Roots PCS vs LaSalle-Backus ES

Roots PCS and LaSalle-Backus ES sit 0.6 miles apart in Washington, D.C., and both rank among the city's elite elementary schools. Roots PCS holds an overall rating of 9.2/10, edging LaSalle-Backus ES at 9.0/10 by 0.2 points. The state rank gap is equally tight: Roots PCS lands at #6 of 240 in the District of Columbia while LaSalle-Backus ES sits at #9 of 240 — meaning both schools place in the top 4% of all D.C. schools, a genuinely unusual situation for two schools this close together.

On the academic side, Roots PCS scores 8.7/10 versus LaSalle-Backus ES at 8.4/10, a 0.3-point difference that reflects a real but modest academic edge. The growth score tells a sharper story: Roots PCS posts a perfect 10.0/10 while LaSalle-Backus ES earns 9.6/10, a 0.4-point gap that signals Roots PCS is accelerating student progress at an exceptional rate regardless of where students start. For families prioritizing year-over-year gains over baseline attainment, that distinction matters.

The two schools diverge most clearly in size and structure. Roots PCS enrolls 80 students compared to LaSalle-Backus ES's 261 — a more than threefold difference. Despite this, Roots PCS has a student-teacher ratio of 10.0:1 versus LaSalle-Backus ES's 8.4:1, so LaSalle-Backus actually offers slightly more staff per student even at larger enrollment. Roots PCS is a charter school; LaSalle-Backus ES is a regular D.C. public school, which affects enrollment processes, lottery requirements, and the administrative relationship families have with the school.

Both schools serve PK through 5th grade, so grade span is not a differentiator. The practical distinctions come down to school culture and access: Roots PCS's small 80-student community creates an environment where staff know every child by name, while LaSalle-Backus ES operates at roughly three times the scale with the infrastructure, extracurricular capacity, and peer diversity that larger enrollment enables.