Capital City PCS

Capital City PCS is a Washington, DC charter district serving 1,015 students at a single campus on Peabody Street NW, with three schools spanning grades PK–4 (Lower School), 5–8 (Middle School), and 9–12 (High School). The district as a whole ranks 34 out of 46 DC districts (26th percentile, 2 stars), putting it in the lower half of the city's charter organizations. That big-picture ranking, however, hides wide gaps between the three campuses: one is thriving, one is holding steady, and one is slipping.

The clear bright spot is Capital City PCS - Middle School, ranked 35th out of 67 DC middle schools (48th percentile, 3 stars) and climbing every year. Its ELA proficiency is 36.2%, well above the district's 25.2%, and its 8th-grade ELA score of 47% exceeds the DC state average of 45.4%. At the other end, Capital City PCS - Lower School is ranked 109th out of 124 DC elementary schools (12th percentile, 1 star) and has declined each year, with both ELA and math proficiency at just 12%. In between, Capital City PCS - High School graduates 86.2% of students — above both the district and state averages — yet its test scores are critically low (13.5% ELA, 6.8% math), and its ranking rebounded from the 3rd percentile to the 28th percentile in a single year.

Math is the district's most consistent weakness: no school reaches even 13% proficiency, and Algebra I proficiency at the high school is just 4.4%. The lower school also carries the highest student–teacher ratio (12.1) despite serving the youngest students, while the middle and high schools sit near 8.2–8.6 — a red flag for resource allocation given the lower school's downward trend. No free/reduced lunch data was reported, so the socioeconomic context cannot be assessed. For parents, the bottom line is simple: the middle school is delivering strong ELA growth, the high school is moving students to graduation, and the lower school needs urgent attention before its youngest students fall further behind.