Different school cultures and curriculums at the upper NW IB ESs?
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Anonymous
Here is what you need to know: 1. What Elemantary Schools Feed Hardy? Hyde, Stoddert, Mann, Eaton, Key 2. Of the schools that feed Hardy, what % of the population is IB? Stoddert - 80% + Hyde - 37% Eaton - 36% Mann / Key - close to 100% 3. From where do you think Hardy gets the 11% IB students? Also - remember that 7 years ago Hardy was in a swing space and the kids were bussed to school. It was a disaster. After that there was Principal shake-up. I hate to break it to you - but the children going to Hardy IB are the families that do not have another option. Of the IB students, these are mostly kids from Stoddert, the least expensive housing on average of any of the feeder communities. |
Anonymous
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You speak as if you are saying something of meaning. You're not.
I'm fully aware of the current OOB% at every school in DC. That's not as relevant as the trend. Most people looking into Hardy are not looking into it for today, but for a few years down the line. So "today" may have little in common with that time. There are plenty of people who have sufficient income to go private but would prefer to go public if possible. I am one of them. I was a public school kid and I think I am better for it. I would be a fool to conclude that I won't send my children to Hardy because I currently would not send my children to Hardy. (**Perhaps I would. I don't know, and that's part of the point. I have little reason to think about the school as it is today when I care about 5-10 years from now.) |
Anonymous
| The talk about Hardy is interesting to me, as it was exactly the sort of talk I heard about Deal when I was kid, going to Lafayette in the '90s. When I was in kindergarden, the notion was of course only a small minority of neighborhood kids would consider Deal--it was thought to be a rough place and mostly full of out of bounds kids. The kids from Lafayette who went to Deal were largely out of bounds kids who lotteried into Lafayette and whose home schools were much worse options. Of course, it was the most acceptable DCPS middle school option, and certainly there were people from the neighborhood who went there for financial reasons or to show support of public school. And there were certainly kids who did really well there, and parents who would say "see, my high SES white kid did great at Deal!" I moved away from the area before middle school, but kept in touch with my friends in the area. By the time they graduated 6th grade, a good third of the class actually went on to Deal (the rest went private), which was way different from when I was in kindergarten! Now it seems from these boards that the majority of kids from Lafayette, Janney, Murch, etc. go on to Deal and there is no space for out of bounds kids. I know Hardy has a different set of issues and there are charters as an alternative, but my parents would have never thought that Deal would actually have become a popular option, rather than an option of last resort. |
Anonymous
Yes, it is true that all of dcps adheres to the centralized, top-down Learning Standards for Grades Pre-K-8. (the curriculum). All of them. Even Mann. "autonomy" status means certain schools that have it may elect to ADD to the required Standards or detour down an interesting path while still touching on everything required under the Standards. |
Anonymous
Currently Eaton feeds into Deal and Hardy. I don't think anyone can say for sure it will be switched to Hardy only with any credibility. However, what I can say is that it has a well liked principal, teachers seem happy to be there and engaged. The art teacher is amazing and there is a great musical for the 4th & 5th grades each year. In terms of sports they have solid afterschool basketball and Stoddert soccer teams and a Girls on the Run program. In terms of parents, we want our children to be there, we work very hard to make sure the school is successful in terms of supports we fundraise for and community events. I would also hazard to guess that Eaton would be in the top 5 schools in terms of real demographic diversity. Not just black/white but kids from a number of countries. It currently has a population of 471 which is the highest it can really go given the size of the facility. Totally recommend going to the open house. |
Anonymous
You are correct that the standards are all the same. However, autonomy frees the school up from using the district's prescribed set of books or approaches to learning. For example, the DC3 pioneered the use of readers' and writers' workshop. Autonomy also frees up the school from using traditional staffing models and DCPS-led professional development. Budget autonomy is another large aspect of the autonomy these schools have been granted. Greater latitude in budgeting allows these schools to be innovative with regard to how they allocate resources. |
Anonymous
The trend is that Hardy has a troubled past. The history of Hardy is intimately tied to the history of segregation in DC. The building that is Hardy today was known as Gordon Junior High School until 1978. From "A Brief History of Burleith" (http://www.burleith.org/history.html):
The reference to "Judge Wright's 1967 order" refers to Hobson vs. Hansen, which was the court case which ended segregation in practice. At that time Gordon was fed by Mann, Hearst, Key, Hyde, Stoddert, and two elementary schools which no longer exist, Fillmore and Hardy. Following Hobson v. Hansen, Deal was redistricted to include Mann and Hearst, and the Hobson backers went back to court. In 1970 Judge Write ordered the redistricting reversed, and writing that:
(see http://www.leagle.com/decision/19701040320FSupp720_1890) This ruling has governed DCPS ever since, that no redistricting can reduce the diversity of an integrated school. Note that intent is not a consideration, just the outcome. By 1972 Gordon had become 90% out of boundary and most of the feeder schools had lost significant numbers of students. It's no coincidence that many of the private schools in DC were founded between 1967 and 1972. That year DCPS closed Fillmore and converted Hardy Elementary -- which is on Q Street between MacArthur and Foxhall -- into Hardy Middle School, which had Mann, Key, Hyde and Stoddert as feeders. (I guess it was OK to create new schools that reduced diversity, just not do it through redistricting). In 1978 Gordon Jr. High closed. In 1996, Gordon Jr. High was reopened under the name Hardy Middle School with the students from the old Hardy Middle School. The old Hardy building was leased to a private school. From 2005 to 2008, Hardy closed at the Burleith location for renovations and relocated to Hamilton Education Center near Gallaudet. The Hardy feeder schools effectively had no in-boundary school during this time, but it wasn't a big problem. It was not difficult to get into Deal out of boundary and just about every in-boundary kid who stayed in DCPS went to Deal rather than commute across the city. As late as 2009 Deal was actively recruiting kids who were in-boundary for Hardy and pretty much everyone who applied in the spring 2009 OOB lottery at Deal got in. In addition charter schools were just starting to come on the scene and many in-boundary kids went to charters. In 2010 everything changed. Enrollment surged at Deal. In the spring 2010 OOB lottery there were zero spots at Deal. This had a ripple effect on the charters and it became a lot harder to get into charters. The in-boundary families found themselves with their customary options closed off and an in-boundary school that wasn't really an in-boundary school. In December 2010, Michelle Rhee announced she was reassigning the Hardy principal, due to pressure from in-boundary parents. Controversy erupted. Since June 2011 Hardy has had five principals. Which brings us today. Hardy is at 11% in-boundary, which is about where it's been since it reopened in 2008. There's a new principal this fall. It's really too early to be talking about what the trend is. |
Anonymous
. They're learning the same information. |
Anonymous
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22:54:
Wonderful. Thank you very much for the informative lesson. I love it. (I was the one asking about trend.) Since you're clearly well-informed, what are you (admittedly early) predictions and things to look for? |
Anonymous
If you're going to say that, you might as well say that students in every single state that has adopted the Common Core State Standards is learning the same information. And yes, at the end of the day, everyone is supposed to be mastering the same standards. But the Common Core is NOT a curriculum. Many of the schools in NW have autonomy from DCPS, which means they choose their own curriculum. OP, if you're really interested, go on school tours and talk to the principal about the curriculum each school uses. |
Anonymous
Not true that all DCPS schools have the same curriculum. They do not. They have the same standards but can choose what curriculum they use to meet those standards. |
Anonymous
22:54 here. 2010 and 2011 were when things really bottomed out at Hardy. The school was in the paper almost every week, there was a lot of bad behavior on a lot of parts. I give Principal Stefanus credit for lowering the temperature and allowing the school to function again. Since it hit bottom there has been complete turnover in students, almost complete turnover in parents, several turnovers in administration. The one thing that remains are the teachers. As a parent, I was appalled by some of the things I saw teachers do and heard them say during the worst days. There were teachers who were basically in open rebellion against the central office. In any other line of work they would have been fired that day, but they still remain at the school. Until some meaningful staff changes are made it's hard to see the school progressing. The measure of Principal Pride will come next September, once she's had a year to get the lay of the land, when we see what staff she opens the next school year with. |