This is just for fun... The most rigorous HS program in DC area.

[Anonymous]

BASIS DC once it finishes building out its high school grades, they will be giving TJ a run for their money.

[Anonymous]

Big fan of the IB approach to thinking and analysis. It attracts a different style of learner than the AP courses. Thumbs up to the schools that do it and do it well.

[Anonymous]

St. Anselms

Very high academic standards across the board. For just a taste checkout their reading lists sometime.

[Anonymous]

Blair only 100 kids and 12 Intel semifinalist. I'm impressed.

[Anonymous]

Private schools at the high school level in no particular order: Sidwell, St. Albans/NCS, WIS (IB bilingual diploma program), GDS. Yes, we looked closely at all of them, know kids in all of them, and have kids in one of them.

I hear that St. Anselms is also very demanding but we didn't look at it and I don't know anyone there so can't comment.

Re private vs. public mentioned earlier, the schools above are rigorous in a completely different way than TJ or than Basis aspires to be. Apples/oranges.

[Anonymous]

TJ, then Langley or McLean with their huge AP offerings.

[Anonymous]

Seems to me the best way to evaluate this would be to know the average SAT scores for each school. That would tell you what the teachers are working with and thus how rigorous they can afford to make the classes. AP or IB designation doesn't make a class rigorous, outstanding peers and teachers who can meet them together make the rigor, regardless of what you label it. My two cents!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seems to me the best way to evaluate this would be to know the average SAT scores for each school. That would tell you what the teachers are working with and thus how rigorous they can afford to make the classes. AP or IB designation doesn't make a class rigorous, outstanding peers and teachers who can meet them together make the rigor, regardless of what you label it. My two cents!

AP designation in and of itself would not be an indicator, but typical AP score results would.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Private schools at the high school level in no particular order: Sidwell, St. Albans/NCS, WIS (IB bilingual diploma program), GDS. Yes, we looked closely at all of them, know kids in all of them, and have kids in one of them.

I hear that St. Anselms is also very demanding but we didn't look at it and I don't know anyone there so can't comment.

Re private vs. public mentioned earlier, the schools above are rigorous in a completely different way than TJ or than Basis aspires to be. Apples/oranges.

how so?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:BASIS DC once it finishes building out its high school grades, they will be giving TJ a run for their money.

+1

BASIS starts offering AP coursework as early as 8th grade and a student could easily end up with more AP courses coming out of BASIS than any of the others that have been mentioned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BASIS DC once it finishes building out its high school grades, they will be giving TJ a run for their money.

+1

BASIS starts offering AP coursework as early as 8th grade and a student could easily end up with more AP courses coming out of BASIS than any of the others that have been mentioned.

promises, promises...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BASIS DC once it finishes building out its high school grades, they will be giving TJ a run for their money.

+1

BASIS starts offering AP coursework as early as 8th grade and a student could easily end up with more AP courses coming out of BASIS than any of the others that have been mentioned.

promises, promises...

They deliver on their promises, just check all their other schools, for example http://www.basisscottsdale.org/basis-model/basis-5-12-curriculum.php

[Anonymous]

Super. All these AP classes must mean that students are graduating school in 3 years nowadays. Right?
Oh wait, 5. Because the overpaid professors only teach certain required classes in odd years,

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Super. All these AP classes must mean that students are graduating school in 3 years nowadays. Right?
Oh wait, 5. Because the overpaid professors only teach certain required classes in odd years,

If you talk to a lot of college professors today, they lament the fact that these days they usually end up having to spend the first 2 years re-teaching kids stuff that they should have already learned in high school.

[Anonymous]

TJ classes labeled AP actually cover the AP materials and much more.