It was picture day, so the students in Juliemay Syquio’s third grade math class were dressed in collared shirts and bright dresses when she asked them to focus on the worksheet in front of them and solve a problem about rounding numbers.
The question asked them to count the birds on the page and provide an approximate answer. Her students at Barnard Elementary School in Northwest Washington tackled the exercise at their own pace.
Some sat closer to Syquio in case she needed to oversee their work. Six students huddled with another instructor, who devoted support to them. And a few worked independently in the middle, where one young girl assuredly explained to her peers that she rounded 239 to 240 because “it’s just one number away.”
The small-group instruction is an approach that educators say has been successful in boosting performance by addressing students’ individual needs. It is a prevalent strategy used among the 21 D.C. schools listed in the latest “Bold” report, which highlights schools where at least 30 percent of students are from economically disadvantaged households and the school’s performance exceeded projections on state tests.
The report — released annually by EmpowerK12, an influential education support nonprofit organization — comes as D.C. has spent recent years trying to recover from learning loss during the pandemic, which predominantly affected students of color and students from low-income backgrounds. D.C. has made gains in recent years, with a spring report saying it’s surpassed other jurisdictions for recovery in math and reading.
In 2026, students citywide made progress for the fourth consecutive year in math and English language arts on the D.C. Comprehensive Assessments of Progress in Education. At “Bold” schools, 62 percent of students were approaching expectations or were on track for the next grade, compared to 45 percent of students at other schools in D.C. with similar demographics, according to the report.
For the first time ever, there are more D.C. Public Schools schools highlighted in the report than public charter schools. DCPS’s Whittier Elementary School was deemed the “Boldest” school, with students performing about 37 percentage points above expectations.
The results signal that “school poverty now predicts school performance less than in any year of DC state history, which means more schools that serve high-poverty communities produce strong results,” the report said.
At Barnard, math instructional coach Jessica Greer said she ensures students are “not put in a box” based on their life circumstances.
“What we’re doing here, it may be numbers on a paper, but it could be changing their life,” Greer said. “I used to say when I first started teaching, ‘I’m about changing family trees.’”
The 10th edition of the “Bold report” does not feature high schools for the first time ever. That may be indicative of the students still trying to recover from virtual learning during the pandemic, said Josh Boots, executive director of EmpowerK12. Educators citywide are also facing concerns of older students using artificial intelligence to get answers rather than actually learning the material, he said.
For DCPS elementary schools in the report, Boots partly attributed student progress to the roughly 40-minute “intervention blocks” held during class time, which allow for small-group instruction and for other educators to provide support. The school system has also instituted a pre-K curriculum that aims for students to start kindergarten already at or above readiness levels, Boots said.
The purpose of the “Bold report,” Boots said, is to share the common characteristics of schools that have seen the most success in supporting students from economically disadvantaged households.
School leaders said continually reviewing data gathered from routine assessments has been key to tailoring lesson plans and having a firm grasp on how much information a student has retained.
At Friendship Public Charter Schools, which had four schools on the latest Bold report, teachers use student data from end-of-lesson assessments to shape lesson plans.
Friendship CEO Patricia Brantley said the data can identify “here’s what the whole class might need that I need to emphasize, here’s what these groups of students need and here’s how I’m going to set up those groups.”
Global Citizens Public Charter School, a language immersion school that offers Spanish and Mandarin pathways, ramped up its “teacher community of practice” meetings, said chief executive Natalie Smith. The weekly meetings bring teachers together alongside an instructional leader to share data and shape best practices, she said.
“We realized teachers really want to hear from other teachers,” Smith said. “And sometimes they can learn best from other teachers.”
Syquio, a longtime math teacher at Barnard, said she’s adapted her learning style to teach students why they are learning a certain lesson in a certain way.
“Especially this group,” Syquio of her third-graders with a smile. “They push me by saying, ‘I understand how to do it, but I don’t understand the why.’”
EmpowerK12 recently celebrated the Bold report at D.C. Prep Edgewood Elementary Campus, with an arch of blue and yellow balloons adorning the school and cheerleaders greeting guests with a shake of pompoms.
In addition to highlighting the past year’s successes, Boots offered a prediction: Based on the trajectory of data, EmpowerK12 believes that by 2040, if not as early as 2030, D.C. will be the first jurisdiction in the country’s history where students of color will be performing above the national average.
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