Original Research by School Decision on Maya Angelou Pcs
Maya Angelou PCS is a single-school charter district in Washington, DC, serving high school grades nine through twelve. Its main campus, Maya Angelou PCS - HS, is open, while a second site, the Academy at DC Jail, is listed as closed. The district sits in Ward 7, on the eastern side of the city.
The student body is small for a high school. Enrollment thins markedly as students move toward graduation: the upper grades hold far fewer students than the ninth grade, a pattern that can reflect attrition, transfers, or students leaving the school before completing twelfth grade. A parent evaluating fit may want to ask the school directly about its grade-to-grade retention and what supports exist for students who fall off the graduation track.
The school serves an almost entirely Black student population, with a very small number of Hispanic, White, and multiracial students. This makes it a school where students learn within a peer environment defined by a single racial community, which some families will see as a culturally affirming strength and others may simply note as a defining characteristic. The school's identity and history in DC charter schooling are tied to serving students who have often been underserved elsewhere.
What the available data does not tell you is substantial. State assessment results were not available in the dataset reviewed, so there is no way here to characterize how students perform on standardized tests or whether proficiency levels meet or fall below expectations. A graduation rate was not provided, which is a notable gap for a high school and something a parent would want to confirm directly with the school or through DC's public charter school board reports. Free-or-reduced-price lunch counts were missing, as were special-education and English-learner rates, so the economic profile of the student body and the level of specialized instruction the school offers cannot be assessed from this data. Civil-rights and discipline data, course access information, staffing ratios, and attendance figures were also absent.
No locale brief was available for the surrounding community, so this account cannot speak to housing costs, neighborhood character, or transportation context. The district brief search found basic directory and program information but no recently reported parent-relevant changes carrying lasting impact, so there is nothing here to describe in terms of strategic shifts, leadership changes, or new program launches.
No program offerings data was provided, so whether the school offers Advanced Placement courses, career pathways, dual-enrollment options, or other academic programs cannot be stated from this dataset. A school with this enrollment size and history may well offer targeted supports designed for students who need a smaller or more individualized setting, but the data reviewed does not confirm specific offerings, so rather than guess, this account leaves that to direct inquiry.
What a parent has to work with here is a picture of a small, nearly all-Black high school charter in Ward 7 with a clear enrollment-attrition pattern across grades and a closed campus that once served students at the DC Jail. The missing academic and outcome data means the most important questions, how students perform, whether they graduate, and what programs are available, require going straight to the school and to DC Public Charter School Board reporting to answer.
See more original research from School Decision →