Basis fills a gap that shouldn’t exist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You also probably need to do some research to learn why DC decided to open its doors to charter schools in the first place -- it's because DCPS was failing the community in the 1990s.

we're not talking about the wisdom of charter schools, we're talking about the wisdom of BASIS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ll summarize Basis and we can end it here.

If you have a high performing kid who wants to grind out middle and high school, Basis will work for you.

If you have a high performing kid who is more well rounded and wants or needs more then that, go elsewhere. It’s not worth the grind with no balance and not much joy.

You know some families and kids love BASIS, right?

That's nice. But why should the rest of us pay for it?

Want fringe curriculum, send your kids to private.

Ha! Having high academic standards is "fringe"? Sweetie, you are the problem here.

Well that's a red herring.

As I've said, I want the highest academic standards for all kids, not a few kids.

Setting up a system that only benefits a fraction of potential students and casting off the rest as "not BASIS material" isn't a viable solution for me. That's not how public schools work--that's how private schools work.

No. That's also how DCPS application high schools work, and how many other charter schools work.

Your "values" are actually internally consistent -- you want a public schools system that only funds neighborhood public schools that everyone can attend, plus private schools that people with means can opt to attend.

There are actually many cities and towns around the country where that is what exists. But, that's not DC (or NYC, or SF, and Philly and New Orleans, etc). Maybe you need to move.

If 70 percent of the kids who enroll at Walls or Duke Ellington wash out before graduation we would not find it acceptable.

It's totally normal for some bilingual schools to lose 70 percent of their kids.

I'd be more concerned about schools where 70 percent of the kids don't meet even the most rudimentary educational standards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You also probably need to do some research to learn why DC decided to open its doors to charter schools in the first place -- it's because DCPS was failing the community in the 1990s.

we're not talking about the wisdom of charter schools, we're talking about the wisdom of BASIS.

BASIS is the #1 middle school in the city and has an incredible college-success rate. No one in the city is seriously thinking about closing this school; it will never happen. It's time to drop your DCUM campaign, "secondhand knowledge" poster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ll summarize Basis and we can end it here.

If you have a high performing kid who wants to grind out middle and high school, Basis will work for you.

If you have a high performing kid who is more well rounded and wants or needs more then that, go elsewhere. It’s not worth the grind with no balance and not much joy.

You know some families and kids love BASIS, right?

That's nice. But why should the rest of us pay for it?

Want fringe curriculum, send your kids to private.

Ha! Having high academic standards is "fringe"? Sweetie, you are the problem here.

Well that's a red herring.

As I've said, I want the highest academic standards for all kids, not a few kids.

Setting up a system that only benefits a fraction of potential students and casting off the rest as "not BASIS material" isn't a viable solution for me. That's not how public schools work--that's how private schools work.

No. That's also how DCPS application high schools work, and how many other charter schools work.

Your "values" are actually internally consistent -- you want a public schools system that only funds neighborhood public schools that everyone can attend, plus private schools that people with means can opt to attend.

There are actually many cities and towns around the country where that is what exists. But, that's not DC (or NYC, or SF, and Philly and New Orleans, etc). Maybe you need to move.

If 70 percent of the kids who enroll at Walls or Duke Ellington wash out before graduation we would not find it acceptable.

It's totally normal for some bilingual schools to lose 70 percent of their kids.

I'd be more concerned about schools where 70 percent of the kids don't meet even the most rudimentary educational standards.

you can be concerned about the schools where 70 percent of the kids don't meet standards AND be concerned about whether BASIS is the best use of taxpayer dollars.

In fact, you could even say they are one and the same concern.

A big difference between BASIS and those 70 percent failure schools is those schools don't have the option of sending the kids who don't cut it somewhere else and just focusing on the kids who do make the grade—and if they did we wouldn't call it a success, we'd call it a shell game.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You also probably need to do some research to learn why DC decided to open its doors to charter schools in the first place -- it's because DCPS was failing the community in the 1990s.

we're not talking about the wisdom of charter schools, we're talking about the wisdom of BASIS.

BASIS is the #1 middle school in the city and has an incredible college-success rate. No one in the city is seriously thinking about closing this school; it will never happen. It's time to drop your DCUM campaign, "secondhand knowledge" poster.

136 kids start in 5th grade at BASIS, and 63 enroll as seniors. I didn't go to BASIS and do the vaunted math program, but that's 46 percent. Winnowing out the 54 percent who don't meet the high standards and then saying "look at how successful our curriculum is, 90+ percent of the kids we graduate meet the standards!" isn't good educational strategy.

If that REALLY is the strategy you think works, let's send all the DCPS students who don't make CAPE standards to Alexandria, tally up the scores and the college acceptance rates for the kids who remain and call the whole thing a success! Or not, because that's insane!

[Anonymous]

This may be a stupid question, but do DCPS public middle schools do differentiation/tracking?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You also probably need to do some research to learn why DC decided to open its doors to charter schools in the first place -- it's because DCPS was failing the community in the 1990s.

we're not talking about the wisdom of charter schools, we're talking about the wisdom of BASIS.

BASIS is the #1 middle school in the city and has an incredible college-success rate. No one in the city is seriously thinking about closing this school; it will never happen. It's time to drop your DCUM campaign, "secondhand knowledge" poster.

136 kids start in 5th grade at BASIS, and 63 enroll as seniors. I didn't go to BASIS and do the vaunted math program, but that's 46 percent. Winnowing out the 54 percent who don't meet the high standards and then saying "look at how successful our curriculum is, 90+ percent of the kids we graduate meet the standards!" isn't good educational strategy.

If that REALLY is the strategy you think works, let's send all the DCPS students who don't make CAPE standards to Alexandria, tally up the scores and the college acceptance rates for the kids who remain and call the whole thing a success! Or not, because that's insane!

Lots of schools have high attrition rates. It's not that unusual. People leave for all kinds of reasons. At our school (not BASIS), about two thirds of the kids don't graduate because they leave beforehand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You also probably need to do some research to learn why DC decided to open its doors to charter schools in the first place -- it's because DCPS was failing the community in the 1990s.

we're not talking about the wisdom of charter schools, we're talking about the wisdom of BASIS.

BASIS is the #1 middle school in the city and has an incredible college-success rate. No one in the city is seriously thinking about closing this school; it will never happen. It's time to drop your DCUM campaign, "secondhand knowledge" poster.

136 kids start in 5th grade at BASIS, and 63 enroll as seniors. I didn't go to BASIS and do the vaunted math program, but that's 46 percent. Winnowing out the 54 percent who don't meet the high standards and then saying "look at how successful our curriculum is, 90+ percent of the kids we graduate meet the standards!" isn't good educational strategy.

If that REALLY is the strategy you think works, let's send all the DCPS students who don't make CAPE standards to Alexandria, tally up the scores and the college acceptance rates for the kids who remain and call the whole thing a success! Or not, because that's insane!

This is a bit like arguing that the University of Maryland would be the best college in the world if the Ivy League would just stop siphoning away all the best students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This may be a stupid question, but do DCPS public middle schools do differentiation/tracking?

Yes. They might not call it exactly that, but they absolutely do. My experience is that they’ll be pretty upfront about how they determine classes/cohorts of kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You also probably need to do some research to learn why DC decided to open its doors to charter schools in the first place -- it's because DCPS was failing the community in the 1990s.

we're not talking about the wisdom of charter schools, we're talking about the wisdom of BASIS.

BASIS is the #1 middle school in the city and has an incredible college-success rate. No one in the city is seriously thinking about closing this school; it will never happen. It's time to drop your DCUM campaign, "secondhand knowledge" poster.

136 kids start in 5th grade at BASIS, and 63 enroll as seniors. I didn't go to BASIS and do the vaunted math program, but that's 46 percent. Winnowing out the 54 percent who don't meet the high standards and then saying "look at how successful our curriculum is, 90+ percent of the kids we graduate meet the standards!" isn't good educational strategy.

If that REALLY is the strategy you think works, let's send all the DCPS students who don't make CAPE standards to Alexandria, tally up the scores and the college acceptance rates for the kids who remain and call the whole thing a success! Or not, because that's insane!

This is a bit like arguing that the University of Maryland would be the best college in the world if the Ivy League would just stop siphoning away all the best students.

Maryland already is the best college in the world!! Go Terps!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ll summarize Basis and we can end it here.

If you have a high performing kid who wants to grind out middle and high school, Basis will work for you.

If you have a high performing kid who is more well rounded and wants or needs more then that, go elsewhere. It’s not worth the grind with no balance and not much joy.

You know some families and kids love BASIS, right?

. Trust me, not in the high school. There, families either tolerate the regime fairly well or rather poorly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You also probably need to do some research to learn why DC decided to open its doors to charter schools in the first place -- it's because DCPS was failing the community in the 1990s.

we're not talking about the wisdom of charter schools, we're talking about the wisdom of BASIS.

BASIS is the #1 middle school in the city and has an incredible college-success rate. No one in the city is seriously thinking about closing this school; it will never happen. It's time to drop your DCUM campaign, "secondhand knowledge" poster.

136 kids start in 5th grade at BASIS, and 63 enroll as seniors. I didn't go to BASIS and do the vaunted math program, but that's 46 percent. Winnowing out the 54 percent who don't meet the high standards and then saying "look at how successful our curriculum is, 90+ percent of the kids we graduate meet the standards!" isn't good educational strategy.

If that REALLY is the strategy you think works, let's send all the DCPS students who don't make CAPE standards to Alexandria, tally up the scores and the college acceptance rates for the kids who remain and call the whole thing a success! Or not, because that's insane!

Lots of schools have high attrition rates. It's not that unusual. People leave for all kinds of reasons. At our school (not BASIS), about two thirds of the kids don't graduate because they leave beforehand.

Which schools? Looking over the enrollment numbers I didn’t see any with those kinds of numbers.

Basis is unusual in that it doesn’t replace kids who leave… of course doing that would tarnish those scores.

[Anonymous]

I actually think BASIS should just be an application school. Some kind of entrance exam and if you pass it, you can lottery for it. But then require them to backfill when kids leave. Then they can keep their standards but it functions as a real option for kids prepared for academic rigor who want that kind of school.

Really the only issue I have with it is that they don't backfill. I don't have a problem with a school with that approach and with strict requirements for advancing. It's not what I want for my kids but I get some people do. DC needs more good options for MS and above. That means a school that doesn't backfill is a drag on the system because they are releasing students when there are already so few spots at rigorous schools, but there are absolutely kids past 5th grade who could succeed at BASIS if given the chance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You also probably need to do some research to learn why DC decided to open its doors to charter schools in the first place -- it's because DCPS was failing the community in the 1990s.

we're not talking about the wisdom of charter schools, we're talking about the wisdom of BASIS.

BASIS is the #1 middle school in the city and has an incredible college-success rate. No one in the city is seriously thinking about closing this school; it will never happen. It's time to drop your DCUM campaign, "secondhand knowledge" poster.

136 kids start in 5th grade at BASIS, and 63 enroll as seniors. I didn't go to BASIS and do the vaunted math program, but that's 46 percent. Winnowing out the 54 percent who don't meet the high standards and then saying "look at how successful our curriculum is, 90+ percent of the kids we graduate meet the standards!" isn't good educational strategy.

If that REALLY is the strategy you think works, let's send all the DCPS students who don't make CAPE standards to Alexandria, tally up the scores and the college acceptance rates for the kids who remain and call the whole thing a success! Or not, because that's insane!

This is a bit like arguing that the University of Maryland would be the best college in the world if the Ivy League would just stop siphoning away all the best students.

Turns out Harvard is no better of a school than Maryland "because it's all just a shell game." Sigh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I actually think BASIS should just be an application school. Some kind of entrance exam and if you pass it, you can lottery for it. But then require them to backfill when kids leave. Then they can keep their standards but it functions as a real option for kids prepared for academic rigor who want that kind of school.

Really the only issue I have with it is that they don't backfill. I don't have a problem with a school with that approach and with strict requirements for advancing. It's not what I want for my kids but I get some people do. DC needs more good options for MS and above. That means a school that doesn't backfill is a drag on the system because they are releasing students when there are already so few spots at rigorous schools, but there are absolutely kids past 5th grade who could succeed at BASIS if given the chance.

Huh that’s actually kind of smart. I’m amazed that a good idea emerged from one of the endless Basis threads!