Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My only concern about Hardy is that it won't be the same - in term of diversity - for my second kid (now in 2nd grade).
The school has irreversibly flipped. Each of next 2 years will see twice the IB enrollment compared to the previous year (just like we've had in the past two years).

IB Mom with a middle schooler at Hardy (and a second grader at Stoddert).

To be perfectly honest, I value diversity but if higher quality comes at the expense of a little diversity, the.n so be it. For us, diversity is the icing on the cake. But it's not the cake. Sometimes I think there are those in DCPS who view that backwards.

Anonymous wrote:Principal Pride had the stats for in-coming 6th from feeders, which was above 30%.

Last year, Stoddert and Key both had 83% IB enrollment, Mann had 85%, Hyde 41%.

Across a lot of the parents I know at ALL of the Hardy feeder schools - as well from parents across the city whose kids are at Hardy and are looking at Hardy as future potential school for their kids -- there's a strong collective desire to see the academic achievement at Hardy reach a level on par with that of the feeder schools or on par with Deal or whatever your benchmark is. A larger percentage of the parents would prefer to have their kids at a strong public school - and not have to play lotteries for limited charter spaces & commutes -- or astronomical private tuition (which IS a strain or brake for a LOT Of the IB families).

Go Hardy Go!

Anonymous wrote:We are a Stoddert family and Hardy will be our pick in two years.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My only concern about Hardy is that it won't be the same - in term of diversity - for my second kid (now in 2nd grade).
The school has irreversibly flipped. Each of next 2 years will see twice the IB enrollment compared to the previous year (just like we've had in the past two years).

IB Mom with a middle schooler at Hardy (and a second grader at Stoddert).

There are, of course, other Middle School options if Hardy begins to look "too IB" to you. Though if you have one child at Stoddert right now, I can't imagine why you are so troubled.

Anonymous wrote:My only concern about Hardy is that it won't be the same - in term of diversity - for my second kid (now in 2nd grade).
The school has irreversibly flipped. Each of next 2 years will see twice the IB enrollment compared to the previous year (just like we've had in the past two years).

IB Mom with a middle schooler at Hardy (and a second grader at Stoddert).

Anonymous wrote:My only concern about Hardy is that it won't be the same - in term of diversity - for my second kid (now in 2nd grade).
The school has irreversibly flipped. Each of next 2 years will see twice the IB enrollment compared to the previous year (just like we've had in the past two years).

IB Mom with a middle schooler at Hardy (and a second grader at Stoddert).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have actual knowledge on this issue.

The current 7th graders (last year's 6th graders) are around mid-20's IB percentage. The "Feeder School plus Brent" percentage is considerably higher. (The latter is the number people should care about; the former is for the harpies.)

The tipping point will be next year, not this year. The school will go from 15% IB to about 20% IB this year. (Low-end estimate is 19%.)

Next year's 6th grade class will be a lot more IB. The school overall will be around 25% and the 6th grade, in particular, will be around 35-45%. The school will be more than half "Feeder plus Brent."

What about 6th grade this year: % of feeders plus Brent? Unlike others, I couldn't care less about "true IB," as high-achieving feeders are most important.

I disagree. Hardy's issue has been lack of takeup by its target service area, i.e., the in boundary area. The Hardy IB area has some of the city's top performing elementary schools, Mann and Key. The parents there have high expectations, and the schools enjoy such strong community support that there are very few OOB spots. At the same time, Hardy's cachement area also includes some feeder schools that have a lot of OOB spots. Indeed, the student profile is closer to the historical Hardy population, where those feeder schools, while performing measurably below the KM level, still are a much better alternative than most OOB students would otherwise have. Therefore it's a complete no brainer that OOB students attending Hardy feeders would go on to Hardy, as Hardy is clearly better than their DCPS middle school alternative. Indeed, it would be surprising (and possibly fatal to Hardy) if OOB feeder students were bailing out rather than go to Hardy. The more important measure of Hardy's hopefully improvng quality is to get the IB number up significantly, which will indicate that IB parents no longer feel that Hardy is a qualitative step backwards from elementary, but rather at least a comparable quality experience for their kids.

Your post displays some outdated knowledge. First, while I agree that Key and Mann are excellent schools (my daughter is at one of them), you are neglectful (or, more likely, ignorant) to not mention Stoddert. Stoddert is easily comparable to the top schools in the city and a strong case can be made that Stoddert is actually better than Key. You should view Stoddert as equivalent to Key and Mann and not to "other feeder schools." (As an aside, Stoddert will lead the movement in increasing Hardy's IB numbers. Not only is it the largest feeder school, but Hardy Principal Pride was formerly principal at Stoddert, so many families have considerable comfort with her already.)

Second, I will now take issue with the notion of "other feeder schools." I understand your point, that Hyde (and perhaps Eaton) are not traditionally comparable to Key and Mann, but I think this is a case of thinking purely in relative terms when absolute terms are more appropriate. Your child with a peer group made up entirely of Hyde and Eaton kids will be well-served. Of course, the peer group is increasingly composed of Mann and Stoddert kids now, so this digression is entirely outdated.

Finally, Brent is pretty darn comparable to the feeder schools. See the previous paragraph.

In sum, I believe that Mann and Stoddert of two of the top three elementary schools in DC. Key is in the top-five, at worst. Eaton, Brent and Hyde are all rounding out the top ten. This is a fantastic cohort from an educational perspective. This is why I seriously believe that Hardy can become comparable (different, but comparable) to Deal within the next six years. Seriously. Of course, it seems that outdated knowledge, like that displayed in this post, is hampering some of this progress.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have actual knowledge on this issue.

The current 7th graders (last year's 6th graders) are around mid-20's IB percentage. The "Feeder School plus Brent" percentage is considerably higher. (The latter is the number people should care about; the former is for the harpies.)

The tipping point will be next year, not this year. The school will go from 15% IB to about 20% IB this year. (Low-end estimate is 19%.)

Next year's 6th grade class will be a lot more IB. The school overall will be around 25% and the 6th grade, in particular, will be around 35-45%. The school will be more than half "Feeder plus Brent."

What about 6th grade this year: % of feeders plus Brent? Unlike others, I couldn't care less about "true IB," as high-achieving feeders are most important.

I disagree. Hardy's issue has been lack of takeup by its target service area, i.e., the in boundary area. The Hardy IB area has some of the city's top performing elementary schools, Mann and Key. The parents there have high expectations, and the schools enjoy such strong community support that there are very few OOB spots. At the same time, Hardy's cachement area also includes some feeder schools that have a lot of OOB spots. Indeed, the student profile is closer to the historical Hardy population, where those feeder schools, while performing measurably below the KM level, still are a much better alternative than most OOB students would otherwise have. Therefore it's a complete no brainer that OOB students attending Hardy feeders would go on to Hardy, as Hardy is clearly better than their DCPS middle school alternative. Indeed, it would be surprising (and possibly fatal to Hardy) if OOB feeder students were bailing out rather than go to Hardy. The more important measure of Hardy's hopefully improvng quality is to get the IB number up significantly, which will indicate that IB parents no longer feel that Hardy is a qualitative step backwards from elementary, but rather at least a comparable quality experience for their kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have actual knowledge on this issue.

The current 7th graders (last year's 6th graders) are around mid-20's IB percentage. The "Feeder School plus Brent" percentage is considerably higher. (The latter is the number people should care about; the former is for the harpies.)

The tipping point will be next year, not this year. The school will go from 15% IB to about 20% IB this year. (Low-end estimate is 19%.)

Next year's 6th grade class will be a lot more IB. The school overall will be around 25% and the 6th grade, in particular, will be around 35-45%. The school will be more than half "Feeder plus Brent."

What about 6th grade this year: % of feeders plus Brent? Unlike others, I couldn't care less about "true IB," as high-achieving feeders are most important.