Anonymous wrote:

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.

I do not value diversity per se. I have been a college teacher for many years, and I have come to realize that there's nothing more harmful for youngsters than developing that sense of entitlement that I see in so many students from privileged backgrounds and which can lead to frustration (when your expectations are not met) and poor academic performance. As much as my husband and I try our best to teach our kids that nothing is granted, and that all that we have comes from hard work and investment in our human capital, they remain VERY privileged kids...

Learning at middle school age means not only academic advancement, but also, and equally importantly, gaining the appreciation of the process of learning, developing stamina and awareness of own abilities (and weaknesses). Entitlement antagonizes with stamina. Hardy has provided my kid with a reality check. He's become very appreciative of his privilege of learning at Hardy (where some of his peers, including very gifted kids, have 3 hours a day of commuting), of the academic support we are able to give him for his complex geometry homework (which most of his peers do not have at home), for having a bagged lunch for his field trips (same kids show us at field trips with no lunch from home). He has evolved into a enthusiast, aware and inclusive learner. With the right learning attitude, middle age kids learn from EVERYWHERE. Magazines, documentaries, news on the radio, you tube, foreign languages through music...

From a Latino high school child who went to Mann and onto a charter several years ago: "Mom, at Horace Mann we were taught that racism was bad......... and we had to listen to x story do y project and read z book. At "fill in the blank" charter school, we are taught that racism is bad. And we have had to read x,y and z books. Why can't we ever read anything with a happy ending that has nothing to do with racism?"

Over program, and your over privileged kid becomes over exposed and overly cynical. Even while they understand the poverty aspect, the race aspect becomes a subject for ridicule, and for some reason the book "Night" by Elie Wiesel, about his personal experiences as a 12 year old child did not affect my jaded 12 year old (and another parent piped up that it was required reading in 5th grade at a different charter school and not too heavy for her son.......)

I think people ought to consider very carefully what they are doing because yes everything is available on UTube. Just look up the SNL skit "28 reasons.........." on Black History Month. How did my child find this? Turned on to it by his friends. And then you have his black friends who have a very interesting sense of humor about race as well....... their parents would be just as shocked as I was. And none of us are white.

I think what you are saying is more about poverty than race. And I think maybe our kids already realize that for them (unless they have to interact with a white policeman which we are still teaching them could turn deadly) it is more about poverty than race.

And a little child shall lead them.......

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Hardy PTA has become pretty organized. They should conduct a Survey Monkey asking parents and students if they like uniforms or would prefer not to have them. If they nix the uniforms they could institute a reasonably rigid dress code to avoid the stuff I know the admin worries about (jeans worn below the butt with boxers hanging out; non-existent mini skirts; tank tops and mid drafts) The school can collect no longer used uniforms and that is what children showing up to school inappropriately dressed get to wear instead.

The question at Hardy is not with the families who enroll, but the ones who don't.

It is believed that a significantly lower share of in-boundary families choose Hardy than Deal. But nobody outside of DCPS central office really knows, because that information -- the capture rate -- is not publicly revealed. While it may be knowable with information that DCPS has, we don't even know for sure whether anyone in DCPS actually looks at it. If you wanted to address that disparity -- and that in of itself is not a uncontroversial idea, there are plenty of people who say that those who opt out of their neighborhood school lose their voice, but say you wanted to -- the people you should be polling are not the existing Hardy families, but instead the in-boundary families who didn't choose Hardy. But that isn't an easily identifiable group. And people are complicated. For example it's hard to distinguish between those who were always planning on going private for middle school and those who were turned off by a single key issue (eg uniforms).

Oh god, here we go again. Someone up thread said this is more symbolic than substantive (you, pp?) but even so there are posters who want Hardy to change the policy before they would deign to consider enrolling rather than enrolling their kids, joining the PTA, and lobbying for the change. If it's not really a substantive problem it shouldn't keep people from enrolling their kids and mobilizing together to change the policy.

I'm sorry, pp, because I know this is important to you but can you see how this comes across? As a former OOB mom, I'm all in support of you getting in there and trying to change the policy once your kids are enrolled but why should anyone listen to you if you won't make a commitment to the school?

PP here. No, I'm not the one obsessed with uniforms. You've done an excellent job though of emphasizing the point I was trying to make, which is that 1) if you're trying to attract more IB families the existing families are not representative of the people you're trying to target; and 2) the idea of attracting more IB families is not exactly uncontroversial.

It's not controversial with me! If the Hardy families want to get rid of uniforms, more power to them! I completely support whatever the Hardy families want to do about uniforms. So become a Hardy family and have at it. What is controversial is trying to dictate policy without actually being enrolled in the school.

Anonymous wrote:It would be so easy to drop the uniforms, why don't they just drop them.

It might be that the more prospective Ward 3 parents want the uniforms dropped, that others in the Hardy community who are wary of the school being changed too much by an influx of IB families, embrace the uniforms as a symbol of Hardy's heritage.

Shouldn't DCPS try to encourage neighborhood schools?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IB feeder parent here. I do not know a single parent who cares at all about the uniforms. The current IB parents with kids attending Hardy do not care about uniforms (which is why it hasn't been pushed compared to say - honors algebra or Mandarin). I know all of them care about how a Hardy experience would compare against other possible options (Latin, Basis, privates, moving elsewhere). Mostly based on academics and on social/happiness. The 10 Stoddert and 10 Mann and 5 Key (and others?) that are in the current 6th grade class are just like most of the parents I know, but with increased willingness to be 'early adopters' than most in the neighborhood.

But isn't it obvious that if the uniforms were a big deal they wouldn't have chosen Hardy? Aren't the people to ask not the 25 families who chose Hardy, but the hundreds of families with kids in that age cohort who started at a feeder but left the system? Five years ago Key had 100 kindergarteners, 95 of them left. Where did they go and why?

My point isn't about uniforms per se but about the greater challenge of making Hardy a neighborhood school.

I believe that the proposition of Hardy becoming a neighborhood middle school is, as a PP put it, "not exactly uncontroversial."

It would be so easy to drop the uniforms, why don't they just drop them.

Anonymous wrote:IB feeder parent here. I do not know a single parent who cares at all about the uniforms. The current IB parents with kids attending Hardy do not care about uniforms (which is why it hasn't been pushed compared to say - honors algebra or Mandarin). I know all of them care about how a Hardy experience would compare against other possible options (Latin, Basis, privates, moving elsewhere). Mostly based on academics and on social/happiness. The 10 Stoddert and 10 Mann and 5 Key (and others?) that are in the current 6th grade class are just like most of the parents I know, but with increased willingness to be 'early adopters' than most in the neighborhood.

But isn't it obvious that if the uniforms were a big deal they wouldn't have chosen Hardy? Aren't the people to ask not the 25 families who chose Hardy, but the hundreds of families with kids in that age cohort who started at a feeder but left the system? Five years ago Key had 100 kindergarteners, 95 of them left. Where did they go and why?

My point isn't about uniforms per se but about the greater challenge of making Hardy a neighborhood school.

IB feeder parent here. I do not know a single parent who cares at all about the uniforms. The current IB parents with kids attending Hardy do not care about uniforms (which is why it hasn't been pushed compared to say - honors algebra or Mandarin). I know all of them care about how a Hardy experience would compare against other possible options (Latin, Basis, privates, moving elsewhere). Mostly based on academics and on social/happiness. The 10 Stoddert and 10 Mann and 5 Key (and others?) that are in the current 6th grade class are just like most of the parents I know, but with increased willingness to be 'early adopters' than most in the neighborhood.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Hardy PTA has become pretty organized. They should conduct a Survey Monkey asking parents and students if they like uniforms or would prefer not to have them. If they nix the uniforms they could institute a reasonably rigid dress code to avoid the stuff I know the admin worries about (jeans worn below the butt with boxers hanging out; non-existent mini skirts; tank tops and mid drafts) The school can collect no longer used uniforms and that is what children showing up to school inappropriately dressed get to wear instead.

The question at Hardy is not with the families who enroll, but the ones who don't.

It is believed that a significantly lower share of in-boundary families choose Hardy than Deal. But nobody outside of DCPS central office really knows, because that information -- the capture rate -- is not publicly revealed. While it may be knowable with information that DCPS has, we don't even know for sure whether anyone in DCPS actually looks at it. If you wanted to address that disparity -- and that in of itself is not a uncontroversial idea, there are plenty of people who say that those who opt out of their neighborhood school lose their voice, but say you wanted to -- the people you should be polling are not the existing Hardy families, but instead the in-boundary families who didn't choose Hardy. But that isn't an easily identifiable group. And people are complicated. For example it's hard to distinguish between those who were always planning on going private for middle school and those who were turned off by a single key issue (eg uniforms).

Oh god, here we go again. Someone up thread said this is more symbolic than substantive (you, pp?) but even so there are posters who want Hardy to change the policy before they would deign to consider enrolling rather than enrolling their kids, joining the PTA, and lobbying for the change. If it's not really a substantive problem it shouldn't keep people from enrolling their kids and mobilizing together to change the policy.

I'm sorry, pp, because I know this is important to you but can you see how this comes across? As a former OOB mom, I'm all in support of you getting in there and trying to change the policy once your kids are enrolled but why should anyone listen to you if you won't make a commitment to the school?

PP here. No, I'm not the one obsessed with uniforms. You've done an excellent job though of emphasizing the point I was trying to make, which is that 1) if you're trying to attract more IB families the existing families are not representative of the people you're trying to target; and 2) the idea of attracting more IB families is not exactly uncontroversial.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Hardy PTA has become pretty organized. They should conduct a Survey Monkey asking parents and students if they like uniforms or would prefer not to have them. If they nix the uniforms they could institute a reasonably rigid dress code to avoid the stuff I know the admin worries about (jeans worn below the butt with boxers hanging out; non-existent mini skirts; tank tops and mid drafts) The school can collect no longer used uniforms and that is what children showing up to school inappropriately dressed get to wear instead.

The question at Hardy is not with the families who enroll, but the ones who don't.

It is believed that a significantly lower share of in-boundary families choose Hardy than Deal. But nobody outside of DCPS central office really knows, because that information -- the capture rate -- is not publicly revealed. While it may be knowable with information that DCPS has, we don't even know for sure whether anyone in DCPS actually looks at it. If you wanted to address that disparity -- and that in of itself is not a uncontroversial idea, there are plenty of people who say that those who opt out of their neighborhood school lose their voice, but say you wanted to -- the people you should be polling are not the existing Hardy families, but instead the in-boundary families who didn't choose Hardy. But that isn't an easily identifiable group. And people are complicated. For example it's hard to distinguish between those who were always planning on going private for middle school and those who were turned off by a single key issue (eg uniforms).

Oh god, here we go again. Someone up thread said this is more symbolic than substantive (you, pp?) but even so there are posters who want Hardy to change the policy before they would deign to consider enrolling rather than enrolling their kids, joining the PTA, and lobbying for the change. If it's not really a substantive problem it shouldn't keep people from enrolling their kids and mobilizing together to change the policy.

I'm sorry, pp, because I know this is important to you but can you see how this comes across? As a former OOB mom, I'm all in support of you getting in there and trying to change the policy once your kids are enrolled but why should anyone listen to you if you won't make a commitment to the school?

Anonymous wrote:I would be interested in knowing how many of last years IB 6th graders returned. Everyone we know who went in 6fh in past years left for 7th.

A couple of Key kids left two years ago (the first year of Ms Pride's tenure). All IB students returned this year, except a few (2-3) who moved abroad or elsewhere (Florida).

Anonymous wrote:In boundary parents care about one number, the IB number which they view as an indication that their neighbors and peers are voting with their feet, manifesting increased confidence in Hardy. They don't care about the feeder number, which is inflated by OOB students who would probably choose to attend Hardy anyway because it likely is a better alternative than the school they would otherwise have been assigned to.

IB 6th Hardy grade parent. I looked into the forecasts of feeder school kids, not IB. A group or feeder school parents interested in Hardy collected and provided those numbers (which proved to be lower bound estimates). The other parents I know from my IB school looked at those statistics too. IB is more convenient for playdates, which is not what drives school choice.
Extremely happy with Hardy so far.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In boundary parents care about one number, the IB number which they view as an indication that their neighbors and peers are voting with their feet, manifesting increased confidence in Hardy. They don't care about the feeder number, which is inflated by OOB students who would probably choose to attend Hardy anyway because it likely is a better alternative than the school they would otherwise have been assigned to.

In the lower grades, as a previous poster noted, these schools are now mostly IB, so the feeder number and the IB number are probably converging.

Detail please. It would be very interesting to know the IB percentages in the lower grades at Stoddert and especially Hyde/Addison.

Just look at the lottery results for prek for the last two years at these schools. No one got in OOB, and prek is your best shot statistically.

I am a new-to-Hardy 6th grade parent and here are the preliminary numbers that I am sure of for kids in 6th from feeder schools: Mann:10, Stoddert:10. As well, here are estimates from parents from other feeders: Hyde: 30; Key 5. I will post confirmed numbers on Hyde and Key as I get them. If any current Key parents have better info, please post it. As well, there are some neighborhood kids - local and state department, embassy families - who went elementary school elsewhere. I know that 6th grade is fully subscribed at 130 kids and that there are a few more expected by end of September.