DC Student Achievement Nominally Improves

Updated on 8/27 to include Maryland 2024 test score (MCAP) results:

Today, the DC Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) released results from the 2024 state assessment in math and English language arts (ELA). While the test has a new name, CAPE, the structure and scoring of the assessment was very similar to the previous PARCC test. To fully understand the comparability of results over time, we will need to compare statistics compiled by psychometricians in a technical report, but we anticipate that the results will be comparable and present them as such.

DC scores show slight improvement in math (+0.7 percentage points) and reading (+0.3) overall and across most grades and student groups, but a return to pre-pandemic performance remains elusive and years away from full recovery. Interact with our 2024 DC CAPE dashboard to learn more about this year’s results and read Lauren Lumpkin’s coverage in the Washington Post today.

The results are a bit disappointing, but covid’s impact was substantial and requires a proportional commitment and response. DC is not alone as achievement is largely stagnant locally and across the U.S.

How do DC’s 2024 results compare to other DMV and east coast jurisdictions

Virginia released statewide results which also showed nominal improvement with proficiency gains of 0.4 percentage points in reading and 1.8 in math. Locally, Arlington and Alexandria posted improvements that were less than one point, and Fairfax saw proficiency decline less than one point in reading. Richmond Public Schools, an urban school district led by former DCPS Chief Jason Kamras, stood out for its improvement with a 3-point gain in math this year after a 7-point gain the prior year, and a 3-point improvement in reading in 2024 after no improvement in 2023.

In Maryland, statewide test scores also improved slightly from the prior year, posting a 0.5 percentage point gain in ELA achievement and 0.8 point increase in math. Locally, Prince George’s County saw a significant decline in reading proficiency, Montgomery County had nominal gains, and Baltimore City demonstrated modest improvement in both subjects.

Further afield in the northeast corridor, only New York has released 2024 state test results, and New York City posted a 3.5 percentage point increase in math proficiency and 2.6 point decrease in reading. Academic recovery from the pandemic remains a nationwide concern without solid systemic answers beyond the positive impact of high dosage tutoring. As DC considers strategies to rapidly improve students’ math skills, we might consider learning from officials in Richmond and NYC about what is working for them.

Our initial CAPE data thoughts and recommendations

We plan to dive deeper into the data over the next couple of weeks and see how it compares with LEA-administered assessments we collect. However, given the rate of improvement over the last two years, the 2024 DC state assessment results make clear to us is that the status quo is not good enough. The current generation of students, especially those who were in elementary school for the 20-21 virtual year, need bold goals and a collaborative education sector that utilizes a structured, data-driven equity by design framework to create and implement innovative solutions that work. Our city’s investment in high impact tutoring design sprints and ongoing improvement and monitoring of tutoring programs is working, as a recent Stanford University study confirms, and should be a model for how we implement other evidence-based strategies together. More students need tutoring support than we currently provide, and part of that challenge is there are not enough tutor volunteers out there.

Prior research into DC’s “bold performance schools,” those with achievement rates significantly better than schools serving similar demographics, find that they emphasize making school a fun place where students and adults feel they belong and implement strategies with intentionality, designing them to work for students at the margins and using data to monitor effectiveness. Educators in Bold Performance Schools do not expect perfection. Rather, they focus on finding teachable moments and learning about the root causes that prevent success.

As sector and LEA leaders consider what’s next, we recommend the following actions:

• Deeper engagement on math strategy. We fully support OSSE convening a task force of math educators and experts as part of the citywide DC Math Hub initiative

• Build on high impact tutoring implementation success with its structured “equity by design” and continuous improvement approach. Our city’s tutoring initiative benefitted from design sprints that helped schools design programs that worked for educators and students at the margins as well as the continuous data-driven monitoring that happens citywide.

• City level bold goals that align with the high expectations that Bold Performance schools have and demonstrate. DCPS released bold goals of its own with its new five-year strategic plan. We encourage the charter sector and DCPS to align and collaborate on citywide goals that aim to accelerate students’ academic and personal development.

• Track and monitor effective instructional time received. The latest research demonstrates the importance of high-quality instructional time. LEAs should track the number of instructional hours students receive and miss due to their absence, tardiness, teacher absence, and additional small group tutoring support that they receive.
  
  

For teachers and school leaders, the Bold Performance schools demonstrate what it takes to accomplish a more equitable future. We recommend concentrating your improvement strategies on their key practices, a focus of our 2023 Bold Performance Report:

• Intentional relationship-building among students, educators, and families to create an effective team that meets high expectations;

• Emphasize the importance of fun and joyful environments for adults and students;

• Extended learning time opportunities for students;

• Targeted small-group and individual student interventions that allow students to access rigorous, grade-level content, even when they have unfinished learning gaps;

• Dedicated time in the school schedule for teacher observation, collaboration, coaching feedback cycles and professional development that provide educators with support to improve; and

• Weekly data and student-work analysis, progress-monitoring, and goal-setting conversations with educators and students.

To all of our educators, thank you for digging deep and showing up for our students! Best wishes for a wonderful start to the 2024-25 school year, and we look forward to reporting on more positive progress this time next year!

Explore more details about the DC state assessment results with our user-friendly dashboard.

Note about Bold Performance School Calculations

Speaking of Bold Performance Schools, at the 2022 awards reception, we told school leaders that we temporarily lowered the Bold Performance bar to 5 percentage points above pre-pandemic expectations for schools serving similar grades and similar demographics. At this level, more than one standard error in our measurement, we felt comfortable in saying the schools we honored in 2022 had post-COVID achievement that was better than pre-COVID rates. We mentioned our plans to hold the model steady, utilizing pre-pandemic data to project what proficiency rate a school should expect given its tested population demographics, and that we would raise the bar to 7.5 percentage points above pre-pandemic expectations (PPAPPE) in 2023 and to the original Bold Performance standard of 10 points above expectations this year. Then, in 2025, we will shift the Bold Performance model to utilize only post-pandemic test score data (2022-24).

Over the next few weeks, we will run and verify model data to identify this year’s Bold Performance schools and interview their educators to learn more about their promising recovery practices. We utilize a complex mathematical model that is a composite of multiple algorithms to calculate and average the PPAPPE results for math and ELA at both the CAPE/PARCC 4+ and CAPE/PARCC 3+ proficiency levels. Schools that achieve above a 10 PPAPPE score this year will be honored as a Bold Performance school, and given that we raised the bar, we will note as “honorable mention” other schools above the 5.0 mark that indicates the school’s students are likely besting pre-pandemic expectations for achievement based on the student population they serve, an accomplishment that also deserves recognition.