So, what is wrong with Hardy?

[Anonymous]

Silent and hidden bullying and negative competitive peer pressure is what you should be concerned for , not the occasional push you have at Hardy, even fight among 8th grader. We had horrible bullying in our IB ES by a couple of high SES kids, never really sanctioned by their families... These two kids easily made it into Holy Trinity one, St Albans the other....I hope your sensitive DC won't have to deal with rotten behavior such as the one displayed by these two arrogant idiots (and their moms & pops) , and I am sorry for the weaker kids who will have to deal with them in the new schools..... So regarding behavior, what you take is not what you see....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When I visited looking for my DC, I found it to be loud and chaotic. It seemed like a happy chaos, but lots of kids jostling each other playfully in the hallway. Just wouldn't work for my kid. Has some SN issues that make that environment really hard to navigate.

I liked the teachers and don't mind uniforms. What did concern me was that at the end of my visit, the tour guide administrator had to rush off to deal with a fight. I know they happen, but it was another indicator that it would be a difficult environment for my very sensitive kid.

Academically I was impressed with offerings and wished it were a little calmer because there was a lot to like. DC is a middle-of-the-road to strong student depending on the subject. I liked that they weren't afraid of advancing kids who were ready but also have a strong support team.

If IB families (we're not) would embrace it, I could totally see it as a fabulous smaller alternative to Deal. Not everyone wants such a large MS. Just my 2c.

That pretty much describes any middle school setting, be it public or private, where you have 11-12-13-14 year olds that are changing classes, having lunch or dismissing from school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When I visited looking for my DC, I found it to be loud and chaotic. It seemed like a happy chaos, but lots of kids jostling each other playfully in the hallway. Just wouldn't work for my kid. Has some SN issues that make that environment really hard to navigate.

I liked the teachers and don't mind uniforms. What did concern me was that at the end of my visit, the tour guide administrator had to rush off to deal with a fight. I know they happen, but it was another indicator that it would be a difficult environment for my very sensitive kid.

Academically I was impressed with offerings and wished it were a little calmer because there was a lot to like. DC is a middle-of-the-road to strong student depending on the subject. I liked that they weren't afraid of advancing kids who were ready but also have a strong support team.

If IB families (we're not) would embrace it, I could totally see it as a fabulous smaller alternative to Deal. Not everyone wants such a large MS. Just my 2c.

You're assuming, PP, that the current enrollment at Hardy is a natural upper bound on enrollment. It isn't in the sense that the building can accommodate almost twice as many as are currently enrolled. DCPS understands that 50% or so is the upper limit on FARMs before a school become dysfunctional. As the IB enrollment at Hardy increases, total enrollment at Hardy will increase as well. IB families will never get "a fabulous smaller alternative to Deal."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I visited looking for my DC, I found it to be loud and chaotic. It seemed like a happy chaos, but lots of kids jostling each other playfully in the hallway. Just wouldn't work for my kid. Has some SN issues that make that environment really hard to navigate.

I liked the teachers and don't mind uniforms. What did concern me was that at the end of my visit, the tour guide administrator had to rush off to deal with a fight. I know they happen, but it was another indicator that it would be a difficult environment for my very sensitive kid.

Academically I was impressed with offerings and wished it were a little calmer because there was a lot to like. DC is a middle-of-the-road to strong student depending on the subject. I liked that they weren't afraid of advancing kids who were ready but also have a strong support team.

If IB families (we're not) would embrace it, I could totally see it as a fabulous smaller alternative to Deal. Not everyone wants such a large MS. Just my 2c.

You're assuming, PP, that the current enrollment at Hardy is a natural upper bound on enrollment. It isn't in the sense that the building can accommodate almost twice as many as are currently enrolled. DCPS understands that 50% or so is the upper limit on FARMs before a school become dysfunctional. As the IB enrollment at Hardy increases, total enrollment at Hardy will increase as well. IB families will never get "a fabulous smaller alternative to Deal."

That all sounds like...conjecture!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I visited looking for my DC, I found it to be loud and chaotic. It seemed like a happy chaos, but lots of kids jostling each other playfully in the hallway. Just wouldn't work for my kid. Has some SN issues that make that environment really hard to navigate.

I liked the teachers and don't mind uniforms. What did concern me was that at the end of my visit, the tour guide administrator had to rush off to deal with a fight. I know they happen, but it was another indicator that it would be a difficult environment for my very sensitive kid.

Academically I was impressed with offerings and wished it were a little calmer because there was a lot to like. DC is a middle-of-the-road to strong student depending on the subject. I liked that they weren't afraid of advancing kids who were ready but also have a strong support team.

If IB families (we're not) would embrace it, I could totally see it as a fabulous smaller alternative to Deal. Not everyone wants such a large MS. Just my 2c.

You're assuming, PP, that the current enrollment at Hardy is a natural upper bound on enrollment. It isn't in the sense that the building can accommodate almost twice as many as are currently enrolled. DCPS understands that 50% or so is the upper limit on FARMs before a school become dysfunctional. As the IB enrollment at Hardy increases, total enrollment at Hardy will increase as well. IB families will never get "a fabulous smaller alternative to Deal."

That all sounds like...conjecture!

Maybe, but it's a much more likely scenario than, say, Brookland MS taking off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I visited looking for my DC, I found it to be loud and chaotic. It seemed like a happy chaos, but lots of kids jostling each other playfully in the hallway. Just wouldn't work for my kid. Has some SN issues that make that environment really hard to navigate.

I liked the teachers and don't mind uniforms. What did concern me was that at the end of my visit, the tour guide administrator had to rush off to deal with a fight. I know they happen, but it was another indicator that it would be a difficult environment for my very sensitive kid.

Academically I was impressed with offerings and wished it were a little calmer because there was a lot to like. DC is a middle-of-the-road to strong student depending on the subject. I liked that they weren't afraid of advancing kids who were ready but also have a strong support team.

If IB families (we're not) would embrace it, I could totally see it as a fabulous smaller alternative to Deal. Not everyone wants such a large MS. Just my 2c.

You're assuming, PP, that the current enrollment at Hardy is a natural upper bound on enrollment. It isn't in the sense that the building can accommodate almost twice as many as are currently enrolled. DCPS understands that 50% or so is the upper limit on FARMs before a school become dysfunctional. As the IB enrollment at Hardy increases, total enrollment at Hardy will increase as well. IB families will never get "a fabulous smaller alternative to Deal."

And how exactly does DCPS intend to limit the FARMS enrollment ? It's one thing to manage down OOB a enrollment as IB enrollment increases, and I personally think it would be nuts to expand overall Hardy enrollment just to maintain or enlarge OOB, for the reasons that the PP stated (frittering away Hardy's one clear advantage over Deal, its relatively small size). But trying to exclude FARMS students per se based on income is offensive and may be illegal and is sort of what prior principal Pope was accused of, non?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I visited looking for my DC, I found it to be loud and chaotic. It seemed like a happy chaos, but lots of kids jostling each other playfully in the hallway. Just wouldn't work for my kid. Has some SN issues that make that environment really hard to navigate.

I liked the teachers and don't mind uniforms. What did concern me was that at the end of my visit, the tour guide administrator had to rush off to deal with a fight. I know they happen, but it was another indicator that it would be a difficult environment for my very sensitive kid.

Academically I was impressed with offerings and wished it were a little calmer because there was a lot to like. DC is a middle-of-the-road to strong student depending on the subject. I liked that they weren't afraid of advancing kids who were ready but also have a strong support team.

If IB families (we're not) would embrace it, I could totally see it as a fabulous smaller alternative to Deal. Not everyone wants such a large MS. Just my 2c.

You're assuming, PP, that the current enrollment at Hardy is a natural upper bound on enrollment. It isn't in the sense that the building can accommodate almost twice as many as are currently enrolled. DCPS understands that 50% or so is the upper limit on FARMs before a school become dysfunctional. As the IB enrollment at Hardy increases, total enrollment at Hardy will increase as well. IB families will never get "a fabulous smaller alternative to Deal."

And how exactly does DCPS intend to limit the FARMS enrollment ? It's one thing to manage down OOB a enrollment as IB enrollment increases, and I personally think it would be nuts to expand overall Hardy enrollment just to maintain or enlarge OOB, for the reasons that the PP stated (frittering away Hardy's one clear advantage over Deal, its relatively small size). But trying to exclude FARMS students per se based on income is offensive and may be illegal and is sort of what prior principal Pope was accused of, non?

By limiting the number of slots available in the OOB lottery via a cap on overall enrollment.

The FARMs rate of kids (both IB and OOB) coming from feeder ESs is easily measured, and undoubtedly very low. The FARMs rate of kids coming through the OOB lottery can also be measured and is probably stable from year to year. It pretty clear that the FARMs rate at Hardy is directly related to (non-feeder) OOB enrollment.

Last year, 87% of the kids were OOB and 55% were FARMs. Assuming that none of the IB kids were FARMs, the FARMs rate was 63% among OOB kids. If we then consider that many of those OOB kids came through feeder ESs with FARMs rates around 10%, it's likely that 80 to 90% of the kids who lotteried in to Hardy are FARMs.

The vast majority of middle schoolers in DC attend poorly performing schools. There is little reason to limit the number of kids willing to travel WOTP for a shot at a decent education other than the detrimental impact on the target school of a large influx of poorly prepared kids. Research suggests that the tipping point at which a functioning school starts to become dysfunctional is a FARMs rate of about 50%.

If 100 IB families decided to abandon their private schools and send their kids to Hardy tomorrow, why shouldn't DCPS evict Filmore to give 100 kids EOTP a shot at a decent education?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hardy's problem is that there are WAY too many OOB kids who bring poverty, dysfunction, and generally pull down test scores. That's why IB families don't want to go there.

I'm IB - we call it the "4th grade flight." Hardy's students have too many social/personal issues for the school to be able to focus on academics. I went to a similar public middle school (decades ago) and had to fight with my fists every day. I didn't learn anything and had to take many private summer school classes and correspondence courses to make up for all the lost time. I don't want to put my kids through that misery. I don't care what anybody else thinks about a middle school's "status", or about whether the students wear uniforms or not. I just want my kids to get a good, basic education, and to be safe. Based on my tours of the school and conversations with other parents, I am not convinced Hardy can provide a decent education in a safe environment for my kids. Some IB parents make it work -- they are wonderful people, and their kids are fantastic. I don't think I could make it work for my kids.

What leads you to believe Hardy isn't a "safe environment?" Do you really think there are fights there every day? Every week? Every month? Every few months? If so, you are sadly misinformed.

--Mother of an 8th grader

IB parent here. My kid graduated from our IB elementary a couple of years ago. In his class there were two kids who went to Hardy. One of them came home from school one day beaten up. He was at Hardy because his parents couldn't afford private, they quickly moved to Bethesda. A story like that spreads like wild-fire in an elementary school community. Hardy may in fact be no less safe than Deal, Bethesda public schools or some privates, but it's got a hill to climb in terms of its reputation, and it's not climbing it.

Sadly, the problems with Hardy's reputation go back to the Pope years. I've talked with parents from that era and there are lots of stories of violence. I've talked with in-bounds parents who were told the school wasn't going to do anything to protect the physical safety of their children. There were a group of people at the school at that time who used children as pawns in their adult struggles, and they are despicable people, unfit to be involved in education.

Pope-era mom here. We did not have this experience at all. But then, according to you, I must have been too busy using my child as a pawn. "Lots of stories." I can imagine there may have been an incident or two that I didn't hear about but I love how supposedly educated people elevate that to "lots." If there had been "lots of stories," I would have heard about it.

By "at the school" I meant administrators and teachers, not parents.

Question: were you IB or OOB? It seems like there were different realities in those days depending on where you lived.

We were OOB at the time although we had been IB when dd was in elementary school. Like I said, I can imagine that there were some fights I didn't hear about but my dd's main concern was that she felt her friends were overly domineering -- typical middle school girl concerns -- but I never heard "lots of stories" about violence. If you want to take our OOB status and use it to discount what I have to say, there is nothing I can do about that. But dd and her friends (a mix of OOB and IB) all managed to finish Hardy, graduate from high school, and go on to good colleges and that is what counts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I visited looking for my DC, I found it to be loud and chaotic. It seemed like a happy chaos, but lots of kids jostling each other playfully in the hallway. Just wouldn't work for my kid. Has some SN issues that make that environment really hard to navigate.

I liked the teachers and don't mind uniforms. What did concern me was that at the end of my visit, the tour guide administrator had to rush off to deal with a fight. I know they happen, but it was another indicator that it would be a difficult environment for my very sensitive kid.

Academically I was impressed with offerings and wished it were a little calmer because there was a lot to like. DC is a middle-of-the-road to strong student depending on the subject. I liked that they weren't afraid of advancing kids who were ready but also have a strong support team.

If IB families (we're not) would embrace it, I could totally see it as a fabulous smaller alternative to Deal. Not everyone wants such a large MS. Just my 2c.

You're assuming, PP, that the current enrollment at Hardy is a natural upper bound on enrollment. It isn't in the sense that the building can accommodate almost twice as many as are currently enrolled. DCPS understands that 50% or so is the upper limit on FARMs before a school become dysfunctional. As the IB enrollment at Hardy increases, total enrollment at Hardy will increase as well. IB families will never get "a fabulous smaller alternative to Deal."

And how exactly does DCPS intend to limit the FARMS enrollment ? It's one thing to manage down OOB a enrollment as IB enrollment increases, and I personally think it would be nuts to expand overall Hardy enrollment just to maintain or enlarge OOB, for the reasons that the PP stated (frittering away Hardy's one clear advantage over Deal, its relatively small size). But trying to exclude FARMS students per se based on income is offensive and may be illegal and is sort of what prior principal Pope was accused of, non?

By limiting the number of slots available in the OOB lottery via a cap on overall enrollment.

The FARMs rate of kids (both IB and OOB) coming from feeder ESs is easily measured, and undoubtedly very low. The FARMs rate of kids coming through the OOB lottery can also be measured and is probably stable from year to year. It pretty clear that the FARMs rate at Hardy is directly related to (non-feeder) OOB enrollment.

Last year, 87% of the kids were OOB and 55% were FARMs. Assuming that none of the IB kids were FARMs, the FARMs rate was 63% among OOB kids. If we then consider that many of those OOB kids came through feeder ESs with FARMs rates around 10%, it's likely that 80 to 90% of the kids who lotteried in to Hardy are FARMs.

The vast majority of middle schoolers in DC attend poorly performing schools. There is little reason to limit the number of kids willing to travel WOTP for a shot at a decent education other than the detrimental impact on the target school of a large influx of poorly prepared kids. Research suggests that the tipping point at which a functioning school starts to become dysfunctional is a FARMs rate of about 50%.

If 100 IB families decided to abandon their private schools and send their kids to Hardy tomorrow, why shouldn't DCPS evict Filmore to give 100 kids EOTP a shot at a decent education?

Of course, DCPS could comit to build that new Ward 3 middle school as so many have proposed, which would free up even more slots for EOTP kids at Hardy

[Anonymous]

"So what is wrong with Hardy?"

Practically nothing, if your regular middle school is shi@@y.

Practically everything if you are comparing it to Deal.

Two very different perspectives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"So what is wrong with Hardy?"

Practically nothing, if your regular middle school is shi@@y.

Practically everything if you are comparing it to Deal.

Two very different perspectives.

... Wrote the nasty troll from her office desk, the one who had never stepped into the school...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"So what is wrong with Hardy?"

Practically nothing, if your regular middle school is shi@@y.

Practically everything if you are comparing it to Deal.

Two very different perspectives.

... Wrote the nasty troll from her office desk, the one who had never stepped into the school...

It's like Mars and Venus. Whether Hardy is acceptable or unacceptable depends substantially on where you live and to which school you compare Hardy.

[Anonymous]

If Deal can become a viable option for families like it has, so can Hardy in a couple years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If Deal can become a viable option for families like it has, so can Hardy in a couple years.

From what I read here, it seems it might take a little bit more of time...

[Anonymous]

@1403: DCPS won't evict Fillmore in order to expand Hardy to take in more lottery kids, unless DCPS has a replacement for Fillmore's classes. But there is no replacement for Fillmore's services. Ergo, you can stop dreaming about Fillmore being evicted.