Hardy middle school .... question about the student racial make-up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid attended Hardy back over a decade ago when the student body was 1/3 white. Don't know what it is today. I know the school expanded somewhat and so that may have changed. She didn't have a problem. It was also a really good experience for her to know what it's like to be in the numerical minority. And she ended up not being afraid to be the only white person in a room - which is not something I learned growing up in small town America.

If you send your kids and they end up being harassed, I'd definitely look into moving them but I wouldn't assume up front that they will be harassed.

I should add that my kid had friends of different races but generally the friendship groups broke down along racial lines. Which isn't the best but it's a reality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd watch out with Hardy, OP. My own Asian kids have been subjected to occasional crappy treatment at a mostly white DCPS elementary WotP. Half a dozen AA kids have pulled on the corner of their eyes to make fun of my children's "slanty" eyes repeatedly, and unkindly mimicked them speaking the Asian language we speak at home. The school handled the situation well and the bullying has mostly stopped. But we're not going to touch any DC public school that's mostly AA for MS or HS. The reality is that there's a good deal of jealously of high-achieving Asian immigrant students in low SES AA circles in this city. You can flame away at OP and this PP without changing that.

I'm sure it happened and I can't promise you that my white kid, who I think I've taught better, wouldn't be the one also doing it one day.
Are you sure your kid hasn't done anything to offend anybody? What did she/he thought when group on AAs did that? Could she/he have said her/his thoughts out loud?
"Jealously"? I've never even seen high-achieving Asians and low SES AA in the same circle. Ditto if it were the other way around. Those 2 SESs are not competitors. It's just kids acting like kids. The worst part, you the grown-up, don't even see that you are doing the same thing the kids did.
It was kids active badly and in need of guidance. Not sure why you bring up their race. Maybe somebody has done it to them and they are acting out. I don't expect you to think that far or even think. Leave your feelings at home and talk to your children about blaming a whole race based on your feelings.

np: Why is everyone skeptical of PP's experience? She has given no reason to doubt what she says. It just seems that it is not what people want to hear.

[Anonymous]

Exactly, they don't want to hear it.

As an Asian immigrant who was often called "chink" growing up by tough AA kids in my urban public schools (and not by tough Latino or white kids), I believe it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son gets called names like cracker or referenced as white boy but it doesn’t bother him. He has friends of all races there. He said there is nothing to worry about. He doesn’t let things bother him though. His friends parents are wanting to take their son out of school though because of things like that. My daughter has no terrible issues at hardy either and she is blonde haired and blue eyed. She has said that she has had trouble making friends though, unfortunately.

Come on, only one public school in the entire city enrolls enough Asian students to pull PARCC scores for Asians out by subgroup. That's Deal - they have at least 25 Asian kids taking the PARCC. Even YuYing and DCI don't.

There are dozens of white kids at Hardy and hardly any Asians, same as in the Hardy feeders. OP is wise to be concerned.

[Anonymous]

Hardy actually has more than twice as many Asian kids than Deal as far as percentage of their student body—10 vs. 4 %. This has been talked about in other threads—something about Chinese embassy kids attending one of the feeders.

[Anonymous]

Here are the Hardy demographics:
http://profiles.dcps.dc.gov/Hardy+Middle+School

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son gets called names like cracker or referenced as white boy but it doesn’t bother him. He has friends of all races there. He said there is nothing to worry about. He doesn’t let things bother him though. His friends parents are wanting to take their son out of school though because of things like that. My daughter has no terrible issues at hardy either and she is blonde haired and blue eyed. She has said that she has had trouble making friends though, unfortunately.

Come on, only one public school in the entire city enrolls enough Asian students to pull PARCC scores for Asians out by subgroup. That's Deal - they have at least 25 Asian kids taking the PARCC. Even YuYing and DCI don't.

There are dozens of white kids at Hardy and hardly any Asians, same as in the Hardy feeders. OP is wise to be concerned.

No - BASIS has at least 25 Asian students as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son gets called names like cracker or referenced as white boy but it doesn’t bother him. He has friends of all races there. He said there is nothing to worry about. He doesn’t let things bother him though. His friends parents are wanting to take their son out of school though because of things like that. My daughter has no terrible issues at hardy either and she is blonde haired and blue eyed. She has said that she has had trouble making friends though, unfortunately.

Come on, only one public school in the entire city enrolls enough Asian students to pull PARCC scores for Asians out by subgroup. That's Deal - they have at least 25 Asian kids taking the PARCC. Even YuYing and DCI don't.

There are dozens of white kids at Hardy and hardly any Asians, same as in the Hardy feeders. OP is wise to be concerned.

No - BASIS has at least 25 Asian students as well.

Last year there were 10% Asian (37 kids) and 17% White (64) at Hardy. This year, there are more of both. And the coming year, it will be another factor higher. The school's composition is changing quickly - and the number of kids expected from Stoddert and Eaton alone is supposed to be more than half of next year's incoming 6th grade. The dynamic and culture has also been increasingly focusing on unity and respect under the new principal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd watch out with Hardy, OP. My own Asian kids have been subjected to occasional crappy treatment at a mostly white DCPS elementary WotP. Half a dozen AA kids have pulled on the corner of their eyes to make fun of my children's "slanty" eyes repeatedly, and unkindly mimicked them speaking the Asian language we speak at home. The school handled the situation well and the bullying has mostly stopped. But we're not going to touch any DC public school that's mostly AA for MS or HS. The reality is that there's a good deal of jealously of high-achieving Asian immigrant students in low SES AA circles in this city. You can flame away at OP and this PP without changing that.

I'm sure it happened and I can't promise you that my white kid, who I think I've taught better, wouldn't be the one also doing it one day.
Are you sure your kid hasn't done anything to offend anybody? What did she/he thought when group on AAs did that? Could she/he have said her/his thoughts out loud?
"Jealously"? I've never even seen high-achieving Asians and low SES AA in the same circle. Ditto if it were the other way around. Those 2 SESs are not competitors. It's just kids acting like kids. The worst part, you the grown-up, don't even see that you are doing the same thing the kids did.
It was kids active badly and in need of guidance. Not sure why you bring up their race. Maybe somebody has done it to them and they are acting out. I don't expect you to think that far or even think. Leave your feelings at home and talk to your children about blaming a whole race based on your feelings.

I sympathize with your urge to fend off anything that might smell like racism, but the way you are blaming the victim here (and I have no basis for doubting OP's story) is really repulsive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd watch out with Hardy, OP. My own Asian kids have been subjected to occasional crappy treatment at a mostly white DCPS elementary WotP. Half a dozen AA kids have pulled on the corner of their eyes to make fun of my children's "slanty" eyes repeatedly, and unkindly mimicked them speaking the Asian language we speak at home. The school handled the situation well and the bullying has mostly stopped. But we're not going to touch any DC public school that's mostly AA for MS or HS. The reality is that there's a good deal of jealously of high-achieving Asian immigrant students in low SES AA circles in this city. You can flame away at OP and this PP without changing that.

We are at a private school. Unkind comments have been made about our Asian daughter's appearance, the culprits were white -NOT AA. When she attended public school the issue was with Asian children who made fun of her because she doesn't speak the language but obviously looks Asian. I agree with the previous posters who suggested your children do a shadow day and get a feel of the school, based on our experience I can tell you it's difficult to generalize.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son gets called names like cracker or referenced as white boy but it doesn’t bother him. He has friends of all races there. He said there is nothing to worry about. He doesn’t let things bother him though. His friends parents are wanting to take their son out of school though because of things like that. My daughter has no terrible issues at hardy either and she is blonde haired and blue eyed. She has said that she has had trouble making friends though, unfortunately.

Come on, only one public school in the entire city enrolls enough Asian students to pull PARCC scores for Asians out by subgroup. That's Deal - they have at least 25 Asian kids taking the PARCC. Even YuYing and DCI don't.

There are dozens of white kids at Hardy and hardly any Asians, same as in the Hardy feeders. OP is wise to be concerned.

No - BASIS has at least 25 Asian students as well.

Do you have a link showing PARCC scores for BASIS Asian students pulled out by subgroup? I can't find one.

Maybe a question we should be asking ourselves here is why are there so few Asian students in our DC public schools. No more than 10% at any particular school, and 0% isn't uncommon, just not a lot wherever you look. Before you say, oh, that's just DC demographics for you, if you're looking for Asians, head to Rockville. Think again.

Our in-boundary middle school--Stuart Hobson--and high school--Dunbar--are both 0% Asian, which won't work for this Asian immigrant family. We may try to lottery into Hardy but are more likely to head to MoCo, like a gazillion DC Asians before us. One problem is that every DC public middle and high school we might have access to would force instruction in an Indo European language on us (Latin, Spanish). No thanks.

[Anonymous]

PARCC scores by subgroup: go to results.osse.dc.gov

Search for a specific DCPS or charter school

Scroll down to section titled “Performance of different groups students” (or something like that)

Click on the link that sorts by racial groups.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son gets called names like cracker or referenced as white boy but it doesn’t bother him. He has friends of all races there. He said there is nothing to worry about. He doesn’t let things bother him though. His friends parents are wanting to take their son out of school though because of things like that. My daughter has no terrible issues at hardy either and she is blonde haired and blue eyed. She has said that she has had trouble making friends though, unfortunately.

Come on, only one public school in the entire city enrolls enough Asian students to pull PARCC scores for Asians out by subgroup. That's Deal - they have at least 25 Asian kids taking the PARCC. Even YuYing and DCI don't.

There are dozens of white kids at Hardy and hardly any Asians, same as in the Hardy feeders. OP is wise to be concerned.

No - BASIS has at least 25 Asian students as well.

Do you have a link showing PARCC scores for BASIS Asian students pulled out by subgroup? I can't find one.

Maybe a question we should be asking ourselves here is why are there so few Asian students in our DC public schools. No more than 10% at any particular school, and 0% isn't uncommon, just not a lot wherever you look. Before you say, oh, that's just DC demographics for you, if you're looking for Asians, head to Rockville. Think again.

Our in-boundary middle school--Stuart Hobson--and high school--Dunbar--are both 0% Asian, which won't work for this Asian immigrant family. We may try to lottery into Hardy but are more likely to head to MoCo, like a gazillion DC Asians before us. One problem is that every DC public middle and high school we might have access to would force instruction in an Indo European language on us (Latin, Spanish). No thanks.

That sure is a weird "problem" to single out when you are living in a Western country.

[Anonymous]

Keep moving the goalposts.

Not rigorous enough / low test scores.
Not enough students like us.
Foreign language options don’t work for us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son gets called names like cracker or referenced as white boy but it doesn’t bother him. He has friends of all races there. He said there is nothing to worry about. He doesn’t let things bother him though. His friends parents are wanting to take their son out of school though because of things like that. My daughter has no terrible issues at hardy either and she is blonde haired and blue eyed. She has said that she has had trouble making friends though, unfortunately.

Come on, only one public school in the entire city enrolls enough Asian students to pull PARCC scores for Asians out by subgroup. That's Deal - they have at least 25 Asian kids taking the PARCC. Even YuYing and DCI don't.

There are dozens of white kids at Hardy and hardly any Asians, same as in the Hardy feeders. OP is wise to be concerned.

No - BASIS has at least 25 Asian students as well.

Do you have a link showing PARCC scores for BASIS Asian students pulled out by subgroup? I can't find one.

Maybe a question we should be asking ourselves here is why are there so few Asian students in our DC public schools. No more than 10% at any particular school, and 0% isn't uncommon, just not a lot wherever you look. Before you say, oh, that's just DC demographics for you, if you're looking for Asians, head to Rockville. Think again.

Our in-boundary middle school--Stuart Hobson--and high school--Dunbar--are both 0% Asian, which won't work for this Asian immigrant family. We may try to lottery into Hardy but are more likely to head to MoCo, like a gazillion DC Asians before us. One problem is that every DC public middle and high school we might have access to would force instruction in an Indo European language on us (Latin, Spanish). No thanks.

That sure is a weird "problem" to single out when you are living in a Western country.

Right, weird problem, forcing kids to learn Spanish in public school (not a national language of the US last time I checked) to attend by-right schools. There's a corpus of case law from Western states stemming from the issue. Asian immigrant parents in Cal, Nevada, Utah etc. have sued public school systems for forcing Spanish on their children, and have won in court or settled in almost every case on civil rights grounds. Partly as a result, few states still do this, but DC does. It's common for kids to be forced to study an Indo European language in DC public schools. The (higher performing) suburban municipalities in this Metro area don't do this. They don't do it because they'd much rather support families teaching their children difficult Asian languages than penalize the families for not being "Western" enough.