Basis 8th grade to Walls-vent

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The thing about PARCC is kids have no skin in the game. The only people who are affected by PARCC scores are teachers who teach those grade levels/courses and the school profile. If DCPS wanted to get an actual measure of student readiness in math and reading then they’d make scoring a 3 on parcc a requirement for graduation. I guarantee PARCC scores would increase citywide in HS. But of course DCPS won’t actually make the test worth anything so instead kids focus on AP tests or coursework that affects their grades. How hard would you all try on a test that means nothing? Versus how hard would you try on a test that had some incentive (money, getting into grad school, etc.?

But a Walls student wouldn't need to try at all to get a 4 on the PARCC! It's testing stuff they already know well. You're not supposed to study. Just show up and take a test.

+1. I think PARCC reflects the poor teaching at Walls more than anything else. What kind community have you built that would have 1/3 of the students not care about a test that would show the quality of the school and its teaching?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are there any former BASIS kids who made the switch to Walls and came to regret it?

I believe I heard from HS parents that two begged to come back and couldn't.

I know people are going to say it's because of how the school is structured but it's also asinine. Latin allows kids to transfer back which speaks to its embrace of its students and why its praises are sung so consistently. It also speaks to BASIS rigidity.

BASIS parent

Do you mean students who leave Latin and enroll in and then attend a different school can be re-admitted to Latin without going through the lottery? Or donthey have to lottery in but BASIS doesn’t let former students lottery in?

Latin allows students to come back sophomore year if they don't like their new school for freshman year without going through the lottery.

BASIS basically never takes any kids after 5th grade lottery saying it's too hard for kids to catch up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are there any former BASIS kids who made the switch to Walls and came to regret it?

I believe I heard from HS parents that two begged to come back and couldn't.

I know people are going to say it's because of how the school is structured but it's also asinine. Latin allows kids to transfer back which speaks to its embrace of its students and why its praises are sung so consistently. It also speaks to BASIS rigidity.

BASIS parent

Do you mean students who leave Latin and enroll in and then attend a different school can be re-admitted to Latin without going through the lottery? Or donthey have to lottery in but BASIS doesn’t let former students lottery in?

Latin allows students to come back sophomore year if they don't like their new school for freshman year without going through the lottery.

BASIS basically never takes any kids after 5th grade lottery saying it's too hard for kids to catch up.

All of which makes sense.

[Anonymous]

Basis took 3 7th graders in this year, so they do take students in later.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The thing about PARCC is kids have no skin in the game. The only people who are affected by PARCC scores are teachers who teach those grade levels/courses and the school profile. If DCPS wanted to get an actual measure of student readiness in math and reading then they’d make scoring a 3 on parcc a requirement for graduation. I guarantee PARCC scores would increase citywide in HS. But of course DCPS won’t actually make the test worth anything so instead kids focus on AP tests or coursework that affects their grades. How hard would you all try on a test that means nothing? Versus how hard would you try on a test that had some incentive (money, getting into grad school, etc.?

This is it...The kids have tests, AP, SAT, etc. They literally hate it. This is an unnecessary burden on them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Basis took 3 7th graders in this year, so they do take students in later.

That's true but even that does not fully account for all the students that left and if you look historically, the characterization of basically never holds and is actually never for highschool.

[Anonymous]

So based on DCUM knowledge, looks like 3 kids got in vs 9 from last year. 15ish kids interviewed last year. Anyone know more than 3 kids who were interviewed? Or more than 3 kids who were accepted?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The thing about PARCC is kids have no skin in the game. The only people who are affected by PARCC scores are teachers who teach those grade levels/courses and the school profile. If DCPS wanted to get an actual measure of student readiness in math and reading then they’d make scoring a 3 on parcc a requirement for graduation. I guarantee PARCC scores would increase citywide in HS. But of course DCPS won’t actually make the test worth anything so instead kids focus on AP tests or coursework that affects their grades. How hard would you all try on a test that means nothing? Versus how hard would you try on a test that had some incentive (money, getting into grad school, etc.?

But a Walls student wouldn't need to try at all to get a 4 on the PARCC! It's testing stuff they already know well. You're not supposed to study. Just show up and take a test.

This is a strange comment. The kids still need to read the questions and do the work. Have you seen the math PARCC test? You don’t just read the question and the answer pops into your head. And some kids just click random answers because they want to take a nap or don’t care or have a chemistry quiz to study for or whatever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The thing about PARCC is kids have no skin in the game. The only people who are affected by PARCC scores are teachers who teach those grade levels/courses and the school profile. If DCPS wanted to get an actual measure of student readiness in math and reading then they’d make scoring a 3 on parcc a requirement for graduation. I guarantee PARCC scores would increase citywide in HS. But of course DCPS won’t actually make the test worth anything so instead kids focus on AP tests or coursework that affects their grades. How hard would you all try on a test that means nothing? Versus how hard would you try on a test that had some incentive (money, getting into grad school, etc.?

But a Walls student wouldn't need to try at all to get a 4 on the PARCC! It's testing stuff they already know well. You're not supposed to study. Just show up and take a test.

+1. I think PARCC reflects the poor teaching at Walls more than anything else. What kind community have you built that would have 1/3 of the students not care about a test that would show the quality of the school and its teaching?

Have you ever met a teenager?

Especially ones who are studious enough to get into Walls, I'm guessing think a lot think PARCC is a joke and want to just get it over with while putting in minimum effort. If it doesn't affect GPA or college for them personally, why bother?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I'll pile on! I think weighting teacher recs to be worth 3x as grades was done to try and help them diversify their class with students who may not have the support/family environment to get perfect grades, but demonstrate qualities in class that show they have the same or more potential as a kid with that support.

But this ignores the reality of teaching, especially at the MS/HS level where it is subject based. Teachers are rarely the people best qualified to make an assessment like that, because they have so many students, including many with major issues who wind up dominating their time. A good student who is above the 3.0 threshold but who might be poorly supported outside of school and have very high potential but not be meeting it for equity issues? They are just going to fly under the radar. They are unlikely to have the social skills to catch the teachers attention, but because they are academically solid, also won't be needy enough to qualify for necessary attention. Basically the only way a teacher is going to really see these kids is if they have behavioral issues.

The teacher rec piece feels like it's premised on a Hollywood ideal of what teaching middle school is like. In reality these teachers are exhausted and being asked to do to much, and now you want them to help you identify a diamond in the rough from the 200 students they work with in a year? Really?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The thing about PARCC is kids have no skin in the game. The only people who are affected by PARCC scores are teachers who teach those grade levels/courses and the school profile. If DCPS wanted to get an actual measure of student readiness in math and reading then they’d make scoring a 3 on parcc a requirement for graduation. I guarantee PARCC scores would increase citywide in HS. But of course DCPS won’t actually make the test worth anything so instead kids focus on AP tests or coursework that affects their grades. How hard would you all try on a test that means nothing? Versus how hard would you try on a test that had some incentive (money, getting into grad school, etc.?

But a Walls student wouldn't need to try at all to get a 4 on the PARCC! It's testing stuff they already know well. You're not supposed to study. Just show up and take a test.

+1. I think PARCC reflects the poor teaching at Walls more than anything else. What kind community have you built that would have 1/3 of the students not care about a test that would show the quality of the school and its teaching?

Have you ever met a teenager?

Especially ones who are studious enough to get into Walls, I'm guessing think a lot think PARCC is a joke and want to just get it over with while putting in minimum effort. If it doesn't affect GPA or college for them personally, why bother?

What kind of kids are you raising? If it doesn’t affect them personally, they’re going to put in zero effort?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So based on DCUM knowledge, looks like 3 kids got in vs 9 from last year. 15ish kids interviewed last year. Anyone know more than 3 kids who were interviewed? Or more than 3 kids who were accepted?

It’s definitely more than 3 kids accepted this year, about 10 interviewed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Basis took 3 7th graders in this year, so they do take students in later.

All siblings and only because they had the slots. And none recently after 7th.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The thing about PARCC is kids have no skin in the game. The only people who are affected by PARCC scores are teachers who teach those grade levels/courses and the school profile. If DCPS wanted to get an actual measure of student readiness in math and reading then they’d make scoring a 3 on parcc a requirement for graduation. I guarantee PARCC scores would increase citywide in HS. But of course DCPS won’t actually make the test worth anything so instead kids focus on AP tests or coursework that affects their grades. How hard would you all try on a test that means nothing? Versus how hard would you try on a test that had some incentive (money, getting into grad school, etc.?

But a Walls student wouldn't need to try at all to get a 4 on the PARCC! It's testing stuff they already know well. You're not supposed to study. Just show up and take a test.

+1. I think PARCC reflects the poor teaching at Walls more than anything else. What kind community have you built that would have 1/3 of the students not care about a test that would show the quality of the school and its teaching?

Have you ever met a teenager?

Especially ones who are studious enough to get into Walls, I'm guessing think a lot think PARCC is a joke and want to just get it over with while putting in minimum effort. If it doesn't affect GPA or college for them personally, why bother?

LOL. Lamest rationalization yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So based on DCUM knowledge, looks like 3 kids got in vs 9 from last year. 15ish kids interviewed last year. Anyone know more than 3 kids who were interviewed? Or more than 3 kids who were accepted?

It’s definitely more than 3 kids accepted this year, about 10 interviewed.

And how you do know this?