Deal vs. Hardy

[Anonymous]

Can someone give me a comparison of these two and your thoughts. We're looking to move, and so might as well move into the right school district while we're at it! If you could choose between these two -- which would you pick?

[Anonymous]

Dd went to Hardy out of boundaries and it was okay but I don't know enough about Deal to compare.

One thing to consider though is where you will be in-boundaries for Wilson. Dd went through a period of depression in 8th grade and her grades dropped and we started to worry about whether she would be able to get into a magnet program. At one point I was thinking about renting an apartment in-boundaries for Wilson because I worried that she wouldn't get into any magnet programs, including the one at Wilson. It turned out it was just a matter of disorganization and/or the slow moving decision process of various schools and she got into most of the ones she applied to but I was worried for awhile because our in-bounds high school is pretty bad.

Anyway, we were at Hardy out of boundaries. It may be that if you are in-boundaries for Hardy, you are also in-boundaries for Wilson. And ultimately you may want to go private in high school anyway (which is what dd eventually did). But it sure would have been nice to know at one point that she would be in Wilson, regardless of how the magnet school process went.

So be sure to consider that in your decision.

[Anonymous]

A ton of my kids' friends just started at Deal and it is getting rave reviews from both the kids and the parents. The principal seems to be fantastic, the new facilities are beautiful, and there are a lot of new, energetic teachers. Making me rethink my 60K per year (well, kinda).

[Anonymous]

We are in-bounds for Deal and just attended a presentation by the principal and staff about the school.
And I was extremely skeptical, but came away impressed with what the school has to offer.

For me, one of the most appealing aspects about Deal is that while the school has a total enrollment of over 800, kids are grouped in teams of @ 100 and each team takes classes in one general area of the building with the same grouping of kids for the entire year.

Also Deal should be receiving its certification as an IB program this school year. There were a ton of afterschool extra-curricular activities from fencing, to drumline, to math club, to all sorts of sports, music - it truly would make your head spin.

The only drawback I saw was that there was little recess time - and maybe it shouldn't matter as much for middle school. But felt like there wasn't alot of time for kids to blow off steam outside during the school day. Participating in athletics afterschool can make up for this and this certainly isn't a dealbreaker for me but just made me a little sad for our kids.

It seems like an excellent choice, although I hear great things about Hardy too. I am betting that you can't go wrong with either one.

Good Luck!

[Anonymous]

I have had children at both schools. Hardy has required instrumental music as part of the school day for 6th and maybe other grades (a plus). When my child was there, Hardy had no recess time at all, just lunch and then a short literacy period. Hardy has uniforms.

Deal is larger than Hardy but as the PP noted, is broken into teams. This has been very effective. Deal does have short "recess" after lunch -- at least some additional time for the kids to socialize and once renovation is complete on the outside areas, they will have some places to play during recess (now they can walk around on the patio area after lunch). I think Deal is better on communications with parents (newsletter, website, emails, Edline for tracking student grades), which can be critical in MS.

Visit both and take the time to sit in some classes to get a feel for the dynamics. Deal's first open house is coming up on Nov 17 (also Dec 15 and Jan 9). Open houses for Hardy are every Wednesday, November through April, 9:30 – 11:00 AM according to the calendar on their website. School websites are www.hardyms.org and www.alicedeal.org

At least under the current rules, if you attend a school that feeds into Wilson SHS, you are guaranteed a spot at Wilson even if you don't live in boundary for Wilson (or for that matter, even if you are OOB at the feeder school). Right now, both Deal and Hardy feed into Wilson.

[Anonymous]

I have heard some rumors that the feeder patterns for elementary schools into middle schools are going to change. Specifically that Eaton is going to start to feed to Hardy instead of Deal? That Bancroft is no longer going to feed into Deal?

[Anonymous]

In fact they already changed, though I think there was a little latitude given for the current year. You can see the feeder patterns and boundary maps at www.dcps.dc.gov under the "schools" tab. Currently, Murch, Shepherd, Lafayette and Janney feed Deal. Eaton to Hardy and Bancroft to Columbia Heights Ed Campus. As of 9/17 enrollment at Hardy was 418 and Deal 862

[Anonymous]

"Bancroft to Columbia Heights Ed Campus."


This is not entirely true. It depends on were you live in Mt Pleasant.
I live in 1700 block of Kilbourne and according to DCPS, I still feed into Deal and Wilson

[Anonymous]

even odder---I just checked (we are also in MtP) and we feed to Columbia Heights ED (Lincoln) for middle school, but to Wilson for high school.

[Anonymous]

Where can you find information about which addresses feed where?

Any suggestions on affordable neighborhoods (say less than $2,000 per month rent for a 2 bedroom that allows dogs) that feed to Deal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where can you find information about which addresses feed where?

Any suggestions on affordable neighborhoods (say less than $2,000 per month rent for a 2 bedroom that allows dogs) that feed to Deal?

That's a tight budget for most of NW DC.

[Anonymous]

There's a weird dual system now of feeder schools (e.g. Bancroft to Columbia Heights) v. your address. So you might be in boundary for Deal and feed by right into Wilson even if your address is in boundary for Coolidge HS. In the case where there's a difference between the schools associated with your address and the feeder school pattern, you can choose. You can search for which schools correspond to your address at www.dcps.dc.gov under the schools tab -- same place as maps and feeder school patterns.

[Anonymous]

Does either Deal or Hardy offer Latin?

[Anonymous]

Could someone explain how IB enhances the curriculum at the Middle School level?

[Anonymous]

That is a really good questions and as a parent who will probably have kids going to Deal I realized that I needed to educate myself. What I understand is that when a school becomes a certified IB program the IB program becomes the curriculum. In DCPS each school must follow certain standards and I myself am not 100% sure of how IB intgrates with the current DCPS standards and this goes back to a debate on another thread about the standards=the curriculum. IMHO though IB is not an enhancement it is the curriculum.

The little I do understand about IB is that there is an emphasis on helping kids become responsible global citizens and kids are required to learn a second language as part of IB.

I think there are two places you can go to find out more:

1: The IB program website http://www.ibo.org/myp/ which gives an overview of the IB Middle Years Program
2: Deal's website which has course outlines for each grade - which gives a good view of how IB plays out at the school find the 6th grade outline here: http://www.alicedeal.org/about/6th%20Grade%20Course%20Outlines.doc

The challenge for us in DC is that IB is really a 5 year program. Where will kids coming of Deal go to continue their work? Banneker offers IB on a HS level, but is really a small school? There is going to be a big gap - not sure how it will be filled.

Hope this helps.