Several public elementary and middle schools in D.C. have a strong track record of helping students classified as at-risk improve their learning outcomes—but many neighborhoods with the highest concentration of at-risk students lack easy access to those schools, according to a new report from the D.C. Policy Center.

The report, written by the center’s Education Policy Initiative director Chelsea Coffin, defines “leveler schools” as schools that meet their “at-risk growth target” for improving test scores on the annual state report card, and includes both public and charter schools.

D.C. public schools and charters receive $2,000 in per-student supplemental funds for at-risk students, who constitute 46 percent of the student population, according to last year’s DC School Report Card. Students are classified as at-risk if they qualify for government assistance programs Temporary Assistance for Needy Families or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program; were identified as homeless or in foster care; or are high school students at least one year older than the expected age for their grade.

Test scores for the city’s students have risen in recent years, but growth has been modest and gaps persist. Fewer than 40 percent of D.C. students in third through eighth grade passed either the English or math standardized test last year. More than 60 percentage points separate white and black students who passed the English exam.

“Leveler schools,” the report says, can be helpful in closing the substantial achievement gap between at-risk and not-at-risk students. An average of one in six at-risk students met or exceeded expectations on exams during the 2017-2018 school year, compared with one in two not-at-risk students. Only 16 percent of at-risk students last school year attended a D.C. public school with one of the two highest quality ratings on the DC Schools Report Card.

Large swaths of the city in wards 7 and 8, east of the Anacostia River, have the highest concentration of at-risk students. But many of the schools most likely to serve those students are out of reach geographically.

Only a third of the city’s under-18 population lives within a typical commute from both a leveler elementary school and a leveler middle school; the report speculates that the percentage of at-risk students in close proximity is similar. Another third has access to either an elementary school or a middle school classified as a leveler, but not both.

Ten neighborhoods, mostly east of the Anacostia, have a majority of students—more than 1,000, in some cases—who don’t live within easy public transit access to leveler elementary schools. Access in general is a challenge for many students who would benefit from schools outside their immediate vicinity.

“If all at-risk students could be driven to school, they could access schools in most of the city aside from the most southern point,” Coffin wrote. “However, the leveler middle schools are concentrated in the northern half of D.C., meaning that access to leveler middle schools becomes curtailed if students are commuting on public transit or on foot for 20 minutes.”

Asked how the school system is striving to help at-risk students, Shayne Wells, a spokesperson for D.C. Public Schools, pointed to ongoing efforts including a central office restructuring to focus support on schools in the Anacostia and Ballou feeder patterns; a $4.6 million investment to give every D.C. student in grades 3, 6 and 9 a laptop or tablet next school year; and a new dual language program at Houston Elementary east of the Anacostia.

“D.C. Public Schools is committed to providing every student with a high-quality education, especially our students furthest from opportunity,” Wells wrote in an email.

The report ends with a recommendation for the city to improve public transportation options in areas with a high concentration of at-risk students.

At the school level, though, another solution would be to increase the number of schools that qualify for the report’s “leveler” distinction. Coffin notes that several schools, including Bunker Hill Elementary in Ward 5, don’t meet her “leveler” standard but have still shown notable improvement in helping at-risk students get higher test scores.

She’s advocating for the school system to more systematically monitor schools’ track record when it comes to helping at-risk students, so that more concrete steps can be taken to help reach “leveler” status. Coffin also hopes that soon-to-be-released growth data from D.C. high schools will help provide a more complete picture of how at-risk students navigate the city’s school system.

“We can have schools begin to talk to each other more about successful approaches they’re having with their students,” she tells DCist.