Basis Charter School - Experience and Insight Requested

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:a lot of the people who support advanced programming for middle and high school children are actually some of the same people who most dislike basis. basis run by a for-profit arizona charter is a relatively poor substitute for well-rounded programming for more advanced students. it also at a systemic level siphons kids off leaving a relatively weaker cohort behind at some of the neighborhood public schools reducing the pressure/need to offer more advanced programming at those schools.

But that implies that there is or was "well-rounded programming for more advanced students" in DC. You can argue that it might have happened in the last decade if Basis didn't exist, but I'm very skeptical.

The choice isn't between a specific school and the perfect school, it's among the DC public and charter schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:a lot of the people who support advanced programming for middle and high school children are actually some of the same people who most dislike basis. basis run by a for-profit arizona charter is a relatively poor substitute for well-rounded programming for more advanced students. it also at a systemic level siphons kids off leaving a relatively weaker cohort behind at some of the neighborhood public schools reducing the pressure/need to offer more advanced programming at those schools.

This argument is so pathetic. It's not BASIS's fault that half the students at your dumpster fire of a school are smoking weed in the middle of the school day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What you can't get at BASIS, OP, are serious extra-curriculars your kid does with classmates. This didn't bother us in 5th grade, but really bothered my kids from around 7th grade. We were running all over town for lonely outside enrichment done with kids mine barely knew.

The sports at BASIS aren't too serious and there's obviously no theater for "theater," no music whatsoever, no kiln for pottery, no track for track, no greenhouse for gardening etc. etc.

I think the enrichment, clubs, sports etc aspect of a school are overrated. So what if BASIS doesn't have a kiln. It has sports and clubs. Mind you, there are only 450 students in grades 5 - 8 compared to 1,500 at Deal MS. It's a bit like parents saying DC is fabulous for what it has to offer but then never visit a museum, gallery or performance in more than a month.

And you've had kids at BASIS for how long? From where I sit, the problem with BASIS' weak ECs is that the set-up favors the UMC kids, and that's putting it mildly. You wind up paying through the nose for the ECs your kid probably needs to crack a highly competitive colleges. It can be a lonely, hectic journey because your student can't do serious high school ECs with classmates, at least not for sports, music, drama etc. You wind up rushing around the DMV as a family to fill in the gaps. Also, the way BASIS structures its curriculum doesn't leave much time for serious high school ECs, not when they're essentially cramming 3 years of HS into 4. We wound up leaving after 9th grade for our eldest, strong in STEM, because hated the arrangement. Sure, maybe ECs are overrated in the big picture, but that doesn't change the fact that colleges want to see them and kids really enjoy them.

NP but don’t most kids who do serious ECs do them outside of thr school anyway? Serious music kids do orchestra elsewhere, kids who want to play a sport in college often play on club or travel teams, etc.

Totally this.

Because you don't live in the MoCo or VA burbs where high schools offer both strong academics and ECs. Totally off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:a lot of the people who support advanced programming for middle and high school children are actually some of the same people who most dislike basis. basis run by a for-profit arizona charter is a relatively poor substitute for well-rounded programming for more advanced students. it also at a systemic level siphons kids off leaving a relatively weaker cohort behind at some of the neighborhood public schools reducing the pressure/need to offer more advanced programming at those schools.

This argument is so pathetic. It's not BASIS's fault that half the students at your dumpster fire of a school are smoking weed in the middle of the school day.

Public schools that purport to be lottery schools should do their best to teach all students and not “weed them out”. It is not a hard concept to grasp. The Basis model in DC is disingenuous at best.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What you can't get at BASIS, OP, are serious extra-curriculars your kid does with classmates. This didn't bother us in 5th grade, but really bothered my kids from around 7th grade. We were running all over town for lonely outside enrichment done with kids mine barely knew.

The sports at BASIS aren't too serious and there's obviously no theater for "theater," no music whatsoever, no kiln for pottery, no track for track, no greenhouse for gardening etc. etc.

I think the enrichment, clubs, sports etc aspect of a school are overrated. So what if BASIS doesn't have a kiln. It has sports and clubs. Mind you, there are only 450 students in grades 5 - 8 compared to 1,500 at Deal MS. It's a bit like parents saying DC is fabulous for what it has to offer but then never visit a museum, gallery or performance in more than a month.

And you've had kids at BASIS for how long? From where I sit, the problem with BASIS' weak ECs is that the set-up favors the UMC kids, and that's putting it mildly. You wind up paying through the nose for the ECs your kid probably needs to crack a highly competitive colleges. It can be a lonely, hectic journey because your student can't do serious high school ECs with classmates, at least not for sports, music, drama etc. You wind up rushing around the DMV as a family to fill in the gaps. Also, the way BASIS structures its curriculum doesn't leave much time for serious high school ECs, not when they're essentially cramming 3 years of HS into 4. We wound up leaving after 9th grade for our eldest, strong in STEM, because hated the arrangement. Sure, maybe ECs are overrated in the big picture, but that doesn't change the fact that colleges want to see them and kids really enjoy them.

NP but don’t most kids who do serious ECs do them outside of thr school anyway? Serious music kids do orchestra elsewhere, kids who want to play a sport in college often play on club or travel teams, etc.

Totally this.

Because you don't live in the MoCo or VA burbs where high schools offer both strong academics and ECs. Totally off.

Correct. We live in DC where most people already do their ECs outside of school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What you can't get at BASIS, OP, are serious extra-curriculars your kid does with classmates. This didn't bother us in 5th grade, but really bothered my kids from around 7th grade. We were running all over town for lonely outside enrichment done with kids mine barely knew.

The sports at BASIS aren't too serious and there's obviously no theater for "theater," no music whatsoever, no kiln for pottery, no track for track, no greenhouse for gardening etc. etc.

I think the enrichment, clubs, sports etc aspect of a school are overrated. So what if BASIS doesn't have a kiln. It has sports and clubs. Mind you, there are only 450 students in grades 5 - 8 compared to 1,500 at Deal MS. It's a bit like parents saying DC is fabulous for what it has to offer but then never visit a museum, gallery or performance in more than a month.

And you've had kids at BASIS for how long? From where I sit, the problem with BASIS' weak ECs is that the set-up favors the UMC kids, and that's putting it mildly. You wind up paying through the nose for the ECs your kid probably needs to crack a highly competitive colleges. It can be a lonely, hectic journey because your student can't do serious high school ECs with classmates, at least not for sports, music, drama etc. You wind up rushing around the DMV as a family to fill in the gaps. Also, the way BASIS structures its curriculum doesn't leave much time for serious high school ECs, not when they're essentially cramming 3 years of HS into 4. We wound up leaving after 9th grade for our eldest, strong in STEM, because hated the arrangement. Sure, maybe ECs are overrated in the big picture, but that doesn't change the fact that colleges want to see them and kids really enjoy them.

NP but don’t most kids who do serious ECs do them outside of thr school anyway? Serious music kids do orchestra elsewhere, kids who want to play a sport in college often play on club or travel teams, etc.

Totally this.

Because you don't live in the MoCo or VA burbs where high schools offer both strong academics and ECs. Totally off.

There’s a big difference between the kid who supplements debate, band, musical theatre and HS soccer with DCYOP, weekly violin and voice lessons and a mid-level travel team vs a kid who has no access to debate or musical theatre at all and so has only the supplements + a handful of relatively expensive classes just to look better rounded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What you can't get at BASIS, OP, are serious extra-curriculars your kid does with classmates. This didn't bother us in 5th grade, but really bothered my kids from around 7th grade. We were running all over town for lonely outside enrichment done with kids mine barely knew.

The sports at BASIS aren't too serious and there's obviously no theater for "theater," no music whatsoever, no kiln for pottery, no track for track, no greenhouse for gardening etc. etc.

I think the enrichment, clubs, sports etc aspect of a school are overrated. So what if BASIS doesn't have a kiln. It has sports and clubs. Mind you, there are only 450 students in grades 5 - 8 compared to 1,500 at Deal MS. It's a bit like parents saying DC is fabulous for what it has to offer but then never visit a museum, gallery or performance in more than a month.

And you've had kids at BASIS for how long? From where I sit, the problem with BASIS' weak ECs is that the set-up favors the UMC kids, and that's putting it mildly. You wind up paying through the nose for the ECs your kid probably needs to crack a highly competitive colleges. It can be a lonely, hectic journey because your student can't do serious high school ECs with classmates, at least not for sports, music, drama etc. You wind up rushing around the DMV as a family to fill in the gaps. Also, the way BASIS structures its curriculum doesn't leave much time for serious high school ECs, not when they're essentially cramming 3 years of HS into 4. We wound up leaving after 9th grade for our eldest, strong in STEM, because hated the arrangement. Sure, maybe ECs are overrated in the big picture, but that doesn't change the fact that colleges want to see them and kids really enjoy them.

NP but don’t most kids who do serious ECs do them outside of thr school anyway? Serious music kids do orchestra elsewhere, kids who want to play a sport in college often play on club or travel teams, etc.

Totally this.

Because you don't live in the MoCo or VA burbs where high schools offer both strong academics and ECs. Totally off.

Correct. We live in DC where most people already do their ECs outside of school.

This is not true of kids in DC privates. They supplement their most important ECs with stuff outside of school, but do a ton of in school stuff as well. If your kids don’t, it’s because your school doesn’t provide it, not because of something intrinsic to DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:a lot of the people who support advanced programming for middle and high school children are actually some of the same people who most dislike basis. basis run by a for-profit arizona charter is a relatively poor substitute for well-rounded programming for more advanced students. it also at a systemic level siphons kids off leaving a relatively weaker cohort behind at some of the neighborhood public schools reducing the pressure/need to offer more advanced programming at those schools.

This argument is so pathetic. It's not BASIS's fault that half the students at your dumpster fire of a school are smoking weed in the middle of the school day.

Public schools that purport to be lottery schools should do their best to teach all students and not “weed them out”. It is not a hard concept to grasp. The Basis model in DC is disingenuous at best.

Weird take. Everyone knows BASIS is one of the most academically rigorous schools in the city, and it's not for most kids. Not sure what's disingenuous about that. I think it's more dishonest to suggest other public schools, in fact, are doing their best to teach all students. Judging by their test schools, many are of them appear not to be teaching *any* students *anything*. Many appear to be little more than glorified baby sitting services.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What you can't get at BASIS, OP, are serious extra-curriculars your kid does with classmates. This didn't bother us in 5th grade, but really bothered my kids from around 7th grade. We were running all over town for lonely outside enrichment done with kids mine barely knew.

The sports at BASIS aren't too serious and there's obviously no theater for "theater," no music whatsoever, no kiln for pottery, no track for track, no greenhouse for gardening etc. etc.

I think the enrichment, clubs, sports etc aspect of a school are overrated. So what if BASIS doesn't have a kiln. It has sports and clubs. Mind you, there are only 450 students in grades 5 - 8 compared to 1,500 at Deal MS. It's a bit like parents saying DC is fabulous for what it has to offer but then never visit a museum, gallery or performance in more than a month.

And you've had kids at BASIS for how long? From where I sit, the problem with BASIS' weak ECs is that the set-up favors the UMC kids, and that's putting it mildly. You wind up paying through the nose for the ECs your kid probably needs to crack a highly competitive colleges. It can be a lonely, hectic journey because your student can't do serious high school ECs with classmates, at least not for sports, music, drama etc. You wind up rushing around the DMV as a family to fill in the gaps. Also, the way BASIS structures its curriculum doesn't leave much time for serious high school ECs, not when they're essentially cramming 3 years of HS into 4. We wound up leaving after 9th grade for our eldest, strong in STEM, because hated the arrangement. Sure, maybe ECs are overrated in the big picture, but that doesn't change the fact that colleges want to see them and kids really enjoy them.

NP but don’t most kids who do serious ECs do them outside of thr school anyway? Serious music kids do orchestra elsewhere, kids who want to play a sport in college often play on club or travel teams, etc.

Totally this.

Because you don't live in the MoCo or VA burbs where high schools offer both strong academics and ECs. Totally off.

Correct. We live in DC where most people already do their ECs outside of school.

This is not true of kids in DC privates. They supplement their most important ECs with stuff outside of school, but do a ton of in school stuff as well. If your kids don’t, it’s because your school doesn’t provide it, not because of something intrinsic to DC.

And if most folks had private school $ they wouldn’t send them to Basis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What you can't get at BASIS, OP, are serious extra-curriculars your kid does with classmates. This didn't bother us in 5th grade, but really bothered my kids from around 7th grade. We were running all over town for lonely outside enrichment done with kids mine barely knew.

The sports at BASIS aren't too serious and there's obviously no theater for "theater," no music whatsoever, no kiln for pottery, no track for track, no greenhouse for gardening etc. etc.

I think the enrichment, clubs, sports etc aspect of a school are overrated. So what if BASIS doesn't have a kiln. It has sports and clubs. Mind you, there are only 450 students in grades 5 - 8 compared to 1,500 at Deal MS. It's a bit like parents saying DC is fabulous for what it has to offer but then never visit a museum, gallery or performance in more than a month.

And you've had kids at BASIS for how long? From where I sit, the problem with BASIS' weak ECs is that the set-up favors the UMC kids, and that's putting it mildly. You wind up paying through the nose for the ECs your kid probably needs to crack a highly competitive colleges. It can be a lonely, hectic journey because your student can't do serious high school ECs with classmates, at least not for sports, music, drama etc. You wind up rushing around the DMV as a family to fill in the gaps. Also, the way BASIS structures its curriculum doesn't leave much time for serious high school ECs, not when they're essentially cramming 3 years of HS into 4. We wound up leaving after 9th grade for our eldest, strong in STEM, because hated the arrangement. Sure, maybe ECs are overrated in the big picture, but that doesn't change the fact that colleges want to see them and kids really enjoy them.

NP but don’t most kids who do serious ECs do them outside of thr school anyway? Serious music kids do orchestra elsewhere, kids who want to play a sport in college often play on club or travel teams, etc.

Totally this.

Because you don't live in the MoCo or VA burbs where high schools offer both strong academics and ECs. Totally off.

Correct. We live in DC where most people already do their ECs outside of school.

This is not true of kids in DC privates. They supplement their most important ECs with stuff outside of school, but do a ton of in school stuff as well. If your kids don’t, it’s because your school doesn’t provide it, not because of something intrinsic to DC.

And if most folks had private school $ they wouldn’t send them to Basis.

Might as well send to Basis DC and use the money saved for travel and college.

😀

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What you can't get at BASIS, OP, are serious extra-curriculars your kid does with classmates. This didn't bother us in 5th grade, but really bothered my kids from around 7th grade. We were running all over town for lonely outside enrichment done with kids mine barely knew.

The sports at BASIS aren't too serious and there's obviously no theater for "theater," no music whatsoever, no kiln for pottery, no track for track, no greenhouse for gardening etc. etc.

I think the enrichment, clubs, sports etc aspect of a school are overrated. So what if BASIS doesn't have a kiln. It has sports and clubs. Mind you, there are only 450 students in grades 5 - 8 compared to 1,500 at Deal MS. It's a bit like parents saying DC is fabulous for what it has to offer but then never visit a museum, gallery or performance in more than a month.

And you've had kids at BASIS for how long? From where I sit, the problem with BASIS' weak ECs is that the set-up favors the UMC kids, and that's putting it mildly. You wind up paying through the nose for the ECs your kid probably needs to crack a highly competitive colleges. It can be a lonely, hectic journey because your student can't do serious high school ECs with classmates, at least not for sports, music, drama etc. You wind up rushing around the DMV as a family to fill in the gaps. Also, the way BASIS structures its curriculum doesn't leave much time for serious high school ECs, not when they're essentially cramming 3 years of HS into 4. We wound up leaving after 9th grade for our eldest, strong in STEM, because hated the arrangement. Sure, maybe ECs are overrated in the big picture, but that doesn't change the fact that colleges want to see them and kids really enjoy them.

NP but don’t most kids who do serious ECs do them outside of thr school anyway? Serious music kids do orchestra elsewhere, kids who want to play a sport in college often play on club or travel teams, etc.

Totally this.

Because you don't live in the MoCo or VA burbs where high schools offer both strong academics and ECs. Totally off.

Correct. We live in DC where most people already do their ECs outside of school.

This is not true of kids in DC privates. They supplement their most important ECs with stuff outside of school, but do a ton of in school stuff as well. If your kids don’t, it’s because your school doesn’t provide it, not because of something intrinsic to DC.

And if most folks had private school $ they wouldn’t send them to Basis.

I think you're underestimating the number of people who could send their kids to private but don't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What you can't get at BASIS, OP, are serious extra-curriculars your kid does with classmates. This didn't bother us in 5th grade, but really bothered my kids from around 7th grade. We were running all over town for lonely outside enrichment done with kids mine barely knew.

The sports at BASIS aren't too serious and there's obviously no theater for "theater," no music whatsoever, no kiln for pottery, no track for track, no greenhouse for gardening etc. etc.

I think the enrichment, clubs, sports etc aspect of a school are overrated. So what if BASIS doesn't have a kiln. It has sports and clubs. Mind you, there are only 450 students in grades 5 - 8 compared to 1,500 at Deal MS. It's a bit like parents saying DC is fabulous for what it has to offer but then never visit a museum, gallery or performance in more than a month.

And you've had kids at BASIS for how long? From where I sit, the problem with BASIS' weak ECs is that the set-up favors the UMC kids, and that's putting it mildly. You wind up paying through the nose for the ECs your kid probably needs to crack a highly competitive colleges. It can be a lonely, hectic journey because your student can't do serious high school ECs with classmates, at least not for sports, music, drama etc. You wind up rushing around the DMV as a family to fill in the gaps. Also, the way BASIS structures its curriculum doesn't leave much time for serious high school ECs, not when they're essentially cramming 3 years of HS into 4. We wound up leaving after 9th grade for our eldest, strong in STEM, because hated the arrangement. Sure, maybe ECs are overrated in the big picture, but that doesn't change the fact that colleges want to see them and kids really enjoy them.

NP but don’t most kids who do serious ECs do them outside of thr school anyway? Serious music kids do orchestra elsewhere, kids who want to play a sport in college often play on club or travel teams, etc.

Totally this.

Because you don't live in the MoCo or VA burbs where high schools offer both strong academics and ECs. Totally off.

Correct. We live in DC where most people already do their ECs outside of school.

This is not true of kids in DC privates. They supplement their most important ECs with stuff outside of school, but do a ton of in school stuff as well. If your kids don’t, it’s because your school doesn’t provide it, not because of something intrinsic to DC.

And if most folks had private school $ they wouldn’t send them to Basis.

I think you're underestimating the number of people who could send their kids to private but don't.

Well there are folks that “could” and there are folks that can afford private K-12 without even noticing it. I only consider the latter has “having private school $.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:BASIS DC only has 47 in the graduating class but here is a selection of colleges to which kids were admitted (some were admitted to more than one of these).

Per capita, no other public school in DC comes close to these results.

Bryn Mawr
Carnegie Mellon
Cornell
Dartmouth
Duke
Edinburgh
Elon
Emory
Georgetown
GW
Harvard
NYU
Northeastern
Northwestern
Oxford
Pomona
Smith
St. Andrews
Tufts
UC Berkeley
UPenn
U Mich
UT-Austin
UVA
Wesleyan
Wisconsin-Madison
Yale

Great results!