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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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. [/quote]

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!"[/quote]

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.[/quote]

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:

[quote]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.[/quote]

[quote]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.[/quote]

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

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.  [/quote]

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