If not Basis or Latin, where?
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Anonymous
I agree, PP. The annual attrition rate is an important statistic, and it does seem like some BASIS AZ schools have annual attrition rates in the low teens. However, that rate should be compared to the attrition rates of comparable schools. For example, Latin has an attrition rate almost 10% in the middle school and almost 8% in the upper school, according to the following report: http://dcpubliccharter.com/data/files/2013_Applications/2011-2012_Annual_Report_GW4WashinLatin.pdf So, let's take 9% as the "background attrition rate" for a certain type of DC MS-HS charter . That is, let's take this as the rate of attrition that results from factors such as moving, not fitting in, preferring the IB HS but not the IB MS, etc. We don't yet know what the attrition rate at BASIS DC is going to be, but let's assume it ends up being 15%, which is probably on the high side. Then, we might infer that rigorous curriculum and comprehensive exams only increase the attrition rate by about 6%. So, every year about 6% of the BASIS DC kids might leave for no reason other than the fact that they can't keep up with the curriculum. Is 6% such a terrible statistic? How low would the bar have to be set so that not a single child in the 6% is hurt? Given that many of the 6% will be in a position switch to less accelerated but still decent programs at Latin, SWW, etc., how much hurt is there really? Would you prefer a test-in model for BASIS that eliminates the 6% from the outset? Would that hurt them less? Consider the best local test-in STEM public school, TJ. Of the 3,423 students that applied to the class of 2016, only 480 were accepted (http://www.fcps.edu/cco/pr/tj/tjadmissions0412.pdf ). So, 86% of the applicants were eliminated at the outset. Isn't it better to be given the chance to succeed and fail than not to be given the chance at all? |
Anonymous
I think 6% is way too low in DC. My child's class lost three kids just to out of DC moves (two were overseas postings). |
Anonymous
| What about the negative impacts of the current system, which caters to low-performing kids? We need at least one school in DC that offers a challenging academic program. High performing kids (of all SES) deserve to be provided an appropriate education too. |
Anonymous
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stakhanovite_movement |
Anonymous
| My DC is an A student and is an underacheiver. He never does extra credit or the bonus question on test. |
Anonymous
| Just an observation regarding "attrition"... Even if only 85% of students who start in the BASIS upper school don't end up finishing at BASIS, it's still a far cry better than the average DCPS high school where only 61% of the incoming class will finish (due to dropping out, a far worse attrition problem than dropping back to a less-demanding school but still graduating). |
Anonymous
PP, what do you mean by this? The following comes from the BASIS Schools, Inc. website (http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/quote/90/3389528.page): Established in 1998, BASIS School, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt corporation whose operations are governed by a Board of Directors. In July 2010, Craig Barrett, the retired Chairman of the Board of Directors at Intel Corporation, was named the chairman of the BASIS School, Inc. (BSI) Board of Directors. The Board of Directors oversees all operations of the corporation including the operations of its charter schools. Who do you think is profiting from the BASIS expansion? |
Anonymous
| ^^ who cares?!? They are HELPING children by providing good schools. Is there some conspiracy to make our children smarter? How dare they learn in a non-private setting! |
Anonymous
To address the previous two posters on the profit motive of the Blocks and the various BASIS legal entities. BASIS Schools Inc is a non-profit shell entity. It leases everything from teachers to real estate to curriculum materials from BASIS EDUCATIONAL GROUP, which is a for-profit "education management organization." I agree with the PP that this is not as important an issue as whether BASIS is providing a valuable service to parents and students, and I personally do not think the Blocks are engaging in fraudulent activity whatsoever but, as a teacher and parent and a taxpayer, I do have concerns about this arrangement, primarily because I simply don't like the lack of transparency and because I worry the profit motive will jeopardize the success of every BASIS campus. Originally BASIS was a local community of teachers and students in Tucson and Scottsdale. The only command from "higher up" (the Blocks) was to produce good AP test results. Now, since the for profit venture and rapid expansion, everything has been centralized, massive amounts of funds have been diverted from the classroom to administration and national development teams, school budgets have been tightened, class sizes have increased, curriculum scope and sequence is constantly tweaked and accelerated, teacher hours and responsibilities have increased while pay is largely frozen. BASIS is expanding and selling its "recipe for success" (again, in my mind, largely for profit) based on a reputation earned over many years by teachers and students at the original few campuses. |
Anonymous
Hi - I was the person who originally brought up the issue of attrition. I agree that the attrition rate on its own may or may not be a terrible thing. But my concern (again referring here to BASIS Tucson which may or may not share commonalities with the experience at BASIS DC) is that the high attrition is indicative of a larger cultural problem readily identified by many veteran teachers who work there and getting much worse since the national expansion, which is that the BASIS owners, who are not educators nor in the classrooms on a daily basis, have increased the academic demands on the kids well beyond a "healthily raised bar" level. So I get upset when BASIS PR sells the few kids who "rock it" at BASIS when, based on personal observation over the years, the pressure now impacts not only those who drop out, but up to 50-70% of the students who remain and tough it out. There are three primary reasons why students remain despite being overwhelmed and fundamentally unhappy: (1) insistent parents, (2) a strong bond with classmates (forged in the pressure cooker) and (3) a genuine appreciation for the teachers and the intellectual challenge BASIS provides (despite being too much of a good thing). And that, basically, is my concern about BASIS as a model of education. There is much positive to say about BASIS even now, but the reputation of BASIS today is built on the original simple idea - raise academic standards, foster a culture of learning, utilize objective benchmark tests (AP), hire passionate and talented teachers and get out of the way. In my opinion BASIS has strayed far from that original ideal. |
Anonymous
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PP, I don't see how they've strayed from that ideal. They have raised academic standards, they do foster a culture of learning, they do utilize objective benchmarks, and they do hire passionate and talented teachers. How do you see it as having changed - and particularly, how is it that you are presuming to diagnose BASIS DC from afar, never having seen it for yourself?
Regarding what's "unhealthy" - what may be an "unhealthily high" bar for one student may be perfectly fine for the next. Certainly there are kids who won't be able to meet the demands. Consider that there are kids in DC for whom even the watered-down DCPS curriculum is an unattainable bar to meet which already causes them stress and backlash in life. And then you've got the BASIS honor roll and 90s club. There's no one-size fits all solution, and BASIS isn't trying to serve the many thousands of students in the entire DC system. But again, as someone asked, what's your proposal? What is your better solution? I was also raised to question authority, but even with that background, I learned that it's easy to question and poke fingers at things, but proposing solutions is the far harder thing to do. |
Anonymous
I am not diagnosing BASIS DC at all and have said as much several times. I am voicing my thoughts about the BASIS model pros and cons, offering the perspective of a veteran BASIS Tucson teacher, for whatever that is worth. I am also reacting to what I see to be a common series of pro-BASIS talking points (about the system, not the DC experience) that I feel are problematic at best. As for the core ideal I mentioned, yes it is still there, but it is being strained (metastasized?) day by day. We began offering our first AP in 9th grade two years ago. Now there are 3. AP Calculus is now moved down into 9th grade. Class sizes are increasing at the same time, rendering assistance to students more difficult. The focus on APs has increased steadily, to where some juniors are now taking 8 or 9, and AP World History is now an 8th grade requirement. I am a strong support of charter schools precisely because it does address the one-size-does-not-fit-all problem of public school system. What is "healthy" or "optimal" for one student may not be for another. My concern (here as a parent even more than a teacher) is that the BASIS model is becoming unhealthy (or at least suboptimal) not just for those who don't make it but for all but a handful of the students that make it through the program. On this point I echo the less than tactful comments made earlier by the Ivy interviewer and its why it irritates me to hear of all the schools BASIS students get into each year when I know it is due to the superhuman efforts of the very top students in the program. My purpose here is to primarily to poke fingers, largely to dispel the notion that there is anything magical about the "#1 ranked BASIS European-style system" that leads to offers flooding in from MIT and Stanford. MIT doesn't particularly want kids who have done upteeen APs or even that can do diff eq. MIT wants dynamic and multi-faceted additions to the MIT community, and I feel that BASIS as it evolves and grows is losing sight of that essential truth. IMO we need to analyze the experience of the middle of the pack at BASIS to really judge the wisdom of the program. As for solutions, part of my frustration is that BASIS is so close to what I would want a school to be. I would take the students and teachers at BASIS, cut ties from the corporate HQ, ease up slightly on the academic pressure, listening to the advice of veteran teachers, reduce the importance placed on AP standardized tests (some APs are great, but we have some juniors taking up for 8 or 9 this year!) and redirect some of this energy on "enrichment" activities such as field trips, non-lecture based seminars, debates, etc. Maybe DC has a charter like this. I am trying to learn more about the other "hot" charters in DC like Latin. Tucson unfortunately does not have this luxury of choice. |
Anonymous
Just to be clear, BASIS Tucson Teacher, your perspective is worth a lot to me -- a BASIS DC parent and booster. Thank you for posting. |
Anonymous
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+1
There is no doubt my child is learning. However, everything is going at such a fast pace (especially in math) that we had no choice but to stop music and swimming classes. Still, homework does not end until past midnight and my pre teen is getting less than 7 hours of sleep on week days. I really do not think going at this rate is sustainable for most students. If BASIS eases up on this constant testing policy, or puts a cap on the assigned number of tests/homework for each day, students can become much more multifaceted while maintaining high standards. |