Reply to Hardy Middle School -- 5th grade in feeder school -- who's considering Hardy for 6th?

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Reply to "Hardy Middle School -- 5th grade in feeder school -- who's considering Hardy for 6th?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Here is my question on testing.  Deal does it in the feeder schools but then also does a shuffle the first month based on a retest, how long does Hardy wait?  It can't really be done the first two weeks of school without some significant disruption.

What I would like to see is some standardized test that could be offered across the city for the advanced classes, or maybe on a Saturday for those using the lottery.

One can only expect so much out of one school, people can only do so many things at one time. If this is really an issue, then DCPS should be figuring out how to manage this better. [/quote]

The Hardy testing process was never explained to 6th grade parents.

I get it: testing needs to be done during the first couple of weeks of the school year. If you test at the end of 5th grade or during the summer, you do not catch the student's potential and ability, you catch a noisy indicator that represents his/her abilities developed by the previous school. So at 50% you test how good his/her previous school was. As the Hardy Math Department has made clear in several public open meeting (I attended one last year in the school library open to parents from feeder schools) , the honors classes are meant not only for kids who have a stronger math background, but also for those who show a predisposition and a drive to do well. The latter two are variables that can be hardly tested, but can be detected in the classroom by teachers' expert eyes...

I get it.  This has brought disruption and delayed start of the academics. However the disruptions would have had a lesser impact had we received advanced notice of the School's plans for testing. Disruptions had not been anticipated and explained to us. We were left wondering.... Kids were confused....I did not even know that the final schedules would have been distributed by the beginning of the third week of school... No notice on the website, no paper communication, no robocalls... This has been a big communication failure by the school.

All is ok now. But the initial 2 weeks of school, in the absence of clear communications by the School administration, have been hard on many of us and on some of the kids.

This is my point of view. Sorry for iphone typos.[/quote]

This happens at Deal and it has been the case at Wilson.  Frankly, there is a lot less explained to parents at the middle school and upper levels.  Smaller helicopter pads if you will.  I just remember sitting through 2 hour orientation at Deal being told, let go, it will work out, you don't need to control everything.  There is a lot of tension for parents at the start of middle school, but maybe we are sometimes the problem, not the school. [/quote]

In regards to the post about the foul language at Hardy....

From a current Deal 6th grader posted on Great Schools
"When I came to Deal in 6th grade I was very excited. I had heard amazing things about Deal, but I am glad I have been able to have my own experience. Deal is a very big school but it's not a problem since we are split up into "teams" (named after a country throughout the globe) and each "team" could almost be their own grades. The kids only circulate teachers within their "team." The teachers are very good and encouraging throughout your education at Deal. Deal is an IB school since it's suppose to be international. But there are perks about being an IB school, such as, the grading. The grading is extremely harsh and hard. Their grading system goes 1-8. Eight is 100%, but a seven is already a 92%! (Which is an -A!) Plus, one Thursday each month we have IB lessons and activities. They are very boring and pointless. Another bad thing at Deal is the language. Almost all the kids at Deal cuss. More of the boys seem to be into that kind of thing though, but to me it's annoying and pointless. Many boys are also very inappropriate as well. They make inappropriate gestures and noises. Usually teachers take care of them. Plus the dress code is annoying, especially for girls, but whatever."

There is s point that you have to let go.  You can not control your kids and everything they hear and see.  They are growing maturing and entering the "real world".  This is especially hard during the transition from a very close knit Elementary school where parents interact everyday with Administration and Staff.  Not pointing fingers but don't assume it is always greener on the other side.  Middle School is tough, despite minor issues I think both Hardy and Deal are excellent choices.  [/quote]

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