementary School has the highest per-pupil spending ($42,330) yet earns only mid-range scores, and Tubman Elementary School has the lowest student-teacher ratio (5.9 to 1) but average outcomes. Science achievement lags behind reading and math even at strong schools, and math proficiency frequently declines by 5th grade, suggesting that upper-elementary math and science are district-wide challenges.