Press Release: EmpowerK12 Awards More “Bold Performance” Honors Than Ever Before

News Release — EmpowerK12

November 7, 2019

Contact: Josh Boots

A record number of winning schools – 28 traditional and public charter campuses – indicates that more DC schools are dramatically improving the achievement of DC’s at‐risk students 

WASHINGTON – Coming on the heels of nation-leading growth on NAEP, the Nation’s Report Card, a record 28 DC schools have met EmpowerK12’s criteria for Bold Performance awards in 2019. Bold Performance award-winning schools are open enrollment schools that serve a high at-risk student population and have combined math and English language arts proficiency rates dramatically higher than similar schools. 

Together, the 28 schools educate 10,759 students, of which 18% receive special education services and 57% are considered at-risk, ranging from 32% to 86%. An at-risk student is a child whose family qualifies for SNAP or TANF benefits, is placed in foster care, or is experiencing homelessness. 

Seventeen of the Bold Performance award-winning and honorable-mention schools are located east of the Anacostia River in Ward 7 and Ward 8, three in Ward 6, four in Ward 5, two in Ward 4, and one each in Wards 2 and 1. Six 2019 winners have been Bold Performers each of the last four years, since the awards began: DC Prep Benning Elementary, DC Prep Edgewood Middle, Ketcham Elementary, KIPP Lead, KIPP Heights and KIPP Promise. 

EmpowerK12, a nonprofit supporting District public and public charter schools to implement data-driven instructional practices, analyzed the 2019 Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) data and found that at-risk concentration was the most predictive indicator of school-wide PARCC proficiency. Almost 45% of DC students tested in Spring 2019 were considered at-risk. The more at-risk students a school serves, the fewer the number who met expectations on PARCC, EmpowerK12’s analysis found. Other factors with a statistically significant impact on a school’s proficiency rate after controlling for percent at-risk served include percent special education, English language learners, race, and grade-level configuration. The 2019 model for Bold Performance includes all factors with a statistically significant impact, with at-risk contributing the most weight. 

EmpowerK12 used an ensemble of machine learning models to project what percentage of students were expected to be proficient at every school given their demographics, and then identified schools with actual proficiency rates significantly higher than expected. The 2019 Bold Performance award-winning schools have actual proficiency rates at least 10 percentage points higher than schools with similar demographics. 

KIPP Promise leads the pack with a proficiency rate 33 points higher than similar schools—and combined proficiency higher than a few Ward 3 schools with considerably more affluent populations. At four of the Bold Performance schools, at-risk students have a higher math and ELA combined proficiency rate than non at-risk students District-wide: DC Prep Edgewood MS, KIPP Heights, KIPP Lead and KIPP Promise. 

When DC Mayor Muriel Bowser announced in August the results from the 2019 PARCC assessments, a fourth consecutive year of improvement was tempered by another year of low proficiency overall. Only 31 % of DC students citywide meet or exceed expectations in math, and 37% in English language arts (ELA). The outcomes for students who meet the DC definition of “at-risk” were even lower, with just 16% of those students meeting the proficiency standard in math, and 21% meeting it in ELA. On PARCC, students in two of the city’s lowest- performing student groups, at-risk and black males, are more than 35% more likely to be proficient at Bold Performance schools than other DC schools. 

EmpowerK12 believes that by 2029, the District of Columbia can become the first urban jurisdiction in America to close the national achievement gap for low-income students, if all schools follow these effective practices of Bold schools: 

• They use data and information in frequent and intentional ways; 
• They collaborate across classrooms as well as across schools; 
• They ensure students are ready to learn by creating a warm social-emotional environment; and 
• They hold the highest of expectations for all students. 

EmpowerK12 Executive Director Josh Boots said, “As DC celebrates being the fastest-improving state in the nation, we should also acknowledge exemplary schools whose sustained performance exceeds expectations. Bold Performance schools are chipping away, and in some cases shattering, the achievement gap that divides our nation’s students by household income. We will continue to honor Bold Performance schools on an annual basis until the day when socio-economic hardship no longer correlates with lower achievement in the District of Columbia.” 

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EmpowerK12’s Bold Performance analysis: https://empowerk12.org/bold-performance-schools