BASIS School DC
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Anonymous
| Second year parent with DC in 6th who is fairly happy and does very well. No group work, very few projects. Do not send a non STEM kid there. Teachers are generally very good, admin not so much... |
Anonymous
| Second year parent - we are not that happy and will be looking elsewhere. Virtually no project -don't understand how they can be a science school with no science projects. Math instruction very formula based. A few good teachers, a few mediocre ones and a few bad ones. Positives - lots of homework, small school |
Anonymous
ou have to second the "do not send a non STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) kid there. And they cannot be a jock, either.... They are much more oriented towards the European system, and believe in acceleration where your child can handle it. Do not be upset by the shadow day, especially if you are coming from a private school. Lush playing fields etc are not all that, and I believe that the academic offerings here for MS are unparalleled for kids who are motivated, willing to work hard, be responsible, and like (and are good at) maths and science. The BASIS chain (look up the founding schools in Arizona) have done incredibly well, and every year they do PISA )sp?) the European measurement of achievement accomplished by randomly selected students from 9th or 10th grade at all schools internationally...... We are beating all the ballyhooed school systems - Shanghai, Finland, etc. You are right about the European influence - the founders, Michael and Olga Block, are an Arizona economics professor and his wife from the Czech Republic. That is why we have no uniforms - because she grew up under communism and could not have her kids wearing uniforms because to her it reminded her of Prague. The oldest schools are regularly in the top 5 best US high schools in US News and World Reports. We are also as of last year (our second year of existence in DC) second only to Deal (the most sought after public middle school), in our DC CAS scores (the public school standardised test that measures all the schools in DC in terms of academic achievements). The population is a bit rough and tumble if you are coming from private - majority minority, and over 40% of our students qualify for free and reduced meals (FARMS). At Deal the number is more like 20%, and the school is majority white and majority wealthy, and the scores BASIS has achieved in just two years has made it much more difficult for people to say that the only way to have a successful public school with high test scores is to have the kids come from affluent educated families. BASIS DC has taken the wind out of their sails on that one, as someone should have long ago. Come in 5th, and here is my advice on the biggest favor you can do your child - get them into the LEAP math program, which means doing Algebra I in 5th grade. I understand this may seem a bit daunting, but it will automatically mean (unfairly in my book) that your child is recognized as one of the "smart" ones, and this year there were enough of them - 13 or 14 - so that they are almost half of a section, which means those kids set the tone and a lot of the disruptive students my older child had to deal with when there were very few kids in the LEAP math program just are not an issue for our second. So make sure your child does well on the placement test for maths (study up on basic mutidigit addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions and decimals, and teach them pre-algebra over the summer (you can use Khan Academy on the computer)) so that they are ready to study advanced math and be one of the LEAP kids. It will make a huge difference if your child can handle it. If they cannot, it does not mean they will not have a wonderful time and learn more than any other 5th graders in the DC metro area, in public and private schools. And in 7th grade children (regardless of their math level) get to apply to the LEAP science program - you have to get a rec from your teacher, and the teacher who will be teaching it must accept you, and then this year they were all put in the same 8th grade section, and not all of them are taking AP Calc either. But what it does mean is that they will all take AP Chem together next year. So do what you can in terms of the maths, but do realize that if your child cannot advance fast enough it will not be the end of the world. Two years ago there were only 4 kids in LEAP math, and this year there are only 13 or 14. Finally, the other way they resemble the European system is they have precomprehensive and comprehensive exams. The Comps are worth half your grade for the year, the precomps are half of your grade for GP3. If you fail a Comp in anything but math, you have the opportunity to take it again before school starts and if you fail again, you have a choice - repeat the grade or leave the school. And many have chosen to repeat because children come sometimes with such abysmal educational backgrounds and skills due to their failing schools. But this is a weeding out process, no question. And while it may sound brutal, private schools counsel kids out every year, and it is a promise from BASIS DC to us that there will be no social promotion - that everyone who makes it to the next grade has earned it, and that is also incredibly important in a system that is just moving all the kids up and out without educating them. Finally, Olga Block calls 8th grade "the year of decision." The usual attrition rate is about 40%, because as she said to us in her talk before the school opened, if you want to be a mechanic, or a star football player, or a concert pianist, this is not the school for you (the latter just because there is not enough time to really be a BASIS DC student). Finally, in AP courses, if you take the AP and get a great number, you cannot get less than an A- in the class. Olga explained that this was a way to eliminate arbitrariness if a student and teacher don't click. And for me those were magic words because of course in high school, especially in 11th grade, every class counts. Please come join us. We have kids from several private schools, including GDS, the British School, and others, whose parents have come to the same decision that you have - that their math and science oriented children are not being challenged where they are. We can guarantee that your child will be challenged. And you will always be able to get back into a private school from BASIS DC assuming your child is doing well academically, and you will be saving a lot of money in the meantime. If you really |
Anonymous
The reason that we were grateful for no "cooperative" science projects early on was that every time our kid had one, or every other, the other kid bailed and she was left holding the bag and sometimes it hurt her grade. You can't really get very creative with Saxon math, and you either love it or you hate it. But I don't see the lack of group science or any other subject projects in the early years as a bad thing at all, and it certainly reduces the risks of arbitrary grading................ If you have bad teachers, I encourage you to try to send an email to that lady who has a facebook page - she has been taking reports on bad teachers and sending them up the line since the beginning of the year - since they fire them at the end of the year anyway, why should our kids lose a year to their bad instruction or lack of classroom management skills? Say what you want about her, she has a fairly good rapport with some of the more powerful people in the administration - not just Sean Aiken, but Carolyn McGarvey, and Kate Gottfredson, so even if you plan to leave do the kids who plan to stay a favor and let someone know who the bad teachers are and why they are bad....... Thanks. Oh, and if you are in 6th, please tell them you are leaving right at the end of the year so they can better manage the waitlist.... I'm sorry BASIS has not been that great an experience for you or your child, but please help those of us who are staying make it a better place...... |
Anonymous
And on the small school as a positive - the largest BASIS graduating classes are like 50/60 kids. I get that ours may be smaller for a while still, and too small for some, but that was only a bit larger than my graduating class at my DC private school a long long time ago. While the tuitions have changed, the small numbers haven't all that much.......... |
Anonymous
| The school was great during its inaugural year. Not so nowadays. There is profiling, nothing to do with race or income, and not related to a student's merits or shortcomings. If they decide they don't want your children, they will come up with very creative ways to push them out. Only parents who have been victim of this will understand what I am saying. In fact, several teachers have left/been asked to resign because of this. It is a very controvertial place. |
Anonymous
Would you please elaborate, PP, on how the school profiled your child and the creative ways they school used to push him/her out. |
Anonymous
Truly what you are saying is nonsense. |
Anonymous
It may be a controversial school, they fail kids and fire teachers, but although I think two teachers they fired were a great loss to BASIS, they have fired many more who are not up to par. I do not understand what kind of "profiling" could be done that has nothing to do with race, income, or a student's (presumably academic) merits or shortcomings. Please explain yourself. I am not hostile, rather genuinely curious. |
Anonymous
Absolute paranoia... |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
Second year parent with DC in 6th who is fairly happy and does very well. No group work, very few projects. Do not send a non STEM kid there. Teachers are generally very good, admin not so much... +1 |
Anonymous
I would not rule sending a non STEM child there who is doing reasonably well in school in general and do not hate math or science especially if they are going into 5th grade when starting BASIS. BASIS offers many different pathways for their math curricula and I think your average kid can do it but expect an adjustment period since there is 30 problems of math a night for about 4 times a week. The school offer a lot of support in the math department as well with lots of teacher hours each week. In regards to science the school has numerous hours of instruction to gradually introduce the sciences which is again should be doable if your kid is willing to do the work. I also think many kids think they hate math and science because they have had inadequate instruction in these and not enough practice. Kids need to master addition, subtraction, multiplication, long division, math facts, fractions, decimals, percents, and ratios/proportions to succeed in higher level math so if you try to get you child up to speed with Khan Academy and other math resources prior to BASIS that will make transition easier. Also, the school offers a lot of non STEM courses such as fine arts, classics, Latin, modern foreign languages, language arts, literature,, history, etc. |
Anonymous
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"The population is a bit rough and tumble if you are coming from private - majority minority, and over 40% of our students qualify for free and reduced meals (FARMS). At Deal the number is more like 20%, and the school is majority white and majority wealthy, and the scores BASIS has achieved..."
Where can one get socio-economic data about school population and test scores? (BASIS or any other charter)? Thanks. |
Anonymous
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We are a first year family - DD is in 5th grade. We came from an excellent, very sought after public DC elementary school and DD, while a very well-rounded student, was a not a lover of math and science nor a rock star in those subjects. She is doing great at BASIS. Loves all of her classes, especially math, and I credit that to an excellent teacher. Nice group of friends, good experience overall. My observation is that some parents send their kids there and then for whatever reason the model doesn't work for them or their child and so they want to change the model and when they realize that's not going to happen become disgruntled and set their sights on bashing the school. All is know is my kid is learning a ton, being challenged, and is happy and sure, while there are things about BASIS and their model that I would change, nothing is perfect. If your kid is willing to roll up their sleeves and do the work, our experience is that they will do well at the school.
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Anonymous
| There are one or two posters who have occasionally suggested that there is some kind of "profiling" going on at Basis - they are probably used to their previous school, where their kid coasted through getting easy A's without ever really having to work hard at it, and where mastery of the content was never really a precondition for moving on. Basis is the only public school in DC which does not do social promotion. They have year-end comprehensive exams, and advancement to the next grade is predicated on passing the comp. Kids are really expected to work hard, and to master the content, and I think some parents come in not taking that seriously, along with not really looking closely at how their kid is doing throughout the year, and then suddenly at year-end there's panic, that their kid might not move on to the next grade. Basis does give kids regular quizzes and tests, which are a good gauge of how kids are doing throughout the year, along with giving a pre-comp before the real comp, as tools for families to gauge progress. But, some don't seem to heed that - and worse then, turn to specious accusations claiming someone else's kid somehow got preferential treatment because of their race, SES, or being involved in boosters or how much money they gave to the school, when that is really not the case. The 90s club is full of kids who come from all across the spectrum of race and SES, as well as plenty of kids whose families aren't involved in the boosters or who aren't contributing money or otherwise involved. The sole criterion is and has always been academics. The accusations of supposed "profiling" completely ignore the realities. |