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][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]At the end of the day, it's always about class and socio-economics. White folks are fine sending their kids to schools with majority Black and Hispanic students as long as those students come from middle class homes. No one want to have too many "poors" at their school. This is not rocket science. [/quote]

Absolutely correct.   Diagnosing the problem is not hard.  Fixing it is - unless you think the solution is to ban poor kids from attending Hardy.

[/quote]

Fixing it is easy:  the parent cohorts at each feeder school need to agree among themselves to send their kids to Hardy.  Voila.  Test scores go up immediately.  Advanced course participation rises immediately.  Problem solved.[/quote]

Good luck.   I've experienced this.  What will happen is that this group of parents will all look each other right in the eye, promise they are going to Hardy, then run off and secretly apply to privates and charters and buy houses in the suburbs or in the Deal district.  A couple of parents who are saps will be left holding the bag.[/quote]

Exactly.  That fix won't work.

The fix that will work is to cut enrollment until about 70 to 80% of the seats are filled by IB families who want to to enroll in the 6th grade TODAY.   Then, for every 7 or 8 more IB kids who enroll, admit another 2 or 3 OOB kids.

It's foolish to set enrollment at 300 kids and expect a grassroots campaign among IB families to bring IB enrollment to 70 to 80%.[/quote]

Good plan.  But it would mean pretty significant budget cuts for Hardy - cutting the 6th grade class size by 50 kids - from 150 to 100 - would mean DCPS budget cuts of about $500,000 - forcing cuts in teachers and curriculum, which of course, would only scare IB parents away.   Do you think that some private funder or group of Ward 3 parents could raise that $500,000 privately and apply it to the school?[/quote]

It sounds like a lot, but is it really, PP?  If the budget is about $3M, then $500K is only about a 17% cut.

At my federal agency, the fully-loaded cost of a staff member is about $275K, so a $500K cut would be less than two staff members.  What is the fully-load cost of a DCPS teacher? $225K $200K?  175K?

If there are 50 fewer 6th graders, then you need about two fewer teachers anyway, assuming about 25 kids per 6th grade section.  (1.7 teachers if there are 30 kids per section.)  So, most of the $500K cut would be absorbed by not providing services to the 50 OOB 6th graders who are no longer there.

On the other hand, imagine how quickly Hardy would be transformed if next year's incoming 6th grade class of 100 kids was 60, 70 or 80% IB.

I think its a no-brainer.[/quote]

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