Teach Where It Matters Most
Change the Path of Public Education
Our students come first in everything we do and together, our team of passionate educators is defying expectations about what DC's students can achieve. We want talented educators to join us at DC Public Schools and help us continue being the fastest improving urban school district in the nation. Are you ready to join us?
Explore Our Schools
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Dual language programs
Through Dual Language education, our students typically enter the program in the early years and develop reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills in a second language over the course of a number of years. The long-term goals of Dual Language education programs are:
- Bilingualism
- Biliteracy
- High academic achievement
- Cultural competency
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Unique Advanced Placement (AP) Courses Offered Across All High Schools
All students at schools that offer AP courses are eligible to take the courses. At least eight AP courses are offered at each comprehensive and application high school, with at least one course in each of the four core subjects. DCPS pays for all students’ AP testing fees.
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Career academies
The goal of our Career Academies is to ensure that DCPS schools are offering high-quality courses that align with DC’s high-wage, high-demand careers. Students enrolled in these programs complete a three or four-year course sequence (in addition to their core high school classes) that includes preparation for industry-recognized certification exams and participation in work-based learning experiences, including internships, job shadowing, and industry field trips.
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Athletic teams
The Department of Athletics is committed to having a sound interscholastic athletic association. DCPS aims to achieve the following:
- Reinforce the concept that interscholastic athletics is a vital, integral part of the total school educational program
- Emphasize standards of scholarship, sportsmanship, and amateurism
- Promote and develop educational leadership physical fitness, athletic excellence, and sports participation
- Initiate, stimulate, and conduct interscholastic athletic programs for student-athletes and strive to promote equal opportunity to members
IMPACT: Evaluation and Feedback System
Great teachers are essential to student success. That is why DCPS teachers who earn Highly Effective ratings are rewarded with bonuses up to $25,000 and can earn up to $3.7 million over the course of their careers through IMPACTplus—DCPS’s performance-based compensation system. By paying teachers what they are worth, DCPS excels at retaining its most effective teachers, particularly in its highest-need schools.
Investing in innovation initiatives
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Empowering Students of Colors
At every level – every step along the way – we are sending the message to our young students of color that they can achieve at the highest levels. Through two initiatives, Empowering Young Women as Leaders (Reign) and Empowering Males of Color (EMOC) we are supporting our Black and brown students, working to close the opportunity gap.
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World Class Education
We believe that all students, regardless of background or circumstance, will graduate prepared for success in college, career and life. A key component of this success demands that DCPS students graduate as globally competent individuals; the goal of the DCPS Global Education program is to cultivate this global competence in all students.
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Student Investment
Investing in our students means investing in our teachers. We work to educate the Whole Child and provide rigorous, joyful, and inclusive academic and social emotional learning experiences to ensure all students are college and career ready. We do this by:
Read More- Supporting teachers in implementing the DCPS curriculum.
- Embedding social-emotional learning in our classrooms and culture.
- Ensuring students read on grade level by 3rd grade.
- Offering new courses and extracurricular activities for middle school students.
- Expanding access to college and career preparation.
- Strengthening instruction for special education students and English Learners.
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Cornerstone Projects
In order to make sure that all our students have access to the same quality education, we launched the Cornerstones initiative, which ensures that all students in the same grade, no matter which DCPS school they’re attending, are receiving the same rigorous instruction.
Read MoreDeveloped by DCPS teachers, Cornerstones make meaningful real-world connections through engaging and rigorous content, and are taught through proven, high-impact instructional models. Students masterfully use academic content to solve real-world problems, prepare for future careers, design sophisticated creative works, and advocate for a better world.
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Dual Language Program
Through Dual Language education, our students typically enter the program in the early years and develop reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills in a second language over the course of a number of years. The long-term goals of Dual Language education programs are:
Read More- Bilingualism
- Biliteracy
- High academic achievement
- Cultural competency
DCPS offers 11 Dual Language programs. Schools in which the entire student population receives dual language education are marked as “whole school”, and those in which only part of the student population receives dual language education are marked as “strand program”.
Change the path of public education
No traditional public school district in the nation has closed the achievement gap between students from low-income backgrounds and their more affluent peers. Individual schools have done it. Some charter school networks have done it. But DCPS is going to be the first large urban school system to do it.
Today, we're at the cutting edge of education reform, doing the work that most districts are just talking about. DCPS is the fastest improving urban school district in the nation.
It all starts with a simple idea: make great teaching the priority. We aim to give every student the chance to learn from an excellent teacher – and defy expectations about what our students are able to achieve.
SUCCESS STORIES
Our Educators
My experience teaching at Whitlock Elementary School has been wonderful. From the day I started serving this culturally wealthy community I was welcomed with open arms.Whitlock Elementary is a place where all students can excel academically, socially, and emotionally. I’m proud to belong to a community where students, families, and staff members feel safe, valued, cared for, engaged, and respected every time they enter the school building.
– Alejandro Diagranados, Elementary Teacher at Whitlock Elementary School and 2021 Teacher of the Year
