Anonymous
Post 08/21/2025 21:00     Subject: DC CAPE SCORES
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I would just like to note that all three of the high schools on the list above are teaching significant numbers of at risk kids

Washington Latin
14%

Banneker:
29% At Risk

McKinley:
38% At Risk

In fact, McKinley's success is especially impressive given its higher number of At Risk students.


Finally found Latin's at risk rate. It's actually 14%


In 2022, Latin began reserving 25 percent of its seats for equity kids. It will take some time for that to filter through but the number of at-risk kids in lower grades is quite significant.


They did not make it 25 percent and have yet to hit that number because they dont recruit properly plus have a sibling problem. They clear their at risk lists on lottery day every year.
Anonymous
Post 08/21/2025 20:49     Subject: DC CAPE SCORES
Anonymous wrote:They are doing a great job, but Banneker and McKinley are also both application schools which means the entire student body including the at-risk population was selected to be there.


Eh, so what? There's a whole lot of selection going on at most schools in DC, regardless of whether there's an application involved. Also, no one says Harvard is a bad school because it doesnt take low-performing students and turn them into academic superstars.
Anonymous
Post 08/21/2025 20:48     Subject: DC CAPE SCORES
How are CMI, MVP and SSMA doing? Those were former highly regarded charter schools.
Anonymous
Post 08/21/2025 20:40     Subject: DC CAPE SCORES
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I would just like to note that all three of the high schools on the list above are teaching significant numbers of at risk kids

Washington Latin
14%

Banneker:
29% At Risk

McKinley:
38% At Risk

In fact, McKinley's success is especially impressive given its higher number of At Risk students.


Finally found Latin's at risk rate. It's actually 14%


In 2022, Latin began reserving 25 percent of its seats for equity kids. It will take some time for that to filter through but the number of at-risk kids in lower grades is quite significant.
Anonymous
Post 08/21/2025 20:17     Subject: Re:DC CAPE SCORES
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Here are the Advanced Middle School Math Results

Top 15 Middle Schools Algebra I 4+ (Meeting, Exceeding)

Deal Middle School 92.0
MacFarland Middle School 86.2
Hardy Middle School 83.9
Washington Latin PCS - Middle School 81.8
John Francis Education Campus 75.0
Stuart-Hobson Middle School (Capitol Hill Cluster) 69.6
Ida B. Wells Middle School 68.0
Eliot-Hine Middle School 65.5
Oyster-Adams Bilingual School 59.1
Jefferson Middle School Academy 50.0
E.L. Haynes PCS - Middle School 44.8
Kelly Miller Middle School 42.9
Washington Latin PCS - Anna Julia Cooper Middle School 37.5
DC Prep PCS - Edgewood Middle School 35.3
Inspired Teaching Demonstration PCS 30.8


Top 15 Middle Schools Algebra I 3+ (Approaching, Meeting, Exceeding)

Deal Middle School 98.6
MacFarland Middle School >95%
John Francis Education Campus >=90%
Hardy Middle School 94.9
Washington Latin PCS - Middle School 92.2
Stuart-Hobson Middle School (Capitol Hill Cluster) 87.5
Ida B. Wells Middle School 80.0
Eliot-Hine Middle School 75.9
Oyster-Adams Bilingual School 72.7
Kelly Miller Middle School 71.4
Jefferson Middle School Academy 71.4
Washington Latin PCS - Anna Julia Cooper Middle School 60.9
DC Prep PCS - Edgewood Middle School 54.9
McKinley Middle School 54.5
Inspired Teaching Demonstration PCS 53.8


It should be noted that at ITDS, Algebra in middle school is not optional. All students take it. I'm not sure if that's the case at the other schools. Does anyone know?


Ya, I feel like that is why BASIS is not on this measurement -- all the kids take the same schedule for math, which including algebra and geometry.(excepting a very small number who accelerate, like less than a handful). So everyone is "advanced." I was wondering why that school was not on that spreadsheet.


Basis tries to game the system by having their ninth graders take Algebra I CAPE, even though they take the class in middle school. They don’t take CAPE aligned with the classes thr students are currently taking. So it makes their high school scores look better because at many high schools the less successful students take algebra 1 in 9th.
Anonymous
Post 08/21/2025 20:07     Subject: Re:DC CAPE SCORES
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Here are the Advanced Middle School Math Results

Top 15 Middle Schools Algebra I 4+ (Meeting, Exceeding)

Deal Middle School 92.0
MacFarland Middle School 86.2
Hardy Middle School 83.9
Washington Latin PCS - Middle School 81.8
John Francis Education Campus 75.0
Stuart-Hobson Middle School (Capitol Hill Cluster) 69.6
Ida B. Wells Middle School 68.0
Eliot-Hine Middle School 65.5
Oyster-Adams Bilingual School 59.1
Jefferson Middle School Academy 50.0
E.L. Haynes PCS - Middle School 44.8
Kelly Miller Middle School 42.9
Washington Latin PCS - Anna Julia Cooper Middle School 37.5
DC Prep PCS - Edgewood Middle School 35.3
Inspired Teaching Demonstration PCS 30.8


Top 15 Middle Schools Algebra I 3+ (Approaching, Meeting, Exceeding)

Deal Middle School 98.6
MacFarland Middle School >95%
John Francis Education Campus >=90%
Hardy Middle School 94.9
Washington Latin PCS - Middle School 92.2
Stuart-Hobson Middle School (Capitol Hill Cluster) 87.5
Ida B. Wells Middle School 80.0
Eliot-Hine Middle School 75.9
Oyster-Adams Bilingual School 72.7
Kelly Miller Middle School 71.4
Jefferson Middle School Academy 71.4
Washington Latin PCS - Anna Julia Cooper Middle School 60.9
DC Prep PCS - Edgewood Middle School 54.9
McKinley Middle School 54.5
Inspired Teaching Demonstration PCS 53.8


It should be noted that at ITDS, Algebra in middle school is not optional. All students take it. I'm not sure if that's the case at the other schools. Does anyone know?


Ya, I feel like that is why BASIS is not on this measurement -- all the kids take the same schedule for math, which including algebra and geometry.(excepting a very small number who accelerate, like less than a handful). So everyone is "advanced." I was wondering why that school was not on that spreadsheet.
Anonymous
Post 08/21/2025 19:59     Subject: DC CAPE SCORES
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:It's a shame the Empower Dashboard doesn't let you look at non-economically disadvantaged students (it says it does, but the graphs don't show), because that's actually what I'd like to see. Relying on white as an imperfect proxy, for all students in ES specifically, you get a VERY different list than the "top" list above... which really shows how much that list is just demographics driven.

Top 15 ELA:
Shepherd 93
Chisholm 93
Ludlow-Taylor 92
Stoddert 90
Hyde-Addison 90
Maury 88
EL Haynes 86
Payne 86
Oyster-Adams 85
Bancroft 85
Janney 85
Lafayette 84
Murch 84
SWS 83
Mundo Verde - Cook 82

Top 15 Math:
Hearst 93
Lewis 93
Shepherd 90
Lafayette 90
Ross 90
SWS 89
Brent 88
Watkins 97
Maury 87
Stoddert 87
Murch 85
Eaton 85
Garrison 85
Chisholm 81
Ludlow-Taylor 81

One thing I think is interesting about the above list is that lots of these schools are very diverse and so don't do as well "overall." But it seems to me that as a parent what you should care about is how your kid would do and this seems to give the best view of that for UMC families. It's actually encouraging to me that it suggests a diverse set of classmates is not a negative and could be a positive even looking only at test scores. (It semes like it's obviously a positive overall.) The other thing this makes very clear is that DCPSes do much better than Charters for ES when you compare like populations.


Plenty of non-economically disadvantaged kids going to elementary schools with <25% white students, but because of data suppression almost none of those schools show up on your list.

It's really not a great proxy at the elementary school level.


I don't think your complaint is actually that it's not a good proxy (it is definitely under-inclusive, but not terribly over-inclusive), it's just that data suppression means lots of schools lack data for the proxy. I don't disagree. I wouldn't look at this list and draw negative conclusions about other schools where data isn't reported. Instead, I looks at Shepherd, Chisholm and Ludlow-Taylor and notice they aren't Mann and Key, which is interesting. None of the three are majority white and CERTAINLY not at the testing level. 2 of the 3 have 20%+ at risk populations in the testing grades. That's valuable information.


Is the valuable information that white students at schools with lots of rich white kids score just about as well as white students at schools with even more rich white kids?
Anonymous
Post 08/21/2025 19:18     Subject: Re:DC CAPE SCORES
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Here are the Advanced Middle School Math Results

Top 15 Middle Schools Algebra I 4+ (Meeting, Exceeding)

Deal Middle School 92.0
MacFarland Middle School 86.2
Hardy Middle School 83.9
Washington Latin PCS - Middle School 81.8
John Francis Education Campus 75.0
Stuart-Hobson Middle School (Capitol Hill Cluster) 69.6
Ida B. Wells Middle School 68.0
Eliot-Hine Middle School 65.5
Oyster-Adams Bilingual School 59.1
Jefferson Middle School Academy 50.0
E.L. Haynes PCS - Middle School 44.8
Kelly Miller Middle School 42.9
Washington Latin PCS - Anna Julia Cooper Middle School 37.5
DC Prep PCS - Edgewood Middle School 35.3
Inspired Teaching Demonstration PCS 30.8


Top 15 Middle Schools Algebra I 3+ (Approaching, Meeting, Exceeding)

Deal Middle School 98.6
MacFarland Middle School >95%
John Francis Education Campus >=90%
Hardy Middle School 94.9
Washington Latin PCS - Middle School 92.2
Stuart-Hobson Middle School (Capitol Hill Cluster) 87.5
Ida B. Wells Middle School 80.0
Eliot-Hine Middle School 75.9
Oyster-Adams Bilingual School 72.7
Kelly Miller Middle School 71.4
Jefferson Middle School Academy 71.4
Washington Latin PCS - Anna Julia Cooper Middle School 60.9
DC Prep PCS - Edgewood Middle School 54.9
McKinley Middle School 54.5
Inspired Teaching Demonstration PCS 53.8


It should be noted that at ITDS, Algebra in middle school is not optional. All students take it. I'm not sure if that's the case at the other schools. Does anyone know?


I think the bigger schools offer more choice of 8th grade math vs Algebra. ITDS will give you some "Algebra for All!" philosophy rationale, but the truth is it just isn't a big enough school to offer a lot of options to small groups of kids.
Anonymous
Post 08/21/2025 19:16     Subject: DC CAPE SCORES
That helps explain the lower score. DCPS has multiple math tracks of which Algebra is only one. Some of the DC schools also have an 8th grade Geometry cohort.
Anonymous
Post 08/21/2025 18:57     Subject: Re:DC CAPE SCORES
Anonymous wrote:Here are the Advanced Middle School Math Results

Top 15 Middle Schools Algebra I 4+ (Meeting, Exceeding)

Deal Middle School 92.0
MacFarland Middle School 86.2
Hardy Middle School 83.9
Washington Latin PCS - Middle School 81.8
John Francis Education Campus 75.0
Stuart-Hobson Middle School (Capitol Hill Cluster) 69.6
Ida B. Wells Middle School 68.0
Eliot-Hine Middle School 65.5
Oyster-Adams Bilingual School 59.1
Jefferson Middle School Academy 50.0
E.L. Haynes PCS - Middle School 44.8
Kelly Miller Middle School 42.9
Washington Latin PCS - Anna Julia Cooper Middle School 37.5
DC Prep PCS - Edgewood Middle School 35.3
Inspired Teaching Demonstration PCS 30.8


Top 15 Middle Schools Algebra I 3+ (Approaching, Meeting, Exceeding)

Deal Middle School 98.6
MacFarland Middle School >95%
John Francis Education Campus >=90%
Hardy Middle School 94.9
Washington Latin PCS - Middle School 92.2
Stuart-Hobson Middle School (Capitol Hill Cluster) 87.5
Ida B. Wells Middle School 80.0
Eliot-Hine Middle School 75.9
Oyster-Adams Bilingual School 72.7
Kelly Miller Middle School 71.4
Jefferson Middle School Academy 71.4
Washington Latin PCS - Anna Julia Cooper Middle School 60.9
DC Prep PCS - Edgewood Middle School 54.9
McKinley Middle School 54.5
Inspired Teaching Demonstration PCS 53.8


It should be noted that at ITDS, Algebra in middle school is not optional. All students take it. I'm not sure if that's the case at the other schools. Does anyone know?
Anonymous
Post 08/21/2025 18:56     Subject: DC CAPE SCORES
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Elementary schools where more than a third of economically disadvantaged kids got a 4+ on CAPE:

Math:
Lafayette
Brent
Whittier
Friendship Chamberlain
Barnard

English:
Lafayette
Early Childhood Academy
Friendship Chamberlain
Hyde-Addison
Shepherd
Center City Congress Heights
Whittier
Stokes
Janney
Stoddert
DC Prep Benning
Powell



Interesting that even though some of the very highly rated schools serve some percentage of at-risk kids, those schools don't show up on this list for high(ish) proficiency of their at-risk students. There are probably lots of other benefits those kids are getting but it seems like there should be higher proficiency too. For example, DC Bilingual or Yu Ying. Perhaps the benefits of learning a second language will eventually help overall proficiency. Also surprised to not see KIPP or Rocketship.


Glad Center City and DC Prep are still doing well with at-risk kids, though. Once upon a time, you're right, DC Bilingual's numbers with at-risk kids were excellent.
Anonymous
Post 08/21/2025 18:50     Subject: DC CAPE SCORES
Anonymous wrote:Elementary schools where more than a third of economically disadvantaged kids got a 4+ on CAPE:

Math:
Lafayette
Brent
Whittier
Friendship Chamberlain
Barnard

English:
Lafayette
Early Childhood Academy
Friendship Chamberlain
Hyde-Addison
Shepherd
Center City Congress Heights
Whittier
Stokes
Janney
Stoddert
DC Prep Benning
Powell



Interesting that even though some of the very highly rated schools serve some percentage of at-risk kids, those schools don't show up on this list for high(ish) proficiency of their at-risk students. There are probably lots of other benefits those kids are getting but it seems like there should be higher proficiency too. For example, DC Bilingual or Yu Ying. Perhaps the benefits of learning a second language will eventually help overall proficiency. Also surprised to not see KIPP or Rocketship.
Anonymous
Post 08/21/2025 18:28     Subject: Re:DC CAPE SCORES
Here are the Advanced Middle School Math Results

Top 15 Middle Schools Algebra I 4+ (Meeting, Exceeding)

Deal Middle School 92.0
MacFarland Middle School 86.2
Hardy Middle School 83.9
Washington Latin PCS - Middle School 81.8
John Francis Education Campus 75.0
Stuart-Hobson Middle School (Capitol Hill Cluster) 69.6
Ida B. Wells Middle School 68.0
Eliot-Hine Middle School 65.5
Oyster-Adams Bilingual School 59.1
Jefferson Middle School Academy 50.0
E.L. Haynes PCS - Middle School 44.8
Kelly Miller Middle School 42.9
Washington Latin PCS - Anna Julia Cooper Middle School 37.5
DC Prep PCS - Edgewood Middle School 35.3
Inspired Teaching Demonstration PCS 30.8


Top 15 Middle Schools Algebra I 3+ (Approaching, Meeting, Exceeding)

Deal Middle School 98.6
MacFarland Middle School >95%
John Francis Education Campus >=90%
Hardy Middle School 94.9
Washington Latin PCS - Middle School 92.2
Stuart-Hobson Middle School (Capitol Hill Cluster) 87.5
Ida B. Wells Middle School 80.0
Eliot-Hine Middle School 75.9
Oyster-Adams Bilingual School 72.7
Kelly Miller Middle School 71.4
Jefferson Middle School Academy 71.4
Washington Latin PCS - Anna Julia Cooper Middle School 60.9
DC Prep PCS - Edgewood Middle School 54.9
McKinley Middle School 54.5
Inspired Teaching Demonstration PCS 53.8
Anonymous
Post 08/21/2025 17:40     Subject: DC CAPE SCORES
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:It's a shame the Empower Dashboard doesn't let you look at non-economically disadvantaged students (it says it does, but the graphs don't show), because that's actually what I'd like to see. Relying on white as an imperfect proxy, for all students in ES specifically, you get a VERY different list than the "top" list above... which really shows how much that list is just demographics driven.

Top 15 ELA:
Shepherd 93
Chisholm 93
Ludlow-Taylor 92
Stoddert 90
Hyde-Addison 90
Maury 88
EL Haynes 86
Payne 86
Oyster-Adams 85
Bancroft 85
Janney 85
Lafayette 84
Murch 84
SWS 83
Mundo Verde - Cook 82

Top 15 Math:
Hearst 93
Lewis 93
Shepherd 90
Lafayette 90
Ross 90
SWS 89
Brent 88
Watkins 97
Maury 87
Stoddert 87
Murch 85
Eaton 85
Garrison 85
Chisholm 81
Ludlow-Taylor 81

One thing I think is interesting about the above list is that lots of these schools are very diverse and so don't do as well "overall." But it seems to me that as a parent what you should care about is how your kid would do and this seems to give the best view of that for UMC families. It's actually encouraging to me that it suggests a diverse set of classmates is not a negative and could be a positive even looking only at test scores. (It semes like it's obviously a positive overall.) The other thing this makes very clear is that DCPSes do much better than Charters for ES when you compare like populations.


Totally agree with this. The longer I stay in the DC school system, the less helpful I think this data is for non-at-risk families except to make everyone lottery for the same schools, increasing segregation.


The longer I have kids in the system (elementary and middle), the more I think that CAPE is a very limited data point when comparing schools, whose curriculums vary pretty widely.


+1. I have kids in middle and high school, and I can now understand why most states did away with this test. Of all the many tests my kids have taken over the years, CAPE/PARCC has been the least accurate in showing whether my kids are meeting or exceeding grade expectations.


Interesting. I figured they were pretty reliable because my kid graduated from scoring 5s on CAPE/PARCC to scoring 5s on AP exams. Why do you say the CAPE/PARCC exams are inaccurate? Which exams are better?


I am not the PP, but I have found the MAP scores to be much better in telling me about my kid's strengths and weaknesses overall. DC CAPE is fine but more of a snapshot of where they are on one day than a good look at progress from one year to the next.


And downtown just took away science MAP. 🙄
Anonymous
Post 08/21/2025 17:34     Subject: DC CAPE SCORES
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Elementary schools where half or more of Black students got a 4+ on CAPE:

Math:
Key
Lafayette
Ross
Hyde-Addison
Bruce-Monroe
Whittier
Brent
Stoddert

ELA:
LAMB
Shepherd
Hyde-Addison
Lafayette
Stoddert
SWS
Oyster-Adams
Ross
Key
Mann
DC Bilingual


This is certainly good to note. Yet, if you're going to parse out demographic groups, if you have a kid from a privileged background and want to know where they will get a good education, it's more useful to look at how white students do because they are more homogeneous. We all know that there are wealthy as well as impoverished black students, and they're more likely to live in and be highly represented in wealthy neighborhoods' schools.


I think it's useful to know how non-economically-disadvantaged kids do at a school (and until empower does the math, we only have white as a proxy). But if I were trying to figure out where to send a high-achieving black child, I would also want to pick a school that has a decent number of similar kids. A school where most white kids do well and most black kids do poorly--even if my kid would be the exception to that--would not be my top choice. Too much risk that people would make assumptions about my kid, and I'd want my kid to see students who look like them excelling.