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

[Anonymous]

Once Hardy ceases to be a pan-DC school and reaches 75-80%+ IB enrollment, it will be seen as approaching Deal's league. Not before.

[Anonymous]

Deal is 63% IB.

[Anonymous]

LOL

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Deal is 63% IB.

That clearly needs to change, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every year it seems like Hardy should be approaching the prestige of Deal, yet it never happens. Will it ever?

It doesn't really need to be. As long as its attractive to lots of higher SES IB families, DCPS will probably think their work is done. It seems like its already reached that point, and if not, it will be there in a year or two.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Once Hardy ceases to be a pan-DC school and reaches 75-80%+ IB enrollment, it will be seen as approaching Deal's league. Not before.

Which tells you something about the values such people hold.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Once Hardy ceases to be a pan-DC school and reaches 75-80%+ IB enrollment, it will be seen as approaching Deal's league. Not before.

Which tells you something about the values such people hold.

One person's herd mentality is another person's faith in shared values.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Once Hardy ceases to be a pan-DC school and reaches 75-80%+ IB enrollment, it will be seen as approaching Deal's league. Not before.

You're assuming that "Deal's league" is something for which to be aspired. Not everyone's standards are that low. It's a gigantic zoo, and many families prefer smaller and more intimate. (No, not a Hardy or Deal family, but as someone who went to private schools I can't understand why anyone would be so braggadocious about Deal.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Once Hardy ceases to be a pan-DC school and reaches 75-80%+ IB enrollment, it will be seen as approaching Deal's league. Not before.

You're assuming that "Deal's league" is something for which to be aspired. Not everyone's standards are that low. It's a gigantic zoo, and many families prefer smaller and more intimate. (No, not a Hardy or Deal family, but as someone who went to private schools I can't understand why anyone would be so braggadocious about Deal.)

Agreed. Deal is a good school, not a great school and at some point (which I think happened about 200 students ago) the law of diminishing returns kicks in. Having a middle school with 1500+ kids is not ideal. At first, the big student body works because it yields lots of per-pupil $ which means you can have all sorts of clubs and electives and sports and activities. Great. But then you also have the problems that really big schools have. The team model that Deal uses to try and make a big school feel small it admirable and creative but it's still a gargantuan school where the staff can't possibly know ever kid. In middle school, I think that is precisely the time when children need to know that they are known.

[Anonymous]

I have never heard anyone describe some innovative program that attracted them to Deal. Deal is a success because they have high-scoring kids. Hardy needs more high-scoring kids. Yes, probably more neighborhood kids. High-performing kids score well, and all of the sudden it is a better school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Once Hardy ceases to be a pan-DC school and reaches 75-80%+ IB enrollment, it will be seen as approaching Deal's league. Not before.

You're assuming that "Deal's league" is something for which to be aspired. Not everyone's standards are that low. It's a gigantic zoo, and many families prefer smaller and more intimate. (No, not a Hardy or Deal family, but as someone who went to private schools I can't understand why anyone would be so braggadocious about Deal.)

Agreed. Deal is a good school, not a great school and at some point (which I think happened about 200 students ago) the law of diminishing returns kicks in. Having a middle school with 1500+ kids is not ideal. At first, the big student body works because it yields lots of per-pupil $ which means you can have all sorts of clubs and electives and sports and activities. Great. But then you also have the problems that really big schools have. The team model that Deal uses to try and make a big school feel small it admirable and creative but it's still a gargantuan school where the staff can't possibly know ever kid. In middle school, I think that is precisely the time when children need to know that they are known.

This. Deal would be better with fewer students. Personally, 1,000 is over my limit for a middle school, but it could be just me? Everything else about the school works for me, but the size is overwhelming. There are more students at Deal than there were in my Ivy League graduating class. Yes, Deal includes three years and my class was obviously only one. We're not talking about HS graduates though, we're talking about 11 - 14 year-olds. For some families this is just too impersonal at a very transitional age.

[Anonymous]

As a Deal parent, I would take Hardy over Deal if I had to do it again. DC is happy, but Mom and Dad are not all that impressed. There are too many students. Admin does its best to mitigate the problems, but things are not nearly as rosy as they are made to appear.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a Deal parent, I would take Hardy over Deal if I had to do it again. DC is happy, but Mom and Dad are not all that impressed. There are too many students. Admin does its best to mitigate the problems, but things are not nearly as rosy as they are made to appear.

You say that, but when push comes to shove, the relative lack of advanced classes and sports at Hardy are a deal breaker for most families. Almost noone willingly picks Hardy over Deal. Most will accept the crowding as the price of a better all around education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a Deal parent, I would take Hardy over Deal if I had to do it again. DC is happy, but Mom and Dad are not all that impressed. There are too many students. Admin does its best to mitigate the problems, but things are not nearly as rosy as they are made to appear.

You say that, but when push comes to shove, the relative lack of advanced classes and sports at Hardy are a deal breaker for most families. Almost noone willingly picks Hardy over Deal. Most will accept the crowding as the price of a better all around education.

The city could address the lack of sports by taking back control of the Jelleff field and letting Hardy use it. Currently it's leased to Maret after school, but the lease expires in 2020. There's no reason to renew it. During the day it's used by the British School, I don't believe they have any kind of long-term arrangement. Having that field for PE and extracurriculars would give Hardy a comparable facility to what Deal has. Then being a smaller school would become a real advantage as a much higher percentage of the kids would be able to participate in team sports.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have never heard anyone describe some innovative program that attracted them to Deal. Deal is a success because they have high-scoring kids. Hardy needs more high-scoring kids. Yes, probably more neighborhood kids. High-performing kids score well, and all of the sudden it is a better school.

Your kids must be relatively young. My kids are in high school and I can certainly recall a time when neighborhood families eschewed Deal. Two factors allowed Deal to turn the corner: its renovation and its IB middle years accreditation which mandated full year science and social studies as well as foreign language classes. Hard to believe but even as recently as just a few years ago, DCPS didn't automatically provide those classes to its middle schoolers.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/middle-schools-present-vexing-problem-for-dc-leaders-as-parents-choose-other-options/2014/02/17/29b95e24-93ef-11e3-83b9-1f024193bb84_story.html?utm_term=.c646e1fea321