How's basis going so far?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

09/21/2012 07:06

I did walk the walk. I attended an HBCU for both undergraduate and graduate. Same one my mother attended. LOVED IT! I attended the middle and high school that my parents chose.

Was this by choice. Was HBCU a safety after coming from an elite middle and high school? I know many who struggled at the elite middle and high school and settled for less at the undergraduate and graduate levels. This phenomenon was very common in the last 25 to 30 years. Big fish in a small pond concept. You get my drift.

I am not the poster you quoted, but are you serious. Safety net, as if all HBCUs are equal and inferior to the majority schools. Safety. Wow!

[Anonymous]

Boy there is a lot of ugly coming out in this thread. Makes my head and heart ache

[Anonymous]

I know - it is so obnoxious. I have friends who went to Howard and I'd never think "Oh, was that your safety school?" Frankly, I don't think that about where anyone went to school.

I don't know if it's DCUM or people in real life too, but some people seem to have very rigid and limited views of success. And frankly, it seems kind of dumb.

[Anonymous]

Lots of preconceived notions flying around here. But the fact is, there are kids from every ward and SES in the district at Basis, and lots of AA kids - and lots of them are doing great. Let's not impose extra baggage on it all, how about we first just wait and see how it all goes.

[Anonymous]

Students at Basis have one thing in common regardless of race SES or any other demographic slicing and dicing: they have someone in their corner who enrolled them in a demanding school. That is why all this ugly about picking a school based upon racial composition is so wrongheaded.

And by the way Basis will is planning to create three out of the current two eighth grade "elements" to provide remediation or challenge during class time rather than just in tracked math or tutoring sessions. Yet cynical folks in abundance on DCUM will surely say that proves Basis is separating out by race and/or SES. Nope. It's pretty simple: by eighth grade students arriving from less demanding DC schools, many of which happen to be predominantly AA, are far behind indeed and need intensive catching up.

[Anonymous]

How is it that you know about BASIS's future plans, 7:04?

[Anonymous]

I know - it is so obnoxious. I have friends who went to Howard and I'd never think "Oh, was that your safety school?" Frankly, I don't think that about where anyone went to school.

I don't know if it's DCUM or people in real life too, but some people seem to have very rigid and limited views of success. And frankly, it seems kind of dumb.

Poppycock and nonsense. I know dozens of AA colleagues from elite private secondary schools for whom Howard was a safety school just as I know many folk in Virginia for whom U Va was their safety as opposed to reach school.

What planet do you live on?

[Anonymous]

Poppycock and nonsense. I know dozens of AA colleagues from elite private secondary schools for whom Howard was a safety school just as I know many folk in Virginia for whom U Va was their safety as opposed to reach school.

What planet do you live on?

addendum: It may surprise you but I have a few colleagues (4th generation Harvard alumni) for whom Harvard was the safety school!

For many AA of my generation who attended elite private secondary schools Howard University was indeed their safety school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Students at Basis have one thing in common regardless of race SES or any other demographic slicing and dicing: they have someone in their corner who enrolled them in a demanding school. That is why all this ugly about picking a school based upon racial composition is so wrongheaded.

Wrongheaded, right, when the NAEP results for 2010 showed white DC public school students testing "advanced" at around 20 times the rate of blacks at both reading and math at the 4th and 8th grade levels across the city. This was a wider gap than seen in any state, and any other city. Grow up folks, you can hardly expect to improve public schools without contending with facts on the ground. Racial composition iin city schools is a very real issue for many of us mainly because the great majority of upper-middle-class blacks abandoned the system long ago. Basis can't perform miracles in the face of the achievement gap. I don't see ugliness on this thread; I see logic, honesty and justifiable skepticism that open admissions is going to work well at yet another charter MS.

[Anonymous]

7:04 here. There was a boosters meeting with the director on Friday in which he mentioned some future plans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Poppycock and nonsense. I know dozens of AA colleagues from elite private secondary schools for whom Howard was a safety school just as I know many folk in Virginia for whom U Va was their safety as opposed to reach school.

What planet do you live on?

addendum: It may surprise you but I have a few colleagues (4th generation Harvard alumni) for whom Harvard was the safety school!

For many AA of my generation who attended elite private secondary schools Howard University was indeed their safety school.

You realize this makes you sound like a complete and total prick, right? The more you know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Students at Basis have one thing in common regardless of race SES or any other demographic slicing and dicing: they have someone in their corner who enrolled them in a demanding school. That is why all this ugly about picking a school based upon racial composition is so wrongheaded.

Wrongheaded, right, when the NAEP results for 2010 showed white DC public school students testing "advanced" at around 20 times the rate of blacks at both reading and math at the 4th and 8th grade levels across the city. This was a wider gap than seen in any state, and any other city. Grow up folks, you can hardly expect to improve public schools without contending with facts on the ground. Racial composition iin city schools is a very real issue for many of us mainly because the great majority of upper-middle-class blacks abandoned the system long ago. Basis can't perform miracles in the face of the achievement gap. I don't see ugliness on this thread; I see logic, honesty and justifiable skepticism that open admissions is going to work well at yet another charter MS.

Basically, you are still suggesting that it's strictly about race, and that is indeed ugly.

As stated, Basis has students of all demographics and socioeconomic strata, and from all parts of the city. BUT, there are some key differences with regard to open admissions - the families that are there are there because they want to be there, they want the challenge, and they want the change. It's not as though a net was cast which caught a purely random sampling of families, or that anyone was forced to go there, or that it's "the neighborhood school" - it is an entirely self-selected population. That is not at all insignificant.

Yes, the "facts on the ground" do include many problems in the low-SES AA community, problems which primarily a.) start at home and b.) start in early childhood - problems which are way beyond the scope of any charter, particularly one which begins with MS - so if that's your point, sorry, no, Basis does not address that, but neither does any school in the District, to include PCS elementaries and DCPS. You seem to be looking for a magic bullet in the form of a school - and that's the part which defies "logic and honesty" and where anyone who truly knows the facts is right to be justifiably skeptical of your viewpoint on that.

[Anonymous]

You realize this makes you sound like a complete and total prick, right? The more you know.

Why? Did you have a safety school when you applied to colleges (if you even attended college)?

Why I you upset because for some AAs Howard is a safety school?

Get your head our of the sand.

[Anonymous]

You realize this makes you sound like a complete and total prick, right? The more you know.

The PP sounds quite truthful about observations and experiences in his era without the sugar and spice you wish or like.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think you are wrong. Most people don't make assumptions like you lay out. Very few do. But what people know from hard statistical evidence us that a high percentage of low SES students ( of any race ) in the same class/ school means that the class or school is going to be involved, in fact focused, on a lot of remediation and discipline and other activities in order to make up for lacks in the households of many ( not all!) Of those students. This is the right thing to do.

This is not bigotry, racism, elitism or anything but sound judgement based on current evidence. When the teaching style, school organization, curriculum, culture or whatever changes to make this no longer the case, no one will even check the ses percentages and test scores of a school because they will all be good.

Until that happens, please stop slamming parents for making sound judgements about what school environment is best for their kids ( high or low ses!)

+1,000. Thank you for this profoundly rational post.

I'm an AA parent who wouldn't send my kid to any area school or classroom where at least half the students aren't white or Asian. Why not? There aren't enough high-SES AA families in DC, or indeed the country, to give me confidence that a predominantly black or hispanic classroom would offer the rigor I'm looking for. Yes, mushy minded liberal white and lower middle-class SES AA parents, kindly stop slamming others for using logic to dictate school choice. Hint: my minority pals (doctors, lawyers, lobbyists etc.) think the same way, to a parent. Ever hear about a rising China, a rising India? We can't afford to dabble in mediocrity for our kids when highly-educated parents in Beijing and Mumbai certainly aren't going to. AA kids who are well-behaved, well prepared and hell bent on achieving are more than welcome in my kids' classrooms. Reality dictates that such children are hard to find in a US city with an ailing public school system and no GT education (KIPP doesn't do it for me). I'm against an all AA Banneker in a big way. I'm watching Basis for my ES age children, but if the higher grades are more than half AA (with race being a proxy for class in DC of course) in a few years, forget it.

My guess is that the AA percentage at BASIS DC will always be higher in 5th and 6th, before the kids have to pass comps to be promoted, and for 7th and higher, it will drop year by year.

That assumes that parents will choose to stay in a school with a shrinking enrollment and shrinking opportunities at the higher grades. So far, charter schools haven't been able to clear that hurdle. The DCI might, but only because its a consortium of 4 schools. Success remains to be seen, but BASIS is lacking in a lot of expectations parents have of an HS experience. Middle school maybe, but HS? The only successful small schools are also exclusive (i.e., Maret) and Basis isn't offering the Maret experience.