Basis 8th grade to Walls-vent
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Anonymous
Neither makes sense. Basis is not so special that kids can only do the work if they have been there since sixth or seventh grade. Latin kids are not so special that they should get special treatment and take the rare spots that open soph year ahead of other kids who have to go through the lottery. |
Anonymous
| Yes, they are special. Because without an admissions test, the chances of someone randomly coming in off the lottery in a later grade who happens to be bright enough to hack it at a specialized school after years of a likely very subpar education at another DC public school is slim to none. To be sure, there are some kids who could handle coming in later but the school runs enormous risk that the students with the top lottery numbers in later grades are not that small handful of students. Students who attend since 5th grade work hard and even they can still struggle, so imagine the resources the school would have to spend catching people up who are years behind academically. It’s an unfortunate school system in DC where most public schools, especially middle and high schools, are so inadequate. Don’t blame the few schools actually providing a great education for the failings of our DC politicians. |
Anonymous
The slowest math track at BASIS involves two years of high school math before the 9th grade. Most kids in DC don't do that. And, just like they're not allowed to admissions test, they're also not allowed to pick based on the curriculum the kid has done, so they can't just admit the kids who have. |
Anonymous
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How many spots open up at Basis in a given year? The Basis teachers can’t handle working with a few new kids? So, only a few lottery seats at Latin for soph yr for regular kids and none at Basis, ever, full stop. The opportunity hoarding is impressive. |
Anonymous
| Parcc aside, at the sww open house this year the teacher mentioned that they teach algebra to (some) 9th graders and even have a “math support” program for kids who are seriously behind. Why are they even offering walls spots to kids who are performing at grade level or below for math? They could clearly fill their class with just advanced math kids, and then save themselves the expense of teachers for remedial coursework at a magnet school. Makes zero sense. It was one thing that turned our advanced math kids off of walls. |
Anonymous
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Nope the teachers should not be expected to work with “a few new kids” who are YEARS behind the grade - you are asking the teacher to run two classes at once. Imagine asking a 4th grade teacher to teach your 2nd grade student. Even that would be easier than teaching algebra and calculus at the same time. It’s precisely the grouping of kids at such disparate levels in one classroom throughout DC public schools that causes the race to the bottom. You can only teach the lowest common denominator.
People who aren’t at BASIS truly have no idea how advanced the students become after just a couple years. What other DC middle school teaches physics, biology and chemistry to its students, simultaneously? The school requires its current students to demonstrate readiness for the next grade level and does not socially promote. But a student years behind should waltz right in off the lottery? It’s not “opportunity hoarding” - it’s making sure students there actually have the opportunity to continue to be challenged. Again, complain to the folks that make the decision to keep DC public schools so inadequate. They deny the opportunity to learn across the city. |
Anonymous
Also, if you're taking algebra in 9th grade, there are tons of schools in DC that can meet your academic needs. If you're a couple of years ahead of that, there aren't. If DCPS consistently offered these kids appropriate coursework at all of the zoned schools that would be one thing, but not doing that and not granting them admission at the school that actually can handle them -- it's loud and clear that they don't care. |
Anonymous
| How did you get into BASIS? Via a totally random draw. So if your kid is there, you had some degree of luck. Now you want that luck to continue to another school? |
Anonymous
| Yup luck gets students into BASIS, and it’s hard work that keeps them there. Walls and other application schools are ultimately partly based on luck in the sense that the qualified students are put into a lottery. But it’s clearly not the same completely lottery “random luck” for non-application schools. When highly qualified students are deemed “ineligible” for Walls because of subjective factors that have nothing to do with luck, it’s fair to complain about the process. |
Anonymous
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Why not have an admissions process for ninth grade admission to Basis? Surely the great minds could figure out how to at least attempt to fill those seats. Basis senior classes are so small. But I guess they will continue to just throw their hands up and say no one will let us have an admissions test so we will go along assuming that no single child in the entire city is smart enough to join Basis for HS. |
Anonymous
| You think you’re the first person to think of this idea? BASIS has an admissions process at its non-DC locations whereby students can enter at any grade for which they are eligible based on entrance tests. If a rising 8th grader tests at the ability of a BASIS 6th grader, those BASIS schools will admit the student for 6th grade. DC will not let BASIS have such an admissions process. DC believes in social promotion and won’t allow students to be deemed ineligible for the grade level they would have been allowed into in other DC schools. So BASIS has to abide by the DC rules without compromising its curriculum. Turn your ire to DC’s education decision makers. |
Anonymous
Does every DCPS middle school even offer Algebra I? I don't see how you can fault a child if their DCPS school doesn't even give them the opportunity to take the class in the first place. |
Anonymous
I think the problems is not that the kids are "so smart" which I agree is really obnoxious framing, but that they keep the kids in this very accelerated and kind of rigid path. So if a bright 9th grader comes in, but they haven't taken algebra 2 and Geometry, they actually can't join their cohort. I guess they could join the younger kids, but then will they land at the weird senior year? We are enrolling and I'm learning as much as I can, and I think this rigidity, right or wrong, is hard to get around. do I think kids need to be that accelerated? Probably not. But that's how Basis does it, and that's what makes it hard to enter midway. |
Anonymous
What kind of admission process do you propose to ensure kids are prepared for the BASIS 9th grade curriculum? BASIS 9th graders take the following classes: Honors science, Honors English literature, Honors English language and composition, some version of pre calculus (I’m not sure all the options), AP US Government, foreign language, and an elective which is likely another AP class. Tell me which other school offers this as a baseline for Freshmen? And while we are at it— why can’t all kids in DC have access to a school the caliber of Walls or Jackson Reed? |
Anonymous
Those aren't the SWW applicants, but if that's a concern for the at-most handful of students that affects, don't require it for them. But that's not a reason to not use it as a differentiator among students who went to middle schools where this was offered. |