What Is Student Achievement? 

At DCPS, we measure our success by how well our students are achieving. We believe that all children can achieve at the highest levels, and that it is our job to enable this.

Our goal is to ensure that students are performing at or above grade-level and ultimately graduating on time, prepared for college and employment.

One way that we measure student achievement is by student performance on the periodic and annual assessments. The periodic assessment, the DC Benchmark Assessment System (DC BAS), helps us track student progress and achievement throughout the year for students in grades 3-10. Student performance on the DC BAS gives us an indication of how well students will then perform on the the DC Comprehensive Assessment System (DC CAS). The DC CAS is administered once a year and shows us how well students are meeting grade-level standards.

DCPS measures student achievement in a variety of other ways as well, including students' mastery of standards by content area, promotion rates, on-time graduation rates and college-readiness indicators. 

We also evaluate student performance and achievement through several qualitative means, such as observing student engagement and participation in the classroom and reviewing student coursework and portfolios.