Best Elementary Schools in Zip Code 20011

ZIP code 20011 in Washington, DC is home to 21 elementary schools serving 8,367 students in elementary grades, including 8 traditional District of Columbia Public Schools and 13 public charter schools. The area offers a remarkable diversity of educational options, from Montessori and bilingual programs to online academies, with average enrollment of about 398 students per school. Families in this neighborhood will find everything from some of the highest-performing elementary schools in the entire District to schools struggling significantly below state averages.

Whittier Elementary School stands out as the clear top performer, ranking #14 of 124 schools statewide with 69.3% ELA and 72.9% math proficiency—well above state averages. It also showed dramatic improvement from the prior year, jumping 21 points in ELA and 18 points in math. Other strong options include Latin American Montessori Bilingual PCS, which ranks #23 statewide and posts strong science scores, and DC Bilingual PCS, which leads the ZIP in science at 46.15%. Sela PCS achieves strong math proficiency with the lowest student-teacher ratio (7:1), while Barnard Elementary School and John Lewis Elementary School round out the top-tier DCPS options. Overall, District of Columbia Public Schools in the ZIP outperform charters on average (41% vs. 31.6% in ELA), but the top charters rival—and sometimes exceed—the best DCPS schools.

However, the ZIP also contains some of the lowest-performing schools in the state. Bridges PCS posts just 8.8% ELA proficiency, while Friendship PCS - Online Academy has only 9.5% math proficiency and an unusual 24.4:1 student-teacher ratio. Capital City PCS - Lower School and Rocketship PCS - Infinity Community Prep also rank in the bottom quarter statewide. Notably, higher spending does not guarantee results—Dorothy I. Height Elementary School spends the most ($41,622 per student) but ranks only #50, while John Lewis spends the least and ranks #34. Several schools show a troubling upper-elementary slide, including Sela PCS dropping from 63.3% 3rd-grade ELA to 23.8% in 4th grade. Encouragingly, schools like Friendship PCS - Online Academy, Bridges, and Brightwood Elementary School all improved significantly in state rank year-over-year.