Richard Wright PCS for Journalism and Media Arts

Richard Wright PCS for Journalism and Media Arts is the only public charter school in this Washington, DC district, serving grades 8 through 12 with 300 students, and it stands out as a mid-to-upper-tier school by ranking, though it faces a severe split between English and math performance. The school holds a 3-star SchoolDigger rating and currently ranks 16th out of 46 DC schools, placing it in the 65th percentile, a position that has remained stable (64–66%) over the past three years. The school spends a substantial $32,581 per student and maintains a low 11.7-to-1 student-teacher ratio, indicating strong resources, but its graduation rate of 77.6% is just below the state average of 78.7%. For parents, this means a well-funded school with a solid overall ranking, yet the academic picture is far more uneven than the rank suggests.

The most important finding is the enormous gap between English Language Arts (ELA) and mathematics proficiency. In 2025-2026, only 2.3% of students were proficient in math, compared with the state average of 28.2% — a figure that is just 8% of the state rate. Meanwhile, ELA proficiency reached 34.9%, only about 5 points below the state's 39.6%. This 32.6-point gap between subjects is three times wider than the state's gap. Year over year, ELA improved by 5.3 points (from 29.6% to 34.9%), but math declined by 1.2 points (from 3.5% to 2.3%). Even Algebra I, a core course, had just 6% proficiency, half the already-low state rate of 12%. The 8th grade ELA rate of 36.4% is the school's brightest spot, showing that students enter with relatively stronger literacy skills.

For parents, the takeaway is that Richard Wright is a school with a clear strength in literacy and journalism-related skills, but math is a serious red flag that appears to be getting worse even as other areas improve. The high spending per student and low class sizes make the weak math outcomes especially puzzling, suggesting the issue is not a lack of resources but a need for targeted math intervention, curriculum changes, and support. The stable ranking means the school is not falling behind relative to other DC schools, but the drop from a 4-star to a 3-star rating in the latest year may reflect the combined pressures of low math scores and a graduation rate below the state average. Parents should pay close attention to math instruction and ask what specific steps the school is taking to address this declining area, especially given the school's otherwise well-resourced environment.