So how many IB are going to really be at Hardy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To answer the actual question, Hardy met its goal of at least 50 IB kids this year in 6th and are at 100% capacity for 6th. Everyone I know who is there and IB has not looked back, even for a second.

I am trying to calculate as a percentage using the DCPS school profile.

Does this mean 50 students in a class of 125, which is 40% IB for grade 6? If so, this is a great achievement.

Did they finally break through at Mann and Key this year?

None from key this year. Two went last year and one left.

If that's the case, how is the supposed 50 IB students figure in grade 6 for real? If it is real, are the students all coming from Hyde-Addison? (Question: Is an OOB student at a feeder school still considered OOB at middle school, or does the feeding from the IB feeder change the student's classification?)

Pretty sure they're still considered OOB, based on home address relative to the current school boundary, rather than prior school attended.

Really zero from Key? Did they all go to Basis and Latin (and private)? What about Mann?

FYI, some parents from these schools find ways to go to Deal. Most would prefer Deal to Basis or Latin, and they find a way.

A lot of parents simply find Deal too large and don't want to deal with DCPS. I would happily send my child to Latin or DCI.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think most are concerned with academic proficiency, but is it so wrong to want your child to go to school with at least some kids -- whatever race -- who live in your neighborhood? For me, part of the reason for opting public school over private is the benefit of going to a neighborhood school. OOB kids can certainly fit into that picture, but if a school is largely OOB, then you completely lose the benefits of a neighborhood school. My DC LOVED walking to Eaton with neighborhood friends and also having playdates with IB and OOB friends, but without an IB cohort, it just would not have been the same. I don't think it makes me a racist to want to send my child to a school with some neighborhood connection.

Most of the city agrees, looking at the reaction to the DME proposal.

I completely agree. I am not denying that racism exists in this city/country. But it is ridiculous to suggest that people are racist because they want to see more truly IB kids in the school. People who want a neighborhood school, want a school where their neighbors' kids go. They don't want to attend a school that happens to be in their neighborhood but whose student body comes from all 8 wards. If they wanted that, then they would attend charters. I have nothing against charters - glad they are there as options. But for those of us who want neighborhood schools, this means not only that the school is in the neighborhood, but also that most of the neighborhood kids go there.

I don't know why this is so hard for some people to understand, or why some people impute the worst motives for this. It's almost as if the charter movement has made people forget the neighbrohood schools of our childhoods or something, I don't know. Again, nothing against charters, but I am a big believer in neighborhood schools.

You're mostly right, but I'll point out the inconvenient fact that more kids who are in-boundary for Hardy attend Basis and Latin than Hardy. School quality matters too.

Exactly, PP. I'll make the obvious point that those families are not attracted to Latin and BASIS because of the low OOB numbers or low AA population.

I'll add that Pride's plan for improving the quality of Hardy is to increase the IB percentage. It's a good plan. Once Hardy is 70% IB or higher, it will give Latin, BASIS and perhaps Deal a run for their money.

However, the plan poses chicken-or-egg dilemma. The grass-roots campaign to boost IB enrollment that is underway is admirable and will eventually succeed. However, its seems unnecessarily drawn-out.

I've been lambasted for making this point before, but here it is: The fastest way to turn Hardy back into a neighborhood school is to cut it's enrollment significantly, e.g., 100 kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think most are concerned with academic proficiency, but is it so wrong to want your child to go to school with at least some kids -- whatever race -- who live in your neighborhood? For me, part of the reason for opting public school over private is the benefit of going to a neighborhood school. OOB kids can certainly fit into that picture, but if a school is largely OOB, then you completely lose the benefits of a neighborhood school. My DC LOVED walking to Eaton with neighborhood friends and also having playdates with IB and OOB friends, but without an IB cohort, it just would not have been the same. I don't think it makes me a racist to want to send my child to a school with some neighborhood connection.

Most of the city agrees, looking at the reaction to the DME proposal.

I completely agree. I am not denying that racism exists in this city/country. But it is ridiculous to suggest that people are racist because they want to see more truly IB kids in the school. People who want a neighborhood school, want a school where their neighbors' kids go. They don't want to attend a school that happens to be in their neighborhood but whose student body comes from all 8 wards. If they wanted that, then they would attend charters. I have nothing against charters - glad they are there as options. But for those of us who want neighborhood schools, this means not only that the school is in the neighborhood, but also that most of the neighborhood kids go there.

I don't know why this is so hard for some people to understand, or why some people impute the worst motives for this. It's almost as if the charter movement has made people forget the neighbrohood schools of our childhoods or something, I don't know. Again, nothing against charters, but I am a big believer in neighborhood schools.

You're mostly right, but I'll point out the inconvenient fact that more kids who are in-boundary for Hardy attend Basis and Latin than Hardy. School quality matters too.

Exactly, PP. I'll make the obvious point that those families are not attracted to Latin and BASIS because of the low OOB numbers or low AA population.

I'll add that Pride's plan for improving the quality of Hardy is to increase the IB percentage. It's a good plan. Once Hardy is 70% IB or higher, it will give Latin, BASIS and perhaps Deal a run for their money.

However, the plan poses chicken-or-egg dilemma. The grass-roots campaign to boost IB enrollment that is underway is admirable and will eventually succeed. However, its seems unnecessarily drawn-out.

I've been lambasted for making this point before, but here it is: The fastest way to turn Hardy back into a neighborhood school is to cut it's enrollment significantly, e.g., 100 kids.

Or through forced expansion of the in-bounds area, as the DME plan would do.

[Anonymous]

Forced expansion will not work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Um no I didn't. I get the point of the PP which isn't the point of the previous 20+ pages.

Hardy' scores are fine-- not great but not horrible. Engaged Principal who has implemented differentiation. Nice small school size. Clearly there are kids who are engaged and working hard. What there isn't are IB kids. Not feeder kids who are proficient (plenty of those) but IB.

Not hard to understand.

Fine. You didn't seem to acknowledge that kids prepared through feeder schools are academically solid students. Now you do acknowledge that fact; which also means that you would probably acknowledge that proficient peers are probably the best way to attract kids living in Hardy's neighborhood to attend that school. But as for your unrelated point (but relevant to the thread) -- how many neighborhood kids living in the neighborhood attend Hardy -- I don't think we've seen that data.

I was simply referring to the whole point of this thread. It is easy to get wrapped up into proficient rather than IB. We are discussing IB. I think my OOB feeder kid is totally proficient and lucky to be at Hardy. We sent him to a feeder so he would be at Hardy. My plan worked. However, I think Hardy could be even better with more IB kids.

But for the record, you don't have to be nasty in your responses. I do think harder but thanks for suggesting it. I think you are a fellow Hardy parent which is really disappointing to realize.

[Anonymous]

While we can't yet be sure of the accuracy of the claim of 50 IB in 6th grade, it seems to me that if that is true, there may well more who will make that choice next year. And probably some additional from the change in feeder patterns. Sees like Hardy could easily be 50% IB in 6th grade next year, with most of the rest being well-prepared OOB students (of whatever skin color) from Hardy feeders.

At that point one would have to consider Hardy to be "flipped" I guess.

[Anonymous]

Yes, but the Hardy people have said that Principal Pride treats all feeder kids as IB while DCPS only counts true IB kids as IB. I think we'll be waiting a while for the actual, accurate data.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, but the Hardy people have said that Principal Pride treats all feeder kids as IB while DCPS only counts true IB kids as IB. I think we'll be waiting a while for the actual, accurate data.

did the quote of 50 come from Pride?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:While we can't yet be sure of the accuracy of the claim of 50 IB in 6th grade, it seems to me that if that is true, there may well more who will make that choice next year. And probably some additional from the change in feeder patterns. Sees like Hardy could easily be 50% IB in 6th grade next year, with most of the rest being well-prepared OOB students (of whatever skin color) from Hardy feeders.

At that point one would have to consider Hardy to be "flipped" I guess.

Then it's already "flipped" in the minds of the constituents -- the data just takes a little while for that to be shown. Students in 7th and 6th grades now are going to push the test scores higher; though overall reading still looked bad last year. Once reading and math are above 75% there will be no compelling reason for IB students not to attend Hardy. There will always be some kind of manufactured reason, from some parents, but no compelling ones. For now, ignoring the likelihood of higher scores from the current year's tests, reading scores at 65% proficient are still a "pretty good" reason to skip Hardy for a school with better academic production.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Um no I didn't. I get the point of the PP which isn't the point of the previous 20+ pages.

Hardy' scores are fine-- not great but not horrible. Engaged Principal who has implemented differentiation. Nice small school size. Clearly there are kids who are engaged and working hard. What there isn't are IB kids. Not feeder kids who are proficient (plenty of those) but IB.

Not hard to understand.

Fine. You didn't seem to acknowledge that kids prepared through feeder schools are academically solid students. Now you do acknowledge that fact; which also means that you would probably acknowledge that proficient peers are probably the best way to attract kids living in Hardy's neighborhood to attend that school. But as for your unrelated point (but relevant to the thread) -- how many neighborhood kids living in the neighborhood attend Hardy -- I don't think we've seen that data.

I was simply referring to the whole point of this thread. It is easy to get wrapped up into proficient rather than IB. We are discussing IB. I think my OOB feeder kid is totally proficient and lucky to be at Hardy. We sent him to a feeder so he would be at Hardy. My plan worked. However, I think Hardy could be even better with more IB kids.

But for the record, you don't have to be nasty in your responses. I do think harder but thanks for suggesting it. I think you are a fellow Hardy parent which is really disappointing to realize.

Just trying to help out, my friend. Toughen up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Forced expansion will not work.

Apparently DME Smith and Henderson didn't get the memo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Um no I didn't. I get the point of the PP which isn't the point of the previous 20+ pages.

Hardy' scores are fine-- not great but not horrible. Engaged Principal who has implemented differentiation. Nice small school size. Clearly there are kids who are engaged and working hard. What there isn't are IB kids. Not feeder kids who are proficient (plenty of those) but IB.

Not hard to understand.

Fine. You didn't seem to acknowledge that kids prepared through feeder schools are academically solid students. Now you do acknowledge that fact; which also means that you would probably acknowledge that proficient peers are probably the best way to attract kids living in Hardy's neighborhood to attend that school. But as for your unrelated point (but relevant to the thread) -- how many neighborhood kids living in the neighborhood attend Hardy -- I don't think we've seen that data.

I was simply referring to the whole point of this thread. It is easy to get wrapped up into proficient rather than IB. We are discussing IB. I think my OOB feeder kid is totally proficient and lucky to be at Hardy. We sent him to a feeder so he would be at Hardy. My plan worked. However, I think Hardy could be even better with more IB kids.

But for the record, you don't have to be nasty in your responses. I do think harder but thanks for suggesting it. I think you are a fellow Hardy parent which is really disappointing to realize.

Just trying to help out, my friend. Toughen up.

Try not to be such a douche.

[Anonymous]

@16:17: For the sake of Hardy, I hope your kid is in 8th grade. You can't bless the Wilson community soon enough.

[Anonymous]

I am sick and tired of all the bashing and trashing on Hardy. I'm sorry that in boundary families don't have access to your precious Deal, but where do you get off turning your nose up at a school that is good enough for the rest of us and better than other middle schools in DC? I'm ok if more neighborhood families come to Hardy, but it will continue to get better and better even without your kids and their great test scores, so I won't cry if you don't. Like Dr. Henderson said, it's a free country and you can move out of DCPS if it doesn't work for you. But if you come to Hardy,don't act all entitled and expect to start running things and change everything like the uniforms or demand stuff like Ancient Greek or whatever. Lots of parents are happy with the school today.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am sick and tired of all the bashing and trashing on Hardy. I'm sorry that in boundary families don't have access to your precious Deal, but where do you get off turning your nose up at a school that is good enough for the rest of us and better than other middle schools in DC? I'm ok if more neighborhood families come to Hardy, but it will continue to get better and better even without your kids and their great test scores, so I won't cry if you don't. Like Dr. Henderson said, it's a free country and you can move out of DCPS if it doesn't work for you. But if you come to Hardy,don't act all entitled and expect to start running things and change everything like the uniforms or demand stuff like Ancient Greek or whatever. Lots of parents are happy with the school today.

They already are coming, apparently, and more will do so next year, despite the bashers. And yes, they will want to change things. Its one thing to say you can't ask for changes to a school when your kids don't attend, but that argument won't carry much weight when their kids DO attend.