The year 2025: where would you rather send your sixth grader - Hardy or Deal?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:MacFarland

thats funny and we are IB for mcfarland. it will take at least 15-20 years before solid cohort of high SES/high acheiving kids come from the feeder schools. Sure the area is gentrifying but so far high SES families are not sticking with he feeders past 1st grade for the most part.

Not everyone judges a school by the same measures. FWIW, we're going on first grade EOTP at a MacFarland feeder. Kid is still doing fine.

and you really plan to stay through 5th grade?

Yes. One year at a time, as long as my kid is doing well. I haven't played the lottery since PK3.

And so far you've finished K and are entering 1st.

People get their feelings hurt around here when you point out reality, but this is a problem that a lot of families on the Hill have been trying to solve for >35 years and so far there's no solid MS to show for it. So, there's a reason that folks get jaded about the subject. There's a huge difference between being happy with Kindergarten and being happy with 4th or 5th grade. Even Brent families bail on 5th because of the middle school issues. Kaya admitted that DCPS can't do middle schools and that's a reason for the charters.

I'm personally skeptical and resentful of the amount of money that's going to be spent on schools like Roosevelt, MacFarland, and Coolidge which maybe 300 students will attend, and maybe 25% will be academically proficient.

I'm sorry to pile on here, but this is where I sit as well. Twenty-one years after I moved to the Hill, I don't see that things have improved much on the middle school front and I'm not optimistic things will change materially for you guys (with young kids) either. I don't know what the answer is, but I do know we haven't found it yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This seems like people take this as truth here, but why is it bad to go to a large school? I am originally from Texas, and went to a HS of 3000 kids. My friends still there don't blink an eye to send kids to schools that large, and schools that large often have good test scores. Why is a big school bad?

It's not. There are trade-offs, as with everything. And some kids do well in either, some kids are better suited to smaller, some to larger. There's no one answer.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I hope DCI will be a great school in 9 years but it is not established yet. Test scores aren't great, lots of behavior problems. We will be looking at other options for DC, including Hardy.

DCI is about 2 years old? So, it has time to grow.

The best thing that happened to Hardy, is kicking in Eaton (and the Oyster families who don't want to deal with Adams). Those decisions in and of themselves will improve the school.

Uh no. Eaton was already very high OOB so yeah you may have some OOB feeder kids (smart I'm sure), but you don't have a spike in Eaton catchment kids going to Hardy. The best thing to happen to Hardy in the concerted effort families from Stoddert, Mann, and yes some Eaton have made to improve Hardy and commit to going. Of the schools, I'd say Stoddert has largest role. Stoddert has some of the highest scores in the city (higher than some JKLM) and they bring a diverse cohort of kids. Those families' commitment is making a big difference IMO. Eaton being moved hasn't been felt yet.

But aren't the younger grades at Eaton almost all IB?

Yes but currently almost all of Stoddert is IB. The pp said Eaton is the best thing to happen to Hardy and I'm arguing Stoddert is/will play just as big a role, if not more, than Hardy's success. I'm not at Stoddert but never understand why they don't get much love here.

Some may think Eaton is the best thing to happen to Hardy. However, there are many in the Eaton community who feel quite strongly that the forced switch from Deal to Hardy was the worst thing to happen to Eaton.

Being that Eaton was barely in double digits for IB, it's hardly a compelling argument.

Well that's just a bald faced lie. When was Eaton around 10% IB? Certainly no time near when it was moved to Hardy.

Unfortunately, Eaton remains only 40% IB, which puzzles many of its supporters. It's hard to be a neighborhood school with those numbers. Hopefully, the IB-OB balance will shift, but the Hardy switcheroo doesn't help efforts to get more IB enrollment.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I hope DCI will be a great school in 9 years but it is not established yet. Test scores aren't great, lots of behavior problems. We will be looking at other options for DC, including Hardy.

DCI is about 2 years old? So, it has time to grow.

The best thing that happened to Hardy, is kicking in Eaton (and the Oyster families who don't want to deal with Adams). Those decisions in and of themselves will improve the school.

Uh no. Eaton was already very high OOB so yeah you may have some OOB feeder kids (smart I'm sure), but you don't have a spike in Eaton catchment kids going to Hardy. The best thing to happen to Hardy in the concerted effort families from Stoddert, Mann, and yes some Eaton have made to improve Hardy and commit to going. Of the schools, I'd say Stoddert has largest role. Stoddert has some of the highest scores in the city (higher than some JKLM) and they bring a diverse cohort of kids. Those families' commitment is making a big difference IMO. Eaton being moved hasn't been felt yet.

But aren't the younger grades at Eaton almost all IB?

Yes but currently almost all of Stoddert is IB. The pp said Eaton is the best thing to happen to Hardy and I'm arguing Stoddert is/will play just as big a role, if not more, than Hardy's success. I'm not at Stoddert but never understand why they don't get much love here.

Some may think Eaton is the best thing to happen to Hardy. However, there are many in the Eaton community who feel quite strongly that the forced switch from Deal to Hardy was the worst thing to happen to Eaton.

Being that Eaton was barely in double digits for IB, it's hardly a compelling argument.

Well that's just a bald faced lie. When was Eaton around 10% IB? Certainly no time near when it was moved to Hardy.

Unfortunately, Eaton remains only 40% IB, which puzzles many of its supporters. It's hard to be a neighborhood school with those numbers. Hopefully, the IB-OB balance will shift, but the Hardy switcheroo doesn't help efforts to get more IB enrollment.

Well, the new data says it is now 50% IB. So your data is old. I think we were 46% last year. Climbing numbers don't seem to suggest to me that the change has had an impact. We'll see. But I've talked to many of the parents in my child's class and everyone I've talked to, of those who aren't Embassy families since they will leave before middle school, all are planning on Hardy.

[Anonymous]

Hardy's up to 20% IB in the new 2015-16 profiles which just went up -- which is a jump from either 13 or 15% (and presumably higher in the lower grade) -- and if you add in the total feeder #s (ie. OOB kids who had been through Stoddert, Mann, Key, Hyde) - it's definitely changing. They were expecting much higher IB and feeder numbers for this fall too. TBD of course.

[Anonymous]

Were they spot on with this prediction from 2016?

[Anonymous]

Whoah, looking at Eaton comments - it's at 75% in-boundary participation now, and Hardy is at 80%.

[Anonymous]

some of the Hardy neighborhood adopters from this time period were actually pretty spot-on

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MacFarland! DD will be 11 then!

Haha. How is that working out?

[Anonymous]

Bet a lot of people wish they had gone with Hardy over Deal.

[Anonymous]

Deal - better variety curriculum offerings, higher performing peer group. Also looking forward tracks to JR which is much better school then McArthur

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That is so far away there is really no way to tell. Boundaries could change, new schools could be built, the economy could collapse and take the quality of DCPS as a whole with it, or things could do swimmingly and DCPS could have 4 more Deals by that time.

If you're looking for a home in either of these boundaries just go with the home you like best.

This August 2, 2016 commenter was at least two for three …

[Anonymous]

This was really amusing (once I realized the posts were from 2016). DCI comments cracked me up. I didn't realize people were talking about it like that, all the way back in 2016.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:MacFarland

thats funny and we are IB for mcfarland. it will take at least 15-20 years before solid cohort of high SES/high acheiving kids come from the feeder schools. Sure the area is gentrifying but so far high SES families are not sticking with he feeders past 1st grade for the most part.

This estimate feels accurate, too. Still a decade away for MacFarland, though it's maybe getting more and more appealing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Knowing what you do now about feeder schools, trends, school size, etc., do you think Hardy or Deal will be the more desirable middle school in 2025?

Hardy!!! Amazing principal engaged PTO great kids and smaller than deal.