When will Hardy Middle School be as attractive as Deal Middle School?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I realize it’s about a year after the last post but think much of the content is still relevant. 13:37 has it right - parents on this thread are off the rails. Your expectations for challenging your clearly brilliant kids or compromising curriculum for, as one post notes, a “social experiment” is very disturbing. My 2 kids will be attending Hardy and as a member of the community I will work with fellow families and faculty to enhance what works and improve what doesn’t. I would prefer, actually, to not have “achievement oriented” or “high test scoring” parents there as I don’t blame the kids for there’s attitudes. I’m also quite sure they will get a great education and, as an alumni of DCPS, go on to live happy fruitful and successful lives. Please do not lower your standards and send your kids to Hardy and I think we’ll all be much happier for it.

Huh? You’re excited to pursue mediocrity? Yuck.

[Anonymous]

DC lucked up in lottery and is #2 wait-listed Hardy and #4 wait-listed Deal (7th), reading this thread goodness. Hardy is uniforms and course curriculum not as rigor vs Deal is overcrowded with course rigor and sports but both have great community support? Is this about right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC lucked up in lottery and is #2 wait-listed Hardy and #4 wait-listed Deal (7th), reading this thread goodness. Hardy is uniforms and course curriculum not as rigor vs Deal is overcrowded with course rigor and sports but both have great community support? Is this about right?

Yes, from what I have heard from parents IRL. I wouldn’t have an issue with my kid going to Hardy. (We are in bounds for Deal.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I realize it’s about a year after the last post but think much of the content is still relevant. 13:37 has it right - parents on this thread are off the rails. Your expectations for challenging your clearly brilliant kids or compromising curriculum for, as one post notes, a “social experiment” is very disturbing. My 2 kids will be attending Hardy and as a member of the community I will work with fellow families and faculty to enhance what works and improve what doesn’t. I would prefer, actually, to not have “achievement oriented” or “high test scoring” parents there as I don’t blame the kids for there’s attitudes. I’m also quite sure they will get a great education and, as an alumni of DCPS, go on to live happy fruitful and successful lives. Please do not lower your standards and send your kids to Hardy and I think we’ll all be much happier for it.

Weird revival of a thread after a year... especially since it seems like you may have been hibernating. In the fall 100-130 of the incoming 6th graders will be from feeders - double last year. They are adding another 'section' to have 2 for 6th. The main change is the move of Eaton over to Hardy -- they will make up 40+ percent of the 6th grade class. So in the fall, Hardy will be like a smaller "deal for all"... with the parents that come along with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, rising 9th graders to Wilson could simply decide to home school their kids for one year. The self-study subject books are readily available, and grade-level-or-above kids could arguably learn more through self-study than the nothingburger they're going to get in a mainstream class. Weekly Science and Art self-study are right there at the Smithsonian. Then re-enter at 10th grade for the AP courses.

The fact that that is a serious option is an indication of a failure on the part of the school.

+1 absolutely ridiculous

What's ridiculous is parents on this thread. You guys have really gone off the rails. Please, please please homeschool your snowflakes! And not just for freshman year.

No need to go all Trumpian on us.

It is not too much to ask that the biggest and best comprehensive high school in the city offer classes at levels appropriate for the wide range of students attending. Wilson is already not doing that for 9th grade, and these changes may exacerbate the problem. It's hard to understand how behind the times Wilson is until you have a student there and compare to what your friends' and relatives' kids are doing in 9th grade at other public schools, whether in the area or not.

You guys do realize that the majority of students are not all that, did you see the test scores at Wilson and Deal! Not sure what world you are living in but maybe get off your high horse and look!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I realize it’s about a year after the last post but think much of the content is still relevant. 13:37 has it right - parents on this thread are off the rails. Your expectations for challenging your clearly brilliant kids or compromising curriculum for, as one post notes, a “social experiment” is very disturbing. My 2 kids will be attending Hardy and as a member of the community I will work with fellow families and faculty to enhance what works and improve what doesn’t. I would prefer, actually, to not have “achievement oriented” or “high test scoring” parents there as I don’t blame the kids for there’s attitudes. I’m also quite sure they will get a great education and, as an alumni of DCPS, go on to live happy fruitful and successful lives. Please do not lower your standards and send your kids to Hardy and I think we’ll all be much happier for it.

Huh? You’re excited to pursue mediocrity? Yuck.

Hardy could adopt and paraphrase the campaign slogan of the late DC Mayor-for-Life:

"It may not be perfect, but it's perfect for DC."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When OOB kids are no longer allowed to hop scotch across the city into other neighborhood's schools.

This above is putting it rather bluntly, but the truth is that Hardy only will begin to rock and roll when it becomes overwhelmingly an Upper NW school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Will it say honors on the transcript?

Who cares what is on the transcript? What matters is what kind of education is happening in the classroom.

And an education geared to the weakest students sucks for the rest.

Which is what Wilson has decided to do.

Cynical, I know, but is it possible Wilson is doing this in hopes that some of the higher SES families will go private, thus helping solve the overcrowding problem without having to take measures like adjusting boundaries?

Well, not many of us have a spare $90K/year laying around so that won't work very well.

Actually, it may start going the other way, with more parents shifting to Walls and Wilson rather than opting for private. As that happens, more OOB students will be pushed out of Deal, Hardy and Wilson. The 'localization' of our schools overall will benefit these schools, attracting more community involvement and resulting in enhanced academic performance, but we shouldn't kid ourselves that there will be forceful political pushback as this happens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Will it say honors on the transcript?

Who cares what is on the transcript? What matters is what kind of education is happening in the classroom.

And an education geared to the weakest students sucks for the rest.

Which is what Wilson has decided to do.

Cynical, I know, but is it possible Wilson is doing this in hopes that some of the higher SES families will go private, thus helping solve the overcrowding problem without having to take measures like adjusting boundaries?

Well, not many of us have a spare $90K/year laying around so that won't work very well.

Actually, it may start going the other way, with more parents shifting to Walls and Wilson rather than opting for private. As that happens, more OOB students will be pushed out of Deal, Hardy and Wilson. The 'localization' of our schools overall will benefit these schools, attracting more community involvement and resulting in enhanced academic performance, but we shouldn't kid ourselves that there will be forceful political pushback as this happens.

So basically it's not that these schools are any better than others it's just the kids, kind of what we've known all along really! Hence why many of the special population students (group classification from PARCC) do so poorly even at these so called "great" schools!

[Anonymous]

When it stops taking OB kids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When OOB kids are no longer allowed to hop scotch across the city into other neighborhood's schools.

This above is putting it rather bluntly, but the truth is that Hardy only will begin to rock and roll when it becomes overwhelmingly an Upper NW school.

This

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Will it say honors on the transcript?

Who cares what is on the transcript? What matters is what kind of education is happening in the classroom.

And an education geared to the weakest students sucks for the rest.

Which is what Wilson has decided to do.

Cynical, I know, but is it possible Wilson is doing this in hopes that some of the higher SES families will go private, thus helping solve the overcrowding problem without having to take measures like adjusting boundaries?

Well, not many of us have a spare $90K/year laying around so that won't work very well.

Actually, it may start going the other way, with more parents shifting to Walls and Wilson rather than opting for private. As that happens, more OOB students will be pushed out of Deal, Hardy and Wilson. The 'localization' of our schools overall will benefit these schools, attracting more community involvement and resulting in enhanced academic performance, but we shouldn't kid ourselves that there will be forceful political pushback as this happens.

So basically it's not that these schools are any better than others it's just the kids, kind of what we've known all along really! Hence why many of the special population students (group classification from PARCC) do so poorly even at these so called "great" schools!

There are some schools that DCUM would never consider that are over-performing -- they all have large numbers of at-risk students who are performing at least 10 points better on PARCC than other schools with similar demographics populations. But yes, at most DC schools "it's just the kids." http://www.empowerk12.org/2017-dc-bold-performance-schools.html

DC Prep Benning ES (Ward 7),
DC Prep Edgewood ES (Ward 5),
DC Prep Edgewood MS (Ward 5),
Early Childhood Academy (Ward 8),
Friendship Chamberlain ES (Ward 6),
Garfield ES (Ward 8),
Ketcham ES (Ward 8),
KIPP Heights ES (Ward 8),
KIPP LEAD ES (Ward 6),
KIPP Promise ES (Ward 7),
KIPP Spring ES (Ward 5),
Ludlow-Taylor ES (Ward 6),
Seaton ES (Ward 6), and
Thomson ES (Ward 2).

Honorable mention goes to seven additional schools who nearly made the Bold Performance cut, including
Barnard ES (Ward 4),
Center City Shaw (Ward 6),
DC Prep Benning MS (Ward 7),
EL Haynes ES (Ward 4),
Friendship Blow-Pierce ES (Ward 7),
Ingenuity Prep (Ward 8),
KIPP KEY MS (Ward 7), and
KIPP Quest ES (Ward 7)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When OOB kids are no longer allowed to hop scotch across the city into other neighborhood's schools.

This above is putting it rather bluntly, but the truth is that Hardy only will begin to rock and roll when it becomes overwhelmingly an Upper NW school.

Doesn't the PP's numbers indicate that this basically has happened, at least in the 6th grade?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When OOB kids are no longer allowed to hop scotch across the city into other neighborhood's schools.

This above is putting it rather bluntly, but the truth is that Hardy only will begin to rock and roll when it becomes overwhelmingly an Upper NW school.

Doesn't the PP's numbers indicate that this basically has happened, at least in the 6th grade?

Just dry by at dismissal, it is clearly still majority OOB kids. Or at least doesn’t look like any ward 3 neighborhood I have ever seen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When OOB kids are no longer allowed to hop scotch across the city into other neighborhood's schools.

This above is putting it rather bluntly, but the truth is that Hardy only will begin to rock and roll when it becomes overwhelmingly an Upper NW school.

Doesn't the PP's numbers indicate that this basically has happened, at least in the 6th grade?

Just dry by at dismissal, it is clearly still majority OOB kids. Or at least doesn’t look like any ward 3 neighborhood I have ever seen.

Try driving by in September 2018.