Is Basis really as hard as people think?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No, it is not marketing material. It is a fact that Basis offers a rigorous European style education. It is also a fact that not every school is going to be a good fit. For example, if I was not interested in my child being immersed in another language, then an immersion school would not be a good fit for my child. As another example, previously, a Montessori school was not good fit for our kid and we pulled him out of that school. Every kid is different.

Anonymous wrote:Can we please not use the term "European style education" with reference to BASIS. It really is a meaningless concept except as a marketing buzz term. Europe doesn't have a style of education - it is a continent. As far as I can tell insofar as it means anything concrete it refers to the fact that BASIS has Latin in middle school. So just say it offers Latin in middle school. If other countries' educational models are to be referenced, it seems that BASIS provides a South Korean style education... accelerated curriculum, math-focused, content-based lectures and frequent standardized testing, especially AP in 9th-11th grade.

Middle School: European Style

School improvement is a hot topic and the European model is often debated. Massachusetts has a Gr. 6-12 school run on the European model. How is this different?

Julia Sigalovsky, Russian-born and educated, founded the Advanced Math and Science Academy (AMSA) in Marlborough, Massachusetts. This year, the 2005-2006 school year, was the opening year for the public-funded and privately-run Gr. 6-12 charter school.

What Are The Expectations?

The academy's goal is to bring the type of high quality education typically available only at exclusive private schools to the public school setting where children of diverse backgrounds can have access to it.

There is an expectation that every student will become an advanced student. The academy's innovative educational approach will ensure that students previously considered "not capable" or "underachievers" will reach a level of knowledge that is currently considered reachable by only a few talented students. "Middle achievers" will find themselves enthusiastic, engaged, and passionate about learning. Those who are chronically under-challenged and bored will thrive.

How Is This School Different?

•The content and skills of the major academic subjects will be taught before students are asked to integrate ideas across the disciplines. The Academy's curriculum, starting in grade 6, will be taught in three separate subjects: physics, chemistry, and biology. Social studies will be taught in two separate subjects: history and geography. English language arts will be divided into English language and literature.

•The courses will emphasize theory, and move from general concepts to concrete ones. The study focuses on the foundational principles and laws of the academic disciplines that are designed to explore the world and universe as fundamentally more interesting and useful to students.

•The curriculum will provide multi-year exposure to all subjects rather than one-year courses. The students will be taught each subject slowly, deeply and for many years to achieve rigorous mastery of every major subject, beginning in the 6th and 7th grade and finishing in the 11th grade. 12th grade curriculum is research projects.

•The curriculum will have a linear structure: the concepts will gradually progress from simple to more complicated ones. Each new concept will be reinforced through practice and exercises in class work and homework.

•All students will take the same sequence of academic subjects, maximizing opportunities for academic success. To address the needs of slow-pacers and the "forgotten-gifted", the Academy will offer several performance-based levels for each topic taught in subjects in which the level of preparedness and ability are expected to vary the most. The Academy will develop separate instructional plans for groups of children working at similar performance levels within the same classroom.

http://suite101.com/article/middle-school--european-style-a2904

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No, it is not marketing material. It is a fact that Basis offers a rigorous European style education. It is also a fact that not every school is going to be a good fit. For example, if I was not interested in my child being immersed in another language, then an immersion school would not be a good fit for my child. As another example, previously, a Montessori school was not good fit for our kid and we pulled him out of that school. Every kid is different.

Anonymous wrote:Can we please not use the term "European style education" with reference to BASIS. It really is a meaningless concept except as a marketing buzz term. Europe doesn't have a style of education - it is a continent. As far as I can tell insofar as it means anything concrete it refers to the fact that BASIS has Latin in middle school. So just say it offers Latin in middle school. If other countries' educational models are to be referenced, it seems that BASIS provides a South Korean style education... accelerated curriculum, math-focused, content-based lectures and frequent standardized testing, especially AP in 9th-11th grade.

Advanced Math and Science Academy Charter School

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Advanced Math & Science Academy Charter School

Advanced Math and Science Academy Charter School is a charter school founded in 2005. It is located at 201 Forest Street in Marlborough, Massachusetts, U.S., in a few remodeled office building. The school is widely recognized for its academic achievements, consistently scoring in the highest percentile among Massachusetts schools in the English, math and science MCAS exams.

As a charter school, AMSACS receives funding from school districts in which its students reside. According to the Massachusetts Department of Education, $69,669,262 ($10,270 per pupil) will be withdrawn from the local aid accounts of sending towns to fund the school. Students and their families have no direct costs other than uniforms and the fees for extra activities that have become common among most of Massachusetts' public schools. Admission includes completing an application, attending an open house, and taking math and language arts tests that are solely used to determine placement in the right level of classes. Preference for the limited spaces is given first to siblings of current students regardless of residence, then to residents of Marlborough, Hudson, Clinton, and Maynard, and finally to any resident of Massachusetts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^^ one thing thing Europe does that Basis has borrowed is simultaneously studying three sciences concurrently over several years. The American model has been to do earth science in 9th, biology in 10th, Chemistry in 11th and on. Another thing Europe does is direct . students into academic schools and technical schools according to interest and ability. Not as much in the USA. Everyone is college bound.

And what European style teaching also means (I'm speaking for German, France, and Spain in particular) is a lot of lecturing, desks facing to the teacher with little interaction than a one-way street from the teacher to the student. There is little opportunity and no expectation to engage actively in the learning process. I have no clue what teaching looks like at Basis but if that's the kind of "European style teaching that is meant", then, as someone who downright suffered in those classrooms, that's not what I'd like for my child.
Those students of course still do a lot better by international standards because you won't find the same degree of poverty in any of those countries and because students are "sorted" into ability groups after about 5th or 6th grade, with often only the advanced ones closely examined and reported about in international reports (speaking of comparing apples to apples).

[Anonymous]

"European style" is really just a generalization and not really a "marketing term" - I grew up in Germany, and the type of program and structure at BASIS is more reminiscent of German academic schools (typically called 'Gymnasium') as opposed to typical American schools. We had a lot more science early on, just as BASIS provides - and a lot more focus on math, together with a strong emphasis on things like classics and literature, as BASIS does. I believe Olga Block is Czech, and they have a similar type of system for their academic track as the Germans, that's the type of model they are following.

[Anonymous]

Wish I could remember the exact quote (and maybe I COULD if I'd gone to Basis!), but Einstein said the problem with education "today" is that children are expected to learn what they are told by the teacher to be true, instead of what they have discovered or concluded through their own observation and contemplation. I hope there is room for that at Basis (and there may well be - I'm not informed)!

[Anonymous]

Stop the bashing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wish I could remember the exact quote (and maybe I COULD if I'd gone to Basis!), but Einstein said the problem with education "today" is that children are expected to learn what they are told by the teacher to be true, instead of what they have discovered or concluded through their own observation and contemplation. I hope there is room for that at Basis (and there may well be - I'm not informed)!

No fear, there is indeed plenty of discovery at BASIS via labs, et cetera. But the other thing to consider is that even Einstein did fact-based observation, contemplation and discovery. The toolbox for scientific discovery needs to not just consist of curiosity and exploration, it also has to have some structure and a solid grounding of knowledge - and even Einstein would surely acknowledge that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Wish I could remember the exact quote (and maybe I COULD if I'd gone to Basis!), but Einstein said the problem with education "today" is that children are expected to learn what they are told by the teacher to be true, instead of what they have discovered or concluded through their own observation and contemplation. I hope there is room for that at Basis (and there may well be - I'm not informed)!


No fear, there is indeed plenty of discovery at BASIS via labs, et cetera. But the other thing to consider is that even Einstein did fact-based observation, contemplation and discovery. The toolbox for scientific discovery needs to not just consist of curiosity and exploration, it also has to have some structure and a solid grounding of knowledge - and even Einstein would surely acknowledge that.

This is great to know! Can you give some specific examples of the types of labs BASIS has that encourage this kind of observation, contemplation, and discovery?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^^ one thing thing Europe does that Basis has borrowed is simultaneously studying three sciences concurrently over several years. The American model has been to do earth science in 9th, biology in 10th, Chemistry in 11th and on. Another thing Europe does is direct . students into academic schools and technical schools according to interest and ability. Not as much in the USA. Everyone is college bound.

And what European style teaching also means (I'm speaking for German, France, and Spain in particular) is a lot of lecturing, desks facing to the teacher with little interaction than a one-way street from the teacher to the student. There is little opportunity and no expectation to engage actively in the learning process. I have no clue what teaching looks like at Basis but if that's the kind of "European style teaching that is meant", then, as someone who downright suffered in those classrooms, that's not what I'd like for my child.
Those students of course still do a lot better by international standards because you won't find the same degree of poverty in any of those countries and because students are "sorted" into ability groups after about 5th or 6th grade, with often only the advanced ones closely examined and reported about in international reports (speaking of comparing apples to apples).

"One way" is definitely not the case. DS gets direct interaction with his BASIS teachers whenever he needs it, students can ask questions, can meet with teachers et cetera. He never has a problem getting time with his teachers, getting questions answered, getting filled in on things he may have missed, or help going over complicated or unclear material.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"European style" is really just a generalization and not really a "marketing term" - I grew up in Germany, and the type of program and structure at BASIS is more reminiscent of German academic schools (typically called 'Gymnasium') as opposed to typical American schools. We had a lot more science early on, just as BASIS provides - and a lot more focus on math, together with a strong emphasis on things like classics and literature, as BASIS does. I believe Olga Block is Czech, and they have a similar type of system for their academic track as the Germans, that's the type of model they are following.

I did the French Bacc in the 1980's. In Middle school we had languages (French, Arabic and English), history, geography and extensive general sciene. Starting 9th grade students were separated into 4 groups according to their forté subjects. Bacc A was mostly literature/social sciences, B mostly siences, C mostly Math and D was technical. I always got good grades in everything without too much effort. When we moved to England in the middles of 9th grade, I found out that education was quite different there. I had so much difficulty in school as we needed to write research papers on a regular basis, even in math and music. A year later we had to move to the USSR and it was yet another challenge. There was no language barrier. We were lectured most of the classes just like in French education. There were no research papers, but for our tests and exams (not quizzes) we had to write the answer and then face a pannel of 3-4 teachers and explain orally why our answer was correct.
My son is at BASIS and I follow his studies closely. For me, the middle school model is closest to the French model.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Wish I could remember the exact quote (and maybe I COULD if I'd gone to Basis!), but Einstein said the problem with education "today" is that children are expected to learn what they are told by the teacher to be true, instead of what they have discovered or concluded through their own observation and contemplation. I hope there is room for that at Basis (and there may well be - I'm not informed)!


No fear, there is indeed plenty of discovery at BASIS via labs, et cetera. But the other thing to consider is that even Einstein did fact-based observation, contemplation and discovery. The toolbox for scientific discovery needs to not just consist of curiosity and exploration, it also has to have some structure and a solid grounding of knowledge - and even Einstein would surely acknowledge that.

This is great to know! Can you give some specific examples of the types of labs BASIS has that encourage this kind of observation, contemplation, and discovery?

I can't speak for other grades but DC has had a lot of fun labs and interactive activities at BASIS over the last couple of months, like getting up close and personal with invertebrates and arthropods, they got to examine, dissect and touch squids, octopi, crabs, worms, beetle larvae, shrimp... they have looked at microbes under the microscope, they examined plants; they've done the classic "baking soda and vinegar" reactions and will be getting into other chemical reactions as well. They do a lot of interactive games, such as lightning rounds with a white board, playing "Jeopardy", "Last Geographer Standing" and other games; they have done word walls, illustrations, brochures and many other kinds of projects. DC has given presentations before peers, students have served as captains helping the teacher, students have performed for other students - Suffice it to say it's definitely NOT just sitting at desks listening to a bunch of dry lectures.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:we feel BASIS relies too much on standardized tests and acceleration for acceleration's sake, which is a deal breaker for us.

I have heard this so many times. I may have even once seconded this. But the world is accelerating around these kids - there is such an incredibly vast amount of knowledge required to excel in any field and children are sponges. This is the time for them to learn everything they possibly can and as they do, they start to see what type of material they are most drawn to. It's acceleration to provide the option of early specialization, not for acceleration's sake. Basis is giving my DC a depth of information he was nowhere near to getting at DCPS. And guess what, more than my other DC got at a private school. Yes, they test to be sure the info is sinking in. Creative 'projects' can also be time-wasters (I don't know how much my daughter got out of building a replica of an ancient temple in 8th grade but it sure took a LOT of time. Probably Basis will not give such an assignment because there is just far too much to cover, but they do some projects, presentations, teamwork assignments.) DC is surrounded by kids who are similarly sponges for information and he's proud to be gaining knowledge that most people around him including his high-achieving parents don't have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The 46% is about right for the 5th grade class 90s club. I was there for the awards for 5th grade for the first 2 grading periods. 5th grade is definitely challenging. 6th grade is even more challenging from my understanding.

[Anonymous]

Winner! Winner!

Lazarus Thread of the Day

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^^ one thing thing Europe does that Basis has borrowed is simultaneously studying three sciences concurrently over several years. The American model has been to do earth science in 9th, biology in 10th, Chemistry in 11th and on. Another thing Europe does is direct . students into academic schools and technical schools according to interest and ability. Not as much in the USA. Everyone is college bound.

Wow, you're really lumping a lot into these pat arguments. Did you attend school in a European country growing up? It doesn't sound like it.

I'm from a Nordic country and sent my oldest to BASIS DC for MS. Teachers in my country are far better trained, paid and treated overall than those at BASIS DC. In my country, parents aren't pushed to help pay teachers, like at BASIS DC. In my country, students began studying a foreign language (English) in the 4th grade, and another language in 6th grade. Not the case at BASIS, where languages aren't taught until 8th grade. In my country, schools are harder than BASIS in many respects because doing well on tests isn't nearly enough to succeed. Students are required to do a great deal of public speaking/presentations, group/teamwork and research and even to get involved in student government and sports (if just non-competitive) to succeed.

In my country, parent-teacher organizations are not only common in government K-12 schools; they're mandatory. Not so in the BASIS DC franchise, where formal parent-teacher organizations aren't permitted.

In my country, students aren't "directed into academic schools or technical schools according to interest and ability, " like in Germany and some other European countries. What happens is that vocational high schools partner with academic high schools to offer a range of courses to all students. The same system is used in Arlington, where we moved (to have better options than BASIS for high school and for my younger child). Everybody in Arlington school isn't college bound; hundreds of students study at Arlington Tech high school or part-time. The "American model" to do earth science in 9th, biology in 10th and so on isn't the system in VA. My eldest is taking AP science classes in 9th and 10th grades, having tested into them.