BASIS to Private

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Post above is misleading. BASIS doesn't impress where language instruction is concerned, other than if you're mired in relativism in the DC public schools context. Sidwell does shine, yes, particularly for Chinese.

What happens at BASIS is that 5th graders who rock in after having been in public immersion language programs for many years aren't permitted to continue with the modern languages they've been studying at BASIS in the 5th, 6th or 7th grades. And if they restart a language in 8th grade (the first year BASIS DC permits modern language study), they're treated like beginning students. Object and you're advised to hit the road for DCI. A few BASIS language teachers slip advanced students tougher work than the beginners they're in class with, but the practice isn't authorized by admins.

More than 80% of AP Chinese test takers in this country score 5s, the highest % of any AP exam by a long shot. At BASIS, it's common for juniors and seniors to score 3s and 4s on Chinese, because they're getting too little too late to ace this rather easy exam.

It's not that it's easy, it's that it's taken by native speakers. If the juniors and seniors are native speakers, that's notable, but otherwise it's not.

[Anonymous]

No modern language is all that difficult if a kid starts learning well before 8th grade and keeps rolling with it.

My kid isn't a native speaker of Chinese. He scored a 5 sophomore year at a private.

I wasn't impressed with BASIS' retrograde approach to modern language instruction either. Science and math are their selling points (vs STEM, not much in the way of technology or engineering at BASIS). The rest was meh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Post above is misleading. BASIS doesn't impress where language instruction is concerned, other than if you're mired in relativism in the DC public schools context. Sidwell does shine, yes, particularly for Chinese.

What happens at BASIS is that 5th graders who rock in after having been in public immersion language programs for many years aren't permitted to continue with the modern languages they've been studying at BASIS in the 5th, 6th or 7th grades. And if they restart a language in 8th grade (the first year BASIS DC permits modern language study), they're treated like beginning students. Object and you're advised to hit the road for DCI. A few BASIS language teachers slip advanced students tougher work than the beginners they're in class with, but the practice isn't authorized by admins.

More than 80% of AP Chinese test takers in this country score 5s, the highest % of any AP exam by a long shot. At BASIS, it's common for juniors and seniors to score 3s and 4s on Chinese, because they're getting too little too late to ace this rather easy exam.

You again?

This is so full of wrong info I don’t even know where to start.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No modern language is all that difficult if a kid starts learning well before 8th grade and keeps rolling with it.

My kid isn't a native speaker of Chinese. He scored a 5 sophomore year at a private.

I wasn't impressed with BASIS' retrograde approach to modern language instruction either. Science and math are their selling points (vs STEM, not much in the way of technology or engineering at BASIS). The rest was meh.

The median score for non native speakers is a 3. A 5 is very impressive. It is not typical.

[Anonymous]

OP, if you're going from the BASIS middle school to a private, the most important question to answer is how good a fit the private is for your kid.

If the private is WIS, stressing fluency in languages, that's one situation. If the private is a parochial offering no more than AP Spanish and French as languages that doesn't knock it out of the park on STEM but expects students to write far more than any DC public school, another situation altogether.

You see what I'm getting at. Plan accordingly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No modern language is all that difficult if a kid starts learning well before 8th grade and keeps rolling with it.

My kid isn't a native speaker of Chinese. He scored a 5 sophomore year at a private.

I wasn't impressed with BASIS' retrograde approach to modern language instruction either. Science and math are their selling points (vs STEM, not much in the way of technology or engineering at BASIS). The rest was meh.

The median score for non native speakers is a 3. A 5 is very impressive. It is not typical.

Impressive for non-native speakers who didn't start learning a language until 8th or 9th grade, never pursued immersion study, never attended weekend heritage programs, didn't speak with native speakers outside the classroom regularly. AP 5 is essentially a breeze in any language tested for families who've gone the extra mile. My kid is prepping for a Cambridge Intl Chinese A-Level w/help from his private (given at DC British School for any student who feels like registering, offered in something like 10 languages). Finally, a serious high school test for language.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Post above is misleading. BASIS doesn't impress where language instruction is concerned, other than if you're mired in relativism in the DC public schools context. Sidwell does shine, yes, particularly for Chinese.

What happens at BASIS is that 5th graders who rock in after having been in public immersion language programs for many years aren't permitted to continue with the modern languages they've been studying at BASIS in the 5th, 6th or 7th grades. And if they restart a language in 8th grade (the first year BASIS DC permits modern language study), they're treated like beginning students. Object and you're advised to hit the road for DCI. A few BASIS language teachers slip advanced students tougher work than the beginners they're in class with, but the practice isn't authorized by admins.

More than 80% of AP Chinese test takers in this country score 5s, the highest % of any AP exam by a long shot. At BASIS, it's common for juniors and seniors to score 3s and 4s on Chinese, because they're getting too little too late to ace this rather easy exam.

Maybe try therapy to help you get over the fact that BASIS doesn't run its curriculum exactly as you want? Posting multiple times in every single BASIS thread is nuts...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No modern language is all that difficult if a kid starts learning well before 8th grade and keeps rolling with it.

My kid isn't a native speaker of Chinese. He scored a 5 sophomore year at a private.

I wasn't impressed with BASIS' retrograde approach to modern language instruction either. Science and math are their selling points (vs STEM, not much in the way of technology or engineering at BASIS). The rest was meh.

The median score for non native speakers is a 3. A 5 is very impressive. It is not typical.

Impressive for non-native speakers who didn't start learning a language until 8th or 9th grade, never pursued immersion study, never attended weekend heritage programs, didn't speak with native speakers outside the classroom regularly. AP 5 is essentially a breeze in any language tested for families who've gone the extra mile. My kid is prepping for a Cambridge Intl Chinese A-Level w/help from his private (given at DC British School for any student who feels like registering, offered in something like 10 languages). Finally, a serious high school test for language.

There were 637 non native speakers who got 5s in the last data. This thing you think is a breeze is something that virtually no high school students are doing. This is not a BASIS issue specifically.

[Anonymous]

PP isn't wrong that AP language tests aren't tough by high school standards internationally. They're only tough by (low) American standards.

This is kind of a pointless thread because there's no generic private school, only a generic BASIS curriculum. Who knows what BASIS to private means.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, if you're going from the BASIS middle school to a private, the most important question to answer is how good a fit the private is for your kid.

If the private is WIS, stressing fluency in languages, that's one situation. If the private is a parochial offering no more than AP Spanish and French as languages that doesn't knock it out of the park on STEM but expects students to write far more than any DC public school, another situation altogether.

You see what I'm getting at. Plan accordingly.

This. If you've lived in DC, you have played this game of finding the best school for your kid multiple times already. Do the same for private school, and your kid will be set.

[Anonymous]

+100.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, if you're going from the BASIS middle school to a private, the most important question to answer is how good a fit the private is for your kid.

If the private is WIS, stressing fluency in languages, that's one situation. If the private is a parochial offering no more than AP Spanish and French as languages that doesn't knock it out of the park on STEM but expects students to write far more than any DC public school, another situation altogether.

You see what I'm getting at. Plan accordingly.

This. If you've lived in DC, you have played this game of finding the best school for your kid multiple times already. Do the same for private school, and your kid will be set.

The biggest adjustment for our family from BASIS to GDS has been on the reading and writing front. In the BASIS middle school, our kid was given writing assignments that were corrected and graded maybe once a week, if that. At the new school, he's graded on writing, often fairly brutally, almost every school day. The math and science aren't as tough as at BASIS, but everything else has been a real step up. He has to read at least twice as much as he did at BASIS and annotate reading assignments in detail. Overall, his classes are better taught, generally by older, capable teachers who've been on the scene for a long time. GDS doesn't do AP classes, which we like. He's had to adjust to a system where he selects more than half of his classes, and is in much smaller classes, which he found intimidating at first (nowhere to hide). GDS is much more diverse than BASIS geographically and ethnically, with many foreign and bilingual (and trilingual) students enrolled, another adjustment. We're grateful for the math and science he learned at BASIS, but even more grateful to have been able to afford to leave (we get good fi aid at GDS). In our experience, at a private, you can raise any issue you want with admins, or elected parent leaders, and get a fair hearing, not our experience at BASIS. We're not the only BASIS family at GDS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, if you're going from the BASIS middle school to a private, the most important question to answer is how good a fit the private is for your kid.

If the private is WIS, stressing fluency in languages, that's one situation. If the private is a parochial offering no more than AP Spanish and French as languages that doesn't knock it out of the park on STEM but expects students to write far more than any DC public school, another situation altogether.

You see what I'm getting at. Plan accordingly.

This. If you've lived in DC, you have played this game of finding the best school for your kid multiple times already. Do the same for private school, and your kid will be set.

The biggest adjustment for our family from BASIS to GDS has been on the reading and writing front. In the BASIS middle school, our kid was given writing assignments that were corrected and graded maybe once a week, if that. At the new school, he's graded on writing, often fairly brutally, almost every school day. The math and science aren't as tough as at BASIS, but everything else has been a real step up. He has to read at least twice as much as he did at BASIS and annotate reading assignments in detail. Overall, his classes are better taught, generally by older, capable teachers who've been on the scene for a long time. GDS doesn't do AP classes, which we like. He's had to adjust to a system where he selects more than half of his classes, and is in much smaller classes, which he found intimidating at first (nowhere to hide). GDS is much more diverse than BASIS geographically and ethnically, with many foreign and bilingual (and trilingual) students enrolled, another adjustment. We're grateful for the math and science he learned at BASIS, but even more grateful to have been able to afford to leave (we get good fi aid at GDS). In our experience, at a private, you can raise any issue you want with admins, or elected parent leaders, and get a fair hearing, not our experience at BASIS. We're not the only BASIS family at GDS.

Considering making this switch and this is very helpful. A deeper focus on writing is one of the reasons we are looking elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, if you're going from the BASIS middle school to a private, the most important question to answer is how good a fit the private is for your kid.

If the private is WIS, stressing fluency in languages, that's one situation. If the private is a parochial offering no more than AP Spanish and French as languages that doesn't knock it out of the park on STEM but expects students to write far more than any DC public school, another situation altogether.

You see what I'm getting at. Plan accordingly.

This. If you've lived in DC, you have played this game of finding the best school for your kid multiple times already. Do the same for private school, and your kid will be set.

The biggest adjustment for our family from BASIS to GDS has been on the reading and writing front. In the BASIS middle school, our kid was given writing assignments that were corrected and graded maybe once a week, if that. At the new school, he's graded on writing, often fairly brutally, almost every school day. The math and science aren't as tough as at BASIS, but everything else has been a real step up. He has to read at least twice as much as he did at BASIS and annotate reading assignments in detail. Overall, his classes are better taught, generally by older, capable teachers who've been on the scene for a long time. GDS doesn't do AP classes, which we like. He's had to adjust to a system where he selects more than half of his classes, and is in much smaller classes, which he found intimidating at first (nowhere to hide). GDS is much more diverse than BASIS geographically and ethnically, with many foreign and bilingual (and trilingual) students enrolled, another adjustment. We're grateful for the math and science he learned at BASIS, but even more grateful to have been able to afford to leave (we get good fi aid at GDS). In our experience, at a private, you can raise any issue you want with admins, or elected parent leaders, and get a fair hearing, not our experience at BASIS. We're not the only BASIS family at GDS.

Considering making this switch and this is very helpful. A deeper focus on writing is one of the reasons we are looking elsewhere.

I have a 9th grader in Basis and there is a lot more writing than there was in middle school. I wish they had more in middle school, which also would have made the transition less traumatic. The first month of this year, we heard a lot of "Oh my god! I have to write an entire paragraph tonight!" There are certainly advantages to private, but if one of your concerns is the lack of writing, do know that it improves in HS. (Granted, I have no idea how the Basis HS writing instruction and workload compares to that in a private HS.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, if you're going from the BASIS middle school to a private, the most important question to answer is how good a fit the private is for your kid.

If the private is WIS, stressing fluency in languages, that's one situation. If the private is a parochial offering no more than AP Spanish and French as languages that doesn't knock it out of the park on STEM but expects students to write far more than any DC public school, another situation altogether.

You see what I'm getting at. Plan accordingly.

This. If you've lived in DC, you have played this game of finding the best school for your kid multiple times already. Do the same for private school, and your kid will be set.

The biggest adjustment for our family from BASIS to GDS has been on the reading and writing front. In the BASIS middle school, our kid was given writing assignments that were corrected and graded maybe once a week, if that. At the new school, he's graded on writing, often fairly brutally, almost every school day. The math and science aren't as tough as at BASIS, but everything else has been a real step up. He has to read at least twice as much as he did at BASIS and annotate reading assignments in detail. Overall, his classes are better taught, generally by older, capable teachers who've been on the scene for a long time. GDS doesn't do AP classes, which we like. He's had to adjust to a system where he selects more than half of his classes, and is in much smaller classes, which he found intimidating at first (nowhere to hide). GDS is much more diverse than BASIS geographically and ethnically, with many foreign and bilingual (and trilingual) students enrolled, another adjustment. We're grateful for the math and science he learned at BASIS, but even more grateful to have been able to afford to leave (we get good fi aid at GDS). In our experience, at a private, you can raise any issue you want with admins, or elected parent leaders, and get a fair hearing, not our experience at BASIS. We're not the only BASIS family at GDS.

Considering making this switch and this is very helpful. A deeper focus on writing is one of the reasons we are looking elsewhere.

I have a 9th grader in Basis and there is a lot more writing than there was in middle school. I wish they had more in middle school, which also would have made the transition less traumatic. The first month of this year, we heard a lot of "Oh my god! I have to write an entire paragraph tonight!" There are certainly advantages to private, but if one of your concerns is the lack of writing, do know that it improves in HS. (Granted, I have no idea how the Basis HS writing instruction and workload compares to that in a private HS.)

True enough. I am sure that the writing instruction is better at GDS than Basis but, hey, that is part of what you are spending $50,000/year for.

If you are that concerned, you might as well stay at Basis and use some of that $50,000 for a writing tutor.