Reply to So how many IB are going to really be at Hardy?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This notion that everything is just great at Hardy fails the truth test.  Branding those who raise concerns as trolls or 'haters' or racists does nothing to address the schools' fundamental issues.  As a blogger in another thread concluded, yes, there is something wrong at Hardy.  It's past time to fix it
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Nobody is branding every criticism of Hardy as the product of trolls, haters, or racists.   And nobody is saying that everying is "just great."   Hardy is solid, but not perfect.  It works for some families, but not for others.  It could stand to improve, sure.  But branding Hardy and its students as ill=prepared failures is unfair and also fails the truth test.[/quote]

Admittedly, we all have different standards.  However, I find it difficult to label a school in which 28% of the kids are not proficient in math and 34% are not proficient in reading "solid."  The DCCAS is not a hard test. [/quote]

You are mixing the solidity of the school (teaching and learning) with the weakness of the ES and SES background of 50% of the OB students (the remaining 50% of OBs come from solid ES, such as Brent, and comparable SES to the IBs. eg. Capitol Hill) . This means that on average you have at school some 40% of students who come from weaker ES (this % is much higher in 8th grade than in the current 6th grade, where I'd say is around 20%). This same figure for Deal is close to 0%, as the school accepts kids only from feeder ES, none of which is a weak ES.

In this context, the school is doing a pretty "solid" job. The advanced kids are pushed further up, by the honors classes (see the Proficient and Advanced DC-CAS scores). The mid-tier students receive a strong support and in several cases move up to honors.  For the students coming from the weakest context, the school provides "solid" support too. 
The DCAS below proficiency share is in fact significantly lower than the share of students from weak ES.

This is a DCPS school, not an elective charter school targeting gifted or relatively stronger students. It is a very serious school, with committed teachers, a new Principal with   an impressively solid curriculum and vision, and with a very high retention rate and no "clean-up expulsions", which are very common in most charters .

Please do not mix up the teaching/learning environment which is extremely solid, and the "diversity" in the student body.

Some IB parents are bothered or concerned by the presence of the latter category. Some parents do no care (as long as their kids are challenged in the honors more advanced classes). Some parents see the diversity as an opportunity for their priviledged kids to receive a preview of real life, of Washington DC and of America, with their non-Caucasian communities, and a large range of SES.

If you are IB (and thus most likely Caucasian and with a relatively priviledged SES status), we recommend that you visit this solid school, and decide whether it is a good fit for you kid depending on which type of parent you are and which type of kid you have.[/quote]

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