The top reported proficiency rate is 36% in English language arts. The lowest is 20% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Friendship Pcs - Chamberlain Middle
Friendship PCS - Chamberlain Middle sits on Potomac Avenue in Southeast Washington, serving grades four through eight as part of the Friendship Public Charter School network. The campus occupies a part of the city where housing values run well above the District-wide and national benchmarks, with typical home values in the surrounding zip code exceeding what most D.C. neighborhoods command. Rents here are also elevated, though both home values and rents have eased slightly in recent months. The immediate area sits within a city defined by its federal character, where government employment, international institutions, and association headquarters shape the economy, and where the National Mall and Smithsonian campuses serve as civic anchors a relatively short distance away.
The school's enrollment is modest for a middle-grade campus. Its student body is almost entirely Black, with a very small number of Hispanic students and a handful identifying as multiracial or white. Information on free and reduced-price lunch eligibility was not available, and the same gap exists for special-education and English-learner rates. A parent evaluating whether the school's support services match their child's needs may want to ask the school directly about those figures, since they were missing from the data we reviewed.
On state assessments, the most recent results paint a mixed picture. In English language arts, roughly a third of tested students met or exceeded expectations, a moderate result that suggests some students are building grade-level literacy skills. Mathematics was considerably weaker, with fewer than one in five students reaching proficiency. Science results, drawn from an earlier testing cycle, were especially low at both fifth and eighth grades, with the reported proficiency range sitting at the very bottom of the scale. Participation rates on the science exams were solid, so the low scores reflect actual performance rather than a testing gap. A parent concerned about math and science outcomes may want to look into what interventions or curricular supports the school has in place for those subjects.
No multi-year trend data was available for this campus, so we cannot say whether proficiency is improving or declining over time. The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report. Course access, staffing, discipline, and attendance data were also absent from what we reviewed, which limits the picture of day-to-day school climate and program breadth.
As a charter school, Chamberlain Middle operates under the Friendship PCS network, which recently cleared its mandatory charter review. The D.C. Public Charter School Board voted unanimously to continue the network's charter, and a renewed agreement was executed, giving families some certainty about the network's long-term presence across its campuses. The network has also undergone structural changes in recent years, including acquiring a former Hope Community PCS campus and closing its Technology Preparatory Middle campus. Those shifts affect which Friendship campuses remain available to middle-grade families, though Chamberlain itself continues to operate.
The grade band here covers upper elementary and middle years, a stretch when students transition from learning to read to reading to learn, and when social dynamics shift. For a family considering this campus, the strongest signal in the data is the ELA result, which shows meaningful work happening in literacy. The math and science results, by contrast, indicate that many students are arriving at or leaving these grades below grade-level expectations in those subjects. Without information on staff qualifications, course offerings, or discipline practices, the picture remains incomplete. A family touring the school would benefit from asking how the campus supports students performing below grade level in math and science, what enrichment or intervention programs exist, and how the nearly homogeneous student population shapes the peer environment and cultural programming.
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