So how many IB are going to really be at Hardy?
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
The old Hardy building on Foxhall would have been ideal, but the city just renewed the Lab School's lease. |
Anonymous
If Hardy was 30% IB back then it was attracting all of the IB kids. One of the problems Hardy has had since it moved from Foxhall Road is that its attendance zone is just too small for the size of the school to be a neighborhood school. It has about a quarter as many kids in its feeders as Deal -- and about half as many per seat -- which is 35% OOB. If Hardy had the same capture rate as Deal it would be 30-35% IB. Now, keep in mind that the Hardy feeders have basically doubled in size in the past decade -- Stoddert and Key have both added additions and trailers. Pre-move, Hardy was doing as good a job as Deal is today at attracting in-boundary families. The notion that the school was "abandoned" by IB families is just not supported by history. And even if it were true, so what? Why should today's IB families -- a completely different group of people -- be responsible for what IB families did a decade ago? |
Anonymous
Move Hardy, with all its current students, to ward 5. Open a new MS in the Gordon Junior High building on Wisconsin Avenue. Problem solved. |
Anonymous
| The notion of another Ward 3/2 middle school is a little ridiculous. Another high school on the other hand... |
Anonymous
|
If Hardy was 30% IB back then it was attracting all of the IB kids. One of the problems Hardy has had since it moved from Foxhall Road is that its attendance zone is just too small for the size of the school to be a neighborhood school. It has about a quarter as many kids in its feeders as Deal -- and about half as many per seat -- which is 35% OOB. If Hardy had the same capture rate as Deal it would be 30-35% IB. Now, keep in mind that the Hardy feeders have basically doubled in size in the past decade -- Stoddert and Key have both added additions and trailers. Pre-move, Hardy was doing as good a job as Deal is today at attracting in-boundary families. The notion that the school was "abandoned" by IB families is just not supported by history. And even if it were true, so what? Why should today's IB families -- a completely different group of people -- be responsible for what IB families did a decade ago? If we look at the CURRENT dynamic -- Hardy is less than one third the size of Deal (371 vs. 1243 enrollment last year) -- and if you added up the kids that remain through 5th currently (taking into account that there's still basically the loss of a full class of kids in most of the feeders between 4th and 5th) -- you end up with about 160 graduating 5th graders from the current feeders (so not including Eaton at this point - but does include the OOB kids at the feeders). Given the trends, and is already the case at Stoddert, increasing numbers of families are sticking it out through 5th grade. A 'full' 6th grade class at Hardy is around 120 kids. FYI - a link to the Burleith community page has some on the history of the schools - it is noted on the page that this is written from a "1985 perspective" (ie. assume mean not culturally sensitive & one-sided on the social undercurrents) -- http://burleith.org/history.html "One of the most dramatic changes in Burleith during these years was the transformation of the schools. Declining enrollments were attributed to the natural aging of the surrounding communities, as well as to "white flight" to the suburbs and to private schools following the U.S. Supreme Court's 1954 desegregation order in Brown v. Board of Education. By 1961, according to one report, "tradition-steeped Western, which once had a heavy emphasis on preparing students for college, was doing its utmost to hold on to its reputation for academic excellence during a period of change and upheaval in the city's public school system, involving new boundary lines and student patterns." The school was facing competition for students from private schools and vibrant new suburban schools. One memorable incident during this period involved the appearance of Senator Robert F. Kennedy (D-NY) at Western in 1966. He posed some questions to the students who, by a show of hands, indicated that they favored the U.S. staying in Vietnam, favored the bombing of North Vietnamese cities, and thought Red China should be recognized by the U.S., but should not be admitted to the United Nations. In a momentous 1967 decision, Judge Skelly Wright of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit shook the D.C. public school system to its roots when, to resolve a racial discrimination suit, he ordered abandonment of the existing ability track system as discriminatory against blacks and the poor, ordered the open enrollment plan struck down, and instead called for the establishment of rigid school zone boundaries. The new zone for Western extended almost eight miles, from the Anacostia River to Spring Valley. As a result of that court order, Western abandoned most of its ability groupings and became the most racially and economically mixed high school in the city, with classes made up of students of wide ranging achievement levels. Racial tensions increased, and reached a peak in 1970 when a student group called the Student Coalition Against Racism (SCAR) convened an unscheduled assembly, calling for a week-long boycott of classes and demanding the creation of an Afro-American Department, courses on black studies, an end to police patrolling the school, and the resignation of the principal. The principal, who had been criticized both for being too liberal on discipline and for being racist when he refused to recognize black-only organizations, resigned and was replaced by Western's first black principal, at a time when the student body was 68 percent black. In 1974 the School of the Arts, an outgrowth of Workshops for Careers in the Arts, opened at Western and shared the building with the last class of regular non-arts students who graduated in June 1976. The school, now known as the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, offers specialized training in the visual and performing arts, vocal and instrumental music, dance, acting, and graphic arts. GORDON JUNIOR HIGH (35th and T Streets) Some of the same factors that helped to shape the transformation of Western were at work at Gordon Junior High as well. During the early and mid-1960s, Gordon was held up as a model of successful integration, with an enrollment of 800 fluctuating between 60 percent white and 60 percent black for almost ten years. In 1966 there was a proposal to make both Gordon Junior High and Western High model schools. However, after Judge Wright's 1967 order, the character of Gordon changed. Almost all ability grouping stopped and students of third grade level ability were in the same classes as students of 12th grade level ability. Discipline became a problem. During the mid-1970s the school's stage curtains were set ablaze and were never replaced. A tear gas grenade was set off, and the cafeteria furniture was burned. When several teachers were assaulted, the teachers staged a one-day sick-out demanding tighter discipline. By 1978, one report said, enrollment had dropped to 261 students, of which only 13 were white, and "the school which lost its neighborhood children and became a troubled center for inner city problems, closed after 50 years." But the school rebounded that same year and reopened as the Gordon Center, the product of a merger by the Americanization School and the Program of English Instruction for Latin Americans, which had been located in the heart of the Hispanic community. The name was later changed to the Carlos Rosario Center, in honor of a distinguished D.C. Latino activist. Before its closure in 1996, Rosario had approximately 1,600 adult students. FILLMORE SCHOOL (35th and S Streets) There had been talk of closing Fillmore School as early as 1957. The solution at that time, however, was simply to combine the three elementary schools - Fi1lmore, Hyde, and Jackson - under the supervision of one principal. In 1967, as a result of Judge Wright's order, black students were bused from Anacostia to ease overcrowding in that part of the city. However, by 1974, declining enrollments, dwindling teaching staffs, and the gradual phase-out of busing, due to an ambitious school building program in Anacostia, left Fillmore with only 39 students. Five other nearby elementary schools (Hardy, Hyde, Key, Mann, and Stoddert) were also small, old, and underutilized. Hardy and Fillmore were scheduled to close in order to become office buildings for the school system administration. However, parents, teachers, and administrators banded together to save the schools in 1974 by forming the Six School Complex. Under this plan, Hardy became a middle school for grades five through eight; Hyde, Key, Mann, and Stoddert remained elementary schools, each with its own specialty, and Fillmore became an arts center, lacking a student body of its own and dedicated to serving the other five schools. Following the formation of the complex, enrollment jumped from about 500 for six schools in 1974 to more than 900 in five schools by 1979. Fillmore was voted one of the 10 best art programs in the nation in 1982, and under the Reagan Administration was been named the adopted school of the National Endowment of the Arts." |
Anonymous
There should be another high school at the old Western (more recently Ellington site). Ellington draws a lot of kids from around the city (and PG too, but that's another story). It's a shame that DCPS is spendng almost $140 million to retrofit Western as Ellingtons permanent home instead of building a brand new, centrally located Ellington by a Metro station and close by to a major performing arts facility. Absent Western there is no really good site WOTP for another high school even though it is needed. |
Anonymous
| Has Principal Pride fessed up yet on this year's enrollment numbers? |
Anonymous
There is five acres of city-owned land that is adjacent to the old Hardy School that is not part of the Lab School lease. Currently it is a very-lightly used DPR rec center. A school could be build there and when the Lab lease expires in eight years the campuses could be combined. |
Anonymous
The playground in fact is very well used by the neighborhood. Where woukd you purpose to relocate it? Too bad about the Ellington site. DCPS has made some stupid decisions there, but unfortunately that ship has sailed. |
Anonymous
It makes lots of sense. Most IB families don't want to attend Hardy. And many Hardy OOB families don't want too many IB families lest that reduce Hardy's important value as a better middle school option for OOB students (and a number of OOB families are tired of the IB carping and not exactly thrilled with the changes necessary to attract lots more IB families). And while IB families are down on Hardy, it is a much, much better alternative for many OOB families whose "local" middle schools are total crap. A new middle school WOTP would meet the needs of both communities. |
Anonymous
| That is a crazy idea! I think the IB families should work to make the school better. If you build a new school, the same thing could happen- IB kids won't attend. Hardy would be a great school if IB kids attended. |
Anonymous
| I think the principal needs to get rid of the uniforms and more proactively recruit community IB members. It would turn around within 3 years, so fast. Don't build yet another school. That just perpetuates the whole IB/OOB situation which is not how most school systems are run. |
Anonymous
Most school systems are run on a neighborhood or geographic basis. DC pays lip service to neighborhood schools but in reality has drifted far from that model. Hearst is basically a city-wide (more accurately EOTP) school that happens to be located WOTP. It is shunned by its WOTP cachement area. Something has to be done to address this problem. |
Anonymous
I live IB and prefer the uniforms. So there are different views. The reason our neighbors don't send their kids to Hardy is more about need to be at a private they believe impresses their law firm partners than anything else. The folks clamoring for a changed Hardy are subject to the usual forces that drive movement away from the city. Small houses and growing families. Better test results at suburban schools. Crime issues. Taxes. Need to have instate tuition at good university. Except some have enough $ to work around these issues that otherwise grow in importance as families grow in age and size. The vast majority of that group fit the second sentence above. So yeah I'm doubtful about any major changes at Hardy. Let's be real and work with what we have. |
Anonymous
| How bad is Hardy really? If I'm not a racist and am OK with uniforms, wouldn't my kid get something good out of the smaller setting? Wilson seems like such a clamorous echo chamber. |