Today, the District of Columbia’s Office of the State Superintendent of Education released 2017-18 scores for all D.C. schools’ performance on PARCC, the state assessment administered to all public school students. KIPP DC remains the highest performing PreK3-12 public school system in the District, providing a comprehensive educational pathway for 6,300 of the city’s students on their path to and through college and careers.
On average, KIPP DC students outperformed the D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) and the charter sector average on both the Mathematics and English Language Arts assessments. More students scoring a 4 and 5 on the PARCC attend KIPP DC than any other charter system in the city. Across every grade level, KIPP DC students identified as at-risk performed significantly above the public charter school and DCPS average in both Mathematics and English Language Arts.
KIPP DC’s alumni support program, KIPP Through College & Career, also released promising data on college access and enrollment of KIPP DC College Preparatory alumni. Since its founding, 88% of KCP graduates have matriculated to college as compared to the District’s 37% average. KIPP DC College Preparatory’s Class of 2013 boasts a 40% college graduation rate, well ahead of the District’s 16% six-year college graduation rate. Collectively, 59% of the KCP’s Classes of 2013 to 2017 are persisting in college or have earned their degree. We’re excited to support these alumni as they complete college and enter careers.
PARCC has driven an important dialogue in D.C. about college and career readiness. “As we’ve seen from our college enrollment and persistence rates, it is one of many data points we use on the road to college and self-sustaining careers,” said Susan Schaeffler, founder and chief executive of KIPP DC. “We want to see our scholars excelling as artists, athletes, poets, coders, and engaged citizens pursuing lives full of choice and opportunity. We’re excited to celebrate all of our students’ achievements and continue our focus on ensuring a more equitable future for the District of Columbia.”
Some additional highlights from KIPP DC’s 2017-18 PARCC results include:
- KIPP DC Promise Academy at our Benning Campus again ranks as the highest performing charter elementary school in the District of Columbia. KIPP DC Lead Academy at our Shaw Campus is the second highest performing charter elementary school in the city and the highest performing in Ward 6.
- At our Douglass Campus, KIPP DC Heights Academy and KIPP DC AIM Academy are the highest performing elementary and middle schools in Ward 8. We’re proud of the Douglass Campus for their growth and continued educational leadership in Anacostia.
- Students at our Benning Campus collectively led Ward 7 PARCC test takers, with KIPP DC KEY Academy being the second ranked Ward 7 middle school and Promise Academy being the top-performing elementary school in Ward 7 and top-performing charter elementary in the District.
- KIPP DC Lead Academy and KIPP DC WILL Academy, at our Shaw Campus, were among the most improved public charter schools in the city. Lead Academy students’ proficiency rates grew by a combined 18.9 percentage points on the ELA and Mathematics assessment and WILL Academy students’ proficiency rates grew by a combined 18.3 percentage points. We are excited to build on this progress during 2018-19 school year.
- Across the KIPP DC network, our students have consistently ranked among the city’s top performers in math proficiency rates in recent years, and we were pleased to see those outcomes again this year (42% proficiency vs. city average of 29% proficiency). Promise, Heights, Spring, Lead, and Quest Academies are five of the highest performing charter schools on the Mathematics PARCC exam.
“We experienced much success across the KIPP DC network this past year, and I’d especially like to commend our KIPP DC College Preparatory high school community for their solid performance amid tragedy when they lost a classmate during PARCC testing,” Schaeffler said. “We will continue to wrap our arms around our KCP students and support them in any way possible.”
This is the fourth year that students in the District of Columbia have taken this Common Core-aligned assessment, which was designed to be far more challenging than our previous assessment (the DC CAS) and is aligned to KIPP DC’s mission of preparing students for college and careers.
“Teachers and parents are incredibly proud of the skills and knowledge that KIPP DC students demonstrated on last year’s PARCC assessment,” Schaeffler said. “We have bright students and hardworking teachers, and their efforts have led KIPP DC schools to be among the top performers in the District of Columbia. With our school year already underway, our staff, students, and parents are recommitting to building upon our strengths, while reflecting and improving on our areas of growth.”
KIPP DC, the largest public charter school network in Washington, D.C. and second largest system behind DCPS, has been operating high-quality schools in the District for 17 years and currently educates 6,300 students in grades PreK3 through 12 at 16 schools.
For more information, please contact Adam Rupe.
