Burroughs ES vs DC Bilingual PCS

DC Bilingual PCS ranks #1 of 240 elementary schools in Washington, D.C., carrying an overall rating of 9.7/10. Burroughs ES, 2.1 miles away, sits at #12 of 240 — placing it in the top 5 percent of District elementaries — yet its 8.9/10 overall score trails DC Bilingual PCS by 0.8 points. Both schools clear the bar most parents set, but the gap between first and twelfth is real when a family's enrollment window is open.

On the core academic measures, DC Bilingual PCS leads across the board. Its academic score of 9.3/10 tops Burroughs ES's 8.6/10 by 0.7 points. The growth gap is wider: DC Bilingual PCS posts a 9.9/10 growth score against Burroughs ES's 9.0/10 — a 0.9-point difference. Growth tracks how much students advance relative to peers who started at the same level, so a 9.9 signals that DC Bilingual PCS students are outpacing comparable cohorts by an unusually wide margin.

DC Bilingual PCS enrolls 579 students, nearly twice Burroughs ES's 297. Despite that larger enrollment, DC Bilingual PCS maintains a tighter student-teacher ratio of 8.4:1, compared to 9.9:1 at Burroughs ES — roughly 1.5 fewer students per teacher. That combination of greater scale and smaller class sizes indicates DC Bilingual PCS has staffed up proportionally more than Burroughs ES, delivering individualized attention at higher volume.

Both schools serve pre-K through fifth grade, covering identical grade spans. The structural difference is governance: Burroughs ES is a traditional neighborhood public school with residential boundary enrollment, while DC Bilingual PCS is a public charter school with open, lottery-based admissions citywide. That distinction shapes access directly — Burroughs ES is automatic for families in its attendance zone, whereas DC Bilingual PCS requires an application any D.C. resident can submit.