District of Columbia International School

Posted: September 23, 2025

Posted: September 23, 2025

Posted: September 23, 2025

Posted: September 23, 2025

Posted: September 23, 2025

Posted: September 23, 2025

Posted: September 23, 2025

Posted: September 23, 2025

Overall this school is not very great. One of the only good accommodations this school has is that it has many language tracks to choose from. I have seen many children become depressed from the teaching work, and atmosphere. Additionally the teaching is not great and the students barely learn anything. They also come home with ours of homework with little to no productivity. Even if you are in a sports program or miss a day it is not well coordinated and you will have to make up a bunch of work. Overall I would highly recommend you do not enroll any children in this school.

Posted: March 9, 2024

Wow! I wish I would’ve saw the reviews surrounding this school prior to enrolling my child. Children are being assaulted in the school and leadership pass it off as if it didn’t happened. The false reviews of good experience a done to increase enrollment. Children have to worry about their safety and wellbeing instead of leading. The 6 grade principal Ms. Galpin, is by far the worst principal I’ve ever interacted with. You can’t be a concern parent or you’re the problem. I had called the police a number of times regarding assault and reported bullying in the school and the principal stated “I don’t consider those incidents to be bullying” my son was chocked, slammed against the wall in the hall way during anti bullying month 10/2023 and still haven’t had a meeting with the principal regarding this incident. Several other incidents happened after that and the principal stated she’s getting a PHD in Bullying. The moment I heard her say that let me know all I need to know about what type of leader she is. Her staff is force to lie in order to keep their jobs. Video footage is only allowed to be seen if it’s something minor but if your child was assaulted like my son was video footage is not allowed to be seen.

Posted: March 9, 2024

Posted: March 9, 2024

Posted: March 9, 2024

Posted: March 9, 2024

Posted: March 9, 2024

Posted: January 24, 2022

We really wanted to like DCI, but overall we felt unsupported as parents for trying to counter negative behaviors that were picked up at the school (and appear to go unchecked). Our child was a student here over several years, and while they are naturally bright, have always wanted to fit in with the cool crowd. In other words, they're one of the kids goofing off to try getting the laughs, or just hanging out in the back barely paying attention and doing the minimal amount needed to get a passing grade.

The school's ethos is to let students exercise their own autonomy so they can take responsibility for their own learning. That's nice in theory but the reality is that some students cannot, or choose not to, focus on learning if nobody is really creating a culture of expectations for them. And if some kids are acting out without consequence, it's easy for other kids to start joining in to also get the status of being a rebel. Many kids who are intrinsically motivated may not be tripped up by this, but our experience is that our child has fallen into this time and again. And when we've reached out for help from the school to try and curb this stuff, we have heard affirming words but little follow through.

Also, the academic rigor of the IB program sounds great in school presentations, but felt pretty underwhelming in practice after seeing it through the lens of our student. The school uses block scheduling (90-minute classes every other day), and theoretically students should get two days' worth of material in each period. But our student reports that most classes include 45+ minutes of down time, to complete a short worksheet or other exercise (typically done in <15 mins) and then free time for hanging / listening to music / surfing the net / texting friends. Homework is rarely brought home (maybe 1x per month?). Only three of eight classes actually use the whole period in learning activities and expect students to perform.

We're now exploring options to finish out high school rather than stay at DCI.

Again, we really wanted to like DCI. Our child came from one of the feeder schools and has many friends they grew up with over the years. We also have a younger sibling that we intended to send to DCI, too, though our experience with the oldest child has soured us on it.

Posted: January 24, 2022

Posted: January 24, 2022

Posted: January 24, 2022

Posted: January 24, 2022

Posted: January 24, 2022

Posted: January 24, 2022

Posted: September 25, 2020

Super strong teaching staff and among the most reasonable schools out there that aren't KIPP nor DCPS. Love that they're independent and growing. Great community.

Posted: September 25, 2020

Posted: September 25, 2020

Posted: September 25, 2020

Posted: September 25, 2020

Posted: September 25, 2020

Posted: September 25, 2020

Posted: February 11, 2020

Terrible. You complain about something happening to your child and they say, "well x, y and z...." There is no effective solution to solving issues just excuses to why this or that happened.

Posted: February 11, 2020

Posted: February 11, 2020

Posted: February 11, 2020

Posted: February 11, 2020

My child has been bullied constantly for the past few months and nothing is being done about it. Multiple mediations have occurred and now that the ongoing situation is getting worse, they supposedly cannot reach the parents. Higher ups don't even get involved...children who consistently misbehave are coddled and joked around with by staff and counselors. There have been at least 15 complaints of sexual assault/harassment with nothing being done. This school cares more about their tier status than they do the children's physical and mental health well-being. Children have been expelled and this does not get entered into the schools system, as "expelled" to keep up their tier status...

Posted: February 11, 2020

Posted: May 26, 2019

Posted: May 26, 2019

Posted: May 26, 2019

Posted: May 26, 2019

The IB program is fantastic. The administration works to support students with learning differences and behavioral challenges. My daughter is very happy.

Posted: May 26, 2019

Posted: May 26, 2019

Posted: May 26, 2019

Posted: October 21, 2018

People just wouldn't leave me alone with being a straight male.

Posted: October 21, 2018

Posted: October 21, 2018

Posted: October 21, 2018

Posted: October 21, 2018

Posted: October 21, 2018

Posted: October 21, 2018

Posted: April 11, 2018

Disappointing , One point I want to make is that, the beginning of the year my kids wanted to participate in sports and there not given opportunities because there not pro league. The coordinator is terrible I sent him an email never responds. I sent my kids to asked then he tells them they need to have experience. I mean come on this is middle and high school for crying out loud this is where they build there experience TERRIBLE

Posted: April 11, 2018

The homework is based on a game particularly speaking in math, Reading /Literature is not, children are not researching but are given articles, that they have to read and then answer questions, they are not being pushed academically at all

Posted: April 11, 2018

There is one teacher that cares about my middle schoolers, and one teacher that cares about my high schooler, but other than that, teachers have no knowledge of who my kids are and what there academically able to do. At first I thought that as a technology school this would be helpful to my kids academic growth but is not. Teachers are constantly on there laptops have no face to face interaction. Automatically assume the worst in your child before asking because there face are stuck to the computer, My kids have served detention with out reason because there is no clear communication between the staff and teachers. Even when my child has called from the school and I call back the front office is confused and have no idea why my child called. Kids get distract on the computers with other things

Posted: April 11, 2018

Your child will feel confused my sixth grader has had a hard transition. They dont help with lockers transition, with getting to class, I mean the communication is poor!

Posted: April 11, 2018

When I bring an issue to them, they only make excuses for there staff. There has been several teachers dismissed from this school. If a child try to communicate with the teachers they dont want to hear, then the Leadership tells your child to communicate. Leadership, Staff, Teacher is like approaching Zombies!

Posted: April 11, 2018

Not at all, my sixth grade child was having problems with math and I had to reach to the teacher... The teacher did not respond so I reached out to her again and she told me that my child knows when she can come for tutoring. So I asked my oldest to help and finally got my child on track .

Posted: April 11, 2018

My sixth grader has been bully, these teachers have based there opinions on my child never taking the time to know my child because they favor the ones they already know. And its the ones that they know bullying my child.

Posted: March 21, 2018

Posted: March 21, 2018

Posted: March 21, 2018

Posted: March 21, 2018

The grading scale is all over the place - I understand it is IB grading scale, but no two teachers have the same idea of what constitutes a "good" grade. Science is every other day in the middle school (!), and there is no real history/social studies curriculum in the middle school either. Administration seems disorganized and often communicates things last-minute.

Posted: March 21, 2018

Posted: March 21, 2018

Posted: March 21, 2018

Posted: March 7, 2018

I rate it a 2/10. Just because of the educational status there.

Posted: March 7, 2018

Posted: March 7, 2018

Posted: March 7, 2018

Posted: March 7, 2018

Posted: March 7, 2018

Posted: March 7, 2018

Posted: February 1, 2018

I personally did not enjoy my time at this school, for me it was a repeat of 8th grade when I was supposed to be challeneged. The use of chrome books allowed students more access to information, but was detrimental in class as students would easily be distracted. The chrome books also do not create a complete 1:1 student to teacher ratio and more often then not class consisted of reading an article posted on google classroom and answering questions on it. It was essentially copying information, not learning or absorbing.

Posted: February 1, 2018

The amount of homework assigned is not enough to truly push students, develop understanding or teach students time management.

Posted: February 1, 2018

The teachers are very incouraging and good at teaching, however they failed to really push me academically.

Posted: October 3, 2017

Posted: October 3, 2017

Posted: October 3, 2017

Posted: October 3, 2017

Posted: October 3, 2017

Posted: October 3, 2017

Posted: October 3, 2017

I love the school, teachers and administration. Great leadership. They genuinely care about each student.

Posted: April 1, 2016

Posted: April 1, 2016

Posted: April 1, 2016

Posted: April 1, 2016

DCI is an incredibly diverse school that places a heavy focus on social justice, academic development and the emotional well-being of the child. Their cultural awareness, respect for languages and multi-disciplinary approach are all lend themselves to building a community of engaged and culturally competent students. The location on 16th street poses some logistical challenges for parents, but many of those challenges will no longer be present when they move to Walter Reed in a few years. The school utilizes Google Classroom and has a surprisingly light amount of homework each night. I was concerned about the amount of homework the students were (not) getting and have opted to supplement school work with participation in Kumon. The school's decision to be technology dependent (all children are given a chromebook and use them in class and for homework) has concerned some parents and only time will tell if any possible negative consequences actually come to fruition. Overall, my child is happy, growing and confident in two languages. We are considering a variety of options for high school, but will likely opt to stay at DCI.