An EmpowerK12 initiative

DC Bold Schools

Each fall since 2016, EmpowerK12 has named the DC public schools where students from priority groups beat the proficiency rates expected of schools like theirs. Ten years in, 72 schools have earned the Bold Performance designation.

Explore dcboldschools.org
EmpowerK12 celebrates the 2026 Bold Performance Schools on October 29 at the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC.
Bold Schools Performance Awards, 10 years

What a Bold Performance School is

A Bold Performance School serves a student body that is at least 30 percent economically disadvantaged and posts math and reading proficiency rates more than 10 points above what schools serving similar students achieve. EmpowerK12 sets that expected rate with a model built on each school's demographics and grade levels, then names every school that clears the bar, in DC Public Schools and public charter schools alike.

Why we started naming them

In 2016, the conversation about DC schools ran on citywide averages, and the averages hid the schools that were beating the odds. EmpowerK12 built the Bold Schools initiative to find those bright spots with data, name them in public, and honor the educators behind them. The first cohort had 11 schools. In 2026, 21 schools earned the designation.

Why we study them

Naming the schools is the start. Each year EmpowerK12 interviews the leadership teams of the Bold Schools, studies their results by subject and grade, and publishes what the schools have in common, so that other schools can put the same practices to work. Ten years of those interviews produced the ten Bold practices. Three of them are on film here.

The Bold Strategies films
4:20Bold Strategies: Data8:46Bold Strategies: Instruction & Interventions5:51Bold Strategies: Relationships
This year

The 2026 Bold Performance Schools

Twenty-one DC elementary and middle schools earned the designation in 2026.

  • Barnard ES (DCPS)
  • Center City - Congress Heights
  • DC Prep - Edgewood MS
  • Friendship - Blow Pierce MS
  • Friendship - Chamberlain ES
  • Friendship - Ideal ES
  • Friendship - Ideal MS
  • Garfield ES (DCPS)
  • Garrison ES (DCPS)
  • Global Citizens
  • JO Wilson ES (DCPS)
  • Kimball ES (DCPS)
  • KIPP DC - Promise
  • LaSalle-Backus EC (DCPS)
  • Leckie EC (DCPS)
  • Noyes ES (DCPS)
  • Savoy ES (DCPS)
  • Stanton ES (DCPS)
  • Tubman ES (DCPS)
  • Washington Global
  • Whittier ES (DCPS)
Meet the schools at dcboldschools.orgRead the 2026 report
Beyond DC

Bring Bold Schools to your city or state

The Bold Schools method travels. It needs three things a state or district already has or can gather: assessment results by school with student demographics, a model that sets the expected proficiency rate for each school, and conversations with the schools that beat it.

EmpowerK12 builds the model, runs the analysis, conducts the interviews, and produces the report and the celebration, and it trains local teams to carry the work forward. We have run the method in DC for ten years. We want to hear from you.

Contact EmpowerK12