Basis DC Precomp and Final Comp Exams - Pass or Fail

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS did badly on his language pre-comp exam. His pre-comp grade was nearly 30 points lower than his class grade. Obviously, this was disturbing to him and to me. He spoke with his teacher who was also surprised. It did take a couple weeks, but he did get an opportunity to sit down with the pre-comp and his scoring sheet and see what he did wrong. He made some dumb mistakes and he didn't really study what was emphasized -- that kind of thing. I don't think it's the end of the world. He understands what is going on and I'm pretty confident he'll do better on the comp.

Thank you for this info. It is a learning curve - taking these exams that cover so much material, which is why it begins in 6th grade not later on - so if you want to get into a private school for high school, or Walls, you probably can.

how did you and he get access to his precomp?

Perhaps you can help the above poster who believes that you need some kind of "special relationship" with someone. Do you?
Why did it take a couple of weeks?

If it was a failure by the administration, as opposed to the precomps not yet being back from wherever they process them, I would really like to know.

TIA,
Basis parent who has never reviewed a precomp

But thank you for reinforcing the fact that reviewing them is possible and can be helpful. My spouse found the same thing with the one precomp he reviewed with our child last year.

PP here. I just asked DS, and he said he spoke with his teacher a few times about it. I honestly am not sure why it took so long, but they finally arranged for a time before school for him to come in and look at the exam with the teacher. DS also said that in one of the science classes, they passed the pre-comps back to the students so that everyone could look at how they did. The exams couldn't leave the room, but they did get a chance to look at them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS did badly on his language pre-comp exam. His pre-comp grade was nearly 30 points lower than his class grade. Obviously, this was disturbing to him and to me. He spoke with his teacher who was also surprised. It did take a couple weeks, but he did get an opportunity to sit down with the pre-comp and his scoring sheet and see what he did wrong. He made some dumb mistakes and he didn't really study what was emphasized -- that kind of thing. I don't think it's the end of the world. He understands what is going on and I'm pretty confident he'll do better on the comp.

Thank you for this info. It is a learning curve - taking these exams that cover so much material, which is why it begins in 6th grade not later on - so if you want to get into a private school for high school, or Walls, you probably can.

how did you and he get access to his precomp?

Perhaps you can help the above poster who believes that you need some kind of "special relationship" with someone. Do you?
Why did it take a couple of weeks?

If it was a failure by the administration, as opposed to the precomps not yet being back from wherever they process them, I would really like to know.

TIA,
Basis parent who has never reviewed a precomp

But thank you for reinforcing the fact that reviewing them is possible and can be helpful. My spouse found the same thing with the one precomp he reviewed with our child last year.

PP here. I just asked DS, and he said he spoke with his teacher a few times about it. I honestly am not sure why it took so long, but they finally arranged for a time before school for him to come in and look at the exam with the teacher. DS also said that in one of the science classes, they passed the pre-comps back to the students so that everyone could look at how they did. The exams couldn't leave the room, but they did get a chance to look at them.

Thanks. Sounds to me like the other parent is going about it the wrong way. Maybe have your child talk to their teacher, or talk to the teacher yourself (what exactly did you do in those parent hours where you have to make an appt in advance? Did you find out how to get access to the precomps?), or talk to Dean Reynolds.....

Clearly no "special relationship" necessary...........

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:my 9th grader's math went down considerably because of the precomps. How can this be fair?

I thought only 6th-8th graders have precomps? Obviously no one here can say if it was fair. Have you met with your child's teacher and he administration?

mother of a 10th grader.
the A became a C because of precomps.

[Anonymous]

Math is the one exception. 9-10th grade students who are taking math classes that are also taken by many 6-8th graders were given the same pre-comp as the 6-8th grade students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Recent meeting at Basis confirmed by head of school that material on the pre-comp exams were not taught, causing students to fail, yet, students are being held accountable with failing grades. - Basis is working on fixing this issue maybe so that students are able to pass the exams and proceed to the next grade, parents not willing to take this chance with their children. I believe this is the reasoning for many students lack of return to Basis the following school year and the low amount of students transitioning into Basis High School. Can anyone here confirm if students are allowed to transfer into a DCPS or Private school to the next grade if failed final comps or certain courses at Basis?

You grossly misunderstood how the system works, but somebody already pointed that out.
You could attend the meetings next time and if you do attend, you can ask questions. Several people actually raised that issue during the last meeting and the head of school clearly explained that students are not accountable for material that was not taught.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Math is the one exception. 9-10th grade students who are taking math classes that are also taken by many 6-8th graders were given the same pre-comp as the 6-8th grade students.

Also the 5th graders in Algebra I had to take a precomp even though they were only in 5th grade - but we as a school did really well on Algebra I this year. I think that was the other valuable information - not just how we compared to other schools, but, for example, how the 7th graders in World History did this year vs last year on the Basis precomp - a LOT better. Makes me feel like we are moving in the right direction. Most of our kids don't come from schools like the 4th graders in Arizona.............

[Anonymous]

My child is in 6th, aced all precomps except history (B), and didn't study at all. Not sure what that says. Did the school teach him, or did he have general knowledge that none of the other kids had? I think it was the former.

[Anonymous]

if any basis kid fails comps but got accepted into another school do they have to retake the comp over summer if they are going to another school
? would the other school still let them get in if they failed the comp? if anyone has experience with this please lmk.

[Anonymous]

This thread is confusing. Is the OP a HS parent or a MS parent?

Mocks are different than precomps.

[Anonymous]

This post is from 2015!!!! Maybe the mods can lock this as OP was asking about a specific comp related issue...from 2015.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:if any basis kid fails comps but got accepted into another school do they have to retake the comp over summer if they are going to another school
? would the other school still let them get in if they failed the comp? if anyone has experience with this please lmk.

The best thing for you to do is to call BASIS directly and ask them about their policy. No one here can answer your questions definitively.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:if any basis kid fails comps but got accepted into another school do they have to retake the comp over summer if they are going to another school
? would the other school still let them get in if they failed the comp? if anyone has experience with this please lmk.

The reason kids go to another school is they can advance to the next grade at the new school (instead of getting held back at BASIS for failing the comp).

[Anonymous]

Our kid doesn't test well and failed several 6th grade comps at Basis. Fortunately, his average for the year was still above a failing grade for all classes, and he was able to move onto the next grade at a different school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:if any basis kid fails comps but got accepted into another school do they have to retake the comp over summer if they are going to another school
? would the other school still let them get in if they failed the comp? if anyone has experience with this please lmk.

The reason kids go to another school is they can advance to the next grade at the new school (instead of getting held back at BASIS for failing the comp).

Exactly. DCPS is not holding back a kid because they failed some tests at another school.