Basis 8th grade to Walls-vent

[Anonymous]

How many got in to Walls or will opt to stay at Basis? We had the hardest time getting recommendations from teachers and I wonder if that impacted our ability to get in to Walls. How did others do?

[Anonymous]

If you got an interview at Walls, it did not impact your ability. If you didn't get an interview... maybe. But you're in good company with a whole bunch of kids with 4.0s across the city who also didn't get a Walls interview.

[Anonymous]

My 4.0 BASIS kid did not get a Walls interview. Any idea how many BASIS kids even got interviews?

[Anonymous]

It would not surprise me if BASIS tanks the Walls application process on purpose.

[Anonymous]

I know of only one kid who was interviewed. Granted, I don't know that many other families and my kid doesn't keep track of this stuff so even if kids were talking about it, kid wouldn't pay attention.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It would not surprise me if BASIS tanks the Walls application process on purpose.

I have been wondering this.

I would so love it if there was a way to find out if some schools were over-represented based on teacher recs and some middle schools were under-represented.

[Anonymous]

Last year there were roughly 15 kids interviewed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It would not surprise me if BASIS tanks the Walls application process on purpose.

Genuine question: what does this mean? Are you saying they do not provide support? Or that they actively interfere?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It would not surprise me if BASIS tanks the Walls application process on purpose.

Genuine question: what does this mean? Are you saying they do not provide support? Or that they actively interfere?

Easiest way to do it would be to discourage teachers from giving Walls recs (or giving good ones). 100% could see BASIS admin doing this.

[Anonymous]

I think it's a terrible thing to do to your 8th graders to not give them good recommendations. I suspect that happened at our school as well (not Basis). It makes me really angry. I think the teachers may not understand what a big deal this is and how tanking a kid's chance at the high school of their choice can have major consequences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Last year there were roughly 15 kids interviewed.

Source?

How on earth would you know the total number of Basis kids interviewing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it's a terrible thing to do to your 8th graders to not give them good recommendations. I suspect that happened at our school as well (not Basis). It makes me really angry. I think the teachers may not understand what a big deal this is and how tanking a kid's chance at the high school of their choice can have major consequences.

This is actually on Walls for weighting the recs so (stupidly) heavily in their screening.

It's reasonable for teachers to make an honest assessment, but it's ridiculous for those teacher assessments (especially in the small-ish pool of kids with excellent grades) to DISQUALIFY a kid from a selective high school. By definition, a kid with a 4.0 is submitting assignments, participating in class, and doing well on test. So the teacher rec is really just how much the teacher *likes* your kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's a terrible thing to do to your 8th graders to not give them good recommendations. I suspect that happened at our school as well (not Basis). It makes me really angry. I think the teachers may not understand what a big deal this is and how tanking a kid's chance at the high school of their choice can have major consequences.

This is actually on Walls for weighting the recs so (stupidly) heavily in their screening.

It's reasonable for teachers to make an honest assessment, but it's ridiculous for those teacher assessments (especially in the small-ish pool of kids with excellent grades) to DISQUALIFY a kid from a selective high school. By definition, a kid with a 4.0 is submitting assignments, participating in class, and doing well on test. So the teacher rec is really just how much the teacher *likes* your kid.

You're right. Hopefully they can evaluate whether the system they went with this year worked well and switch things up next year. Having it all be so subjective seems a lot worse than going with test scores. Any test scores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's a terrible thing to do to your 8th graders to not give them good recommendations. I suspect that happened at our school as well (not Basis). It makes me really angry. I think the teachers may not understand what a big deal this is and how tanking a kid's chance at the high school of their choice can have major consequences.

This is actually on Walls for weighting the recs so (stupidly) heavily in their screening.

It's reasonable for teachers to make an honest assessment, but it's ridiculous for those teacher assessments (especially in the small-ish pool of kids with excellent grades) to DISQUALIFY a kid from a selective high school. By definition, a kid with a 4.0 is submitting assignments, participating in class, and doing well on test. So the teacher rec is really just how much the teacher *likes* your kid.

And I will double down on my rant about this. Relying on recs from ELA and math teachers only, at the middle school level when kids might have a great relationship with a foreign language or science or social studies teacher, is an additional terrible layer of a terrible process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It would not surprise me if BASIS tanks the Walls application process on purpose.

I have been wondering this.

I would so love it if there was a way to find out if some schools were over-represented based on teacher recs and some middle schools were under-represented.

You need to FOIA this.

All DCPS will report is that most schools will have <10 admits except for Deal and Hardy with more.