Hardy vs. DCI

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe you're right, but it's also true that many time-stretched DC parents are only too happy to delude themselves that the DCI feeder and DCI itself offer an excellent all-around education. I admit that were in that category for years, fairly content until we switched to a rigorous private last year. Admins and the excellent middle school Chinese teacher there sat us down and gave us a harsh straight-up assessment of where were with academics for our kid. He'd always earned excellent grades at YY but, in the eyes of the new school, needed remedial interventions in 5th grade, particularly for writing and speaking Chinese. Fortunately, interventions worked and the kid has caught up. His grades at the new school, where he needs to work much harder than at YY, have gone from poor or mediocre to good or excellent in the last 18 months. Best to stop pretending sooner rather than later.

This is too funny. You don’t even have a kid at DCI. NO experience at DCI whatsoever.

It’s common knowledge that writing is weaker in public and charter schools than private. Common, no new news here. I suggest you put any kid at Hardy, Deal, MCPS, or FCPS at your private school and they will tell you the same thing about writing. I know because nephew is in FCPS and writing is not very good.

As to Chinese, it’s already common knowledge that there are no native speakers.

Also you are not comparing apples to apples. You are going to a private that likely costs 30-40k. It doesn’t have to educate everyone, only the wealthy who can afford it, who also can afford a lot of supplementation, tutors, etc....

You need to take a seat.

[Anonymous]

I suggest that all the unhappy former YY families start your own thread about YY. Or is it just 1 or 2 families who are vocal on DCUM and posting repeatedly?

If you don’t have a kid at DCI, then STFU.

[Anonymous]

I am in-bounds for Deal and send my kid to DCI. There are at least 5 other families within a block or two of my house that do the same. It is not just for people with no other options. And they have been killing it with the distance learning since March.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe you're right, but it's also true that many time-stretched DC parents are only too happy to delude themselves that the DCI feeder and DCI itself offer an excellent all-around education. I admit that were in that category for years, fairly content until we switched to a rigorous private last year. Admins and the excellent middle school Chinese teacher there sat us down and gave us a harsh straight-up assessment of where were with academics for our kid. He'd always earned excellent grades at YY but, in the eyes of the new school, needed remedial interventions in 5th grade, particularly for writing and speaking Chinese. Fortunately, interventions worked and the kid has caught up. His grades at the new school, where he needs to work much harder than at YY, have gone from poor or mediocre to good or excellent in the last 18 months. Best to stop pretending sooner rather than later.

This is too funny. You don’t even have a kid at DCI. NO experience at DCI whatsoever.

It’s common knowledge that writing is weaker in public and charter schools than private. Common, no new news here. I suggest you put any kid at Hardy, Deal, MCPS, or FCPS at your private school and they will tell you the same thing about writing. I know because nephew is in FCPS and writing is not very good.

As to Chinese, it’s already common knowledge that there are no native speakers.

Also you are not comparing apples to apples. You are going to a private that likely costs 30-40k. It doesn’t have to educate everyone, only the wealthy who can afford it, who also can afford a lot of supplementation, tutors, etc....

You need to take a seat.

I'm not the poster you're responding to but don't like the way you're giving DCI feeders and DCI a pass on teaching the basics - decent target language and writing skills.

I'm a NYC transplant who hears a litany of lame excuses for half-baked DC public schools of various types, including "immersion" programs.

Look in the mirror, PP. Your enthusiastic embrace of mediocrity for your ed tax dollars does you no credit.

PS. One of the best language immersion programs in this area is found at parochial school in the VA burbs running parents a whopping 11K a year.

[Anonymous]

OP are you in bounds for Hardy?

If yes then I say go the DCI route.

If you don’t like DCI, you can always go back to Hardy. If you don’t like Hardy, you will not get another chance at DCI.

[Anonymous]

Disagree, bouncing between middle schools is too disruptive for a kid. Just pick your horse, OP and stick with it.

If you're serious about language study, you can't rely on DCI outside Spanish. If you want Spanish, DCI may be worth it. If you don't care about Spanish, don't care about DCI.

[Anonymous]

As somebody just posted on the "Any chance DCPS reopens in person for Term 2 or Term 3?" thread, the thing with lame excuses is that they never stop. In our experience, DCI's admins are never short on lame excuses...for middling test scores, widespread misuse of devices by students, lack of challenge for the strongest students, no HS language classes offered at the IB Diploma Higher Level, weak target language skills even for the most advanced students (particularly for speaking), minimally acceptable discipline in the hallways and class management skills on the part of new teachers, etc.

I think the school is OK for average students. But if your kid is striving for fluency in one of the target languages, or advanced academically in more than one subject, or needs a push to aim high, don't bother if you have a halfway decent alternative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am in-bounds for Deal and send my kid to DCI. There are at least 5 other families within a block or two of my house that do the same. It is not just for people with no other options. And they have been killing it with the distance learning since March.

We are one of those families too. We chose DCI over Deal. We just didn't see that Deal had many advantages over DCI to make life more challenging for our children. All my DD's friends went to DCI and we couldn't see that Deal was a reason to take her away from them. We could still transfer to Deal but haven't given it a second thought. Since DCI families supposedly only stay because they have no other choices, our family can refute that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am in-bounds for Deal and send my kid to DCI. There are at least 5 other families within a block or two of my house that do the same. It is not just for people with no other options. And they have been killing it with the distance learning since March.

We are one of those families too. We chose DCI over Deal. We just didn't see that Deal had many advantages over DCI to make life more challenging for our children. All my DD's friends went to DCI and we couldn't see that Deal was a reason to take her away from them. We could still transfer to Deal but haven't given it a second thought. Since DCI families supposedly only stay because they have no other choices, our family can refute that.

Yep, we know of Deal families who chose DCI too and staying, not going to Deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe you're right, but it's also true that many time-stretched DC parents are only too happy to delude themselves that the DCI feeder and DCI itself offer an excellent all-around education. I admit that were in that category for years, fairly content until we switched to a rigorous private last year. Admins and the excellent middle school Chinese teacher there sat us down and gave us a harsh straight-up assessment of where were with academics for our kid. He'd always earned excellent grades at YY but, in the eyes of the new school, needed remedial interventions in 5th grade, particularly for writing and speaking Chinese. Fortunately, interventions worked and the kid has caught up. His grades at the new school, where he needs to work much harder than at YY, have gone from poor or mediocre to good or excellent in the last 18 months. Best to stop pretending sooner rather than later.

This is too funny. You don’t even have a kid at DCI. NO experience at DCI whatsoever.

It’s common knowledge that writing is weaker in public and charter schools than private. Common, no new news here. I suggest you put any kid at Hardy, Deal, MCPS, or FCPS at your private school and they will tell you the same thing about writing. I know because nephew is in FCPS and writing is not very good.

As to Chinese, it’s already common knowledge that there are no native speakers.

Also you are not comparing apples to apples. You are going to a private that likely costs 30-40k. It doesn’t have to educate everyone, only the wealthy who can afford it, who also can afford a lot of supplementation, tutors, etc....

You need to take a seat.

I'm not the poster you're responding to but don't like the way you're giving DCI feeders and DCI a pass on teaching the basics - decent target language and writing skills.

I'm a NYC transplant who hears a litany of lame excuses for half-baked DC public schools of various types, including "immersion" programs.

Look in the mirror, PP. Your enthusiastic embrace of mediocrity for your ed tax dollars does you no credit.

PS. One of the best language immersion programs in this area is found at parochial school in the VA burbs running parents a whopping 11K a year.

What school is this, PP?

[Anonymous]

Deal is hardly the gold standard for public middle schools in this Metro area. The school is over capacity by more than 130%, doesn't track academically outside of math and the campus is littered with classroom trailers. If we had public middle school offerings in this city that could compete with even middling echelon suburban schools, DCI admins would come under far more pressure to up their game.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Deal is hardly the gold standard for public middle schools in this Metro area. The school is over capacity by more than 130%, doesn't track academically outside of math and the campus is littered with classroom trailers. If we had public middle school offerings in this city that could compete with even middling echelon suburban schools, DCI admins would come under far more pressure to up their game.

This is hilarious. So troll says that no one leaves DCI because they have no other choice. The Deal families on here post they chose DCI over Deal. So now that the first statement has been proven false the DCI haters say Deal isn’t that good to begin with although it’s the best middle school in the city.

So now what? Let’s see everyone should move to the burbs? You mean in FCPS where there is massive grade inflation and 80% of the kids make honors society (fact)? Or MCPS where kids can retake tests multiple times, don’t have to hand in assignments on time and can later still get credit? Yes let’s do that.

At least in the IB diploma track, you can’t do grade inflation or dumb down the curriculum where everyone gets an A because it’s graded by 3rd parties.

I so enjoy all these posters who don’t have kids art Deal going around in circles.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Deal is hardly the gold standard for public middle schools in this Metro area. The school is over capacity by more than 130%, doesn't track academically outside of math and the campus is littered with classroom trailers. If we had public middle school offerings in this city that could compete with even middling echelon suburban schools, DCI admins would come under far more pressure to up their game.

This is hilarious. So troll says that no one leaves DCI because they have no other choice. The Deal families on here post they chose DCI over Deal. So now that the first statement has been proven false the DCI haters say Deal isn’t that good to begin with although it’s the best middle school in the city.

So now what? Let’s see everyone should move to the burbs? You mean in FCPS where there is massive grade inflation and 80% of the kids make honors society (fact)? Or MCPS where kids can retake tests multiple times, don’t have to hand in assignments on time and can later still get credit? Yes let’s do that.

At least in the IB diploma track, you can’t do grade inflation or dumb down the curriculum where everyone gets an A because it’s graded by 3rd parties.

I so enjoy all these posters who don’t have kids art Deal going around in circles.

Meany don’t have kids at DCI

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Deal is hardly the gold standard for public middle schools in this Metro area. The school is over capacity by more than 130%, doesn't track academically outside of math and the campus is littered with classroom trailers. If we had public middle school offerings in this city that could compete with even middling echelon suburban schools, DCI admins would come under far more pressure to up their game.

This is hilarious. So troll says that no one leaves DCI because they have no other choice. The Deal families on here post they chose DCI over Deal. So now that the first statement has been proven false the DCI haters say Deal isn’t that good to begin with although it’s the best middle school in the city.

So now what? Let’s see everyone should move to the burbs? You mean in FCPS where there is massive grade inflation and 80% of the kids make honors society (fact)? Or MCPS where kids can retake tests multiple times, don’t have to hand in assignments on time and can later still get credit? Yes let’s do that.

At least in the IB diploma track, you can’t do grade inflation or dumb down the curriculum where everyone gets an A because it’s graded by 3rd parties.

I so enjoy all these posters who don’t have kids art Deal going around in circles.

What do you actually know about the IB Diploma curriculum? Their subject tests are graded by 3rd parties the summer AFTER the kids has graduated, as long as 9 months AFTER the kid has applied to college. Eastern HS on Cap Hill has offered IB Diploma for 10 years now, without much in the way of improvement. Most of their IBD students actually fail to achieve the diploma. It's possible to take one or two IB Diploma exams junior year--not the case until a decade back--but that's it.

Sounds like the point is that offerings are slim in the DC public middle schools aisle. Who could argue with that.

[Anonymous]

The timing of the IB Diploma exams is definitely a drag vis a vis US college admissions. The DCI parents I talk to don't seem to know a lot about how Diploma assessments work. Very few took IBD exams in HS; most took AP. DCI students have yet to take any exams. Hardy doesn't offer the IB Middle Years curriculum. Deal does but IB MY but Wilson don't offer IDB, which I've never understood.