New BASIS discussion

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
BASIS doesn't have a policy that prefers professional educators OR subject matter experts in hiring.

I wonder what their commitment is to quality teaching and how they will support teachers in the quest to fulfill BASIS's promises.

Go ahead, Booster. I'm talking to you. Spell it out.


Firstly, mere fact of having a teaching license is not necessarily the same thing as being a "professional educator". There's a matter of definition there.

Secondly, quite a few of the BASIS teaching staff ARE subject matter experts - whereas DCPS and most other schools do NOT have subject matter experts teaching middle school.


Firstly, pp did not mention a teacher's license as being synonymous with being a "professional educator." The discussion has been about the level of teaching experience among BASIS faculty and the school not clarifying that about all its teachers.

Secondly, your point about teaching staff being "subject matter experts" is quite vague and again suggests a lack of teaching experience. Does "subject matter expert" apply to a person who holds a BA or more in the subject who is starting their first year of full-time teaching? If a member of the teaching staff had a degree in education but little or no experience teaching, would they be called "professional educators?"

If BASIS is using these terms to describe its faculty, it is legitimate to ask what the terms mean and exactly how they apply to the BASIS DC faculty.


As pointed out - "it's a matter of definition" and there is no uniform or concrete definition for what "professional educator" means. One could define anyone who makes a living at teaching as "professional educator" but there are no further conclusions to be drawn beyond that. So it's a term that really doesn't add anything to the conversation.

Secondly, with regard to subject matter, it means things like the teacher teaching science knows and loves science and, actually got a degree in that subject, as opposed to just getting an education degree and winging it through an unfamiliar curriculum with only bare knowledge, unable to answer any deeper questions that students might (and will) ask. Teaching becomes the easy part when you have a passion for the subject matter. It makes it interesting and exciting for the students, and doesn't leave them frustrated when the teacher can't answer their questions (as happens in many schools now). The way our education system has evolved, it has made it all completely backward, with all the emphasis on the activity of teaching as opposed to the real purpose of the subject matter itself.

You don't know very much about education, do you? It isn't a matter of definition. Every state has minimum qualifications for certification and certification is how states determine who is a professional educator. You may not like it, but that would be your personal, non expert opinion. It adds much to the conversation because uncertified teachers cannot be considered experienced or educated in the art of teaching, which is fundamentally different than being considered an expert in a subject matter. Anyone who has spent five minutes trying to help a technology newbie check their email knows there is a vast difference between knowing how to do something and knowing how to teach it.

Secondly, being excited about a subject and getting your BA in it is not the definition of a subject matter expert. Further, again, knowing a subject does not mean you know how to explain the subject to someone else. This is where the skills of teaching come in. Teaching a subject requires skills in dissecting content material and creating experiences that allow students to scaffold content, understand content, and use content in a new setting. The fact that you don't understand how critical teaching skills are to the equation convinces me that you have never taught and have zero understanding of the critical interplay between content mastery and teaching skill.

You can have legitimate issues with teacher unions, hiring practices, tenure policies and dead wood in the profession and I will likely agree with you. But your base misunderstanding and dismissal of the balance between content and teaching is both baffling and ignorant.

(And to the PP who thinks this issue should not be discussed here because it is prevalent in other charters and not BASIS specific? Too bad. This absolutely belongs here because BASIS is starting out with questionable practices and a questionable faculty. They need to own that.)

[Anonymous]

19:54, you must be quite dense.

Firstly, the question of experience has already been addressed in this thread in multiple ways - a.) that BASIS provides as much information on experience as any other school in the district, to include the top-performing charter and public schools, b.) that the information given shows that BASIS faculty in fact show at least as much experience as those other top-performing schools do, and c.) that they have a mature, established model that is in place in over a half dozen schools already, leaving very little about their practices as "questionable". And d.) given the vast majority of BASIS faculty list both subject matter expertise AND prior teaching experience, the issue of whether or not they can teach is also addressed.

And these issues of certified vs. not, of experience, et cetera SHOULD rightly be in their own threads, because again, they are NOT unique to BASIS. The same so-called "issues" of "questionable faculty" and "questionable practices" that you keep raising would, as pointed out, apply equally to Latin and all the other charters and privates as well. It's not uniquely a "BASIS" thing, and won't ever be no matter how many times you raise it.

So why don't you now go on off to those other threads and get Latin and the others to "own" it.

[Anonymous]

Amen. Go troll on some other school, this stuff has gotten older than King Tut's mummy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
No, it wasn't specifically about "superior teachers" - it was about a different model. You seem to be stuck on false premises.

Oh, Excuse me. I thought the different model included superior teachers. According to you, it sounds like that's not the case.

Are you on the staff of BASIS? If so, please let us know. If not, could you ask BASIS if their different model excludes the need for superior teachers and if part of being superior includes a staff of mainly experienced teachers, or at least has a roster which does not exclude information about teachers who are inexperienced?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Amen. Go troll on some other school, this stuff has gotten older than King Tut's mummy.

and mighty disturbing to BASIS boosters who don't tolerate criticism of their blessed model.

Calling people names and telling them to get lost is not a very sophisticated communications technique.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:[
You believe whatever you want to believe. But the rest of the world who saw reform get cut off at the knees knows better.

Ok, please give examples of reform being cut off at its knees. If the rest of the world saw it, surely there must be examples of it. When and how did it happen?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Amen. Go troll on some other school, this stuff has gotten older than King Tut's mummy.

and mighty disturbing to BASIS boosters who don't tolerate criticism of their blessed model.

Calling people names and telling them to get lost is not a very sophisticated communications technique.

BUT... You aren't criticizing the "blessed model", you are only throwing around your own half-baked assumptions and generalizations, along with observations which are not at all unique to Basis and which as such don't really have anything to do with Basis. And no, I'm not on the Basis staff and I'm not responsible for communications and I could care less if you ever send your own child there, so you probably couldn't call me a booster either, I'm just someone tired of all of your nonstop trolling.

If you really gave a damn, if you were ever genuinely "concerned" then you would have gone to the information sessions - then you'd at least not be coming up with all of these wrong assumptions and bad info, to not be making such a fool of yourself. But obviously you didn't, and obviously you are happy making a fool of yourself.

[Anonymous]

Ya know what? I really have had enough of this.

I'm going to just chalk 21:57-22:14 and all the prior trolling (and look up what "internet trolling" means before you go running around complaining about namecalling) - chalk it up as someone who is disgruntled. Who knows and who cares why - likely let go by Rhee for being a mediocre teacher, probably feels superior to charter teachers because she/he's certified, maybe applied to teach at Basis but wasn't hired, whatever - don't really care what the specifics are, but probably something along those lines - and now figures she/he has a bone to pick, and that the rest of us actually care (which we don't).

And thus, has now launched into a one-person crusade to try and scare people away from the "evil" charters starting with Basis. Otherwise, not a whole lot of this even makes sense.

Whatever. I'm off to bed. Troll away, for all I care. Which I don't.

[Anonymous]

in other words, a troll is someone who disagrees with you and must have had a negative life experience in order to get to that point.

Are you scared by what some people have said here? If so, please try not to project your feelings on to others.

[Anonymous]

19:54, you must be quite dense.

Firstly, the question of experience has already been addressed in this thread in multiple ways - a.) that BASIS provides as much information on experience as any other school in the district, to include the top-performing charter and public schools, b.) that the information given shows that BASIS faculty in fact show at least as much experience as those other top-performing schools do, and c.) that they have a mature, established model that is in place in over a half dozen schools already, leaving very little about their practices as "questionable". And d.) given the vast majority of BASIS faculty list both subject matter expertise AND prior teaching experience, the issue of whether or not they can teach is also addressed.

And these issues of certified vs. not, of experience, et cetera SHOULD rightly be in their own threads, because again, they are NOT unique to BASIS. The same so-called "issues" of "questionable faculty" and "questionable practices" that you keep raising would, as pointed out, apply equally to Latin and all the other charters and privates as well. It's not uniquely a "BASIS" thing, and won't ever be no matter how many times you raise it.

So why don't you now go on off to those other threads and get Latin and the others to "own" it.

I'm 19:54. You have some logic problems, PP.

A. The fact that BASIS posts as little info about teaching experience as other schools is not a plus. This isn't a race to the bottom.
B. Maybe, but again, that doesn't make BASIS a strong school with an excellent faculty. It makes them just like other charters. This may be good or it may be bad. We can't tell because it isn't open yet.
C. They do have an established model. In AZ. Which is not DC.
D. The only way to judge true subject matter expertise AND the value of prior teaching experience is once the school is open. You cannot possibly believe that the issue of whether or not they can teach is addressed when the teachers in question have not actually spent time...teaching.

You seem to be fixated on my posts, as if I am the only person raising these issues. I get that. You're a much more sympathetic character if you're perceived as fighting one lone, bitter critic. Unfortunately for you, that is not the case.

I will stay here on this thread raising, in the same respectful manner (unlike you), every concern about BASIS because it is in the interest of every kid in DC. You'll just have to deal with it and BASIS will just have to prove me wrong....when it opens and there is actual data to prove its success.

[Anonymous]

23:41 - it's not raising questions in a "respectful manner" to make assumptions and assertions that are not grounded in fact or logic. You have thus far not proven any of the things you have said, such as there being a lack of experience.

You have a burden of proof to meet, and you have not met it.

All you are doing is setting out on a one-person crusade, trying to sow baseless fear and doubt, and you even admitted as much in the other thread. Everyone here sees that and sees right through it all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:23:41 - it's not raising questions in a "respectful manner" to make assumptions and assertions that are not grounded in fact or logic. You have thus far not proven any of the things you have said, such as there being a lack of experience.

You have a burden of proof to meet, and you have not met it.

All you are doing is setting out on a one-person crusade, trying to sow baseless fear and doubt, and you even admitted as much in the other thread. Everyone here sees that and sees right through it all.

Sorry - it's not one person, and it's not a crusade. As far as I know, I opened the issue by commenting on the lack of teaching information about some of the BASIS teachers on the website.

I've been joined by at least one other person - 19:54 and 23:41.

Speaking of crusades, are you the same person who started a new thread BASIS thread on the same issue?

[Anonymous]

Let's stop arguing about the recipe. The proof of the pudding is, as they say, in the eating.

We got a taste of BASIS DC with the STARS program in the spring and the BOSS program last week. So far it has been scrumptious.

We are looking forward to the main course that will be served up starting Monday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let's stop arguing about the recipe. The proof of the pudding is, as they say, in the eating.

We got a taste of BASIS DC with the STARS program in the spring and the BOSS program last week. So far it has been scrumptious.

We are looking forward to the main course that will be served up starting Monday.

+1

I went to the session last night, and have been bringing our child to BOSS all week - and thus far I am quite impressed with how organized and professional their team has been, and in meeting and talking to the teachers last night found them to be quite impressive as well.

[Anonymous]

First Yu Ying, then the Hebrew school (sorry i forget the name) and now Basis. It's the old crabs in a bucket reference at work again.