Do parents choose Latin/BASIS over Deal/J-R?

[Anonymous]

The poster seems to be saying that JR is good for their kid so they can look down and shun other kids. They can stand out in a sea of low performers.

Anonymous wrote:So you are stating that JR is a phenomenal school for your high performing snowflake and about 25 other kids but overall a low performing school?

Anonymous wrote:When you send your teens to JR to take a full course load of AP classes from 10th or 11th grade, and maybe college classes through dual enrollment as a senior, you don't care what the students who aren't on track to attend competitive colleges are up to. Your student has almost nothing to do with these kids. They pass them in hallways and the cafeteria and that's about it, unless they play sports with them.

There are always trade-offs in choosing schools. We stuck BASIS out for middle school with no interest in staying for high school for a variety of reasons. My eldest fared better in college admissions from JR than the BASIS friends he keeps in touch with who stayed for high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How does JR stack up with other nearby large high schools such as Whitman, BCC, Whitman, Churchill, Richard Montgomery, etc. I think it rates well below all of them in academics and college acceptances not to mention behavior.

Anonymous wrote:Wow a school with 1800 students teaches more AP classes than a school with 200 !

Anonymous wrote:+100. JR's rigor has been greater than we expected. They teach more AP subjects than BASIS. From what we've seen, dual enrollment is a much more popular option from J-R than BASIS. They also don't push kids to take all their AP exams by the end of junior year, a saner system. Deal probably isn't worth it unless your kid is a brainy self-starter. We went private for MS.

Only BCC is truly comparable in terms of the demographics and economic student profiles. They are actually pretty darn close on all metrics...though BCC actually has worse behavior problems. Did you see the video of the massive brawls between BCC students and Walter Johnson students?

However, how would it possibly be fair to compare against Whitman or Churchill which draw from a very different population.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:JR parents have some inflated notion that extracurriculars are the key to college admissions for their kids. If so, why do such a small percentage of kids go on to the top colleges? Why does 8% to 10% of every class not go to college?

A few kids doing well out of 500 seniors does not indicate that the massive amount of APs and extracurriculars at JR means much .....all it means that a few upper income non minority kids at JR stand out in a low performing school.

Anonymous wrote:again people talking with no data or clue about reality / just generalizations they have heard. The Extracurriculars for many high performing seniors are online and available to view if you are interested.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:the truth is that the seniors going to Ivies from Basis DC mostly did clubs at Basis ---- what you seem to miss is that colleges are judging you based on what opportunities you had available .....so A JR student who does not get involved much despite all of the seemingly endless clubs and sports will be at a big disadvantage

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You’re a jerk, PP. The parent above may well have done her due diligence. But it’s not easy for the uninitiated to see through the BASIS hype. From what I’ve observed at BASIS, the UMC seniors who crack MIT, Ivies etc. come from families that pay and hustle like mad to round out their kids’ high school educations. Everybody at BASIS with a super bright and industrious kids can’t swing it. It’s tempting to pretend that a BASIS education alone is enough. It’s not.

Another ignorant response.

Nobody should be buying this for UMC applicants, regardless of the school.

As has been pointed out, the BASIS seniors cracking Ivies haven't been sticking to the mostly lame ECs offered by the school. No way. We know these kids from all our years at BASIS. Pure fantasy to believe otherwise.

You know nothing and seem to live in a fantasy world of your own making.

BS. PP is correct. It's normal for high SES BASIS families to supplement extensively for ECs by high school, even if students aren't aiming high in college admissions.

The high school offers few serious activities because BASIS doesn't have the budget/fundraising, facilities, critical mass of students or policies to support them.

If you believe the situation to be fantasy, you can't have had kids who went through 8th grade at BASIS. Your family never made the choice to stay or leave for high school related to the EC situation.

I guess let's flip this back on you.

If BASIS is so good, why do so many people leave at High School? Why is the school still so small? Why do the vast majority of people in-bounds for JR pick JR, then Walls, then Banneker even...and then a non-consequential to almost non-existent number choose Basis?

Something doesn't compute.

[Anonymous]

Basis is a small public charter school with few resources, they do not matter that much with graduating classes of of 40 to 60

JR is supposedly a crown jewel of DC high schools with a senior class of 500, what happens here is much more consequential for how people view DC education.

AND that view is not very good in part on weak JR is....that so many in boundary kids for JR skip it for much more expensive options tells you what you need to know!
Few families do that in the suburbs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:JR parents have some inflated notion that extracurriculars are the key to college admissions for their kids. If so, why do such a small percentage of kids go on to the top colleges? Why does 8% to 10% of every class not go to college?

A few kids doing well out of 500 seniors does not indicate that the massive amount of APs and extracurriculars at JR means much .....all it means that a few upper income non minority kids at JR stand out in a low performing school.

Anonymous wrote:again people talking with no data or clue about reality / just generalizations they have heard. The Extracurriculars for many high performing seniors are online and available to view if you are interested.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:the truth is that the seniors going to Ivies from Basis DC mostly did clubs at Basis ---- what you seem to miss is that colleges are judging you based on what opportunities you had available .....so A JR student who does not get involved much despite all of the seemingly endless clubs and sports will be at a big disadvantage

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You’re a jerk, PP. The parent above may well have done her due diligence. But it’s not easy for the uninitiated to see through the BASIS hype. From what I’ve observed at BASIS, the UMC seniors who crack MIT, Ivies etc. come from families that pay and hustle like mad to round out their kids’ high school educations. Everybody at BASIS with a super bright and industrious kids can’t swing it. It’s tempting to pretend that a BASIS education alone is enough. It’s not.

Another ignorant response.

Nobody should be buying this for UMC applicants, regardless of the school.

As has been pointed out, the BASIS seniors cracking Ivies haven't been sticking to the mostly lame ECs offered by the school. No way. We know these kids from all our years at BASIS. Pure fantasy to believe otherwise.

You know nothing and seem to live in a fantasy world of your own making.

BS. PP is correct. It's normal for high SES BASIS families to supplement extensively for ECs by high school, even if students aren't aiming high in college admissions.

The high school offers few serious activities because BASIS doesn't have the budget/fundraising, facilities, critical mass of students or policies to support them.

If you believe the situation to be fantasy, you can't have had kids who went through 8th grade at BASIS. Your family never made the choice to stay or leave for high school related to the EC situation.

I guess let's flip this back on you.

If BASIS is so good, why do so many people leave at High School? Why is the school still so small? Why do the vast majority of people in-bounds for JR pick JR, then Walls, then Banneker even...and then a non-consequential to almost non-existent number choose Basis?

Something doesn't compute.

[Anonymous]

DC sinks so much money into JR yet gets abysmal educational results. Walls does much better than JR with fewer resources as does Basis which gets a fraction of the Walls and JR funding.

Anonymous wrote:Basis is a small public charter school with few resources, they do not matter that much with graduating classes of of 40 to 60

JR is supposedly a crown jewel of DC high schools with a senior class of 500, what happens here is much more consequential for how people view DC education.

AND that view is not very good in part on weak JR is....that so many in boundary kids for JR skip it for much more expensive options tells you what you need to know!
Few families do that in the suburbs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:JR parents have some inflated notion that extracurriculars are the key to college admissions for their kids. If so, why do such a small percentage of kids go on to the top colleges? Why does 8% to 10% of every class not go to college?

A few kids doing well out of 500 seniors does not indicate that the massive amount of APs and extracurriculars at JR means much .....all it means that a few upper income non minority kids at JR stand out in a low performing school.

Anonymous wrote:again people talking with no data or clue about reality / just generalizations they have heard. The Extracurriculars for many high performing seniors are online and available to view if you are interested.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:the truth is that the seniors going to Ivies from Basis DC mostly did clubs at Basis ---- what you seem to miss is that colleges are judging you based on what opportunities you had available .....so A JR student who does not get involved much despite all of the seemingly endless clubs and sports will be at a big disadvantage

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You’re a jerk, PP. The parent above may well have done her due diligence. But it’s not easy for the uninitiated to see through the BASIS hype. From what I’ve observed at BASIS, the UMC seniors who crack MIT, Ivies etc. come from families that pay and hustle like mad to round out their kids’ high school educations. Everybody at BASIS with a super bright and industrious kids can’t swing it. It’s tempting to pretend that a BASIS education alone is enough. It’s not.

Another ignorant response.

Nobody should be buying this for UMC applicants, regardless of the school.

As has been pointed out, the BASIS seniors cracking Ivies haven't been sticking to the mostly lame ECs offered by the school. No way. We know these kids from all our years at BASIS. Pure fantasy to believe otherwise.

You know nothing and seem to live in a fantasy world of your own making.

BS. PP is correct. It's normal for high SES BASIS families to supplement extensively for ECs by high school, even if students aren't aiming high in college admissions.

The high school offers few serious activities because BASIS doesn't have the budget/fundraising, facilities, critical mass of students or policies to support them.

If you believe the situation to be fantasy, you can't have had kids who went through 8th grade at BASIS. Your family never made the choice to stay or leave for high school related to the EC situation.

I guess let's flip this back on you.

If BASIS is so good, why do so many people leave at High School? Why is the school still so small? Why do the vast majority of people in-bounds for JR pick JR, then Walls, then Banneker even...and then a non-consequential to almost non-existent number choose Basis?

Something doesn't compute.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Basis is a small public charter school with few resources, they do not matter that much with graduating classes of of 40 to 60

JR is supposedly a crown jewel of DC high schools with a senior class of 500, what happens here is much more consequential for how people view DC education.

AND that view is not very good in part on weak JR is....that so many in boundary kids for JR skip it for much more expensive options tells you what you need to know!
Few families do that in the suburbs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:JR parents have some inflated notion that extracurriculars are the key to college admissions for their kids. If so, why do such a small percentage of kids go on to the top colleges? Why does 8% to 10% of every class not go to college?

A few kids doing well out of 500 seniors does not indicate that the massive amount of APs and extracurriculars at JR means much .....all it means that a few upper income non minority kids at JR stand out in a low performing school.

Anonymous wrote:again people talking with no data or clue about reality / just generalizations they have heard. The Extracurriculars for many high performing seniors are online and available to view if you are interested.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:the truth is that the seniors going to Ivies from Basis DC mostly did clubs at Basis ---- what you seem to miss is that colleges are judging you based on what opportunities you had available .....so A JR student who does not get involved much despite all of the seemingly endless clubs and sports will be at a big disadvantage

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You’re a jerk, PP. The parent above may well have done her due diligence. But it’s not easy for the uninitiated to see through the BASIS hype. From what I’ve observed at BASIS, the UMC seniors who crack MIT, Ivies etc. come from families that pay and hustle like mad to round out their kids’ high school educations. Everybody at BASIS with a super bright and industrious kids can’t swing it. It’s tempting to pretend that a BASIS education alone is enough. It’s not.

Another ignorant response.

Nobody should be buying this for UMC applicants, regardless of the school.

As has been pointed out, the BASIS seniors cracking Ivies haven't been sticking to the mostly lame ECs offered by the school. No way. We know these kids from all our years at BASIS. Pure fantasy to believe otherwise.

You know nothing and seem to live in a fantasy world of your own making.

BS. PP is correct. It's normal for high SES BASIS families to supplement extensively for ECs by high school, even if students aren't aiming high in college admissions.

The high school offers few serious activities because BASIS doesn't have the budget/fundraising, facilities, critical mass of students or policies to support them.

If you believe the situation to be fantasy, you can't have had kids who went through 8th grade at BASIS. Your family never made the choice to stay or leave for high school related to the EC situation.

I guess let's flip this back on you.

If BASIS is so good, why do so many people leave at High School? Why is the school still so small? Why do the vast majority of people in-bounds for JR pick JR, then Walls, then Banneker even...and then a non-consequential to almost non-existent number choose Basis?

Something doesn't compute.

That's a garbage answer. I have never heard of anyone claiming JR or for that matter any school is the crown jewel...it is exactly what it is, a comprehensive public high school in a city where anyone that either lives in-bounds or attended in an in-bound feeder can attend. No application or lottery or anything.

Considering a majority of students at GDS, Sidwell, STA, etc. are not DC residents...clearly, those students don't believe their suburban options are sufficient.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Basis is a small public charter school with few resources, they do not matter that much with graduating classes of of 40 to 60

JR is supposedly a crown jewel of DC high schools with a senior class of 500, what happens here is much more consequential for how people view DC education.

AND that view is not very good in part on weak JR is....that so many in boundary kids for JR skip it for much more expensive options tells you what you need to know!
Few families do that in the suburbs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:JR parents have some inflated notion that extracurriculars are the key to college admissions for their kids. If so, why do such a small percentage of kids go on to the top colleges? Why does 8% to 10% of every class not go to college?

A few kids doing well out of 500 seniors does not indicate that the massive amount of APs and extracurriculars at JR means much .....all it means that a few upper income non minority kids at JR stand out in a low performing school.

Anonymous wrote:again people talking with no data or clue about reality / just generalizations they have heard. The Extracurriculars for many high performing seniors are online and available to view if you are interested.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:the truth is that the seniors going to Ivies from Basis DC mostly did clubs at Basis ---- what you seem to miss is that colleges are judging you based on what opportunities you had available .....so A JR student who does not get involved much despite all of the seemingly endless clubs and sports will be at a big disadvantage

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You’re a jerk, PP. The parent above may well have done her due diligence. But it’s not easy for the uninitiated to see through the BASIS hype. From what I’ve observed at BASIS, the UMC seniors who crack MIT, Ivies etc. come from families that pay and hustle like mad to round out their kids’ high school educations. Everybody at BASIS with a super bright and industrious kids can’t swing it. It’s tempting to pretend that a BASIS education alone is enough. It’s not.

Another ignorant response.

Nobody should be buying this for UMC applicants, regardless of the school.

As has been pointed out, the BASIS seniors cracking Ivies haven't been sticking to the mostly lame ECs offered by the school. No way. We know these kids from all our years at BASIS. Pure fantasy to believe otherwise.

You know nothing and seem to live in a fantasy world of your own making.

BS. PP is correct. It's normal for high SES BASIS families to supplement extensively for ECs by high school, even if students aren't aiming high in college admissions.

The high school offers few serious activities because BASIS doesn't have the budget/fundraising, facilities, critical mass of students or policies to support them.

If you believe the situation to be fantasy, you can't have had kids who went through 8th grade at BASIS. Your family never made the choice to stay or leave for high school related to the EC situation.

I guess let's flip this back on you.

If BASIS is so good, why do so many people leave at High School? Why is the school still so small? Why do the vast majority of people in-bounds for JR pick JR, then Walls, then Banneker even...and then a non-consequential to almost non-existent number choose Basis?

Something doesn't compute.

Who do you think attends:

Holton
Stone Ridge
Landon
Bullis
Norwood
Washington Episcopal
Holy Cross
Georgetown Prep
The Heights
Not to mention again GDS, Sidwell, STA, SJC, Gonzaga

If you guessed a ton of people from Montgomery County, many of which are in-bounds for Whitman, Churchill, etc. (because these schools aren't cheap)...you would be correct.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The poster seems to be saying that JR is good for their kid so they can look down and shun other kids. They can stand out in a sea of low performers.

Anonymous wrote:So you are stating that JR is a phenomenal school for your high performing snowflake and about 25 other kids but overall a low performing school?

Anonymous wrote:When you send your teens to JR to take a full course load of AP classes from 10th or 11th grade, and maybe college classes through dual enrollment as a senior, you don't care what the students who aren't on track to attend competitive colleges are up to. Your student has almost nothing to do with these kids. They pass them in hallways and the cafeteria and that's about it, unless they play sports with them.

There are always trade-offs in choosing schools. We stuck BASIS out for middle school with no interest in staying for high school for a variety of reasons. My eldest fared better in college admissions from JR than the BASIS friends he keeps in touch with who stayed for high school.

No, you're saying that.

When a teen, as an upper grades public high school student, takes a full menu of the most advanced classes available in any large school, they mainly mix with peers in those classes and their ECs. IF the ECs have an academic bent, e.g. chess, robotics or debate, they probably participate with most of the same students as those in their AP or IBD classes. That's the way it has always worked all, over this country.

At JR, you have at least 100 students in a class of around 500 who are on track to attend competitive colleges, with two dozen likely to crack the most highly competitive colleges. These kids, the most academic of their cohorts, are hardly sheltered, stuck up, pampered "snowflakes."

We get it. You've bought into the principle of BASIS exceptionalism with your whole heart, mind and soul, disdainful of all in the DC public school system who have not. What else is true about you is that you don't live in Upper NW.

[Anonymous]

Say what you want about BASIS but people wouldn't get this butthurt about it if it wasn't doing some things right. We'll take all the smoke!

[Anonymous]

Not a basis parent --- just somebody who sees the awful results that JR produces given their enormous budget ---people like to single out a small school like BASIS but ignore JR and its failings as an academic instituition.

Boasting about 25 kids out of 500 is awful given how much money is allocated from DC taxpayers -- $22 million in 2021 and now $30 million in 2025.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The poster seems to be saying that JR is good for their kid so they can look down and shun other kids. They can stand out in a sea of low performers.

Anonymous wrote:So you are stating that JR is a phenomenal school for your high performing snowflake and about 25 other kids but overall a low performing school?

Anonymous wrote:When you send your teens to JR to take a full course load of AP classes from 10th or 11th grade, and maybe college classes through dual enrollment as a senior, you don't care what the students who aren't on track to attend competitive colleges are up to. Your student has almost nothing to do with these kids. They pass them in hallways and the cafeteria and that's about it, unless they play sports with them.

There are always trade-offs in choosing schools. We stuck BASIS out for middle school with no interest in staying for high school for a variety of reasons. My eldest fared better in college admissions from JR than the BASIS friends he keeps in touch with who stayed for high school.

No, you're saying that.

When a teen, as an upper grades public high school student, takes a full menu of the most advanced classes available in any large school, they mainly mix with peers in those classes and their ECs. IF the ECs have an academic bent, e.g. chess, robotics or debate, they probably participate with most of the same students as those in their AP or IBD classes. That's the way it has always worked all, over this country.

At JR, you have at least 100 students in a class of around 500 who are on track to attend competitive colleges, with two dozen likely to crack the most highly competitive colleges. These kids, the most academic of their cohorts, are hardly sheltered, stuck up, pampered "snowflakes."

We get it. You've bought into the principle of BASIS exceptionalism with your whole heart, mind and soul, disdainful of all in the DC public school system who have not. What else is true about you is that you don't live in Upper NW.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not a basis parent --- just somebody who sees the awful results that JR produces given their enormous budget ---people like to single out a small school like BASIS but ignore JR and its failings as an academic instituition.

Boasting about 25 kids out of 500 is awful given how much money is allocated from DC taxpayers -- $22 million in 2021 and now $30 million in 2025.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The poster seems to be saying that JR is good for their kid so they can look down and shun other kids. They can stand out in a sea of low performers.

Anonymous wrote:So you are stating that JR is a phenomenal school for your high performing snowflake and about 25 other kids but overall a low performing school?

Anonymous wrote:When you send your teens to JR to take a full course load of AP classes from 10th or 11th grade, and maybe college classes through dual enrollment as a senior, you don't care what the students who aren't on track to attend competitive colleges are up to. Your student has almost nothing to do with these kids. They pass them in hallways and the cafeteria and that's about it, unless they play sports with them.

There are always trade-offs in choosing schools. We stuck BASIS out for middle school with no interest in staying for high school for a variety of reasons. My eldest fared better in college admissions from JR than the BASIS friends he keeps in touch with who stayed for high school.

No, you're saying that.

When a teen, as an upper grades public high school student, takes a full menu of the most advanced classes available in any large school, they mainly mix with peers in those classes and their ECs. IF the ECs have an academic bent, e.g. chess, robotics or debate, they probably participate with most of the same students as those in their AP or IBD classes. That's the way it has always worked all, over this country.

At JR, you have at least 100 students in a class of around 500 who are on track to attend competitive colleges, with two dozen likely to crack the most highly competitive colleges. These kids, the most academic of their cohorts, are hardly sheltered, stuck up, pampered "snowflakes."

We get it. You've bought into the principle of BASIS exceptionalism with your whole heart, mind and soul, disdainful of all in the DC public school system who have not. What else is true about you is that you don't live in Upper NW.

JR is run for the bottom decile student, not the median student. The overwhelming majority of those dollars go to programs targeted at the bottom 10% of students. This is a policy choice made all over DCPS. The relative resources of IB parents are the only thing driving the demand for the APs on offer, not really administrative support. It’s the only school where “AP for all” wouldn’t result in 1 scores across the board.

JR would probably be a much better school for most students if they directed more resources towards the median kid (eg, I think you could expect a kid at the median to complete AP Stats if you really wanted to). But the bottom would fall out for lower performing kids and that has its own problems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:JR parents have some inflated notion that extracurriculars are the key to college admissions for their kids. If so, why do such a small percentage of kids go on to the top colleges? Why does 8% to 10% of every class not go to college?

A few kids doing well out of 500 seniors does not indicate that the massive amount of APs and extracurriculars at JR means much .....all it means that a few upper income non minority kids at JR stand out in a low performing school.

Anonymous wrote:again people talking with no data or clue about reality / just generalizations they have heard. The Extracurriculars for many high performing seniors are online and available to view if you are interested.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:the truth is that the seniors going to Ivies from Basis DC mostly did clubs at Basis ---- what you seem to miss is that colleges are judging you based on what opportunities you had available .....so A JR student who does not get involved much despite all of the seemingly endless clubs and sports will be at a big disadvantage

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You’re a jerk, PP. The parent above may well have done her due diligence. But it’s not easy for the uninitiated to see through the BASIS hype. From what I’ve observed at BASIS, the UMC seniors who crack MIT, Ivies etc. come from families that pay and hustle like mad to round out their kids’ high school educations. Everybody at BASIS with a super bright and industrious kids can’t swing it. It’s tempting to pretend that a BASIS education alone is enough. It’s not.

Another ignorant response.

Nobody should be buying this for UMC applicants, regardless of the school.

As has been pointed out, the BASIS seniors cracking Ivies haven't been sticking to the mostly lame ECs offered by the school. No way. We know these kids from all our years at BASIS. Pure fantasy to believe otherwise.

You know nothing and seem to live in a fantasy world of your own making.

BS. PP is correct. It's normal for high SES BASIS families to supplement extensively for ECs by high school, even if students aren't aiming high in college admissions.

The high school offers few serious activities because BASIS doesn't have the budget/fundraising, facilities, critical mass of students or policies to support them.

If you believe the situation to be fantasy, you can't have had kids who went through 8th grade at BASIS. Your family never made the choice to stay or leave for high school related to the EC situation.

I guess let's flip this back on you.

If BASIS is so good, why do so many people leave at High School? Why is the school still so small? Why do the vast majority of people in-bounds for JR pick JR, then Walls, then Banneker even...and then a non-consequential to almost non-existent number choose Basis?

Something doesn't compute.

Something doesn't compute because you your assumptions are wrong.

1) Not that many kids leave Basis for a different high school. Most of the top those go to Walls or private, which are normal options. The other ones aren't doing as well academically and wash out to other schools. Almost no kids leave after 9th grade.

2) Basis has the maximum number of students for the building. As students leave, Basis doesn't socially promote or backfill. That is why the upper grades are smaller than, say, 5th grade. No other school in DC does that. Latin 2nd Street has maybe 80 more students than Basis overall but they socially promote, backfill, and are much less rigorous. So fewer kids leave from there. But still they have a large chunk of 8th graders depart every year for Walls, Banneker, Friendship, and KIPP.

3) There are plenty of kids from the J-R district at Basis. The schools that later feed to J-R send many kids to Basis in 5th grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not a basis parent --- just somebody who sees the awful results that JR produces given their enormous budget ---people like to single out a small school like BASIS but ignore JR and its failings as an academic instituition.

Boasting about 25 kids out of 500 is awful given how much money is allocated from DC taxpayers -- $22 million in 2021 and now $30 million in 2025.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The poster seems to be saying that JR is good for their kid so they can look down and shun other kids. They can stand out in a sea of low performers.

Anonymous wrote:So you are stating that JR is a phenomenal school for your high performing snowflake and about 25 other kids but overall a low performing school?

Anonymous wrote:When you send your teens to JR to take a full course load of AP classes from 10th or 11th grade, and maybe college classes through dual enrollment as a senior, you don't care what the students who aren't on track to attend competitive colleges are up to. Your student has almost nothing to do with these kids. They pass them in hallways and the cafeteria and that's about it, unless they play sports with them.

There are always trade-offs in choosing schools. We stuck BASIS out for middle school with no interest in staying for high school for a variety of reasons. My eldest fared better in college admissions from JR than the BASIS friends he keeps in touch with who stayed for high school.

No, you're saying that.

When a teen, as an upper grades public high school student, takes a full menu of the most advanced classes available in any large school, they mainly mix with peers in those classes and their ECs. IF the ECs have an academic bent, e.g. chess, robotics or debate, they probably participate with most of the same students as those in their AP or IBD classes. That's the way it has always worked all, over this country.

At JR, you have at least 100 students in a class of around 500 who are on track to attend competitive colleges, with two dozen likely to crack the most highly competitive colleges. These kids, the most academic of their cohorts, are hardly sheltered, stuck up, pampered "snowflakes."

We get it. You've bought into the principle of BASIS exceptionalism with your whole heart, mind and soul, disdainful of all in the DC public school system who have not. What else is true about you is that you don't live in Upper NW.

Except, as always you are comparing apples to oranges. JR is by far and away the best public comprehensive high school in the city where ANYONE can attend as long as you live in boundary or attend a feeder school, and has better AP pass rates than any other DCPS high school other than Walls (but superior to Banneker and McKinley). There is no application like Walls or Banneker or McKinley, nor can anyone be counseled out of the school like Basis.

JR is probably one of the best performing urban comprehensive high schools in the country. Again, a school where you don't have to attend via a lottery, or an entrance test or an application...where simply you attend the high school based on where you live or where you attended middle school (which is rare in many cities as it doesn't exist in San Francisco or NYC as example).

So, really not sure what you are expecting from an urban public school system, nor understand why it would be comparable to far wealthier suburban school districts which of course are not urban school districts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:JR parents have some inflated notion that extracurriculars are the key to college admissions for their kids. If so, why do such a small percentage of kids go on to the top colleges? Why does 8% to 10% of every class not go to college?

A few kids doing well out of 500 seniors does not indicate that the massive amount of APs and extracurriculars at JR means much .....all it means that a few upper income non minority kids at JR stand out in a low performing school.

Anonymous wrote:again people talking with no data or clue about reality / just generalizations they have heard. The Extracurriculars for many high performing seniors are online and available to view if you are interested.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:the truth is that the seniors going to Ivies from Basis DC mostly did clubs at Basis ---- what you seem to miss is that colleges are judging you based on what opportunities you had available .....so A JR student who does not get involved much despite all of the seemingly endless clubs and sports will be at a big disadvantage

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You’re a jerk, PP. The parent above may well have done her due diligence. But it’s not easy for the uninitiated to see through the BASIS hype. From what I’ve observed at BASIS, the UMC seniors who crack MIT, Ivies etc. come from families that pay and hustle like mad to round out their kids’ high school educations. Everybody at BASIS with a super bright and industrious kids can’t swing it. It’s tempting to pretend that a BASIS education alone is enough. It’s not.

Another ignorant response.

Nobody should be buying this for UMC applicants, regardless of the school.

As has been pointed out, the BASIS seniors cracking Ivies haven't been sticking to the mostly lame ECs offered by the school. No way. We know these kids from all our years at BASIS. Pure fantasy to believe otherwise.

You know nothing and seem to live in a fantasy world of your own making.

BS. PP is correct. It's normal for high SES BASIS families to supplement extensively for ECs by high school, even if students aren't aiming high in college admissions.

The high school offers few serious activities because BASIS doesn't have the budget/fundraising, facilities, critical mass of students or policies to support them.

If you believe the situation to be fantasy, you can't have had kids who went through 8th grade at BASIS. Your family never made the choice to stay or leave for high school related to the EC situation.

I guess let's flip this back on you.

If BASIS is so good, why do so many people leave at High School? Why is the school still so small? Why do the vast majority of people in-bounds for JR pick JR, then Walls, then Banneker even...and then a non-consequential to almost non-existent number choose Basis?

Something doesn't compute.

Something doesn't compute because you your assumptions are wrong.

1) Not that many kids leave Basis for a different high school. Most of the top those go to Walls or private, which are normal options. The other ones aren't doing as well academically and wash out to other schools. Almost no kids leave after 9th grade.

2) Basis has the maximum number of students for the building. As students leave, Basis doesn't socially promote or backfill. That is why the upper grades are smaller than, say, 5th grade. No other school in DC does that. Latin 2nd Street has maybe 80 more students than Basis overall but they socially promote, backfill, and are much less rigorous. So fewer kids leave from there. But still they have a large chunk of 8th graders depart every year for Walls, Banneker, Friendship, and KIPP.

3) There are plenty of kids from the J-R district at Basis. The schools that later feed to J-R send many kids to Basis in 5th grade.

That's high school...9th grade. If they don't enroll in 9th grade, then they aren't attending for high school.

There are not plenty, so that's just an outright lie. Most come from Capitol Hill and other areas that don't feed into a reasonable high school option.

[Anonymous]

It’s false that “many” students leave Deal feeders for BASIS. There’s data: https://edscape.dc.gov/node/1640846

As you can see here, there are plenty of years in which zero kids from any given Deal feeder go to BASIS. Latin seems slightly more popular. But kids overwhelmingly continue in the DCPS feeder pathway.