| +2 |
Does your kid require any accommodations? Is the school honoring them? |
| Actually, because of the structure of the school some of my DC accomodation, arent't needed anymore. |
I am PP. I forgot to mention that my childs other accomodations are being met. |
| I think Basis is going to be great for my smart but ADD kid. He needs a very clear procedure and they have that. Also loves the curriculum. Three science courses! |
More FUD. How refreshing. |
+3 |
New poster. Wait a minute - sounds like the previous PP signed up initially, then got cold feet for good reason. Such posters surely don't want any particular DC public school to fail; they want and deserve selective admissions but aren't served by current options. Only highly gifted kids aren't served well - the special needs kids are, the performing arts-minded kids are at Duke Ellington, the "slow" kids and sport-oriented are all over the place. What's sad is that while high-SES families find a way forward, for the most part, low-SES G/T kids get thrown under the bus. I see a purpose in pointing out that tossing kids who couldn't score proficient on the DC-CAS into the same classes as kids who probably could have scored "advanced" for a higher grade level than their own isn't sound policy. Where's the "bashing" in making factual statements about bona fide deficiencies in DCPS and DC Charter? Far too many upper-middle-class parents continue to hit the road for privates and the burbs and we are all poorer for the exodus (if nothing more, our property values don't benefit). The city should stem the tide somewhere, as NYC does - calling such parents names is what serves no purpose. |
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+1. For an intelligent exchange on the merits of selective admissions and ability grouping vs. in-class differentiation at the ES & MS levels, you need to get off these DC threads and on those for independent schools, and VA and MD public schools.
DCPS and DC Charter parents will invariably claim that serious ES & MS ability grouping is unfair, unrealistic or both, given the current political calculus, helping explain why it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Dead-ended to raise such points here. If a high-end kid was in a DCPS or DC Charter ES or MS before Basis, you can bet that they're coming in without having having been challenged unless their parents arranged challenge outside school. I say this having done my practice teaching at a MoCo Center for the Highly Gifted, where the curriculum was at least 2 years ahead of anything I've seen for 4th & 5th grade throughout DCPS and DC Charter. Not a bad thing that Basis will track for math, but I'll be really surprised if they don't water subject matter down in DC. |
I agree that tossing kids who couldn't score proficient in DC-CAS into the same class as kids who score high isn't sound policy, it's masking the problem rather than actually dealing with it. But I'm not sure I'm following the line of thinking in your first statement. How exactly are low-SES G&T kids being thrown under the bus? G&T kids regardless of SES should do fine at schools like Latin or Basis, aside from logistical challenges like transportation, and whatever challenges the young learner may have at home - which would face the low-SES student regardless of school choices. Even if DCPS established a school specifically for low-SES G&T students I am sure those same challenges would exist there as well. |