As a current, happy, IB Hardy parent, I hope my perspectives on what is happening with regard to a turnaround is useful.

First, let me note that the families that do choose Hardy are very happy with it - for those who go there, there is not a sense that the school is broken or needs to be fixed. The opposite is true - we are happy with the teachers, pleased with the student body, like our administrators, and enjoying the new SEM program and the other opportunities at the school.

One thing holding back Hardy is the perception of what happened three or four years ago. Things were a mess because Pope got fired. But that era is over, Dr. Stefanus is in her second year, and the Principal situation is stable. But you wouldn't know that from talking to some of the parents from feeder schools or on this board. That perception from three or four years ago is stuck in their head and it will take some time to get it out.

Second, test scores are an issue for some. Hardy has a mixed student body - like Wilson in some ways. Many (IB and OB) students from families that prepare them well for school, but also a cohort that seems to be not so prepared. The well-prepared students do well on their tests; the other students, not as well (though Hardy has a very good record of taking poorly-performing students and moving them up on their DCAS percentile). When you mix those together, the schools test scores do not look as good as Deal. However, I can assure you, the teachers are good enough, and their is a critical mass of well-performing students such that those students are challenged and are learning at a rapid pace.

So, over time, I suspect that more IB families will come. I hope they do, because Hardy is a good school. But they need to overcome ill-informed perceptions and actually take a look a the good things happening at Hardy.

Hope that helps.

IB Hardy Parent

Anonymous wrote:It would jump start the process to make Eaton and Oyster into Hardy feeders, since they're closer to Hardy than Deal anyway.

Mann is closer to Deal than it is to Hardy, yet it feeds Hardy. Eaton and Oyster should too.

Again, it is actually much harder for students living near the Woodley Park or Cleveland Park stations to get to Hardy than it is for them to simply jump on a train and hop out a couple of minutes later at Tenleytown. Please keep in mind that middle school kids will not be delivered by minivan!!

Anonymous wrote:Georgetown Families, Wesley Heights, Spring Valley, Kent Families are not going to send their children to Hardy.

There are anot enough IB real estate (children) to make Hardy become Deal

this is nonsense; there are more than enough students in dcps ES that feed Hardy to make a majority IB class. Its more an issue of choices than numbers. The same point could have been made about the deal feeders 10 years ago ... "AU Park, CCDC families aren't going to send their children to Deal" ... except now they do, in droves.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It would jump start the process to make Eaton and Oyster into Hardy feeders, since they're closer to Hardy than Deal anyway.

Mann is closer to Deal than it is to Hardy, yet it feeds Hardy. Eaton and Oyster should too.

Is it called a turnaround if you change the population of the school?????

Well, families make the school. It is, after all, a neighborhood school. It would be a welcome turnaround for it to be filled with neighborhood kids.

I think the issue with population is that the parents sending their kids their need to know that a sufficient portion of the school cohort are equally as prepared as their kids (means knowing they come from elementary schools that prepared them well) and are from families that value education AND have thy resources to send thir kid to school ready to learn with the familial expectation that they will. This is a SES issue, not a race issue but in DC these characteristics are often surmised by racial make up of a school.

Parents do not care so much where he kids come from (although they care about continuity of friendships), but the fact is they do not understand the make up of the school cohort when a majority is OOB. IB is shorthand for information about what you can expect at the school because you know that cohort fom ES.

Richer and whiter in comparison to being black and poorer. That's a goal!!!

Anonymous wrote:It would jump start the process to make Eaton and Oyster into Hardy feeders, since they're closer to Hardy than Deal anyway.

Mann is closer to Deal than it is to Hardy, yet it feeds Hardy. Eaton and Oyster should too.

Is it called a turnaround if you change the population of the school?????

It would jump start the process to make Eaton and Oyster into Hardy feeders, since they're closer to Hardy than Deal anyway.

Mann is closer to Deal than it is to Hardy, yet it feeds Hardy. Eaton and Oyster should too.

OP here. We're in Kent and would totally send our (currently very small) kids to Hardy if it turned around like Deal. Too housepoor to afford private for all the kids.

Georgetown Families, Wesley Heights, Spring Valley, Kent Families are not going to send their children to Hardy.

There are anot enough IB real estate (children) to make Hardy become Deal

Prediction. Reflecting its IB population, Hardy will be whiter and richer than Deal by 2020.

Don't Deal families deal with the same question? Why can't Hardy be more like Deal, if it isn't already moving in that direction?

If you had the means, would you send your child to Hardy or Sidwell?

This is the question that a percentage of the inbounds families for Hardy are dealing with.

We're at Hardy and are very happy with Dr. Mary and the school. It's a hidden gem that more and more folks are figuring out. I think that fear and listening to rumors about what has happened in year's past holds some folks back. I also think there's a fear that "my kid will be the only white kid there..." Just look at the at the fact that there's an actual thread here with that title.

From another thread:

Anonymous wrote:Deal did not become a desireable option by "forcing" families to send their kids there because families with choices vote with their feet. Deal became desirable because of the team led by Melissa Kim that turned the school around content wise and also recruited the cohort from the feeder to attend the school and brought the school to the tipping point where now the vast majority of kids in the feeders are now attending this desireable school.

Doesn't Hardy have a new principal? Is she doing this? Do people see it happening? What, if anything, is holding Hardy back?