Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eaton has a choice of both.

It shouldn't. It's closer to Hardy. There's no justifiable reason to maintain the connection to Deal.

pre-Rhee, Eaton only fed into Deal. Rhee wanted to change the feeder pattern and have Eaton feed only into Hardy. Folks at Eaton protested and asked that they keep Deal as a feeder. The protest was so great, that Rhee decided to keep Hardy as a feeder for Eaton, and maintain Deal so that students have a choice. I have no dog in this fight, as I am at private looking to enter public and strongly considering Hearst, which feeds into Deal, and our neighborhood MS is Deal by right, but if we did go to Hearst and Hardy improves--even just a little--I would apply OOB to enter Hardy--and we live closer to Deal, because Hardy is so much smaller and Deal is a huge behemoth of an institution that seems to large given the student population. Otherwise I would do private independent if we received adequate financial aid or do parochial--but never Deal.

This is sort is where we are too. IB for Hearst and excited to enter next year but judging what we see in our kid at this young age, i fear her being lost in Deal. Obviously it is years out but if Hardy continued to improve we would apply OOB. It is as if OOb is a code word on here for negative things. All schools have good and bad IB and OOB kids, right? Seems like school choice should be a good thing but I feel overwhelmed and like there are too many choices.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eaton has a choice of both.

It shouldn't. It's closer to Hardy. There's no justifiable reason to maintain the connection to Deal.

pre-Rhee, Eaton only fed into Deal. Rhee wanted to change the feeder pattern and have Eaton feed only into Hardy. Folks at Eaton protested and asked that they keep Deal as a feeder. The protest was so great, that Rhee decided to keep Hardy as a feeder for Eaton, and maintain Deal so that students have a choice. I have no dog in this fight, as I am at private looking to enter public and strongly considering Hearst, which feeds into Deal, and our neighborhood MS is Deal by right, but if we did go to Hearst and Hardy improves--even just a little--I would apply OOB to enter Hardy--and we live closer to Deal, because Hardy is so much smaller and Deal is a huge behemoth of an institution that seems to large given the student population. Otherwise I would do private independent if we received adequate financial aid or do parochial--but never Deal.

Anonymous wrote:Current Hardy Parent here, posting one more time to bring it all back home.

The facts - not speculation - from an actual Hardy parent's perspective.

1. Some of the best students at Hardy are OOB students. They come from wonderful homes; they care about learning, they care about their friends, and they are all-around great kids.

2. There are some not so great OOB kids. There are also some not-so-great IB kids. Believe me, there is not a good kid/bad kid boundary that exists at the IB boundary.

3. There is nothing - nothing - preventing good, smart kids with caring and involved parents from learning at Hardy today. Those kids do great, and compete with their peers from Deal and other middle schools when they move on to Wilson, Walls, Banneker, and competitive privates.

4. Hardy is getting even better, with strong leadership from Principal Pride and even more course offering and differentiation coming up next year.

You can believe all the unfounded speculation, you can get sidetracked in accusations of rascism and arguments over Hyde vs. Eaton as a Hardy feeder, but I implore you all to please keep those facts in mind as you consider Hardy for your IB or OOB student.

Current Hardy Parent here, posting one more time to bring it all back home.

The facts - not speculation - from an actual Hardy parent's perspective.

1. Some of the best students at Hardy are OOB students. They come from wonderful homes; they care about learning, they care about their friends, and they are all-around great kids.

2. There are some not so great OOB kids. There are also some not-so-great IB kids. Believe me, there is not a good kid/bad kid boundary that exists at the IB boundary.

3. There is nothing - nothing - preventing good, smart kids with caring and involved parents from learning at Hardy today. Those kids do great, and compete with their peers from Deal and other middle schools when they move on to Wilson, Walls, Banneker, and competitive privates.

4. Hardy is getting even better, with strong leadership from Principal Pride and even more course offering and differentiation coming up next year.

You can believe all the unfounded speculation, you can get sidetracked in accusations of rascism and arguments over Hyde vs. Eaton as a Hardy feeder, but I implore you all to please keep those facts in mind as you consider Hardy for your IB or OOB student.

Anonymous wrote:

For sake of illustration, when I was a kid, I attended a middle school with general test scores like Hardy. It was fine; I enjoyed the school and my friends. I was an advanced student compared to maybe 85% of everyone else. I got all A's really easily. But, when I went to high school, where the overall scores were much higher in comparison to middle school, for the first time in my life I was pushed, academically. Instead of easily capturing all A's, I received more B+'s and a few B's. I went to a decent college, but when I got there and compared myself to others, I realized (granted, this is subjective) that I could have been better prepared if I had been pushed my entire career. THAT (and I'm going to answer my original query for you) is what I believe many in-boundary parents are "fearful" of. And I don't think that's in any way irrational. At the same time, I believe Hardy would be just fine for most parents and their kids. But, if you accept what I'm saying, I don't think you or anyone else should denigrate parents who decide that Hardy just isn't good enough for their kids.

So maybe you're thinking that if you'd been better prepared, you would have known beforehand that your "decent college", for which you were inadequately prepared, wasn't good enough to get you a salary that would allow your progeny to avoid public school altogether???

Maybe you're just a B student. Maybe your child is too. Would being at that B range just be more acceptable at Deal (where he or she would presumably be ...OOB)???

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eaton has a choice of both.

It shouldn't. It's closer to Hardy. There's no justifiable reason to maintain the connection to Deal.

Anonymous wrote:Current Hardy Parent here, posting one more time to bring it all back home.

The facts - not speculation - from an actual Hardy parent's perspective.

1. Some of the best students at Hardy are OOB students. They come from wonderful homes; they care about learning, they care about their friends, and they are all-around great kids.

2. There are some not so great OOB kids. There are also some not-so-great IB kids. Believe me, there is not a good kid/bad kid boundary that exists at the IB boundary.

3. There is nothing - nothing - preventing good, smart kids with caring and involved parents from learning at Hardy today. Those kids do great, and compete with their peers from Deal and other middle schools when they move on to Wilson, Walls, Banneker, and competitive privates.

4. Hardy is getting even better, with strong leadership from Principal Pride and even more course offering and differentiation coming up next year.

You can believe all the unfounded speculation, you can get sidetracked in accusations of rascism and arguments over Hyde vs. Eaton as a Hardy feeder, but I implore you all to please keep those facts in mind as you consider Hardy for your IB or OOB student.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And I'm not denigrating you for thinking Hardy is not good enough, I'm denigrating you for denigrating current and future students based on nothing more than where they live.

Again, not the PP you're addressing.

Get off the denigrating-because-of-where-they-live trope. It's not about where they live; it's about all of the things that are correlated with where they live. OOB is just short-hand for "less likely to be in a stable family situation; less likely to be prepared." Note that it does not mean "less likely to be intrinsically intelligent." One may believe that, but it is surely open to much more debate than the previous two correlates.

The correct response to my claim (above) about the correlates is that the OOB kids attending JKLM, Hardy, Deal, etc. are likely a self-selected bunch that scores well on the "Stable family" and "Preparedness" scales. I personally subscribe to this response (while simultaneously subscribing to the "OOB is shorthand for correlates" mantra). Now, if we start talking about lotteries and busing and what-not, then you can no longer make the self-selection argument.

I've tried several different approaches--studiously avoiding race--to explaining my quandary and query as a potential OOB parent. Here it is in a nutshell: If my child is OOB at one of Hardy's feeder schools--that is, attending school west of the park from Pre-K through 5th grade, is he going to have the challenge of OOB stigma attached to him throughout? A stigma that would follow him to Hardy?

I've said nothing about his race, so you don't need to consider it in the question nor insult me further with any of your own assumptions. But please understand that if you continue with the argument that a Hardy "turnaround" can only be accomplished by eliminating OOB students (and that's the phrase used several times over) , then I've got real and justified concern about an articulated bias--not just perceived--against my child.

Capiche? If there's a way I should rethink that, please let me know.

I can't speak specifically about how your kids would be treated as OOB students at Hardy. But I have two kids at Deal, where 30 percent of students are OOB. My experience is that these middle school students don't know or care where their classmates live. They care about whether their classmates are nice or mean, are well-behaved or disruptive, and are good or bad partners to work with on group projects.