The reported proficiency rate for English language arts is 7%.
Original Research by School Decision on Eagle Academy Pcs - Congress Heights
Eagle Academy PCS operated as a public charter school in the Congress Heights neighborhood of Southeast Washington, serving pre-kindergarten through third grade. The most important fact for any family reading this is that the school has closed. Eagle Academy relinquished its charter and permanently shut its doors in August 2024, as publicly reported by the DC Public Charter School Board. All enrolled students had to transition to other DC public or public charter schools. What follows describes the school as it was in its final year, for families who want to understand the record before looking elsewhere.
The school was small for its grade band, with a pre-K class that made up the largest single grade. The student body was almost entirely Black, with a small number of Hispanic students and students of two or more races. Free and reduced-price lunch data was not reported, so we cannot characterize the economic need of the population from the available numbers. The same gap applies to special education and English learner rates, which were not in the data we received.
On the academic side, only third grade results are available, because pre-K through second grade are not assessed under DC's state testing system. The 2023-24 results, from the DCCAPE assessment, were low. In math, proficiency fell in the lowest reporting band, with no students reaching the proficient threshold among those tested. In English language arts, a small fraction of third graders demonstrated proficiency. Participation was strong, so the results reflect nearly the entire tested grade. These are difficult numbers to encounter, and a parent looking at why the school struggled in its final year may want to review what Eagle Academy's leadership or the DC PCSB published about academic outcomes and school quality before the closure decision. We found no multi-year trend data, so we cannot say whether these results represented a decline or were consistent with the school's recent history.
Because Eagle Academy served only early elementary grades, it has no graduation rate, no advanced course offerings, and no career or dual-credit pathways. Those metrics simply do not apply to a school ending at third grade. Program-specific data was not provided, so we cannot describe any specialized curricula, enrichment offerings, or instructional models the school may have used. Staffing information was also absent, so we cannot speak to class sizes, teacher qualifications, or retention.
The Congress Heights area, along Wheeler Road SE, sits in a part of Washington where housing costs run below the citywide benchmark. Typical home values in the surrounding zip code were well under the DC median, and those values were declining year over year at the time of the data. Rents, by contrast, were modest in absolute terms but rising. This is a neighborhood where ownership has become more accessible in price even as the broader city remains expensive, though the declining values suggest a softening local market that families buying into the area should understand.
Washington itself, as the locale brief describes, is a government-driven city built on the L'Enfant Plan, with civic and institutional life distributed across many neighborhoods rather than concentrated in a single downtown. Congress Heights is one of those neighborhoods in the Southeast quadrant, far from the monumental core and the corridors of K Street, served by Metrobus connections rather than having a Metrorail station at its doorstep. The city's economy is anchored by federal employment and international organizations, but that economic engine does not distribute evenly across all neighborhoods, and the housing data here reflects that reality.
For families who had children at Eagle Academy or were considering it, the closure means the question is no longer whether this school fits but where the next placement will be. The DC Public Charter School Board has resources for families navigating school transitions, and the publicly reported closure notice directs families to contact the board for support in finding new placements. The academic record from the final year, combined with the relinquished charter, suggests that families looking at the successor schools their children now attend should ask those schools directly about third-grade proficiency trends, early childhood instructional approach, and support services for students who may have experienced disruption from the closure.
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