The top reported proficiency rate is 75% in Math. The lowest is 59% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Key Es
Key ElementarySchool sits on Dana Place in the Palisades-adjacent stretch of Northwest Washington, serving pre-kindergarten through fifth grade as part of the District of Columbia Public Schools system. It is a traditional public school, not a charter or magnet, and its enrollment is modest for an elementary campus, with fairly even distribution across the early grades.
The student body skews heavily white relative to DCPS as a whole, with white students making up a clear majority. Small numbers of Asian, Black, Hispanic, and multiracial students round out the roster. The school does not report free-or-reduced-price lunch figures, special education rates, or English learner percentages in the data available here, so families looking to understand the socioeconomic and support-service mix will want to ask the school directly. Those gaps are common in DCPS elementary profiles and do not by themselves signal anything about the school's attention to those populations.
Academically, Key stands among the stronger elementary schools in the district on state assessments. In the most recent DC Long-Term Goals reporting for grades three through eight, proficiency rates in both math and English language arts were well above typical DCPS levels, with roughly three-quarters of tested students meeting or exceeding expectations in each subject. Science results, drawn from an earlier testing cycle for fifth grade only, were more moderate, with a majority but not a commanding share of students reaching proficiency. Participation in that science assessment was high. No multi-year trend data was available, so it is hard to say whether these results represent steady performance or recent change, but the current snapshot is solidly positive for a neighborhood elementary school.
Key's location in the 20016 zip code places it in one of the more expensive housing markets in the District. Typical home values in the area sit far above both the DC-wide and national benchmarks, and while recent year-over-year movement has been roughly flat, the price-to-income ratio for buyers is steep. Rents in the zone are also high by national standards, though the gap between a monthly mortgage and a monthly rent is wide enough that renting remains meaningfully cheaper than owning at current prices. This is a neighborhood where housing costs will shape who attends the school as much as any admissions policy does. Families considering a move here should expect that real estate access, rather than academic quality, is the primary barrier to entry.
The school's place in the broader city matters. Washington is a federal-government town at its core, with employment anchored by agencies, international organizations, law firms, and associations clustered around the monumental core and K Street. Key sits in a quieter residential pocket of Northwest, removed from that density but still within the orbit of the city's civic and cultural institutions. The L'Enfant plan's diagonal avenues and green spaces define much of the city's fabric, and neighborhoods like the one around Key benefit from that intentional design while functioning as their own walkable enclaves.
At the district level, DCPS is in the middle of its five-year strategic plan, publicly reported as A Capital Commitment 2023-2028, which focuses on academic success, student connectedness, and post-secondary preparation across all district schools. Beginning in the 2025-2026 school year, DCPS also implemented a district-wide cell phone restriction tied to the Heads Up! Distraction-Free Learning Amendment Act, limiting phone use during the school day. Families at Key will see that policy in effect. The district also recently opened a middle school addition at Leckie Education Campus in Ward 8, an expansion that does not directly affect Key's pre-K-through-five catchment but signals ongoing investment in middle-grade capacity elsewhere in the city.
For a family weighing Key, the picture is fairly clear. This is a neighborhood elementary school with strong proficiency outcomes in core subjects, a relatively homogeneous student body for the District, and a surrounding housing market that prices most households out of ownership. Science results are decent but trail the math and reading numbers, and a parent may want to look into how the school handles science instruction and enrichment as children approach the upper elementary grades. The missing demographic and support-service data is worth raising with the administration directly. For families already in or able to access the neighborhood, Key offers a dependable academic pathway in a calm residential corner of the city.
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