EmpowerK12 research
Reports, briefs and evaluations since 2018. Every report is readable here, with its key findings up top, the PDF beside it, and links to the research it builds on.
Evaluation · October 2025
A quasi-experimental look at high-impact tutoring in DC during 2024-25: math and reading growth, plus what students, caregivers and tutor providers said.
Brief · May 2024
Winter 2023-24 nationally normed scores show DC students gaining more than a typical year in math and reading, with gaps to pre-COVID norms remaining. K-2 literacy on pace to recover within a year.
Brief · October 2023
Where early-grade reading and number skills stand after the steep declines of 2021-22: progress on both, with math still below pre-pandemic levels.
Brief · May 2022
Spring 2022 ThriveK12 survey results on how students and educators experienced school during the pandemic, with DC charter networks and GW's Center for Health and Health Care in Schools.
Brief · April 2020
An early estimate of what closures and distance learning could do to DC achievement, from research on school interruptions.
Ten years of Bold Schools
Ten years of interviews with the leadership teams of DC's Bold Performance Schools, distilled into the ten things they do. The biggest takeaway of the 2026 report.
Read the ten practicesEvergreen pieces that answer a question in plain words, with the research linked.
Why the amount of instructional time mattersWhy collaboration is key in education2026 DC CAPE results, a deep diveThe dashboards every report draws on, updated as DC releases results.
DC CAPE dashboardAll public dashboardsdcboldschools.orgOne note when a report or brief is published. Nothing else.