The top reported proficiency rate is 47% in English language arts. The lowest is 14% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Center City Pcs - Congress Heights
CenterCity PCS - Congress Heights occupies a building on Highview Place in the Southeast quadrant of Washington, D.C. It is one of six campuses in the Center City Public Charter Schools network, serving pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. For families seeking a single school for the full elementary and middle span, this campus offers that continuity without a building transition between grades.
The school is small for its grade range, with a couple dozen students per grade level. That size creates a setting where staff can know most students by name and where peers stay together year after year. The student body is predominantly Black, with small numbers of students identifying as Hispanic, multiracial, white, and American Indian or Alaska Native.
On the most recent D.C. state assessments, English language arts results were a relative strength. Approaching half of tested students in grades three through eight met or exceeded expectations in reading. Math proficiency in the same grade band was more modest, with roughly four in ten students reaching that bar. Science results, drawn from an earlier testing cycle, were low at both the fifth- and eighth-grade levels, with a small fraction of fifth graders and even fewer eighth graders demonstrating proficiency. A parent may want to look into how the school is addressing science instruction and whether recent changes have shifted outcomes, since the science data predates the current math and reading results.
No multi-year trend data was available, so it is hard to say whether these proficiency levels are improving, holding steady, or slipping. The state did not report free-or-reduced-price lunch counts, special education rates, or English learner figures for this campus, so the economic and linguistic profile of the student body is not visible in the data we received. Information on staffing, attendance, discipline, course access, and civil-rights indicators was also absent. Program offerings were not provided, so we cannot describe extracurriculars, athletics, or specialized academic tracks.
The surrounding housing market in the school's zip code tells a mixed story. Home values sit well below both the D.C. statewide benchmark and the national figure, and they have been declining over the past year. Rents, by contrast, have been rising. For a family considering buying near the school, that combination means relatively accessible purchase prices set against a cooling market. For renters, costs are moving the other direction.
Washington itself is a city shaped by the federal government, which dominates employment and civic life. The L'Enfant Plan laid out broad diagonal avenues and a quadrant system, with the school sitting in the Southeast quadrant. Congress Heights is one of many neighborhoods distributed across the city rather than clustered around a single downtown. The broader metro area is among the largest in the country, with substantial commuter flows from Maryland and Virginia swelling the daytime population.
Publicly reported information from the Center City network describes a recent capital investment that benefits students across all campuses. The network opened a dedicated Makerspace facility, purchased and developed over several years, featuring multiple specialized labs for hands-on science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics work. It is described as the first facility of its kind for this grade band in the District. This resource sits in Ward Five, meaning Congress Heights students would travel to another part of the city to use it.
Because this is a charter school rather than a neighborhood-bound DCPS school, enrollment works through the city's charter lottery system rather than a guaranteed geographic assignment. Families choosing this campus are choosing the Center City network's approach and the Congress Heights location specifically, with access to network-wide resources like the Makerspace.
The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report. State testing covers grades three through eight, and the pre-kindergarten cohort sits outside those assessments. The absence of a graduation rate and of lower-grade test scores reflects the grade band, not a gap in reporting.
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