Research on how DC schools help every student succeed

Reports, briefs and evaluations since 2018. Every report is readable here, with its key findings up top, the PDF beside it, and links to the research it builds on.

• DC Bold Performance Schools Report 2026 (Report, October 2026): 21 elementary and middle schools where students from priority groups beat expectations by more than 10 points, and the ten practices of Bold Schools from ten years of interviews.
• DC's 2025 Bold Performing Schools (Report, October 2025): 16 DC schools recognized as Bold Performance Schools, with proficiency rates about 19.5 points above schools serving similar students, and the educators leading them.
• CitySchools Collaborative supports for tutoring providers and student outcomes (Evaluation, October 2025): A quasi-experimental look at high-impact tutoring in DC during 2024-25: math and reading growth, plus what students, caregivers and tutor providers said.
• DC's Bold Performing Schools break barriers and exceed expectations (Brief, November 2024): 12 DC schools with proficiency rates about 13.5 points above similar-serving schools, and the educators leading them.
• DC math and reading recovery update (Brief, May 2024): Winter 2023-24 nationally normed scores show DC students gaining more than a typical year in math and reading, with gaps to pre-COVID norms remaining. K-2 literacy on pace to recover within a year.
• 2024 DC Math Bright Spots Report (Report, March 2024): Problem-solving math strategies from instructional leaders and educators at DC public schools showing real math growth. Part of the DC Math Hub.
• 2023 Bold Performance Schools Report (Report, October 2023): The DC schools that support at-risk students, students with disabilities and students of color to reach proficiency, and the five strategies their leadership teams share.
• Status of K-2 literacy and numeracy in DC (Brief, October 2023): Where early-grade reading and number skills stand after the steep declines of 2021-22: progress on both, with math still below pre-pandemic levels.
• 2022 Bold Performance Schools Report (Report, October 2022): Bold Schools averaged 9.1 points above other Bold-eligible schools on 2022 PARCC proficiency, and 2.6 points above pre-pandemic averages for similar demographics.
• DC student and educator wellbeing (Brief, May 2022): Spring 2022 ThriveK12 survey results on how students and educators experienced school during the pandemic, with DC charter networks and GW's Center for Health and Health Care in Schools.
• Teach Bold: educator improvement science networks (Brief, December 2020): How Teach Bold networks grew during the virtual year to help educators with distance learning, especially for students with disabilities, with the first quarter's lessons.
• How COVID-19 school closures could impact DC student proficiency in 2020-21 (Brief, April 2020): An early estimate of what closures and distance learning could do to DC achievement, from research on school interruptions.
• Bold Growth Schools 2019 Report (Report, July 2019): 13 schools serving many priority students whose growth beat non-at-risk peers at the lowest-poverty schools, and the three commitments they share.
• Lessons for all from 2018 Bold Growth Schools (Report, July 2018): 10 high-poverty, rapidly improving DC public schools and the practices that could be scaled across the District.