The top reported proficiency rate is 25% in English language arts. The lowest is 14% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Beers Es
Beers Elementary School sits on Alabama Avenue in Southeast Washington, serving prekindergarten through fifth grade as part of the District of Columbia Public Schools. It is a neighborhood elementary school of modest size for its grade band, with a prekindergarten program that accounts for a substantial share of the overall enrollment. The student body is almost entirely Black, with a small number of Hispanic students and a handful of children identifying as multiracial or white. Free-and-reduced-price lunch data was not available in the records we reviewed, nor were individualized education program rates or English learner counts, so we cannot characterize those dimensions here. The school's location in Ward 8 places it in a part of the city where housing costs run well below the District's overall benchmark, with typical home values closer to the national mark than to the citywide figure. Rents are moderate by D.C. standards. Recent data points to a decline in home values over the past year in this zip code, while rents have crept upward.
On the most recent state assessments, Beers posted proficiency rates in math and English language arts that sit in the low-to-mid range for an elementary school serving a high-poverty neighborhood, with roughly a quarter of tested students meeting or exceeding expectations in each subject. Fifth-grade science results were lower, with only a small fraction of tested students reaching proficiency. These are not strong results by any absolute measure, and a parent considering Beers may want to look into how the school is working to move students toward grade-level mastery, what intervention supports are in place, and how the administration talks about growth from year to year. The science figure comes from an earlier testing cycle than the math and ELA numbers, so direct cross-subject comparison should be made with that timing gap in mind.
There is no graduation rate to report, which is expected for an elementary school ending at fifth grade. The data we reviewed did not include attendance, discipline, staffing ratios, or course access details, so we cannot speak to those areas. Program offerings beyond the standard elementary curriculum were not listed in the available records. A parent would want to ask the school directly about extracurriculars, after-school care, arts instruction, and any specialized supports.
The broader District of Columbia context matters here. Washington is a government-driven city where federal employment dominates the labor market, and it carries the infrastructure and cultural resources of a major capital. But resources are unevenly distributed across the city's neighborhoods, and the Southeast quadrant where Beers is located has historically had less access to the investment that has reshaped other parts of D.C. The school sits in a residential stretch of Ward 8, a part of the city where median home prices are lower than most of the District but where the cost of ownership relative to local incomes remains a real consideration for families. Renting is comparatively more affordable here than in much of the city.
At the district level, DC Public Schools has rolled out a new cell phone policy for the 2025-26 school year under the Heads Up! Distraction-Free Learning Amendment Act, restricting phone use during the school day across all schools. The district is also operating under A Capital Commitment 2023-2028, a five-year strategic plan focused on academic success, student connectedness, and post-secondary preparation. DCPS recently expanded middle-grade capacity in Ward 8 with a new addition at Leckie Education Campus, which could matter to Beers families thinking about the transition after fifth grade.
What Beers offers is a small, community-rooted elementary experience in a neighborhood where housing is relatively accessible for D.C. The academic results are a soft spot, plainly, and they are the area most worth probing with the school. For a family already anchored in this part of Southeast, or one drawn to a school where nearly every child shares a common background, Beers is a place to visit, ask hard questions about instruction and growth, and see how the staff responds.
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