BASIS DC precomps and comps

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Basis Crew and Fencing is top notch.

Define top notch. How many students winning crew and fencing scholarships or hooked spots at the most highly competitive colleges. Which schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Here's what I don't understand (as a 5th grade parent): why don't students just start a PTO? BASIS can't stop them from creating something like "friends of BASIS" and collecting money that could be given to the school with strings attached, and I would much rather donate to a PTO than to BASIS itself, because they piss me off on the regular.

Sorry "students" should be "parents" - why don't the parents just start the organization (not ask permission - just do it).

Serious question? You can't have served as a PTA official. PTAs or POs need to be incorporated as non-profits with school support to raise money legally. The BASIS franchise doesn't permit PTAs or POs. They permit "Booster Clubs" that raise money for the school and hand it off to admins. At BASIS DC, the funds are used to boost teachers' salaries.

I'm a lawyer, and I've served on a PTO. You do not need the school's permission to incorporate a PTO. BASIS has apparently convinced parents otherwise, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Here's what I don't understand (as a 5th grade parent): why don't students just start a PTO? BASIS can't stop them from creating something like "friends of BASIS" and collecting money that could be given to the school with strings attached, and I would much rather donate to a PTO than to BASIS itself, because they piss me off on the regular.

Sorry "students" should be "parents" - why don't the parents just start the organization (not ask permission - just do it).

Serious question? You can't have served as a PTA official. PTAs or POs need to be incorporated as non-profits with school support to raise money legally. The BASIS franchise doesn't permit PTAs or POs. They permit "Booster Clubs" that raise money for the school and hand it off to admins. At BASIS DC, the funds are used to boost teachers' salaries.

I'm a lawyer, and I've served on a PTO. You do not need the school's permission to incorporate a PTO. BASIS has apparently convinced parents otherwise, though.

[Anonymous]

From a practical perspective, how could a PTO/PTA operate if a public charter school franchise was hostile to the mere concept? Bribery of school officials to entice them to accept funds for pet parent projects and favored policies? BASIS parents don't have a history of rocking the boat to effect change. They can't risk alienating admins. They don't want to move from the District and tend to have no other viable public MS option. The ad hoc initiative to push to improve teachers pay was radical by BASIS standards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ivy League admissions aren't down, they're gone, at least for now.

Dumb comment.

Lots of Basis kids have been accepted to Ivies over the years; last year, Basis DC had kids accepted to every single Ivy League school.

This year a Basis senior is going to Caltech in the fall. Caltech is more selective than HYP, and Caltech has a higher median SAT score than HYP.

Basis has a very small senior class. If you look at the quality of schools to which those kids are admitted, it matches or beats any other public school in DC per capita.

Basis hater: "Oh, but someone at Walls got into Yale. If my kid goes to Walls, they will definitely get into Yale."

Sorry, it doesn't work that way.

Plus, someone at Eastern High was accepted to Columbia. Are you going to send your kid to Eastern because it had an Ivy admit?

[Anonymous]

Caltech isn't more selective than HYP. They admit a little less than 4%; YHP, too. Caltech is impressive but admissions this year weren't overall. This year's class was no smaller than previous classes with multiple Ivy League admins. You know this, I do, other parents, too, admins know it. Yet there's forum for discussing the issues within the BASIS community, no analysis of what went wrong, at least none that parents are privy to, no plan of action to improve matters.

[Anonymous]

Where are these BASIS haters? Every parent who's concerned that BASIS' approach to college admissions is losing its edge is a hater. Got it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where are these BASIS haters? Every parent who's concerned that BASIS' approach to college admissions is losing its edge is a hater. Got it.

Maybe work on reading comprehension. You definitely don't have it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Caltech isn't more selective than HYP. They admit a little less than 4%; YHP, too. Caltech is impressive but admissions this year weren't overall. This year's class was no smaller than previous classes with multiple Ivy League admins. You know this, I do, other parents, too, admins know it. Yet there's forum for discussing the issues within the BASIS community, no analysis of what went wrong, at least none that parents are privy to, no plan of action to improve matters.

OK, YPSMBCP.

Harvard: 3.19%
Columbia: 3.73%
Caltech: 3.92%
Stanford: 3.95%
MIT: 3.96%
Princeton: 4.38%
Yale: 4.6%
Brown: 5.03%
Chicago: 5.4%
Penn: 5.87%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From a practical perspective, how could a PTO/PTA operate if a public charter school franchise was hostile to the mere concept? Bribery of school officials to entice them to accept funds for pet parent projects and favored policies? BASIS parents don't have a history of rocking the boat to effect change. They can't risk alienating admins. They don't want to move from the District and tend to have no other viable public MS option. The ad hoc initiative to push to improve teachers pay was radical by BASIS standards.

You'd be surprised how schools come around when there's a lot of cash on the table.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Caltech isn't more selective than HYP. They admit a little less than 4%; YHP, too. Caltech is impressive but admissions this year weren't overall. This year's class was no smaller than previous classes with multiple Ivy League admins. You know this, I do, other parents, too, admins know it. Yet there's forum for discussing the issues within the BASIS community, no analysis of what went wrong, at least none that parents are privy to, no plan of action to improve matters.

OK, YPSMBCP.

Harvard: 3.19%
Columbia: 3.73%
Caltech: 3.92%
Stanford: 3.95%
MIT: 3.96%
Princeton: 4.38%
Yale: 4.6%
Brown: 5.03%
Chicago: 5.4%
Penn: 5.87%

NP. Admit rates this close are basically meaningless for any number of reasons (way fewer kids want to go to Caltech, so less competition at the top end; that said, way fewer random applicants so much harder competition all the way through the stack), but I think we can all agree (except that one guy) that a Caltech admit is just as impressive as an Ivy admit. Maybe just under HYP, but maybe not. Certainly over DBC in my book. However, overall BASIS admissions were less impressive this year than in years past. That said, it's one year, whether it's a total blip or a trend remains to be seen and, in the overall context of DC public schools, obviously BASIS' admissions are incredibly impressive!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From a practical perspective, how could a PTO/PTA operate if a public charter school franchise was hostile to the mere concept? Bribery of school officials to entice them to accept funds for pet parent projects and favored policies? BASIS parents don't have a history of rocking the boat to effect change. They can't risk alienating admins. They don't want to move from the District and tend to have no other viable public MS option. The ad hoc initiative to push to improve teachers pay was radical by BASIS standards.

You'd be surprised how schools come around when there's a lot of cash on the table.

I'm a PTO President at a DCPS ES right now. If my kids end up at BASIS, I will 100% push to get something off the ground. Worst case, you spend it on unofficial community builders and offer a pot of money to subsidize extracurriculars unofficially. BASIS will come around. Schools always do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From a practical perspective, how could a PTO/PTA operate if a public charter school franchise was hostile to the mere concept? Bribery of school officials to entice them to accept funds for pet parent projects and favored policies? BASIS parents don't have a history of rocking the boat to effect change. They can't risk alienating admins. They don't want to move from the District and tend to have no other viable public MS option. The ad hoc initiative to push to improve teachers pay was radical by BASIS standards.

You'd be surprised how schools come around when there's a lot of cash on the table.

I can't picture many BASIS parents contributing to a fund that hasn't been authorized by admins. Just not the type of parents BASIS tends to attract. Parents come under steady pressure to top up teachers' salaries starting in 5th grade. That's what they're conditioned to believe their donations should go for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't what you're alluding to. Please explain.

I can tell you that there's growing concern in the hs parent community about inter-connected issues: inadequate teacher pay, what looks like a higher drop off rate to Walls than in the past, unimpressive hs ecs as compared to ms ecs and this year's somewhat disappointing admissions results.

In the last few years, hs parents grew accustomed to seeing ivy admits, mainly for Yale, Harvard and Princeton. It's not lost on us that Walls and JR had ivy successes this year, and not just for low SES minority applicants or recruited athletes (mostly from the JR crew team).

We wouldn't be as concerned if the head of school didn't blow off our concerns as a general rule. Some of us, particularly those with hs students with ms sibs, are hoping that he leaves. He's much more interested in the ms than the hs, which has become a problem.

Odd post. If you were actually a BASIS parent you'd know that they are going to start matching DCPS pay scale. So either you are another troll or so disengaged that seems like we should dismiss what you have to say. Also, # of BASIS kids matriculating to Walls is down, not up.

There are certainly things about BASIS I would improve. I prefer to focus on reality. But hey, you do you.

[Anonymous]

Hmmm idk DCPS PTO Parent you might be better off investing your time/energy at a DCPS middle school.