Praise for Hardy Middle School

[Anonymous]

SEM is a talent development approach that is part of gifted pedagogy. It was developed by Dr. Joseph Renzulli out of the University of Connecticut in the late 1970's. The idea is to help students connect to topics that they're passionate about (or help them find things they'll become passionate about after finding out about it) and then nurturing their creativity in that topic. Help them to geek out in it if you will. It's at a lot of our DCPS middle schools such as Hardy, Sousa, Stuart-Hobson, Brookland, Ida B Wells and a couple elementary schools too I think. It's something schools have to pay for out of their own budget these days (used to be paid for by central office until budget cuts a couple years back.)

[Anonymous]

Still don't think Hardy does SEM, although it does a great job of having a wide range of electives and projects.

[Anonymous]

Former SEM teacher here. As a previous poster stated, it is a program created by Renuzulli. Teachers used to go to UConn every summer for training. Not sure if that happens now. Students take an interest inventory and usually enrichment clusters are offered based on those results. I had a journalism cluster. I was able to acquire press passes and kids got to attend the Congressional Black Caucus as press. I had a Shakespeare cluster that did Romeo and Juliet on stage at the Folger. But the motto was "a rising tide lifts all boats". So I would also schedule experiences for teachers and establish partnerships with organizations. I had a lot of leeway in the early years. The program is much more bound by schedules and such now.