Hardy vs. DCI
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Anonymous
| Why is this thread all about Chinese? OP didn’t ask about yu Ying. |
Anonymous
| Because the YY founder now leads DCI |
Anonymous
| Which explains a lot. YY's problems have become DCI's problems. |
Anonymous
Because as another poster indicated, given the history of YY founding DCI, the problems with YY are very similar to some of the major problems with DCI, especially the issues with poor leadership and all the issues stemming from this. Also, OP didn't specify which track her child would be on. Some posters are saying that if it's the Chinese track, then it's not worth sending your child to DCI over Hardy just to get a little Chinese but weak academics and leadership. The Spanish track is stronger with truly fluent speakers. |
Anonymous
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We are friends with several families with seventh graders at DCI who also have fifth graders at feeders. Their kids are really happy (they say so when we see them at soccer/BBQs/etc., and their parents do, too). The parents acknowledge that the school isn't perfect, but which is? They say they plan to send their younger kids.
Just felt like putting in a good word for DCI. Reading DCUM makes the school look so different than what I hear from my friends. Pretty sure my friends aren't on this site, or would admit it if they were! Oh, and DCI friends were some of the few people who actually felt okay about distance learning, if that means anything. Silver lining on an otherwise questionable tech reliance. |
Anonymous
+1 know families who are happy at DCI for their kids. Why do you need to be on the site if you are happy with your school? Many people who are on here are looking for something else or to complain. There is always 1 or 2 unhappy parent always posting again and again. Talk to a families you know who have kids there. They will tell you what they like or don’t like, etc.... Also it’s one of the few decent middle schools EOTP. Majority of people living EOTP are not looking at Hardy. |
Anonymous
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Come on, it's not just a few disgruntled UMC parents who reject DCI after 5th grade in feeder schools. Most do. I've been dismayed to discovered that more than a dozen 4th graders at our feeder (not YY) bolted for BASIS this fall. You're relying on anecdotal evidence to look at DCI through rose-colored glasses. DCI isn't a bad school. It's just not better than Hardy academically, and it's future isn't as bright.
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Anonymous
Your premise is completely wrong. Most families go to DCI. Look at open spots and how far they go in their waitlist. Numbers don’t lie |
Anonymous
Basis goes deep in their waitlist. Most families like ours want a typical middle and high school experience for our DC where in addition to academics, there is a larger school and cohort, varied curriculum offerings, sports, outdoor green space, diversity, etc.., Basis doesn’t cut it for many families. Maybe the families you know but large majority no |
Anonymous
| I was initially skeptical of DCI but it has been better than I expected. This year my DD has 4 classes in her target language. We can't afford private and I couldn't find a DC public with similar course offerings. |
Anonymous
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Not sure, but we are at Adams. Several new kids every year from MV and other DCI feeder schools join in 5th, 6th or 7th grade. (As space allows- we had students move from our cohort out of the country and out of DC, opening up 2 spots.)
We are in bounds for Deal, but will stick with Adams, and would consider Hardy appealing due to the smaller size. Friends with kids there have been happy. Same goes for friends at Latin and Basis. |
Anonymous
OK, but I've observed that the stronger students from our feeder have a strong tendency to peel off for BASIS. Wish it weren't so. DCI feeder parents who bail for BASIS worry that social promotion at DCI sinks the rigor, especially for math. Also, the partial language immersion just isn't serious outside Spanish (can't possibly be w/out native speakers). I've observed that parents of stronger students tend to give up on Mandarin and French after elementary if they can find more rigor for math, science, maybe social studies and English lit. If the Chinese and French were stronger, maybe they'd stay. DCI doesn't seem to care that they go, which gets us nowhere in particular. |
Anonymous
| Hardy's admins do seem to care if in-boundary parents come, and stay. |
Anonymous
Some stronger students might fit the hard core, take a zillion AP classes early and whose parents don’t care about anything outside academics, fine. But if you think that is the only valuable learning experience for your kid, be my guest go to Basis. There are plenty of strong students from feeders who go the DCI route who themselves or their parents want a more rounded middle and high school experience. DCI opened a middle school and high school just what 7 years ago? In addition, it’s an IB track and diploma which is not easy to set up and do. They take all and diversity of students in race, social background is varied. With this, they have good data with having kids at grade level and above. No other public or charter school at this age has come close in the past to what they have accomplished in this timeline. I see those as huge accomplishments so far. But of course DCUM wants everything now - the most challenging curriculum, majority native speakers in all language even though population data doesn’t support it, best teachers, best leadership and administration, etc., etc... There are lots of happy families and kids at DCI. The school has been on an upward trajectory and will continue that path. Families EOTP such as ours will be choosing the DCI route although we can afford to move WOTP. That trend will be here to stay with the overcrowding issues at WOTP schools which affects everything especially academics. Wilson’s honors for all is a disaster and doesn’t help either. You can hate DCI if you want. You can feel threaten by DCI if you want. But it doesn’t change the fact that many families are choosing it and giving it a chance and have been happy. Is it perfect? Of course not but it’s working for lots of families. How do I know? Because their waitlist barely moves in any grade. People aren’t leaving. They are staying. |
Anonymous
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So much melodrama. DCI does have its selling points and successes, but you're maladroitly glossing over egregious deficiencies.
DCI's MS insists on lumping kids who work 1,2 even 3 years ahead of grade level in a particular subject, be it science, English or social studies, into the same classes as many kids who work far behind grade level. Rigor for advanced students just doesn't tend to emerge from this calculus. Although Deal, Latin and BASIS do the same thing, other than for math, unlike DCI, they have the demographics to make the set up work pretty well. BASIS alone doesn't socially promote, meaning that, by 8th grade, students who can't handle the curriculum are generally gone. You blame "demographics" for the dearth of native speakers at DCI, presumably on the Chinese and French tracks, but what about policies? Nothing comes home from DCI for family consumption in Chinese or French, and senior admins normally don't speak target languages, like at YY and Stokes. Also, no dialect transition support from Chinese dialects or Haitian creoles to Mandarin and French is provided, the norm in dual-immersion Chinese and French programs around the country. This approach alienates DC native speakers who might enroll. It also turns off parents who might pick DCI over serious partial immersion offered in the burbs and certain privates. Most troubling, DCI's leadership, mostly furnished by YY, is known to be tone deaf, while Hardy's is known to be responsive. That's a key reason that Hardy is doing well attracting and retaining in-boundary families. |