BASIS to Banneker

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are we talking about teachers? I thought the thread is about students who leave BASIS for Banneker??

Apparently there aren’t any.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:BS more than one in the decade BASIS DC has been around. Half a dozen.

This is completely false. There have been two total in the past decade, both of which were within the past few years.

Wrong, there have been others. Ask around at Walls.

There haven’t. You are wrong- perhaps you are thinking of teachers leaving Deal? Even then it’s three teachers and two have been at Walls for almost a decade now.

This doesn't seem like an opinion question. If PPP is so sure there are multiple SWW teachers that came from BASIS the should be able to name them, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are we talking about teachers? I thought the thread is about students who leave BASIS for Banneker??

Because there don't appear to be very many, if any. We know for sure there were none last year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are we talking about teachers? I thought the thread is about students who leave BASIS for Banneker??

Because there don't appear to be very many, if any. We know for sure there were none last year.

I cannot imagine why the parent of any Basis-to-Banneker student would choose to join this particular conversation.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:BS more than one in the decade BASIS DC has been around. Half a dozen.

This is completely false. There have been two total in the past decade, both of which were within the past few years.

Wrong, there have been others. Ask around at Walls.

There haven’t. You are wrong- perhaps you are thinking of teachers leaving Deal? Even then it’s three teachers and two have been at Walls for almost a decade now.

This doesn't seem like an opinion question. If PPP is so sure there are multiple SWW teachers that came from BASIS the should be able to name them, right?

Sure. But of course they won't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've been in the basis community for a bit, and I've never heard of anyone taking this path. To Walls, sure. To private, sure.

FYI, think about the African American kids. Every year most of Basis' african-american families leave in 8th grade.

[Anonymous]

At least 40% of the 8th graders don't return for HS--black, white, Asian, Latino--including many of the strongest students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At least 40% of the 8th graders don't return for HS--black, white, Asian, Latino--including many of the strongest students.

Varies every year but it is not that high. Plenty of strong students stay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At least 40% of the 8th graders don't return for HS--black, white, Asian, Latino--including many of the strongest students.

Varies every year but it is not that high. Plenty of strong students stay.

+1. At least 40%? Totally false.

Funny how people just make up facts on this forum. Pathetic.

[Anonymous]

You can put together the numbers. 88 8th graders took the ELA PARCC in 2021-2022 and 76 took the English 1 (9th grade) PARCC in 2022-2023. This is very close to the 78 that the the pathways dashboard reports stuck around from 8th grade.

They lost more kids going from sixth to seventh grade - they went from 110 to 89. That's kind of a funny year to leave.

[Anonymous]

76 down from 135 in 5th grade?

So all the kids who left couldn't cut the fantastically rigorous curriculum despite marvelous instruction across the board by wonderfully experienced and effective teachers?

Leaving for Banneker sounds plausible, and desirable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can put together the numbers. 88 8th graders took the ELA PARCC in 2021-2022 and 76 took the English 1 (9th grade) PARCC in 2022-2023. This is very close to the 78 that the the pathways dashboard reports stuck around from 8th grade.

They lost more kids going from sixth to seventh grade - they went from 110 to 89. That's kind of a funny year to leave.

Not funny. 5th graders don't take BASIS comps, 6th graders do. The experience is v. unpleasant for some of the kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:76 down from 135 in 5th grade?

So all the kids who left couldn't cut the fantastically rigorous curriculum despite marvelous instruction across the board by wonderfully experienced and effective teachers?

Leaving for Banneker sounds plausible, and desirable.

Were there 135 in 5th grade? But yeah, there's a lot of attrition in general, it's just more spread throughout the years, it's not from 8th to 9th. But from the year of data there is - SY21-22 to SY22-23 - literally no one is going from BASIS to Banneker. It can sound plausible, but it didn't happen. https://edscape.dc.gov/page/student-enrollment-pathways

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Because BASIS is offers far more serious HS academics than any other DC public school other than the fast track at J-R and Walls for humanities subjects. I don't care for their AP cram school approach and didn't take the 5th grade spot we got, but there's no denying that their math and science middle and high school prep is head and shoulders above that offered at any other DC public school. There's also no denying that some of the black families EotP who would have gone with Banneker or a DCPS middle school like Stuart Hobson in the past now head to BASIS. Banneker doesn't seem to be getting any students into MIT, Cal Tech, Princeton engineering. BASIS does.
Banneker's mediocre STEM prep has lost its sheen with BASIS in town.

Umm..Banneker is a Humanities school just like Walls so I don't know where STEM prep comes in. I majored in math and Basis is not it. It's just kill and drill with no depth. I was very disappointed when we toured and didn't even bother. Sure it may be better than other DCPS MS in Math but nothing to write home about. Just go with a math tutor for the win.The majority of the kids that have gone to the good eng schools have followed that model.

Oh, you went to an open house and are now an expert on the math program at BASIS?

We actually have kids taking math at BASIS. What they are doing is far more advanced than what we were doing at the same age. No question in our mind that it offers the most advanced math curriculum among DC publics.

I’d argue many of those kids have a surface understanding of the math but not a deep conceptual understanding. I’ve taught many kids who left Basis after middle school. Some are great at math, some are okay and most were accelerated too quickly and the gaps really showed. Flame away but I have a relatively large sample size for my observations.

It seems very likely that both of these are true -- that a lot of kids who leave after middle school were accelerated too fast and that some kids, particularly kids who it works for and who stay, are legitimately getting taught much more advanced math than they would get elsewhere. It's too bad that there isn't a way for kids who would benefit from that acceleration to be guaranteed a way of accessing it in DC.

OK, where do you teach, what grade, and how many ex-Basis kids have you had?

This is all public. BASIS's slower math track starts kids on high school math in 7th grade. Last year, there were 49 sixth graders, or about 40% of the class, who scored below-proficient in sixth grade math. Those who stuck around got accelerated multiple years ahead of what they were ready for because that's BASIS's model. Many of those kids will wind up leaving. The charter school model doesn't allow schools to practice selective admissions or even tell parents "your kid will not succeed here", but it does allow them to have a curriculum that is developmentally inappropriate for most kids in DC and a good chunk of their students. It's very weird.

Not really.

Basis doesn’t socially promote or backfill, and teaches at a more advanced level than other public schools in DC. No surprise that kids leave.

And since Basis is 100% lottery there is also no surprise that not every kid in 5th and 6th grade is a math star. However, if you look at high school PARCC scores and average math SAT scores, after kids have been at Basis for a while, Basis is top in DC.

If you don’t think your kid can handle a rigorous curriculum, you don’t send them to Basis.

Also, they do math tracking so advanced kids can move ahead starting in 6th grade and slower kids can do less advanced work starting in 8th grade. So, contrary to your suggestion, not everyone is in lockstep.

Different but hardly “weird.”

Where this started was you were arguing that BASIS wasn't accelerating kids in math before they were ready. That's what this was about. And the "less advanced" work in 8th grade is the second year of high school math. You can think it's just fine that they do this, but of course they are pushing kids faster in math than many of them are ready for. The excellent test scores are partly a function of the entirely-predictable attrition of kids who weren't ready for the coursework.

Bolded is where the DC mentality pisses me off. A school that kids affirmatively choose to attend "pushes them too fast" but somehow the fact that the entirety of DCPS not pushing kids at all and refusing to track is no problem at all. Race to the bottom with a bunch of well meaning educatiotn "academics" ruining what's left of DC's public education.

Lack of differentiation is a huge problem within DCPS. Also, BASIS pushes students who are below grade level into classes they are not ready for. These are not in any way contradictory and I have no idea why anyone would be sensitive about or argue with the idea that kids who are getting 1s and 2s in 6th grade math should not completing algebra I and geometry in middle school. If BASIS were allowed to select who they take, they would never take those kids because they're not set up for them.

Anybody know what happens to these kids who are “not ready” for accelerated maths? If the bar is China, millions of kids take and pass accelerated math. Does even mere exposure to higher maths faster help children at the bottom? What are the lowest test scores at BASIS in 6-8? Are they lower than the lowest scores at other schools or does it show exposure to higher level math brings their scores up even if they aren’t particularly good at it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:76 down from 135 in 5th grade?

So all the kids who left couldn't cut the fantastically rigorous curriculum despite marvelous instruction across the board by wonderfully experienced and effective teachers?

Leaving for Banneker sounds plausible, and desirable.

Were there 135 in 5th grade? But yeah, there's a lot of attrition in general, it's just more spread throughout the years, it's not from 8th to 9th. But from the year of data there is - SY21-22 to SY22-23 - literally no one is going from BASIS to Banneker. It can sound plausible, but it didn't happen. https://edscape.dc.gov/page/student-enrollment-pathways

But the pathways enrollment info isn't entirely accurate. Rising 9th graders sometimes get off WLs for programs late in the summer or even after school has started after they'd already enrolled in a DCPS or DCPCS option for 9th grade, which the public pathways info doesn't always capture. There are BASIS middle school grades at Banneker, in the single digits.