The top reported proficiency rate is 15% in English language arts. The lowest is 10% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Malcolm X Es at Green
Malcolm X Elementary School at Green sits on Mississippi Avenue in Southeast Washington, serving pre-kindergarten through fifth grade as part of District of Columbia Public Schools. It is a small neighborhood school, and its enrollment is almost entirely Black, with a small Hispanic share. The school does not carry a magnet designation and operates as a regular public school.
On the most recent DC state assessments, proficiency was low in both tested subjects. In math, roughly one in ten students met or exceeded expectations. In English language arts, the rate was slightly higher but still well below what most families would hope to see. Science results from an earlier testing cycle showed essentially no students reaching proficiency among the fifth graders tested, though participation was strong. These are sobering figures, and a parent considering this school would want to ask directly what academic supports and interventions are in place, how the school is responding to these results, and what the trend looks like over time. Multi-year trend data was not available in what we reviewed, so we cannot say whether performance is improving, holding steady, or declining.
Several pieces of context that would help a parent interpret those numbers were missing from the data we received. Free and reduced-price lunch information was not reported, so we cannot characterize the economic makeup of the student body from the data, though the surrounding neighborhood offers some signal. Individualized education program rates and English learner counts were also absent. Without these, it is hard to know what share of students arrive with specific needs that the proficiency numbers alone do not capture. Discipline, staffing, attendance, and course-access data were not provided either, so we cannot speak to class sizes, teacher experience, or school climate from the available evidence.
The school sits in the 20032 zip code, where housing values run well below both the District-wide benchmark and the national one. Home values in this area have been declining year over year, while rents have crept upward. For a family weighing renting versus buying, renting here costs meaningfully less per month than carrying a mortgage would at current rates. This is a more affordable corner of an otherwise expensive city, and that shapes who can put down roots near the school.
Washington itself is, as publicly reported, a federal-government town at its core, with the bulk of its jobs tied to government, international organizations, lobbying firms, and associations concentrated in and around the central monumental core. The city's L'Enfant Plan spreads civic life across many neighborhoods rather than concentrating it in a single downtown, and schools like Malcolm X at Green sit in one of those distributed neighborhoods, far from the museums and monuments that define the city's postcard image. The broader Ward 8 area of Southeast has historically received less investment than other parts of the District, and the housing data here is consistent with that pattern.
At the district level, DCPS is in the middle of a five-year strategic plan called A Capital Commitment, running through 2028, focused on academic success, student connection to school, and post-secondary readiness across all district schools. Beginning in the 2025-2026 school year, DCPS also rolled out a district-wide cell phone restriction tied to recent legislation, aimed at reducing classroom distraction. In early 2026, the district opened a new middle school addition at Leckie Education Campus in Ward 8, expanding middle-grade capacity in Southeast, which may matter to families at Malcolm X thinking about where their children go next.
What the available data describes is a small, predominantly Black elementary school in an underserved part of Southeast Washington, with proficiency levels that are low by any measure. The surrounding neighborhood is relatively affordable for the District but has seen home values soften. The strategic plan and recent investments signal district attention to schools in this part of the city, but the academic results at this school, at least in the most recent year captured, remain a concern a family would want to explore directly with school leadership before deciding.
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