Key ES vs DC Bilingual PCS

DC Bilingual PCS ranks #1 of 240 schools in the District of Columbia with an overall rating of 9.7/10, placing it 0.3 points above Key ES, which holds the #4 position at 9.4/10. Both schools sit at the very top of the city's elementary landscape, but that three-tenths of a point separates the district's absolute best from a school that still outperforms 236 of its peers. For families whose decision hinges on published rankings alone, DC Bilingual PCS holds the edge — but the underlying scores tell a more complicated story.

On raw academic proficiency, Key ES scores a perfect 10.0/10 compared to DC Bilingual PCS's 9.3/10 — a 0.7-point gap that reflects meaningfully higher tested achievement. The growth picture reverses that advantage: DC Bilingual PCS posts a 9.9/10 growth score versus Key ES's 9.0/10, a full point higher, indicating that DC Bilingual PCS is accelerating students' learning trajectories at a notably faster rate. Families who prioritize where a child scores today will lean toward Key ES; those who prioritize how quickly a child progresses will lean toward DC Bilingual PCS.

Key ES enrolls 347 students versus DC Bilingual PCS's 579 — a difference of 232 students, giving Key ES a meaningfully smaller school feel. The student-teacher ratio at Key ES is 12.4:1 compared to 8.4:1 at DC Bilingual PCS, meaning DC Bilingual PCS averages roughly four fewer students per teacher — a significant structural advantage for individualized attention despite its larger overall enrollment. Key ES is a traditional DCPS neighborhood school serving grades PK–05, while DC Bilingual PCS operates as a public charter across the same grade span.

DC Bilingual PCS, as its name signals, is built around a bilingual (Spanish-English) dual-language program — a defining program distinction that Key ES does not offer. Key ES is a DCPS neighborhood school, meaning local families have a default enrollment path that charter families at DC Bilingual PCS must navigate through the DC lottery. The two schools sit 5.4 miles apart in Washington, D.C., both serving the same PK–05 age range, so the choice comes down to program type, access pathway, and which performance dimension — peak proficiency or student growth — matters most to a given family.