Why are you sending your child to Basis?
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Anonymous
Actually, it's more similar to a private school. The population that will feed Basis DC is nothing like this. |
Anonymous
The thing is, it doesn't matter how you see it. The law requires public charter schools to educate all the students, not just the students they want. When you get kids with disabilities? You don't get to kick them out. The law requires you to educate them according to their IEPs. |
Anonymous
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What's so funny is that there are some here who are arrogant enough to think that it won't be their child who will be counseled to consider other alternatives.
Because of the charter law in DC, BASIS will have to find a work around for those who can't meet all of the requirements of the program just like one of language immersion schools that shall not be named. If parents find the work around to be socially unacceptable, they'll find a different school. |
Anonymous
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The thing is, it doesn't matter how you see it. The law requires public charter schools to educate all the students, not just the students they want. When you get kids with disabilities? You don't get to kick them out. The law requires you to educate them according to their IEPs.
Of course it matters how we see it - we pay the taxes and vote the pols in and out. So amend the bloody charter law (it's been done twice before), create a charter-DCPS hybrid (high time), or set up the school differently (with tracking from grade 5) and simpy run Basis under DCPS auspices as the city's first MS academic magent. Don't simply toss the taxpayer's hard-earned dollars at a school paradigm that can't work well in Chinatown for really obvious reasons. I dived into the AZ school demographic stats via the 2010 Nation Census and, yes, both branches have Deal-like populations. It's no secret that we don't have that outside of Upper NW and it's not Upper NW that will be served by this school. Students will mainly be attracted from Wards 5, 6, 7 and 8. Deal with reality to avoid waste in government. Hiding behind the law, as though it's set in stone forever and every charter law in the country mitigates against selective admissions (hardly) is no solution at all. |
Anonymous
Okay. You just go right ahead with those plans to change the law. We all keep talking over here about the reality of the present and what is likely to happen given that reality. Let us know when you have a petition to put an initiative on the ballot or find a candidate that has the vision you have. |
Anonymous
Why on earth would anyone want DCPS to have any hand in running charter schools at all???? DCPS has has a lousy track record to say the least. I for one would not want DCPS to have any say in charter schools at all. If DCPS is so good why have they not created their own version of a Basis like school???? It is not rocket science you know  There are no DCPS schools, regular or magnet, that even compare to sort of school like Basis or TJ.
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Anonymous
You are right, PP. Charter schools are required to comply with IDEA. However, being too lazy to complete homework, attend tutoring sessions, and study for tests does not count as a disability under IDEA. Neither does having attended a non-functioning elementary school. Since so many posts in this thread have made assertions about "the law", I decided to read DC's School Reform Act myself and urge you to do the same. http://www.dcpubliccharter.com/data/images/school%20reform%20act.pdf On page 13, under section 38-1802-02. Contents of petition, you will find the following: (5) A description of the plan for evaluating student academic achievement at the proposed school and the procedures for remedial action that will be used by the school when the academic achievement of a student falls below the expectations of the school; So, under the law, a charter has the authority to set expectations for academic achievement, evaluate student academic achievement, and establish procedures for remedial action when a student fails to meet those expectations. While I have not been able to obtain a copy of BASIS's charter petition, based on what I have read, it appears that that the expectation at BASIS as that, beginning in 6th grade, all students must pass comps in all core subjects. The remedial action is summer school followed by another opportunity to take the comps in the fall. If the student fails to meet the expectation a second time, the remedial action is retention. The School Reform Act grants charters a great deal of authority. They are exempt from any statutes, policies, rules and regulations established for DCPS by the DC government. They have exclusive control over finances, administration, personnel and instructional methods. There are some restrictions, of course. They cannot charge tuition. They also cannot be selective in their admissions policy under section 38-1802-06. Student admission, enrollment, and withdrawal: (b) Criteria for admission -- A public charter school may not limit enrollment on the basis of a student's race, color, religion, national origin, language spoken, intellectual or athletic ability, measures of achievement or aptitude, or status as a student with special needs. A public charter school may limit enrollment to specific grade levels. |
Anonymous
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14:04 again:
BASIS looks to be a non-selective charter that welcomes all students, sets high expectations for academic performance, offers additional instruction for students who fail to meet those expectations, and adopts a policy of retention for students who repeatedly fail to meet those expectations. I see no violation of the School Reform Act here. As for IDEA, I have no doubt that the teachers and administrators at BASIS will accommodate students with disabilities. They will undoubtedly grant double and triple time on comprehensive exams and provide scribes and non-distracting environments for children with IEPs and 504 plans. However, being several years behind due to a terrible elementary school is does not count as a disability under IDEA. Being unwilling to do the work it takes to catch up with your peers also does not count as a disability under IDEA. What law requires BASIS to offer an alternate educational program and promotion path to children who arrive unprepared and are unwilling to put in the hard work it takes to catch up with their peers and pass their comps? |
Anonymous
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"What law requires BASIS to offer an alternate educational program and promotion path to children who arrive unprepared and are unwilling[(Added: UNABLE] to put in the hard work it takes to catch up with their peers and pass their comps?"
Answer: None -- which is why there will be a lot of retentions at first until certain parents of certain students decide not to send their kids there in the first place. It will all be legal. It will benefit kids who are able to do AP work, who certainly deserve their chance for an excellent public education. The kids who can't do it will be used as pawns to get around the system, until their parents get the hint and don't even apply to BASIS. |
Anonymous
What makes them unable? Why can't they catch up? Especially since so much support is being provided? I submit that many kids simply don't want to work that hard in school. It's not that they can't; it's that they won't. |
Anonymous
Which is when the lawsuits will start. |
Anonymous
What will those plaintiffs claim? That the school discriminates against those unwilling to work hard? |
Anonymous
SOme kids are unable because they got socially promoted in grade school and can't catch up enough to do advanced work. Other kids aren't good enough at enough subjects to keep up the pace. Some kids aren't mature enough at that age, but will shine later. |
Anonymous
| Yes, Basis can't refuse anybody as keeps getting pointed out repeatedly, and which nobody has disputed or disagreed with- but to the poster who insists on making that point over and over and over ad nauseaum, again, the achievement expectations at Basis are clear, to include taking a large number of AP courses. As such, how would it ever make sense for someone to send their child who might not be capable of taking AP courses to Basis? Yes, anyone can send their child to Basis, and yes, Basis has to take any child - but does it make sense? If a child isn't going to college, then t's wasting his or her time to send him or her for AP courses. The rationale and reasoning of sending a child to Basis merely because you are fleeing bad DCPS schools only underscores how bad the DCPS system is and underscores the fact that there is a need for an alternative; those who attack charters ultimately only end up strengthening the case for why charters are needed. |
Anonymous
For the same reason people are planning to send their kids to a Hebrew immersion school, when very few, if any, will grow up to use the language in their daily life. Parents are trying to get out of their neighborhood schools, and they will pick any charter they can to make that happen. The problem that it creates for BASIS is when they try to live up to these promises of 8 APs. If, according to some salivating posters on this thread, kids can't keep up and should decamp to leave the school for some imagined population of frustrated GT students to have as their own, BASIS is going to need a strategy to keep the doors open. They will need to hope that in this small city, with demographics dissimilar to Tucson, they can find the population they claim success with to keep themselves open without compromise or remediation. Time will tell. |