Basis PCS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know a few charters, BASIS DC and the BASIS Arizona schools. BASIS DC must reassure current parents to keep growing and buy the next building and (for those same parents) graduate two or three classes with surprisingly good admissions of non-minority students.

Minority student admissions will be explained away by DC and national union critics in the usual (rather racist) way as they have been at Latin and some of our private schools. Strong admit rates to great colleges for minority students are good (and life changing) but won't awaken the few fairly good charters, DCPS and PCSB to what's happening at BASIS.

BASIS also needs to do a better job of not being cowed by critics. Lead.

second not understanding this comment

[Anonymous]

is word-salad's lady's kid going to basis???

[Anonymous]

Why are comparisons to TJ ridiculous? Arguably, TJ is simply a competitor public school in the same Metro area, one with a very similar mission to BASIS' (launching first-rate STEM students to top colleges, including low-income minority students).

The fact that DC won't fund a test-in program with comparable facilities, and academic and extra-curricular offerings, to TJ's (albeit on a smaller scale), is regrettable, but surely not irrelevant. After all, TJ applicants will be applying to the same sorts of colleges as BASIS DC applicants, from the very same Metro area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are comparisons to TJ ridiculous? Arguably, TJ is simply a competitor public school in the same Metro area, one with a very similar mission to BASIS' (launching first-rate STEM students to top colleges, including low-income minority students).

The fact that DC won't fund a test-in program with comparable facilities, and academic and extra-curricular offerings, to TJ's (albeit on a smaller scale), is regrettable, but surely not irrelevant. After all, TJ applicants will be applying to the same sorts of colleges as BASIS DC applicants, from the very same Metro area.

Because that isn't Basis' mission. It is NOT a STEM-school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know a few charters, BASIS DC and the BASIS Arizona schools. BASIS DC must reassure current parents to keep growing and buy the next building and (for those same parents) graduate two or three classes with surprisingly good admissions of non-minority students.

Minority student admissions will be explained away by DC and national union critics in the usual (rather racist) way as they have been at Latin and some of our private schools. Strong admit rates to great colleges for minority students are good (and life changing) but won't awaken the few fairly good charters, DCPS and PCSB to what's happening at BASIS.

BASIS also needs to do a better job of not being cowed by critics. Lead.

second not understanding this comment

third. Could you please explain what you mean here?

I looked at Washington Latin's college admissions and was not impressed, but they were not broken down by race. Walls does better, and it is majority AA. Given the composition of the upper school at Latin I am assuming that the 3?graduating classes have been mostly AA? I think our first 3 or 4 may be the same.

What are you saying. We have to get white kids admitted to good colleges? Do they have to go or can we just say they got in? Not really willing to pay for an Ivy League education for any of our kids with no financial aid if they get a free ride somewhere else decent on a merit scholarship. Also St. Andrews looks quite inexpensive. We have a few years. But then of course we don't count because our kids aren't white. Oh shit, I forgot!

Could you please speak plainly here? BASIS charter schools in AZ hardly have any non white students except for Hispanics who are 40% of the population in AZ and 20% of the population in the school I looked at. So are they minorities over there who only get into college because?

Just say what you mean - in English. Tired of this cryptic bullshit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are comparisons to TJ ridiculous? Arguably, TJ is simply a competitor public school in the same Metro area, one with a very similar mission to BASIS' (launching first-rate STEM students to top colleges, including low-income minority students).

The fact that DC won't fund a test-in program with comparable facilities, and academic and extra-curricular offerings, to TJ's (albeit on a smaller scale), is regrettable, but surely not irrelevant. After all, TJ applicants will be applying to the same sorts of colleges as BASIS DC applicants, from the very same Metro area.

Because that isn't Basis' mission. It is NOT a STEM-school.

NP, I don't understand this comment. Why all the emphasis on math and science at BASIS if it's not a "STEM-school." To my knowledge, no other public MS in this city requires students to complete 30 math homework problems per night, or teaches algebra to 5th and 6th graders who're ready for it, or requires 7th and 8th graders to study chemistry and physics.

I just looked at TJ's web site and they are advertising robust looking humanities offerings, including AP language instruction in half a dozen languages. So TJ isn't a STEM program either?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are comparisons to TJ ridiculous? Arguably, TJ is simply a competitor public school in the same Metro area, one with a very similar mission to BASIS' (launching first-rate STEM students to top colleges, including low-income minority students).

The fact that DC won't fund a test-in program with comparable facilities, and academic and extra-curricular offerings, to TJ's (albeit on a smaller scale), is regrettable, but surely not irrelevant. After all, TJ applicants will be applying to the same sorts of colleges as BASIS DC applicants, from the very same Metro area.

Because that isn't Basis' mission. It is NOT a STEM-school.

NP, I don't understand this comment. Why all the emphasis on math and science at BASIS if it's not a "STEM-school." To my knowledge, no other public MS in this city requires students to complete 30 math homework problems per night, or teaches algebra to 5th and 6th graders who're ready for it, or requires 7th and 8th graders to study chemistry and physics.

I just looked at TJ's web site and they are advertising robust looking humanities offerings, including AP language instruction in half a dozen languages. So TJ isn't a STEM program either?

If it were a STEM school, there would need to be a more fulsome "technology" emphasis, which there isn't. There is robotics and intro to computer science, but it's really a classic liberal education, as in broad based. The idea is to ground everyone in science and math, even if they go into the humanities. And conversely, to make sure that children interested in exploring science/technology and math after high school also have a grounding in other subjects.

That isn't to say that TJ doesn't do humanities or a child with an interest in science won't get a lot of opportunities at BASIS. But the "BASIS is designed for STEM-oriented kids" is an inaccurate moniker.

[Anonymous]

You're really splitting hairs on this one. I'm looking at my notes from a BASIS open house I attended, almost a year ago. The HOS said, and I quote verbatim, "BASIS is a good fit for STEM-oriented students, particularly from 7th grade...STEM subjects are what we do best here. If a student doesn't love math and science, he or she will be better off elsewhere."

[Anonymous]

Maybe that helps explain why that particular HOS was shuffled off. Too much STEM, not enough Shakespeare, no languages before 7th grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe that helps explain why that particular HOS was shuffled off. Too much STEM, not enough Shakespeare, no languages before 7th grade.

What? All students take Latin, in 5th and 6th. Other language options are introduced in 7th (Chinese, French, Spanish, or continued Latin).

[Anonymous]

7th grade is really late to start Spanish, French or Chinese in 2015. And what are they going to do with kids who come in speaking, reading and writing these languages pretty well (e.g. Oyster or Yu Ying graduates), or even at the near native speaker level from being raised bilingual? There are a couple of BASIS 6th graders who speak good Mandarin. Shove the kids into introductory 7th grade language classes? Let me guess, they'd deserve this treatment for knowing more than Olga permits. Strong humanities program my foot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:7th grade is really late to start Spanish, French or Chinese in 2015. And what are they going to do with kids who come in speaking, reading and writing these languages pretty well (e.g. Oyster or Yu Ying graduates), or even at the near native speaker level from being raised bilingual? There are a couple of BASIS 6th graders who speak good Mandarin. Shove the kids into introductory 7th grade language classes? Let me guess, they'd deserve this treatment for knowing more than Olga permits. Strong humanities program my foot.

Why don't you let those kids' parents worry about that? If they were at Oyster or YY they must have had reasons for not going to Adams or YY for middle school - and continuing immersion wasn't their top priority.

As for the rest, just enroll your child(ren) elsewhere. Problem solved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:7th grade is really late to start Spanish, French or Chinese in 2015. And what are they going to do with kids who come in speaking, reading and writing these languages pretty well (e.g. Oyster or Yu Ying graduates), or even at the near native speaker level from being raised bilingual? There are a couple of BASIS 6th graders who speak good Mandarin. Shove the kids into introductory 7th grade language classes? Let me guess, they'd deserve this treatment for knowing more than Olga permits. Strong humanities program my foot.

You don't know what you're talking about.
Waste your time somewhere else

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know a few charters, BASIS DC and the BASIS Arizona schools. BASIS DC must reassure current parents to keep growing and buy the next building and (for those same parents) graduate two or three classes with surprisingly good admissions of non-minority students.

Minority student admissions will be explained away by DC and national union critics in the usual (rather racist) way as they have been at Latin and some of our private schools. Strong admit rates to great colleges for minority students are good (and life changing) but won't awaken the few fairly good charters, DCPS and PCSB to what's happening at BASIS.

BASIS also needs to do a better job of not being cowed by critics. Lead.

Shoot. 4th? person asking what this means?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:7th grade is really late to start Spanish, French or Chinese in 2015. And what are they going to do with kids who come in speaking, reading and writing these languages pretty well (e.g. Oyster or Yu Ying graduates), or even at the near native speaker level from being raised bilingual? There are a couple of BASIS 6th graders who speak good Mandarin. Shove the kids into introductory 7th grade language classes? Let me guess, they'd deserve this treatment for knowing more than Olga permits. Strong humanities program my foot.

You don't know what you're talking about.
Waste your time somewhere else

Unfortunately, I do given that continuity in elementary-to-middle school language instruction is a problem in both DCPS and DCPC. Say your kid attends weekly language classes in a DCPS public school for many years (e.g. Spanish at Brent, or French at Janney, or Mandarin at Maury) then heads to BASIS for 5th, where s/he can't study any modern language during the school day before 7th grade. Or your kid arrives having already attained high proficiency in one of the languages BASIS teaches, but is encouraged to pick a new language to study in 7th grade for lack of an appropriate public school class at BASIS or elsewhere, and higher level language class scheduling issues. It's not unusual for families to wind up providing private instruction in foreign languages outside school to keep kids on track in languages they studied in elementary school, or learned at home.

Language instruction continuity at the MS and HS levels is a sore point for some of us, and a weakness system wide. Maybe the new HOS will think outside the box on accomodating bilingual kids and others with substantial language background from the get go. Waste your time knee jerk boosting off this board.