DC high school SAT results aren't reported as average scores. The DC School Report Card, published by the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE), reports the share of each high school's entire senior class that met College Board's college-readiness benchmarks -- at least 480 on reading and writing and 530 on math. In 2024-25, 15.7% of DC's 5,395 public and charter seniors cleared both. The range between schools is extreme: 83.6% at School Without Walls, and under 5% at more than a dozen schools and programs.
How DC measures SAT results
Per OSSE's 2025 technical guide:
- Every senior counts, whether or not they took the SAT. The denominator is all 12th graders enrolled at least 100 days; a student who never tested counts as not meeting the benchmark.
- Best section scores count. OSSE takes each student's highest reading/writing and highest math scores across any SAT taken in the past four years -- the same logic as a college superscore.
- Both benchmarks are required. 480 reading/writing and 530 math. A strong reader who misses the math line doesn't count.
That design avoids the participation problem that skews average-score comparisons elsewhere -- in Maryland, for example, county SAT averages partly reflect how few students tested. In DC, every school is measured against its full senior class. The trade-off: it's a pass rate at a fixed line, not a score, so it can't be compared directly with another state's averages.
DC high schools ranked by SAT college readiness, 2024-25
Schools with a reportable result. "Seniors" is the number of 12th graders in the SAT calculation. Advanced coursework participation is the share of seniors who took AP, IB, or dual enrollment during high school; the AP/IB pass rate is the share of AP or IB test-takers (grades 9-12) who scored 3+ on an AP exam or 4+ on an IB exam. College enrollment is the class of 2023, within 12 months of graduating.
| High school | Sector | SAT college-ready | Seniors | Took AP/IB/dual enrollment | AP/IB pass rate | 4-year grad rate | In college within 12 months |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| School Without Walls | DCPS | 83.6% | 152 | >99% | 93.5% | >99% | 88.0% |
| BASIS DC | Charter | 78.7% | 47 | >95% | 96.2% | >95% | 92.9% |
| Washington Latin (Upper School) | Charter | 59.5% | 84 | 86.9% | 82.4% | 94.2% | 87.5% |
| Benjamin Banneker | DCPS | 59.1% | 127 | >99% | 70.5% | >99% | 90.6% |
| Jackson-Reed | DCPS | 43.7% | 513 | 79.5% | 78.5% | 90.5% | 78.2% |
| McKinley Technology | DCPS | 38.7% | 168 | 98.2% | 51.4% | 98.2% | 82.9% |
| DC International School | Charter | 33.3% | 210 | 96.2% | 81.5% | 94.8% | 79.2% |
| Duke Ellington School of the Arts | DCPS | 21.4% | 131 | 82.4% | 62.8% | >99% | 82.8% |
| E.L. Haynes | Charter | 14.9% | 94 | 76.6% | 54.0% | 94.9% | 53.5% |
| Washington Leadership Academy | Charter | 13.7% | 73 | 75.3% | 17.6% | 91.9% | 45.9% |
| Paul PCS International | Charter | 11.2% | 107 | 53.3% | 48.5% | 93.7% | 65.3% |
| Richard Wright PCS | Charter | 10.2% | 49 | 20.4% | 20.0% | 77.6% | 47.3% |
| Columbia Heights Education Campus | DCPS | 10.2% | 235 | 93.6% | 21.5% | 83.7% | 55.0% |
| Ron Brown College Prep | DCPS | 9.5% | 42 | 59.5% | 14.0% | 92.7% | 63.9% |
| KIPP DC College Prep | Charter | 9.2% | 196 | 61.2% | 23.0% | 86.4% | 57.3% |
| Friendship Technology Prep | Charter | 7.8% | 64 | 68.8% | 10.8% | >95% | 44.9% |
| Capital City (High School) | Charter | 7.6% | 79 | 62.0% | 48.9% | 86.2% | 76.5% |
| IDEA PCS | Charter | 6.4% | 78 | 10.3% | -- | 87.5% | 40.5% |
| Cesar Chavez Public Policy | Charter | 6.1% | 33 | 45.5% | <5% | 67.6% | 47.2% |
| Digital Pioneers Academy | Charter | 6.0% | 67 | 29.9% | <5% | 82.7% | -- |
| Eastern | DCPS | 5.9% | 187 | 48.7% | 32.8% | 79.0% | 42.7% |
| Friendship Collegiate Academy | Charter | 4.0% | 176 | 56.8% | 24.5% | 81.4% | 46.9% |
| Roosevelt | DCPS | 3.7% | 218 | 40.4% | 37.6% | 85.4% | 36.5% |
| Coolidge | DCPS | 3.5% | 254 | 31.1% | 40.9% | 79.9% | 56.2% |
| H.D. Woodson | DCPS | 2.3% | 133 | 41.4% | 11.1% | 82.9% | 40.8% |
| Cardozo Education Campus | DCPS | 2.3% | 130 | 38.5% | 43.8% | 70.7% | 39.1% |
| Dunbar | DCPS | 2.3% | 218 | 28.9% | 19.5% | 81.9% | 55.3% |
OSSE reports results below 5% only as a range ("<5%" or "<1%"), so schools at that level aren't ranked individually. Among regular high schools, that group includes Anacostia, Ballou (<1%), Bard High School Early College DC, Phelps ACE, The SEED PCS, Thurgood Marshall Academy PCS, KIPP DC Legacy College Prep, and Maya Angelou PCS. Adult, alternative, and juvenile-justice programs are left out of the table.
SAT readiness and college-going don't always line up
The top of the table mostly holds together: the schools with the highest SAT readiness also post high AP/IB pass rates and college enrollment, led by BASIS DC, where 92.9% of the class of 2023 was in college within a year.
Lower down, the two measures split. Bard High School Early College DC reported under 5% SAT college-readiness, but 62.8% of its class of 2023 enrolled in college within 12 months. Thurgood Marshall Academy (under 5% SAT-ready) sent 71.2%, and Capital City (7.6%) sent 76.5%. SAT benchmarks measure one test on one day; college enrollment depends on much more, including counseling and early-college programs that let students earn credit before graduating.
The gaps by student group are as wide as the gaps by school. Districtwide, 70.1% of white seniors and 66.2% of Asian seniors met both benchmarks, compared with 12.9% of Hispanic/Latino seniors, 7.9% of Black seniors, and 3.9% of economically disadvantaged seniors.
DC overall
| Measure | DC, 2024-25 report |
|---|---|
| Seniors meeting both SAT benchmarks | 15.7% (of 5,395) |
| Seniors who took AP, IB, or dual enrollment | 51.7% |
| AP/IB test-takers passing (3+ AP / 4+ IB) | 53.4% |
| Four-year graduation rate | 78.7% |
| Class of 2023 in college within 12 months | 59.5% |
| Class of 2024 in college within 6 months | 55.3% |
What this means for you
- Use the SAT-ready rate as a whole-class measure. Because every senior counts, a school's rate tells you what share of all its students reached the benchmarks, not just its strongest testers.
- Read it alongside college enrollment. Several schools with low SAT readiness still send most graduates to college.
- For DC's top scorers, the bar is much higher. D.C. shares the highest National Merit Semifinalist cutoff in the country -- see D.C.'s cutoff of 223.
- Every DC graduate heading to college should know about DCTAG. It pays up to $15,000 a year toward out-of-state tuition at public colleges nationwide -- see the 2026-27 DC Tuition Assistance Grant.
Sources
- DC School Report Card: Advanced Coursework and SAT Metric Scores, SY2024-25 — Office of the State Superintendent of Education
- DC School Report Card: Graduation and College Enrollment Metric Scores, SY2024-25 — OSSE
- 2025 DC School Report Card Technical Guide (September 22, 2025 update) — OSSE
- DC School Report Card Resource Library — OSSE