The top reported proficiency rate is 12% in English language arts. The lowest is 2% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Friendship Pcs - Southeast Elementary
Friendship PCS - Southeast Elementary sits on Milwaukee Place in Washington's Ward 8, part of the Friendship Public Charter School network that operates multiple campuses across the District. This campus serves the earliest grades, pre-kindergarten through third, which means only its third graders participate in DC's state assessment system. The younger grades are not tested, so most of the school's students sit outside the proficiency data entirely.
For the grade band that was tested, the results are low. In math, a very small fraction of students met or exceeded expectations. In English language arts, the share meeting that bar was higher but still modest by any measure. These are the most recent reported results, and no multi-year trend data was available to show whether performance is moving. A parent considering this school may want to ask directly how the campus supports early literacy and numeracy, what interventions are in place, and how the network tracks growth for children before they reach the tested grades. The school's own data does not explain the gap, so the question is worth bringing to school leadership.
Enrollment is modest for its grade band, with the largest concentration in pre-kindergarten. The student body is nearly entirely Black, with a tiny number of Hispanic students and students of two or more races. That composition is a defining characteristic of the campus and reflects the surrounding Ward 8 community. Several data points that parents often weigh were missing from what was available: free or reduced-price lunch counts, special education rates, and English learner figures were all absent. Without those, it is hard to characterize the full range of student need the school is addressing, and a family may want to request that information directly.
The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report. That is expected for an elementary campus and not a gap in the usual sense.
Housing in the school's zip code tells a story about the neighborhood context. Home values here sit well below the DC-wide benchmark and also below the national figure. They have been declining over the past year, which contrasts with the more stable national trend. Rents, by contrast, are lower than much of the city but have been rising. For a family thinking about buying, this is one of the more affordable corners of the District, though values have been softening. For renters, costs are creeping up even as the area remains relatively accessible by DC standards. The broader city context matters too. Washington's economy is anchored by the federal government, which dominates employment, along with embassies, international institutions, and a large advocacy and lobbying sector. The metro area is among the largest in the country. But that prosperity is unevenly distributed, and the Southeast quadrant where this campus sits has long faced different economic realities than the Northwest neighborhoods closer to the monumental core.
The Friendship network itself recently cleared a major milestone. The DC Public Charter School Board voted unanimously to continue the network's charter after its mandatory review, and a renewed charter agreement was put in place. That gives families some assurance about the network's long-term stability across its campuses. The network has also adjusted its footprint in recent years, acquiring a former Hope Community campus and closing a middle school campus, which speaks to ongoing reshaping of where seats are available.
What this campus offers is an early-grades charter option in a part of the city where affordable housing and school choice intersect in complicated ways. The academic results are a real concern and should be probed. The network's renewed charter and multi-campus structure provide operational backing. For a family with young children, the question is whether the early grades here provide the foundation they want, and the available data does not answer that on its own.
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