Chart of the week: D.C. student assessment results show growth varies by student group

In school year 2024-25, D.C.’s public school students posted their largest gains in learning outcomes as measured by the statewide assessment (CAPE) since before the pandemic. In English Language Arts (ELA), the percentage of all students who met or exceeded expectations was the highest the District has seen in a decade. In Math, the share of all students meeting or exceeding expectations increased by four percentage points over the previous year.

Levels and changes to learning outcomes on the statewide assessment can be challenging to compare as there is extreme variation in outcomes by student group. On average, between school year 2018-19 and school year 2024-25, students with disabilities saw the lowest percentages of students meeting or exceeding expectations in Math (7 percent) and ELA (9 percent). Over the same period, white students saw the largest average share of students meeting or exceeding expectations in Math (75 perceent) and ELA (83 percent). Exclusively comparing student groups by outcomes makes it challenging to identify which student groups are improving by the most relative to their respective starting points.

This chart sets school year 2018-19 (pre-pandemic) as the baseline to which learning outcomes for each subsequent school year and student group are indexed.[1] Results from each school year for each group are presented as a percentage of their baseline. For example, the percentage of economically disadvantaged students who met or exceeded expectations in Math in school year 2024-25 was 69 percent of the percentage of economically disadvantaged students who met or exceeded expectations in Math in school year 2018-19. Conversely, the percentage of English learners who met or exceeded expectations in ELA in school year 2024-25 was 110 percent of the percentage of English learners who met or exceeded expectations in ELA in school year 2018-19.

The chart points to a number of interesting trends and observations.

Outcomes in ELA were more stable than in Math

Among student groups, students with disabilities were the only group to surpass their baseline in Math at any point from 2021-22 to 2024-25. Overall, ELA CAPE results were more stable than Math CAPE results, with all student groups hovering closer to the baseline. Students overall and four of six main student groups met or surpassed the baseline 2018-19 ELA performance by school year 2024-25.

Economically disadvantaged students showed strong growth following pandemic-era challenges

The data show that economically disadvantaged students saw the sharpest decline in performance of all student groups in Math between 2018-19 and 2021-22. However, they recovered more rapidly than other student groups, making strides from 19 percent to 69 percent of their baseline in just two academic years.

Students with disabilities surpasses other student groups in relative gains

While students with disabilities had the lowest number of students meeting or exceeding expectations in both ELA and Math, they showed the strongest indexed growth among all student groups. In school year 2024-25, the percentage of students with disabilities who met or exceeded expectations in ELA was 150% of those who met or exceeded expectations in school year 2018-19, and 129% of the those who met or exceeded expectations in Math in 2018-19.

While there is still significant work to done to improve numeric outcomes on statewide assessments, the indexed scores show promising growth, particularly from pandemic-era lows to school year 2024-25. The results also indicate that growth—and therefore inputs for success—may look different among student groups. For all student groups, additional investments in Math may support more resilient outcomes, in line with ELA results.

[1] The underlying data was indexed using a method from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, outlined here: https://www.dallasfed.org/research/basics/indexing