HARDY MIDDLE SCHOOL: Record numbers from feeder schools for 2014-2015

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope this happens for Eaton and Hearst as well!

Uh, we wish you well, but Hearst feeds into Deal and Eaton has choice (and has traditionally fed into Deal). But yes, we applaud your efforts!

Agreed. We live two blocks from Hearst. I wish Hardy well but have no idea how I could add a stop to Georgetown into our morning commute. It wouldn't be a neighborhood school at all for us.

But you'll have a middle schooler. He/she can get a 30 bus straight there on Wisconsin. No need for you to drive.

Yes, but my eventually middle schooler will just have a short walk to Deal.

[Anonymous]

IB family. How comes I was not aware of this network? We were considering Hardy but thought we were the only one or so from our school. Will contact the PTA and network ASAP. I would not think twice to invest 30+ K/year for my kid if I was convinced that this was the best for him. But I am not. We will most likely be sending our kid to Hardy, saving the money for college and for traveling out of the US at summer. cannot beat the learning value of that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Regardless, it is doubtful it has changed by more than 25 or 30% IB form what it is now in one school year, and is therefore mostly OOB

What stake do you have in this,PP? Seem to be trolling here. Literally just trying to flame a discussion.

hate when people misuse the word "literally"

It makes me figuratively crazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Why all the cynicism? We have three kids IB Key and are going Hardy. What Hardy has to offer over Deal is its size. We can afford to move to Deal (or where ever) but I feel very uncomfortable with the idea of a JUMBO middle school where kids become anonymous. You clearly haven't gotten the memo: Hardy is going to become more desirable than Deal because when all other factors are equal, the size, facility, and principal can't be beat.

+1000!!!

[Anonymous]

We're IB for Hardy too and are happy to see more IB families signing up. But that does not make us "scared whitey" racists. Please folks. We could care less if a large portion of the school is made up of motivated, respectful OOB students. But we are indeed cheered that our DS may be able to move on to a neighborhood middle school with a group of elementary peers who have grown up together. Who wouldn't want that? That hope does not exclude other students from OOB. Might there be a tipping point at which time there won't be OOB seats available? Sure. But I do think that IB students should be the priority as a quality of life issue for all, commute-wise and neighborhood cohesiveness- wise. Are there racially-segregated neighborhoods, however unfortunate that may be? Yes. But let's integrate though housing policies rather than by shipping kids all around town every day. And let's work toward strong schools in every neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does it really matter who goes there or does it matter of you like the program. Sounds like a lot of white scaredy cats to me.

+2

Like it's only acceptable if it's mostly IB. Defeats the purpose and spirit of public school. And if the principal is on a campaign to eliminate OOB, then it's even more undesirable. You can't just say, "this is OUR school-- get out!"

I'm sorry, encouraging in-boundary attendance is not the same as eliminating OOB.

Hardy isn't even full this year. It didn't hit its enrollment goal, and lost some funding as a result and there are empty classrooms. According to principal Price, every kid who applied OOB was admitted. Even if every IB kid attended there would still be room for lots of OOB. Look at the history of Deal and its feeders: there has been absolutely zero political will to limit the OOB population. Whenever possible facilities have been expanded far beyond what is needed for the IB kids. Deal is 35% OOB and they're adding a new wing, and they're expanding Deal feeders that are majority OOB. My prediction is that if Hardy were to start being as attractive as Deal they would kick out Fillmore and add trailers before they would limit OOB enrollment.

But why is Hardy's enrollment goal so high? There are several DCPS MSs whose enrollment is less than 300.

The answer is probably that DCPS believes that increasing the enrollment will lead to economies of scale by amortizing fixed costs over more students.

Research shows that the academic achievement of students starts to drop off once enrollment exceeds 100 students per grade, and as student achievement drops due to size, it becomes more more expensive per student to bring that achievement back to the 100-per-grade level, especially when the school has a large low SES population:

Research indicates that when a school grows beyond 100 students per grade level, more money must be spent to attain the same level of academic achievement.

The most important factor is the socioeconomic status of the community. School size is more important for lower social class students than for other students, and the effects on these students of increasing size beyond some optimal limit will be very negative.

From the following survey of the literature: http://www.usca.edu/essays/vol132005/slate.pdf

Note that Hardy serves three grades with an enrollment of 400, which is 33% higher than the enrollment cap of 300 suggested by the research. Furthermore, Hardy is 56% FARMS.

[Anonymous]

much more expensive

[Anonymous]

56% FARMS?? Lawdy, the smelling salts, Jeeves!

[Anonymous]

Tricia Pride speaks very well and that's just about it. All that glitters is not gold.

[Anonymous]

Yay for Hardy: http://mayor.dc.gov/release/mayor-gray-announces-winners-2nd-annual-sustainable-dc-innovation-challenge-grants-2-12

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We're IB for Hardy too and are happy to see more IB families signing up. But that does not make us "scared whitey" racists. Please folks. We could care less if a large portion of the school is made up of motivated, respectful OOB students. But we are indeed cheered that our DS may be able to move on to a neighborhood middle school with a group of elementary peers who have grown up together. Who wouldn't want that? That hope does not exclude other students from OOB. Might there be a tipping point at which time there won't be OOB seats available? Sure. But I do think that IB students should be the priority as a quality of life issue for all, commute-wise and neighborhood cohesiveness- wise. Are there racially-segregated neighborhoods, however unfortunate that may be? Yes. But let's integrate though housing policies rather than by shipping kids all around town every day. And let's work toward strong schools in every neighborhood.

As with your post, the effort toward strong schools in every neighborhood, is just an afterthought. It should be the main objective. I don't think anyone would disagree with anything you've said here, but for the majority of the city, there's no Hardy to fight over. There's no council member, no DCPS administrator, no mayor nor mayoral candidate promising anything even close to it anywhere else. My neighborhood middle school has been closed with hardly a peep about re-opening--not even a "hey, we'll think about it if we can get X-Number of families to commit"--let alone private home meetings with concerned parents. And there are maaaany inbound families, with the same hopes and high expectations that you have--but no one who seems to be listening to our needs.

So we have no choice but to consider other schools in other parts of the city. And that will continue to happen until this city moves beyond lip service and starts making a real effort at strong schools in every neighborhood.

It's not an issue of housing policies, because the high number of gentrifiers in wards 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6 have really made integration a non-issue. The issue is that the schools in these areas is still pretty much an afterthought. If DCPS and the education committee are making concentrated efforts and promises in your neighborhood, then they need to make room for people coming from mine.

[Anonymous]

If DCI ends up losing Walter Reed I hope DCPS would consider stepping in to open a middle school. If hate to see the whole property to go to private developers and the Feds. The District should benefit too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are inbound from Stoddert. We went to one of the first Hardy open house with low expectations. Came out knowing that Hardy was the school for our daughter. We had a couple or additional follow-up visits, talked to math teachers (6th grade and 8th grade, both impressive) and to Principal Pride whom we knew from her interim at Stoddert. We did not apply to any other schools (charter, private). Great to see more neighborhood families have made up their mind in favor of Hardy, she will be happier to walk to/from school with her mates (Glover Park). We are puzzled by the current IB/OB debate, or skepticism about the school. I bet those skeptics have not visited the school or talked to the Teachers and to the Principal.

Yes, that's what people should do. Visit and make up your mind after you visit.

[Anonymous]

poster from Capitol HIll -- why would Wilson be your fallback? I understand the feeder schools are on the table and just b/c your kid went to Hardy doesn't guarantee access to Wilson.

[Anonymous]

Why wouldn't Hardy feed to Wilson? Where would it feed? They should discontinue OOB feeder rights sure, but if you are IB for Hardy you should feed to Wilson.