The top reported proficiency rate is 22% in Math. The lowest is 19% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Kipp Dc - Spring Academy Pcs
KIPP DC - Spring Academy PCS is a public charter school serving first through fourth graders on Mount Olivet Road in Northeast Washington. As part of the KIPP DC charter network, it occupies a specific niche: an early elementary campus focused on the foundational grades before students typically transition to middle school within the same network. The school sits in a corner of the city where housing costs run above the statewide benchmark but well below what much of Northwest Washington commands, and recent declines in both home values and rents suggest a market that has softened modestly over the past year.
The student body is almost entirely Black, with a very small number of Hispanic and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students. This racial composition is characteristic of certain KIPP DC campuses east of the Anacostia and in surrounding Northeast neighborhoods, where the network has historically served predominantly Black families seeking an alternative to the traditional public school pathway. Free-or-reduced-price lunch data was not available, nor were counts for students with individualized education programs or English learners. These gaps mean a parent cannot fully assess the school's special-education or language-support capacity from the available data and may want to ask the school directly.
On the most recent DC assessments, the school's proficiency rates in both math and reading were low. The state reports these scores in a combined third-through-eighth-grade band, though this campus only tests third and fourth graders, so the figures reflect the earliest tested cohort. Math proficiency sat below a quarter of tested students meeting or exceeding expectations, and reading was lower still. No multi-year trend data was available, so it is not possible to say from the data whether these numbers represent a decline, a plateau, or early signs of growth. A parent weighing this school should treat the current proficiency figures as a starting question rather than a verdict, and it would be reasonable to ask the school how it plans to move those numbers and what interventions are already in place for the youngest tested grades.
Because the school stops at fourth grade, there is no graduation rate to report, and that is simply a function of the grade band served. The same applies to advanced coursework, career pathways, and other features that belong to secondary schools. What this campus offers is the early elementary piece of a longer KIPP pipeline, and families who choose it are generally choosing the network as much as the individual campus.
The broader setting is Washington, a city whose economy and identity revolve around the federal government and the web of international organizations, associations, and lobbying firms clustered around it. The school's zip code sits in a part of the city where housing is more affordable than in much of the District but still above the national and state medians. Rents and home prices in the immediate area have dipped recently, which may ease some pressure on families renting nearby. The neighborhood around Mount Olivet Road is residential and well connected to the rest of the city by bus and rail, though the locale data available was citywide rather than specific to this block.
We looked for parent-relevant changes or strategic shifts within the KIPP DC network and found little that was specific enough to report, so it is left out rather than guessed at. The same is true for discipline data, staffing ratios, attendance figures, and course access, none of which were provided. A family seriously considering this campus would benefit from asking about teacher retention, classroom sizes at each grade level, and how the school supports students who arrive below grade level in reading, which the proficiency data suggests is a common situation here.
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