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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Henderson is not a "Doctor" of anything. She has a master's in Leadership from Georgetown.

Master Leader Henderson then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Henderson is not a "Doctor" of anything. She has a master's in Leadership from Georgetown.

Master Leader Henderson then.

Has a certain Third Reich vibe to it, no?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

You're going to be lambasted again, and deservingly so. The self-serving "take care of my snowflake and screw the city in the process" of your POV is breath-taking.

Apparently this is tough for people like you to understand, but when the majority of DCPS's students are below grade level, then shutting off an escape valve (such as Hardy) is educational malpractice. If your snowflake is too good to share a school with the refugees, then:

A) move
B) go private
C) apply to the charters which are already better than Hardy anyway

but in any case:

for the love of your child SHUT UP and don't ever talk in public like you do on DCUM. You racist, douchebag prick.

Putting aside the incendiary, uncouth race-baiting for a moment, perhaps you should look at what else you wrote to explain the reluctance of so many parents in Hardy’s surrounding neighborhoods to send their kids to the school. You said that Hardy is an escape valve for some of the majority of DCPS students who are below grade level. What concerns prospective parents then, is that because Hardy is pretty small and so many kids are below grade level, significant educational resources need to go to bring those students (“refugees” as you describe them) closer to the level where they need to be. This probably comes at the expense of curricular programs, activities and other offerings that really challenge and enable children performing at and above grade level to advance further, as the best middle schools in the area provide in abundance. This may sound insensitive, but few parents want their children held back in this manner.

The last refuge of someone in DC who has no valid argument to make is to hurl the “racist” accusation. But if there’s an undertone anywhere it is when some current parents begrudgingly appear willing to welcome more in-bounds (presumably whiter) students, so long as Hardy’s culture (presumably majority OB, African-American, distinctly urban in character) remains, new parents don’t demand too much change and they open their wallets. That sounds a lot like the strained atmosphere when Michelle Rhee tried to make changes at Hardy several years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

You're going to be lambasted again, and deservingly so. The self-serving "take care of my snowflake and screw the city in the process" of your POV is breath-taking.

Apparently this is tough for people like you to understand, but when the majority of DCPS's students are below grade level, then shutting off an escape valve (such as Hardy) is educational malpractice. If your snowflake is too good to share a school with the refugees, then:

A) move
B) go private
C) apply to the charters which are already better than Hardy anyway

but in any case:

for the love of your child SHUT UP and don't ever talk in public like you do on DCUM. You racist, douchebag prick.

Putting aside the incendiary, uncouth race-baiting for a moment, perhaps you should look at what else you wrote to explain the reluctance of so many parents in Hardy’s surrounding neighborhoods to send their kids to the school. You said that Hardy is an escape valve for some of the majority of DCPS students who are below grade level. What concerns prospective parents then, is that because Hardy is pretty small and so many kids are below grade level, significant educational resources need to go to bring those students (“refugees” as you describe them) closer to the level where they need to be. This probably comes at the expense of curricular programs, activities and other offerings that really challenge and enable children performing at and above grade level to advance further, as the best middle schools in the area provide in abundance. This may sound insensitive, but few parents want their children held back in this manner.

The last refuge of someone in DC who has no valid argument to make is to hurl the “racist” accusation. But if there’s an undertone anywhere it is when some current parents begrudgingly appear willing to welcome more in-bounds (presumably whiter) students, so long as Hardy’s culture (presumably majority OB, African-American, distinctly urban in character) remains, new parents don’t demand too much change and they open their wallets. That sounds a lot like the strained atmosphere when Michelle Rhee tried to make changes at Hardy several years ago.

You did not understand what the PP said. She said that Hardy is an escape valve for at grade level students who escape from schools where kids are not at grade level.
Please re -read her message.

[Anonymous]

I'm IB for Hardy, though my child isn't middle school age yet.

I fail to understand the focus on uniforms. What is the problem? I'm not from this area of the country, so where I'm from, uniforms are associated with Catholic schools. It seems here people associate them with low-performing at risk school children?

Frankly, uniforms in middle school sound like a pretty good idea to me. I recall the most teasing and stress over clothes being in middle school. Removing that element seems like a benefit. Kids are cruel.

I'm much more concerned about the breadth and depth of the course offerings at the school than what the students wear.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

You're going to be lambasted again, and deservingly so. The self-serving "take care of my snowflake and screw the city in the process" of your POV is breath-taking.

Apparently this is tough for people like you to understand, but when the majority of DCPS's students are below grade level, then shutting off an escape valve (such as Hardy) is educational malpractice. If your snowflake is too good to share a school with the refugees, then:

A) move
B) go private
C) apply to the charters which are already better than Hardy anyway

but in any case:

for the love of your child SHUT UP and don't ever talk in public like you do on DCUM. You racist, douchebag prick.

Putting aside the incendiary, uncouth race-baiting for a moment, perhaps you should look at what else you wrote to explain the reluctance of so many parents in Hardy’s surrounding neighborhoods to send their kids to the school. You said that Hardy is an escape valve for some of the majority of DCPS students who are below grade level. What concerns prospective parents then, is that because Hardy is pretty small and so many kids are below grade level, significant educational resources need to go to bring those students (“refugees” as you describe them) closer to the level where they need to be. This probably comes at the expense of curricular programs, activities and other offerings that really challenge and enable children performing at and above grade level to advance further, as the best middle schools in the area provide in abundance. This may sound insensitive, but few parents want their children held back in this manner.

The last refuge of someone in DC who has no valid argument to make is to hurl the “racist” accusation. But if there’s an undertone anywhere it is when some current parents begrudgingly appear willing to welcome more in-bounds (presumably whiter) students, so long as Hardy’s culture (presumably majority OB, African-American, distinctly urban in character) remains, new parents don’t demand too much change and they open their wallets. That sounds a lot like the strained atmosphere when Michelle Rhee tried to make changes at Hardy several years ago.

You did not understand what the PP said. She said that Hardy is an escape valve for at grade level students who escape from schools where kids are not at grade level.
Please re -read her message.

Is Hardy test-in for OOB students?

[Anonymous]

This thread has totally jumped the shark.

It's poorly written, is full of hammy and bad acting, and never succeeded in answering its reason for beginning in the first place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread has totally jumped the shark.

It's poorly written, is full of hammy and bad acting, and never succeeded in answering its reason for beginning in the first place.

Welcome to the internet. Remember to thank Al Gore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread has totally jumped the shark.

It's poorly written, is full of hammy and bad acting, and never succeeded in answering its reason for beginning in the first place.

Welcome to the internet. Remember to thank Al Gore.

Speaking of hammy and a bad actor....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Is Hardy test-in for OOB students?

No.

Until the 2011-12 school year every student, IB or OOB, had to submit an application. OOB kids were screened by the principal based on their application, IB kids theoretically were guaranteed a spot. This was back before the lottery was centralized, each school ran its own lottery and principals had wide latitude in how they ran them. With the advent of the centralized lottery selective admissions at Hardy went away, although the lottery rules gave an edge to the siblings of those who had been admitted under the selective policy.

According to Principal Pride, in 2013-14 the school was underenrolled, every child on the waitlist was offered a spot and not enough accepted to fill the school. We probably won't know about the current year for sure until after Count Day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:



You're going to be lambasted again, and deservingly so. The self-serving "take care of my snowflake and screw the city in the process" of your POV is breath-taking.

Apparently this is tough for people like you to understand, but when the majority of DCPS's students are below grade level, then shutting off an escape valve (such as Hardy) is educational malpractice. If your snowflake is too good to share a school with the refugees, then:

A) move
B) go private
C) apply to the charters which are already better than Hardy anyway

but in any case:

for the love of your child SHUT UP and don't ever talk in public like you do on DCUM. You racist, douchebag prick.

Translation: if you live IB, it's not your school. If you don't like it, go somewhere else. If you object, be prepared to be called a racist. And people wonder why the IB families aren't flocking there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:



You're going to be lambasted again, and deservingly so. The self-serving "take care of my snowflake and screw the city in the process" of your POV is breath-taking.

Apparently this is tough for people like you to understand, but when the majority of DCPS's students are below grade level, then shutting off an escape valve (such as Hardy) is educational malpractice. If your snowflake is too good to share a school with the refugees, then:

A) move
B) go private
C) apply to the charters which are already better than Hardy anyway

but in any case:

for the love of your child SHUT UP and don't ever talk in public like you do on DCUM. You racist, douchebag prick.

Translation: if you live IB, it's not your school. If you don't like it, go somewhere else. If you object, be prepared to be called a racist. And people wonder why the IB families aren't flocking there.

Yup.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:



You're going to be lambasted again, and deservingly so. The self-serving "take care of my snowflake and screw the city in the process" of your POV is breath-taking.

Apparently this is tough for people like you to understand, but when the majority of DCPS's students are below grade level, then shutting off an escape valve (such as Hardy) is educational malpractice. If your snowflake is too good to share a school with the refugees, then:

A) move
B) go private
C) apply to the charters which are already better than Hardy anyway

but in any case:

for the love of your child SHUT UP and don't ever talk in public like you do on DCUM. You racist, douchebag prick.

Translation: if you live IB, it's not your school. If you don't like it, go somewhere else. If you object, be prepared to be called a racist. And people wonder why the IB families aren't flocking there.

Yup.

This is absurd. Hardy belongs to everyone in the city. It's a public school open paid for with public funds open to all DC students. IB families are guaranteed a spot; that doesn't mean they own the school, though of course that means they may have a unique interest in it. OOB families are not guaranteed a spot, but many attend. That doesn't mean they have no interest in the school.

The school has two constituencies: the students and families that attend now, and the students and families that may attend in the future

If you are an IB family and think that you have the right to keep other families out, you are wrong. If you are an OOB family and think that IB families interest in the school should be ignored, you are also wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:



You're going to be lambasted again, and deservingly so. The self-serving "take care of my snowflake and screw the city in the process" of your POV is breath-taking.

Apparently this is tough for people like you to understand, but when the majority of DCPS's students are below grade level, then shutting off an escape valve (such as Hardy) is educational malpractice. If your snowflake is too good to share a school with the refugees, then:

A) move
B) go private
C) apply to the charters which are already better than Hardy anyway

but in any case:

for the love of your child SHUT UP and don't ever talk in public like you do on DCUM. You racist, douchebag prick.

Translation: if you live IB, it's not your school. If you don't like it, go somewhere else. If you object, be prepared to be called a racist. And people wonder why the IB families aren't flocking there.

Yup.

Oh really - a couple of anonymous foul-mouthed supposed OOB Hardy parents has this effect? This is just as plausible as the uniform theory.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

You're going to be lambasted again, and deservingly so. The self-serving "take care of my snowflake and screw the city in the process" of your POV is breath-taking.

Apparently this is tough for people like you to understand, but when the majority of DCPS's students are below grade level, then shutting off an escape valve (such as Hardy) is educational malpractice. If your snowflake is too good to share a school with the refugees, then:

A) move
B) go private
C) apply to the charters which are already better than Hardy anyway

but in any case:

for the love of your child SHUT UP and don't ever talk in public like you do on DCUM. You racist, douchebag prick.

Putting aside the incendiary, uncouth race-baiting for a moment, perhaps you should look at what else you wrote to explain the reluctance of so many parents in Hardy’s surrounding neighborhoods to send their kids to the school. You said that Hardy is an escape valve for some of the majority of DCPS students who are below grade level. What concerns prospective parents then, is that because Hardy is pretty small and so many kids are below grade level, significant educational resources need to go to bring those students (“refugees” as you describe them) closer to the level where they need to be. This probably comes at the expense of curricular programs, activities and other offerings that really challenge and enable children performing at and above grade level to advance further, as the best middle schools in the area provide in abundance. This may sound insensitive, but few parents want their children held back in this manner.

The last refuge of someone in DC who has no valid argument to make is to hurl the “racist” accusation. But if there’s an undertone anywhere it is when some current parents begrudgingly appear willing to welcome more in-bounds (presumably whiter) students, so long as Hardy’s culture (presumably majority OB, African-American, distinctly urban in character) remains, new parents don’t demand too much change and they open their wallets. That sounds a lot like the strained atmosphere when Michelle Rhee tried to make changes at Hardy several years ago.

Except this assumption is not correct. Smart, well-prepared, and engaged students with families (white or AA) that are involved in their education do great at Hardy. They learn a lot, have access to great educational opportunities, and are accepted at and attend DCPS magnets like Walls, Banneker, and Duke Ellington, and prestigious privates. As a Hardy parent, I know this firsthand and have seen it happen for several years. Drives me crazy how many people refuse to acknowledge this fact, so I'll repeat it: Smart, well-prepared, and engaged students with families (white or AA) that are involved in their education do great at Hardy.[u][i]