Hardy over Deal?

[Anonymous]

A few points:
My (not star) rec league LAX player made the team at Deal. They had cuts but the bar is pretty low.

Deal now has an Ice Hockey team - no cuts.

Regarding the teachers - my experience is I could not ask for a better teaching team. They work really well with my DS.

Depending on how you define diversity / mix of kids, you can either make Deal look that way or not. There are many international families a Deal or children of families who work for DOS and have lived around the world - but a previous poster mentioned the students at Hardy coming from the Chinese Embassy. Do both of these count for diversity?

[Anonymous]

You should definitely give Hardy consideration. My youngest went there and really thrived, and then went on to do great at Wilson.

The fact that it was smaller really helped - and I actually think it cut down on the drama. Part of it was the kid, but in general my youngest at Hardy did not have as much trouble with peer pressure/social backbiting as my oldest did at a different school.

And if your child is musically inclined, Hardy has incredible music teachers. It is a huge plus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A few points:
My (not star) rec league LAX player made the team at Deal. They had cuts but the bar is pretty low.

Deal now has an Ice Hockey team - no cuts.

Regarding the teachers - my experience is I could not ask for a better teaching team. They work really well with my DS.

Depending on how you define diversity / mix of kids, you can either make Deal look that way or not. There are many international families a Deal or children of families who work for DOS and have lived around the world - but a previous poster mentioned the students at Hardy coming from the Chinese Embassy. Do both of these count for diversity?

That’s not really considered ‘DC diversity.’ Diversity in the DC context is a rather binary construct.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A few points:
My (not star) rec league LAX player made the team at Deal. They had cuts but the bar is pretty low.

Deal now has an Ice Hockey team - no cuts.

Regarding the teachers - my experience is I could not ask for a better teaching team. They work really well with my DS.

Depending on how you define diversity / mix of kids, you can either make Deal look that way or not. There are many international families a Deal or children of families who work for DOS and have lived around the world - but a previous poster mentioned the students at Hardy coming from the Chinese Embassy. Do both of these count for diversity?

That’s not really considered ‘DC diversity.’ Diversity in the DC context is a rather binary construct.

I talked about the mix of kid earlier. I am not referring to race. I am talking about the overwhelming number of kids my daughter has met have been children of type-A wealthier parents who aren’t very nice. This subset on the Deal students Venn diagram contains multiple races and ethnicities, the common trait is competitive unfriendly children. I hope she keeps branching out to meet more kids. I would think Hardy has a larger distribution of incomes meaning less spoiled rich kids. My son attends a DCPS that has a larger FARMs ratio and the kids are much friendlier.

[Anonymous]

Thanks to all that have responded. I know a kid that didn’t make the Hardy basketball team and also one that didn’t make Deal basketball team. Both kids were pretty good, but Deal kid I was really surprised with.

Are all the 6th grade teams at Deal strong or do some kids feel like they got the short straw?

Planning on going to open houses for both. We just applied in the lottery for Hardy. Will make the decision if/when the time comes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A few points:
My (not star) rec league LAX player made the team at Deal. They had cuts but the bar is pretty low.

Deal now has an Ice Hockey team - no cuts.

Regarding the teachers - my experience is I could not ask for a better teaching team. They work really well with my DS.

Depending on how you define diversity / mix of kids, you can either make Deal look that way or not. There are many international families a Deal or children of families who work for DOS and have lived around the world - but a previous poster mentioned the students at Hardy coming from the Chinese Embassy. Do both of these count for diversity?

That’s not really considered ‘DC diversity.’ Diversity in the DC context is a rather binary construct.

I talked about the mix of kid earlier. I am not referring to race. I am talking about the overwhelming number of kids my daughter has met have been children of type-A wealthier parents who aren’t very nice. This subset on the Deal students Venn diagram contains multiple races and ethnicities, the common trait is competitive unfriendly children. I hope she keeps branching out to meet more kids. I would think Hardy has a larger distribution of incomes meaning less spoiled rich kids. My son attends a DCPS that has a larger FARMs ratio and the kids are much friendlier.

My daughter is at Hardy and I wanted a lower pressure (social and economical) environment for her and got it. Kids get to be kids more at Hardy. All this will change in the very near future though

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is it that you do not like about Deal? Did your child do the buddy day?

Have you attended the open house at both Deal and Hardy?

The size of Deal gives me a little concern. My kid is also an athlete so I wonder about the competitiveness of making a team at Deal. I know that seems mundane but it’s a big deal to kid. We plan to attend the Jan 11 open house. No buddy days as my kid doesn’t attend a feeder school. Both Deal and Hardy are on the way to work for me as well.

This sports thing is something we would not have said was a big deal, but it has been a big deal this year. We've got a kid who likes the social aspect of sports at least as much as the sport, and we are pretty certain would have been cut from any Deal team. Hardy (so far from what I've seen) doesn't cut kids.

You can look at the school report cards and slice and dice the academic and demographic info and see that both schools are doing a similarly good enough job at educating similar groups of kids.


Middle school is hard. Academically, the schools are similar. If sports will make your child happy, don't discount that.

+1 Agreed. My Hardy kids participates in track and basketball and really needs it. Middle school is a tough time. Plus participating in those sports give him a chance to develop new friend groups within his school because for the most part he hangs with his cohort from his elementary school. I'm sure Deal is a terrific school...I just think it's too big. I need my kid to know that he is known.

The only part that is off here is the "known" part. I've had two kid go through Deal and they have great relationships with their teachers, are known by the principals, and one goes back to Deal to visit and volunteer sometimes because he like the teachers so much. The Team system means your kid is in a group fo 100-120 kids with the same 4 core teachers all Year. It is hard to NOT be know by your teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A few points:
My (not star) rec league LAX player made the team at Deal. They had cuts but the bar is pretty low.

Deal now has an Ice Hockey team - no cuts.

Regarding the teachers - my experience is I could not ask for a better teaching team. They work really well with my DS.

Depending on how you define diversity / mix of kids, you can either make Deal look that way or not. There are many international families a Deal or children of families who work for DOS and have lived around the world - but a previous poster mentioned the students at Hardy coming from the Chinese Embassy. Do both of these count for diversity?

That’s not really considered ‘DC diversity.’ Diversity in the DC context is a rather binary construct.

I talked about the mix of kid earlier. I am not referring to race. I am talking about the overwhelming number of kids my daughter has met have been children of type-A wealthier parents who aren’t very nice. This subset on the Deal students Venn diagram contains multiple races and ethnicities, the common trait is competitive unfriendly children. I hope she keeps branching out to meet more kids. I would think Hardy has a larger distribution of incomes meaning less spoiled rich kids. My son attends a DCPS that has a larger FARMs ratio and the kids are much friendlier.

My daughter is at Hardy and I wanted a lower pressure (social and economical) environment for her and got it. Kids get to be kids more at Hardy. All this will change in the very near future though

I am not really sure how you qualify that since you don't have a child at Deal.

We started at Hardy and moved to Deal. World of difference, not only socially but academically. Parents are the same at both school. I think a bigger issue at Hardy is that since there OOB rate is so much higher the kids live all over the city. My IB kids didn't hang out with many school friends but with their neighborhood friends. I am not sure about sports. We kept the kids in their travel and rec leagues for their sports. Never really considered the sports at either school. There are nice kids and problem kids at both schools. I think the difference is that Hardy has a harder time dealing with the problems than Deal does. It was one of the reasons we decided to switch. With a smaller environment the problems are highlighted and I felt like Hardy catered to the problems rather than coming down hard on them.

One of my kids is now at Wilson and even though the Hardy kids are there now my DC hangs out with the Deal kids. They are really nice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A few points:
My (not star) rec league LAX player made the team at Deal. They had cuts but the bar is pretty low.

Deal now has an Ice Hockey team - no cuts.

Regarding the teachers - my experience is I could not ask for a better teaching team. They work really well with my DS.

Depending on how you define diversity / mix of kids, you can either make Deal look that way or not. There are many international families a Deal or children of families who work for DOS and have lived around the world - but a previous poster mentioned the students at Hardy coming from the Chinese Embassy. Do both of these count for diversity?

That’s not really considered ‘DC diversity.’ Diversity in the DC context is a rather binary construct.

I talked about the mix of kid earlier. I am not referring to race. I am talking about the overwhelming number of kids my daughter has met have been children of type-A wealthier parents who aren’t very nice. This subset on the Deal students Venn diagram contains multiple races and ethnicities, the common trait is competitive unfriendly children. I hope she keeps branching out to meet more kids. I would think Hardy has a larger distribution of incomes meaning less spoiled rich kids. My son attends a DCPS that has a larger FARMs ratio and the kids are much friendlier.

My daughter is at Hardy and I wanted a lower pressure (social and economical) environment for her and got it. Kids get to be kids more at Hardy. All this will change in the very near future though

I am not really sure how you qualify that since you don't have a child at Deal.

We started at Hardy and moved to Deal. World of difference, not only socially but academically. Parents are the same at both school. I think a bigger issue at Hardy is that since there OOB rate is so much higher the kids live all over the city. My IB kids didn't hang out with many school friends but with their neighborhood friends. I am not sure about sports. We kept the kids in their travel and rec leagues for their sports. Never really considered the sports at either school. There are nice kids and problem kids at both schools. I think the difference is that Hardy has a harder time dealing with the problems than Deal does. It was one of the reasons we decided to switch. With a smaller environment the problems are highlighted and I felt like Hardy catered to the problems rather than coming down hard on them.

One of my kids is now at Wilson and even though the Hardy kids are there now my DC hangs out with the Deal kids. They are really nice.

When was this? This was the first year that Eaton fed to Hardy - and now 1/2 or more of the 6th graders are from Eaton, and 1/3 or more on top of that are from the other feeders. As noted above... it's changing fast.

[Anonymous]

OP, is your kid in a Deal feeder? One thing that I wouldn't discount is moving into the middle school cohort with friends from elementary school.

I've had similar thoughts, but I think that the separation from the peer group would be rough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, is your kid in a Deal feeder? One thing that I wouldn't discount is moving into the middle school cohort with friends from elementary school.

I've had similar thoughts, but I think that the separation from the peer group would be rough.

Or, alternatively the kid could benefit from a fresh start with new kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, is your kid in a Deal feeder? One thing that I wouldn't discount is moving into the middle school cohort with friends from elementary school.

I've had similar thoughts, but I think that the separation from the peer group would be rough.

No. Kid is at a charter. Has friends from sports that are or will attend both schools, probably a few more at Deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, is your kid in a Deal feeder? One thing that I wouldn't discount is moving into the middle school cohort with friends from elementary school.

I've had similar thoughts, but I think that the separation from the peer group would be rough.

No. Kid is at a charter. Has friends from sports that are or will attend both schools, probably a few more at Deal.

Give Hardy a try, especially if he does well in a smaller classroom setting and is still not an independent learner.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, is your kid in a Deal feeder? One thing that I wouldn't discount is moving into the middle school cohort with friends from elementary school.

I've had similar thoughts, but I think that the separation from the peer group would be rough.

No. Kid is at a charter. Has friends from sports that are or will attend both schools, probably a few more at Deal.

We were at a charter and moved to our IB school - Deal.

I can not say enough about having neighborhood friends - getting to and from school independently. This was never an option for the charter. I am not sure if you have the option to walk to Deal - but it is a game changer.

[Anonymous]

Our kid is at a Hardy feeder and we are excited for her to go. Still a few years off too.