The top reported proficiency rate is 58% in English language arts. The lowest is 36% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on The Sojourner Truth School Pcs
The Sojourner Truth School is a Washington, DC public charter school serving middle and early high school grades, with a distinct identity: it is, by its own public reporting, the city's first public Montessori secondary school. It opened in 2020 and has been growing one grade level at a time. The data here reflects grades six through ten, and the school has since expanded publicly toward a full six-through-twelve configuration, which means families who enroll in the middle grades can now stay through high school graduation without transferring out.
That Montessori framing is the central thing to understand about this school. Public Montessori at the secondary level is rare in DC, and the pedagogy here shapes the whole experience. Classrooms are built around student-led work, longer uninterrupted blocks, and interdisciplinary projects rather than a traditional lecture-and-test structure. For a family already drawn to Montessori, or looking for an alternative to a conventional middle school, this is the core draw. For a family seeking a more traditional, structured instructional model, the fit would be different, and that is a matter of preference rather than a strength or weakness.
The school is small, which is consistent with a growing program and with the Montessori secondary model. Enrollment is distributed fairly evenly across the grade bands currently served. The student body is predominantly Black, with a meaningful Hispanic population and a smaller white and multiracial presence. We looked for free-or-reduced-price lunch data, special education enrollment, and English learner counts, and none were reported, so the picture of economic need and specialized services is incomplete here. A parent may want to ask the school directly about how it supports students with disabilities and English learners, since that information is not in the public data set.
On state assessments, the results tell a split story. In English language arts, the school shows real strength. Proficiency rates across sixth, seventh, and eighth grade sit well above what many DC middle grades post, with seventh grade standing out as particularly strong. More than half of tested students in each ELA grade reached proficiency, and the middle grade was notably higher. This is a genuine bright spot and aligns with the Montessori emphasis on reading, discussion, and extended writing.
Mathematics is a softer area. Proficiency rates across the three tested middle grades were in the low-to-mid thirties, meaning roughly a third of students reached proficiency in each grade. This is not unusual for DC middle grades, but it is clearly a weaker showing than the school's own ELA results. A parent with a child who needs strong math support may want to look into how the school structures math instruction within its Montessori framework, and what interventions are available for students working below grade level.
Science results are limited. The only available science assessment comes from an earlier school year for eighth grade, and the proficiency rate fell into a very low reported range, with essentially no students reaching proficiency. This is a single-year, single-grade data point from an earlier period in the school's growth, so it should be read with caution, but it is the only science signal available, and it is weak. Asking the school how science instruction has developed since that assessment would be reasonable.
No graduation rate, college-readiness data, advanced course offerings, career pathways, or dual-credit information were available. This is partly explained by the school's stage of growth: it had not yet graduated a senior class at the time of the most recent data, so a graduation rate does not apply. As the school completes its expansion through twelfth grade, these outcomes will become relevant, and a parent of a younger student should watch for them in coming years.
There is no locale brief, housing data, or neighbor comparison in the available data set, so the school cannot be positioned against surrounding DC charter or district middle schools here. What the data does establish is a school with a clear pedagogical identity, solid early reading results, a math program that is still finding its footing, and a science record that is thin and dated. For a DC family seeking a public Montessori secondary option, this is one of the few choices, and the ELA performance suggests the model is working in that domain. The open questions are math, science, and the still-developing upper grades.
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