D.C. Leads the Nation in Academic Growth, Ranks 1st in Both Math and Reading Recovery

On Wednesday, May 13, Harvard University issued the following press release highlighting DC's standing among states in education recovery across math and reading since the pandemic.

(May 13, 2026) In its fourth year, the Education Scorecard (a collaboration between the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University, The Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University, and faculty at Dartmouth College) is issuing its annual report on district-level student growth in math and reading.

The latest report provides a high-resolution picture of where District of Columbia students’ academic recovery stands, combining state test results for roughly 35 million grade 3–8 students nationwide with national assessment data to describe changes in local communities. Here’s what we found: 

District of Columbia:

• The District of Columbia ranks 1st out of 38 states in academic growth in math and 1st out of 35 states in reading between 2022 and 2025—leading the nation in recovery in both subjects.
• In math, the average student is performing .67 grade equivalents above their 2022 level but remains .4 grade equivalents below 2019 levels.
• In reading, the average student is performing almost .34 grade equivalents above their 2022 level but remains .15 grade equivalents below 2019 levels.
• There is some good news on chronic absenteeism (students missing more than 10% of a school year), which has fallen from over 46% in 2022 to under 40% in 2025. However, chronic absence rates still remain about 10 percentage points above pre-pandemic levels.
• D.C. received about $600 million in federal pandemic relief for K–12 schools—roughly $6,800 per student, among the highest per-pupil investments in the nation. Our analysis finds that the gains in many high-poverty schools were driven by this federal support. Now that the federal relief is gone, D.C. should focus school improvement dollars on strategies that will continue to accelerate student learning.

“The pandemic was the mudslide that followed seven years of erosion in student achievement,” said Professor Tom Kane, faculty director of the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University. “The ‘learning recession’ started a decade ago, after policymakers switched off the early warning system of test-based accountability and social media took over children’s lives. In this report, we highlight the work of a small group of state leaders who have started digging out by changing how students learn to read, and 108 local school districts that are finding ways to get students learning again. The recovery of U.S. education has begun. But it’s up to the rest of us to spread it.” 

Spotlight: District of Columbia Public Schools and OSSE

The District of Columbia’s #1 rankings in both math and reading recovery are the product of a decade-long, multi-layered investment in instruction, tutoring, and attendance that cuts across schools, city agencies, and philanthropy. On math, the DC Math Task Force—established in October 2024—published a 2025 report with recommendations across five areas, and the Capital Math Collective, a landmark $20 million public-private partnership led by the DC Public Education Fund, is funding two new DCPS Math Centers, high-impact tutoring for more than 6,000 students, and a Trinity Washington University graduate-level credential program for up to 1,000 math teachers and coaches. On literacy, OSSE secured a new $50 million Comprehensive Literacy State Development grant in 2024 following a first grant that produced gains of up to 16 percentage points for over 17,000 students— 90% economically disadvantaged—and has expanded LETRS training to over 650 educators with $1,000 completion stipends. DCPS developed a proprietary K–5 literacy curriculum including the Readers Next Door decodable book series written and illustrated by DCPS educators to reflect the diverse identities of DC students, while the DC Reading Clinic provides real-time coaching in structured literacy. High-impact tutoring has been a particular strength: the OSSE HIT Initiative, launched in 2021, now serves over 10,000 students through more than 30 providers across over 100 schools and community-based sites, and a 2025 EmpowerK12 study found that tutored students gained the equivalent of 59 additional instructional days in math compared to similar peers. A 2025 Stanford study independently confirmed that DC students who received tutoring were more likely to attend school and showed greater academic growth. School and district leadership is organized through a nine-cluster model with Instructional Superintendents building principal capacity and sharing strategies that are working across schools, while the IMPACT teacher evaluation system—tied to performance bonuses—has produced a 94% retention rate for teachers rated Effective or Highly Effective. For the full case study, click here.

“DC’s continued academic progress shows what is possible when students are in school consistently, engaged in their learning, and supported by strong instruction,” said Dr. Antoinette S. Mitchell, State Superintendent of Education. “We work with teachers and school districts citywide and are committed to the practices that work—improving attendance, deepening student engagement, and partnering with families—so we can sustain and build on this momentum.”

2025 District of Columbia Full Report

DC Public Schools Education Recovery Scorecard Case Study