Hardy IB Population

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think people get suspicious when you tell them to go to the (new) neighborhood school to improve its academic quality. Middle school is only three years, so parents want to send their kids to a school of good quality, not necessarily have their kids be the ones to work through the problems.

Yes, and I want the middle school to improve my child's "academic quality." That is the job of the faculty and administrative leadership. The school should not depend on my child and other heretofore well-prepared kids for superficial paper gains (standardized test score increases) which are no substitute for real and tangible improvements in academic quality.

You're right. You shouldn't send your child there. My well-prepared child did fine there but it obviously wouldn't work for your child.

Agreed. My well-prepared kid did great, but if you don't think your child is right for Hardy you are free to send him elsewhere, and should do so.

Exactly - which is why Ward 3 wants another middle school that will push and pull and fully challenge their kids to reach higher academically, not a school that looks their kids to goose the school's test scores.

Why should the city invest tax payers money to procure land and build a new school, when the residents of that ward fail to utilize a fully functioning school geared for that ward. You are basically asking the city to be fiscally irresponsible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
How did they get rid of the pre-2010 faculty with the "old DC" attitude? Are they all gone ?

In 2011 I was told by a Hardy teacher, to my face and quite forcefully, that as an in-boundary parent I had no right to try and change the direction of the school. That teacher is still listed on the staff directory at:
http://www.hardyms.org/apps/staff/

Name the teacher, or it did not happen!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Move on people. The bottom line is that next year Hardy will be mostly feeder or Brent. After that it will be more desirable than Deal bc of size, IB demographics. Why are you loons hashing and rehashing ancient history?

Anyone who watched Hyde turn into a desirable IB school will understand that this is exactly what is happening at Hardy NOW.

Aaaand there is that claim again that the "IB demographics"'of glover park, palisades, burleith and Cleveland park are "more desirable than" the kids who live in Chevy Chase, AU park, sheperd park and friendship heights. Really, now?

(And since i believe you are the same person who trots out the "2 million condo" in [the Four seasons only] in Georgetown fact, let's note that the number of teenagers living in condos in Georgetown -- ever -- is tiny. The number of teenagers living in 2 million homes in geogertown or Wesley heights and whose parents even consider dcps middle school is infinitesimal.)

This is not a pissing match between the Deal catchment basin and the Hardy basin. Don't make it one. The previous poster made mention of the difference in size earlier and again here. The IB demographics are effectively the same for both areas. What differences there are, and there are some differences, are unlikely to materially matter for school quality.

Looking at the internal DCPS ratings of the feeders schools, you can see why people are bullish on Hardy. Let's leave it at that, shall we?

Hardy
Mann -- 94.75
Key -- 92.05
Stoddert -- 91.94
Eaton -- 90.23
Hyde -- 79.18

Deal
Janney -- 94.55
Lafayette -- 92.92
Murch -- 89.24
Hearst -- 77.1
Shephard -- 79 (last year's number)
Bancroft -- 52 (last year's number)

[Anonymous]

From the city paper link:

“[Rhee] talked about there was some confusion about the application process,“ says Candy Miles-Crocker, an African-American parent-leader and Ward 5 resident. “All of that was smoke and mirrors. The folks in Palisades didn’t get interested until Hardy had a new facility. When we were at old Hamilton school, no one wanted to come. The timing was suspicious.”

You'll never be able to reason with people like this. Let's see, the speaker wonders why Palisades residents weren't interested in the school when it was located at Hamilton in NE? Seriously? The campus is just under 10 miles from Key and the trip would take over 30 mins. right now (according to Google). And in the current location? 2.5 miles and 10 mins. Idiot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Ward 3 kids are basically interchangeable in terms of competence. Hardy has better scale than Deal's college campus. Main difference, that.

The main difference is that Hardy has a 40 year history of being a racial flashpoint. Everything else pales in comparison.

If this is true, then this is reason enough to start a new WOTP MS, free of segregation-era baggage. But is it true?

Ridiculous. It's not like the neighborhood is seeking to convert a Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial into a statue of Colonel Sanders. It's a public school, for pete's sake, in a neighborhood, with neighborhood kids who are interested in going there. To assert that local residents should be sensitive to a certain racial group's alleged stamp on this public property can only be the product of a mind that is completely disconnected from the way the world we live in actually works.

Oh FFS, you are just making things up now. Seriously, people, take a deep breath. I assure you, no one, NO ONE, is organizing around racial issues in some kind of conspiracy against IB students. What are you smoking?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think people get suspicious when you tell them to go to the (new) neighborhood school to improve its academic quality. Middle school is only three years, so parents want to send their kids to a school of good quality, not necessarily have their kids be the ones to work through the problems.

Yes, and I want the middle school to improve my child's "academic quality." That is the job of the faculty and administrative leadership. The school should not depend on my child and other heretofore well-prepared kids for superficial paper gains (standardized test score increases) which are no substitute for real and tangible improvements in academic quality.

You're right. You shouldn't send your child there. My well-prepared child did fine there but it obviously wouldn't work for your child.

Agreed. My well-prepared kid did great, but if you don't think your child is right for Hardy you are free to send him elsewhere, and should do so.

Exactly - which is why Ward 3 wants another middle school that will push and pull and fully challenge their kids to reach higher academically, not a school that looks their kids to goose the school's test scores.

Why should the city invest tax payers money to procure land and build a new school, when the residents of that ward fail to utilize a fully functioning school geared for that ward. You are basically asking the city to be fiscally irresponsible.

Because the school over many years has demonstrably not met the expectation of its surrounding population, yet serves an overwhelmingly OOB population that apparently strongly feels the school works for them. When you think about it, it's kind of a no-brain-er

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Move on people. The bottom line is that next year Hardy will be mostly feeder or Brent. After that it will be more desirable than Deal bc of size, IB demographics. Why are you loons hashing and rehashing ancient history?

Anyone who watched Hyde turn into a desirable IB school will understand that this is exactly what is happening at Hardy NOW.

Aaaand there is that claim again that the "IB demographics"'of glover park, palisades, burleith and Cleveland park are "more desirable than" the kids who live in Chevy Chase, AU park, sheperd park and friendship heights. Really, now?

(And since i believe you are the same person who trots out the "2 million condo" in [the Four seasons only] in Georgetown fact, let's note that the number of teenagers living in condos in Georgetown -- ever -- is tiny. The number of teenagers living in 2 million homes in geogertown or Wesley heights and whose parents even consider dcps middle school is infinitesimal.)

This is not a pissing match between the Deal catchment basin and the Hardy basin. Don't make it one. The previous poster made mention of the difference in size earlier and again here. The IB demographics are effectively the same for both areas. What differences there are, and there are some differences, are unlikely to materially matter for school quality.

Looking at the internal DCPS ratings of the feeders schools, you can see why people are bullish on Hardy. Let's leave it at that, shall we?

Hardy
Mann -- 94.75
Key -- 92.05
Stoddert -- 91.94
Eaton -- 90.23
Hyde -- 79.18

Deal
Janney -- 94.55
Lafayette -- 92.92
Murch -- 89.24
Hearst -- 77.1
Shephard -- 79 (last year's number)
Bancroft -- 52 (last year's number)

The demographics of the cachement area may be similar but one area feels that Deal works for their kids while the other area avoids its public middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From the city paper link:

“[Rhee] talked about there was some confusion about the application process,“ says Candy Miles-Crocker, an African-American parent-leader and Ward 5 resident. “All of that was smoke and mirrors. The folks in Palisades didn’t get interested until Hardy had a new facility. When we were at old Hamilton school, no one wanted to come. The timing was suspicious.”

You'll never be able to reason with people like this. Let's see, the speaker wonders why Palisades residents weren't interested in the school when it was located at Hamilton in NE? Seriously? The campus is just under 10 miles from Key and the trip would take over 30 mins. right now (according to Google). And in the current location? 2.5 miles and 10 mins. Idiot.

Is your name really "Idiot"?!? I ask, because you sign so many of your posts that way. If so, that's hilarious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From the city paper link:

“[Rhee] talked about there was some confusion about the application process,“ says Candy Miles-Crocker, an African-American parent-leader and Ward 5 resident. “All of that was smoke and mirrors. The folks in Palisades didn’t get interested until Hardy had a new facility. When we were at old Hamilton school, no one wanted to come. The timing was suspicious.”

You'll never be able to reason with people like this. Let's see, the speaker wonders why Palisades residents weren't interested in the school when it was located at Hamilton in NE? Seriously? The campus is just under 10 miles from Key and the trip would take over 30 mins. right now (according to Google). And in the current location? 2.5 miles and 10 mins. Idiot.

Is your name really "Idiot"?!? I ask, because you sign so many of your posts that way. If so, that's hilarious.

Nice job dredging up ancient history OP - I know Candy; her son completed school there in 2012, and she hasn't been seen or heard from since. Like most Hardy parents, once her child was done with Hardy, she moved on.
That's why its ridiculous to dredge up this ancient history; there are no current Hardy families that went through all the nonsense in 2010-2011. The curremt parents aren't interested in this history; all they care about is making the school work for their children now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
You "followed the school closely"? Can you clarify if you did or did not actually cross the threshold and enter the building?

You are right about the teachers circa-2010. But wrong about the teachers now. Some may be set in their ways, but that's cause they are old school teachers - not because of some big Hardy thing. At any rate, they are now on board with Principal Pride.

You are lying - flat out lying - about the alumni and long-time Washingtonians. I was a Hardy parents, was very active on the PTA, and was very close to the teachers and Princiapl at the time. No such outside group of alumni and long-time Washingtonians that had any interest or influence on the school.

Please stop this "old Hardy guard" canard.

Please don't call me a liar. Tell me, then, why was Yvette Alexander at the PTA meeting in 2009, spewing racial rhetoric? Why did Vincent Gray -- a long-time Washingtonian if there ever was one -- make Hardy an issue when he beat Fenty? In Richard Whitmire's book "The Bee Eater," which is generally effusive in its praise of Rhee, he makes the claim that the handling of Hardy cost Fenty the 2010 election. How could one school with a few hundred students tip an election in a city of over a half-million residents? Because it stands for something bigger.

I've asked myself a lot why DC ousted Fenty. Sure, he could be brash and obviously didn't kiss the backsides of those who felt they should be kissed, but he got things moving and got things done. And then we got Gray and soon we will be stuck with a palert shade of Gray, an empty suit. Sigh!

I am not a Hardy parent and will most likely never be a Hardy parent, but I can tell you that my desire to oust Fenty had nothing to do with Hardy. Maybe you should think about the myriad of other reasons DC voters had against a Fenty second term. Everything was not about Hardy. For instance, there are a lot more schools in DC than Hardy.

[Anonymous]

I've asked myself a lot why DC ousted Fenty. Sure, he could be brash and obviously didn't kiss the backsides of those who felt they should be kissed, but he got things moving and got things done. And then we got Gray and soon we will be stuck with a palert shade of Gray, an empty suit. Sigh!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Move on people. The bottom line is that next year Hardy will be mostly feeder or Brent. After that it will be more desirable than Deal bc of size, IB demographics. Why are you loons hashing and rehashing ancient history?

Anyone who watched Hyde turn into a desirable IB school will understand that this is exactly what is happening at Hardy NOW.

Aaaand there is that claim again that the "IB demographics"'of glover park, palisades, burleith and Cleveland park are "more desirable than" the kids who live in Chevy Chase, AU park, sheperd park and friendship heights. Really, now?

(And since i believe you are the same person who trots out the "2 million condo" in [the Four seasons only] in Georgetown fact, let's note that the number of teenagers living in condos in Georgetown -- ever -- is tiny. The number of teenagers living in 2 million homes in geogertown or Wesley heights and whose parents even consider dcps middle school is infinitesimal.)

This is not a pissing match between the Deal catchment basin and the Hardy basin. Don't make it one. The previous poster made mention of the difference in size earlier and again here. The IB demographics are effectively the same for both areas. What differences there are, and there are some differences, are unlikely to materially matter for school quality.

Looking at the internal DCPS ratings of the feeders schools, you can see why people are bullish on Hardy. Let's leave it at that, shall we?

Hardy
Mann -- 94.75
Key -- 92.05
Stoddert -- 91.94
Eaton -- 90.23
Hyde -- 79.18

Deal
Janney -- 94.55
Lafayette -- 92.92
Murch -- 89.24
Hearst -- 77.1
Shephard -- 79 (last year's number)
Bancroft -- 52 (last year's number)

This is very interesting, but why don't IB families opt for Hardy? The difference seems to be that IB families go to Deal, but don't opt for Hardy. Why?

[Anonymous]

I voted for Fenty and then felt burned by him. If he had learned that the occasional humble course correction can be part of a strong leader's array of skills, he'd probably still be mayor today. But I got tired of being told that disagreeing with him meant that I preferred mismanagement, poor performance, and corruption. Fenty has only himself to blame for losing the election.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
How did they get rid of the pre-2010 faculty with the "old DC" attitude? Are they all gone ?

In 2011 I was told by a Hardy teacher, to my face and quite forcefully, that as an in-boundary parent I had no right to try and change the direction of the school. That teacher is still listed on the staff directory at:
http://www.hardyms.org/apps/staff/

Name the teacher, or it did not happen!

I served on the committee that helped select Mary Stefanus to be Hardy principal in 2011, and we were sworn to confidentiality about the proceedings. So I can't name the teacher. In that process I heard and saw a lot of crap from Hardy teachers, and they're all still at the school. I can tell you that none of the teachers named by initials in an earlier post were involved.

In the life of a middle school, 2011 can be considered ancient history -- no student who was at the school then is still there, very few if any parents remain. The school has had five principals since 2010. But in the career of a teacher, three years is nothing. If a teacher makes it clear that she is willing to use children to press her adult grievances, I don't want that teacher ever having anything to do with my kids, and I don't believe someone like that is going to change her stripes.

The process was led by an Instructional Superintendent, one of the Chancellor's deputies. If he could sit and listen to that crap, and three years later those teachers are still employed, it's hard to believe that DCPS is serious about improving the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
How did they get rid of the pre-2010 faculty with the "old DC" attitude? Are they all gone ?

In 2011 I was told by a Hardy teacher, to my face and quite forcefully, that as an in-boundary parent I had no right to try and change the direction of the school. That teacher is still listed on the staff directory at:
http://www.hardyms.org/apps/staff/

Name the teacher, or it did not happen!

I served on the committee that helped select Mary Stefanus to be Hardy principal in 2011, and we were sworn to confidentiality about the proceedings. So I can't name the teacher. In that process I heard and saw a lot of crap from Hardy teachers, and they're all still at the school. I can tell you that none of the teachers named by initials in an earlier post were involved.

In the life of a middle school, 2011 can be considered ancient history -- no student who was at the school then is still there, very few if any parents remain. The school has had five principals since 2010. But in the career of a teacher, three years is nothing. If a teacher makes it clear that she is willing to use children to press her adult grievances, I don't want that teacher ever having anything to do with my kids, and I don't believe someone like that is going to change her stripes.

The process was led by an Instructional Superintendent, one of the Chancellor's deputies. If he could sit and listen to that crap, and three years later those teachers are still employed, it's hard to believe that DCPS is serious about improving the school.

Tell us at least the initial of her first name!!!
You agreed to confidentiality about the selection process, not about any remarks made during the discussions!!