Our kid is a 9th grader. It was rocky for them socially because they didn’t go to Hardy for middle school. (Note: we are a Ward 3 family and opted for charter for MS). Heard the Hardy kids are a bit clique-y. They now have friends from other parts of the city so are way happier.
Our kid is not an extrovert so the “lack” of lots clubs isn’t a problem.

School spirit: it’s only 2 years old so they are still building school traditions. They’ve had a few socials which our kid went to and liked.

Academics: they are appropriately challenged and the homework is manageable. They have a lot of support in the pre-AP classes to get them ready for 10th grade AP classes. Their teachers seem to genuinely care about the kids well being. I was pleasantly surprised that the gym classes also teach the kids how to plan weekly workouts and emphasize instilling a general movement practice over being a stellar athlete.

Fights: there have been one or two at lunchtime but nothing hugely disruptive.

Drop off: it’s fine as long as you drop your kids off a few blocks away. A lot of kids take the buses so there can be a bit of a back up on MacArthur.

Hope this is helpful to some.

I do not think the school is not quite established just yet. With a few years, and new leadeship, the school may see growth in positive ways.

Anonymous wrote:The top 10% of the class at Deal will always be larger than the top 10% of the class at Hardy. Those numbers alone tell you nothing about the general quality of the student body, only its size.

I'd like to know more about the modal MacArthur student/where the quartiles are. Obviously there will be a few kids at the top, and thanks to that one troll mom, we are regularly reminded that there are kids who fight. Neither of these endpoints tells me much about what a basic, middle of the road kid would experience.

I’m the PP you are responding to. Of course in absolute numbers, Deal will have more high performing students because Deal is bigger. But I’m not talking top 10% in terms of absolute numbers. I’m talking total percentages which are comparable. Deal has significantly higher total percentages of high performing kids.

From the most recent data, for example, Deal had 19% of their kids above grade level in math. Hardy only had 5%. That’s a huge difference by 4 fold regardless of the absolute numbers.

Now if you convert these percentages to absolute numbers, for Deal that’s 296 students spread over 3 years. For Hardy that is 31 students spread among 3 years. So even if all the high performing math kids from Hardy go to MA (which all won’t), that’s 10 kids going into 9th at MA. It won’t make a dent in the school numbers.

Bottom line, JR has a good cohort of high performing kids because of Deal, not Hardy. The high performing kids from Hardy benefitted from this. Now that there is separate tracks to high school, Deal won’t suffer at all from losing the potential 10 kids. But Hardy will a lot from losing the 100 kids that contributed to this high performing cohort.

Just because more Hardy families might go to MA won’t turn the numbers around on MA for years because the starting deficit is so huge with so many kids below grade level. You can’t dilute that by adding such a small amount each year.

And in a few years, after this has happened, the MacArthur pearl clutching will quietly disappear just like the Hardy pearl clutching did.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is exactly how it went down at Hardy, right around 2019.

we went through this rodeo once. its all about the IB families and who shows up next year when the JR feed ends. if it gets a decent buy in from the IB hardy families it will do well. that is it, nothing else really matters. DC test scores are essentially a 1:1 reflect of parental resources. There is minimal variation from that. (Heck the couple white kids at eastern whose parents went to ivies end up at the same elite schools).

It will, there simply aren’t enough private school seats even if every family could and wanted to switch to private. So people will apply, but most will end up staying in public with their peers.

Anonymous wrote:This is exactly how it went down at Hardy, right around 2019.

we went through this rodeo once. its all about the IB families and who shows up next year when the JR feed ends. if it gets a decent buy in from the IB hardy families it will do well. that is it, nothing else really matters. DC test scores are essentially a 1:1 reflect of parental resources. There is minimal variation from that. (Heck the couple white kids at eastern whose parents went to ivies end up at the same elite schools).

Within our child’s circle there are Hardy and Deal kids, some who transferred out of JR, some left privates, and some who came from charters. There are some students from other countries and kids who are traveling from out of boundary to attend MacArthur. Their group is a mix of kids not all Hardy kids.

These kids have friends at JR and the work in at least one AP they have in common is more rigorous at MacArthur than their friends’ work. Our kid seems appropriately challenged and has to study for many of the classes. They are also able to receive one on one help with these classes, when needed, just by dropping in on the teacher during lunch or afterschool.

I would say their circle is a combination of high achieving and middle of the road is terms of interest in academics. My kid has strengths in some subjects (and takes APs in those) and less interest in some other subjects and is doing fine in the non AP classes. Will these kids all get 5s on all their AP exams? I don’t really care about that.

More important to me is that the kid is happy, loves many of their teachers and has a solid group of friends. They have afterschool activities and are doing well academically. They know all the Admin staff and there is a real sense of community. A smaller school was something we were looking for and it has been the right fit for us. We could have attended JR and chose MacArthur instead. Not everyone is looking for the same things in a school.

The top 10% of the class at Deal will always be larger than the top 10% of the class at Hardy. Those numbers alone tell you nothing about the general quality of the student body, only its size.

I'd like to know more about the modal MacArthur student/where the quartiles are. Obviously there will be a few kids at the top, and thanks to that one troll mom, we are regularly reminded that there are kids who fight. Neither of these endpoints tells me much about what a basic, middle of the road kid would experience.

Anonymous wrote:My kid attends and while I hear there are occasional fights it does not seem to impact their day to day. None of their peers are involved in the fights. Within the friend group they are all taking multiple APs, involved in clubs, and getting very good grades. The teachers have been responsive when I have reached out and made themselves available for extra support when needed. The kids who like it seem to enjoy and thrive in the smallness of the school. There is a sense of community around this smallness.

The school is only in its second year so things that could be improved will improve with time. Transportation to the school is an issue. There isn’t a ton of school spirit, not as many clubs nor all the sports you would have at JR. I’d love to see a theatre department develop. There are many clubs but, again, not as many as JR. This kid is not particularly sporty so it hasn’t impacted us. For kids who are into sports though, it seems much more accessible to get on a team. I also doubt my kid would have felt comfortable joining as many clubs if they had been at JR. I think they may have felt slightly overwhelmed or intimidated.

We have been pleased with the school so far.

I think a big issue and concern is that there is no contingent of high performing kids at the school and a very small contingent of grade level kids so AP courses can’t be taught at a rigorous level.

Also the reality is that Hardy has a small cohort of high performing kids, much smaller then Deal in terms of percentages. It’s no secret that when it comes to high performing kids at JR, Deal significantly contributes more of these kids then Hardy.

My kid attends and while I hear there are occasional fights it does not seem to impact their day to day. None of their peers are involved in the fights. Within the friend group they are all taking multiple APs, involved in clubs, and getting very good grades. The teachers have been responsive when I have reached out and made themselves available for extra support when needed. The kids who like it seem to enjoy and thrive in the smallness of the school. There is a sense of community around this smallness.

The school is only in its second year so things that could be improved will improve with time. Transportation to the school is an issue. There isn’t a ton of school spirit, not as many clubs nor all the sports you would have at JR. I’d love to see a theatre department develop. There are many clubs but, again, not as many as JR. This kid is not particularly sporty so it hasn’t impacted us. For kids who are into sports though, it seems much more accessible to get on a team. I also doubt my kid would have felt comfortable joining as many clubs if they had been at JR. I think they may have felt slightly overwhelmed or intimidated.

We have been pleased with the school so far.

Too many fights and the Principal is absent to discuss.We need better leaders .

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bump. Wondering if MacArthur is still on track to be the next Walls.

MacArthur was never going to be the next Walls. Apples and oranges. Not an application school. It may well be the next Jackson Reed, or even better in some ways.

Huh. That’s an interesting change of tune. It was just a few months ago that this very platform declared MacArthur is already the new Walls:

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1201606.page

Everybody got quiet when the conversation turned to the big brawl.

I’m embarrassed for you. You really need to up your trolling game.

Im sad for you. You really are a fool.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bump. Wondering if MacArthur is still on track to be the next Walls.

MacArthur was never going to be the next Walls. Apples and oranges. Not an application school. It may well be the next Jackson Reed, or even better in some ways.

Huh. That’s an interesting change of tune. It was just a few months ago that this very platform declared MacArthur is already the new Walls:

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1201606.page

Everybody got quiet when the conversation turned to the big brawl.

I’m embarrassed for you. You really need to up your trolling game.

Anonymous wrote:7th grade Hardy parent here. We are planning for MacArthur and feel good about it. Not sure I would have felt the same for starting my kid there this year or last year, but we feel that after another year it will be a great place for our DC. Agree that ending the J-R option will have an immensely positive impact and that MacArthur is going to be a fantastic school within a few years

We're still a few years away as well, and I agree. DCUM will always have the loud naysayers, but those are probably the same folks that still look down on Hardy as being less than Deal. Different, yes. But for us at least, we prefer those differences for our kid's needs. MacArthur will be the same - it will never be a replica of J-R, but it's not intended to be, and may be preferable for some families. The neighborhood chatter re: Mac is much more optimistic than DCUM, at least with my younger parent crowd. 100% agree that I'd have concerns if I had an 8th or 9th grader this year, but if Mac is the high school version of Hardy in a few years, we'll be happy to have it as our IB option.