how does BASIS work?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Appropriate placement, yes, push them down multiple grades, especially if they're URMs and at-risk, no way.

Yes, in Arizona, no in DC. Won't fly politically, non-starter. BASIS knows it so has taken the path of least resistance since its inception: no backfilling after 6th grade.

That doesn't happen in Arizona either. Few kids are enrolling even one grade level lower. None are doing more than that. There's a ton of self selection in entering the lottery for a grade higher than 5th. For the most part, if the kids don't pass the tests to move into their age appropriate grade level, they turn down the Basis spot.

OK, thanks for sharing. So why hasn't BASIS DC adopted the same system? Serious question.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Appropriate placement, yes, push them down multiple grades, especially if they're URMs and at-risk, no way.

Yes, in Arizona, no in DC. Won't fly politically, non-starter. BASIS knows it so has taken the path of least resistance since its inception: no backfilling after 6th grade.

That doesn't happen in Arizona either. Few kids are enrolling even one grade level lower. None are doing more than that. There's a ton of self selection in entering the lottery for a grade higher than 5th. For the most part, if the kids don't pass the tests to move into their age appropriate grade level, they turn down the Basis spot.

Does AZ use an admissions test?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Appropriate placement, yes, push them down multiple grades, especially if they're URMs and at-risk, no way.

Yes, in Arizona, no in DC. Won't fly politically, non-starter. BASIS knows it so has taken the path of least resistance since its inception: no backfilling after 6th grade.

That doesn't happen in Arizona either. Few kids are enrolling even one grade level lower. None are doing more than that. There's a ton of self selection in entering the lottery for a grade higher than 5th. For the most part, if the kids don't pass the tests to move into their age appropriate grade level, they turn down the Basis spot.

Does AZ use an admissions test?

They don't use one for 5th grade. If your child were to be entering in, for example, 7th grade, they would give the language arts and math 6th grade finals from a previous year. If your kid passes, then they can start in 7th. If they don't pass, they would start in 6th, assuming that the parent chooses to keep the kid's spot and enroll them at all. There is a bit of wiggle room, and kids who are close to passing the grade level test still can enroll in their proper grade level, as long as the parents understand that the kid will need tutoring and a lot of support to catch up.

One huge difference between AZ and DC is that people in AZ are much less intense. If they learn that their kid is behind and not at all a good fit for BASIS when their kid fails the placement test, they generally don't send their kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Appropriate placement, yes, push them down multiple grades, especially if they're URMs and at-risk, no way.

Yes, in Arizona, no in DC. Won't fly politically, non-starter. BASIS knows it so has taken the path of least resistance since its inception: no backfilling after 6th grade.

That doesn't happen in Arizona either. Few kids are enrolling even one grade level lower. None are doing more than that. There's a ton of self selection in entering the lottery for a grade higher than 5th. For the most part, if the kids don't pass the tests to move into their age appropriate grade level, they turn down the Basis spot.

Does AZ use an admissions test?

They don't use one for 5th grade. If your child were to be entering in, for example, 7th grade, they would give the language arts and math 6th grade finals from a previous year. If your kid passes, then they can start in 7th. If they don't pass, they would start in 6th, assuming that the parent chooses to keep the kid's spot and enroll them at all. There is a bit of wiggle room, and kids who are close to passing the grade level test still can enroll in their proper grade level, as long as the parents understand that the kid will need tutoring and a lot of support to catch up.

One huge difference between AZ and DC is that people in AZ are much less intense. If they learn that their kid is behind and not at all a good fit for BASIS when their kid fails the placement test, they generally don't send their kid. [b]

Yeah...I don't see that happening here. First, BASIS DC can't give a placement test, and if a kid did fail such a test, parents here would say the test is wrong and that BASIS should place their kid in the grade the parent thinks is appropriate.

[Anonymous]

It’s not that people in DC are more intense. It’s that the alternatives are so much worse. It’s easy to walk away from BASIS over a placement test if the alternative is Deal. If the alternative is Cardozo? You’re not walking away.

[Anonymous]

Exactly right. Why would BASIS DC change a thing as long as most UMC parents outside the Deal-JR pyramid zone are desperate for a decent public middle and high school? They don’t need to backfill like Arizona, allow a PTA, aim higher in college admissions, retain more of the ms students etc. to fill their spots twice over.

[Anonymous]

What would BASIS gain by backfilling?

I have a 9th grader who likes the small class size. There also seems to be more intermingling within the high school — my daughter has 10th graders in her science, math and elective, for example. So the “social pool” is not limited to her grade.

[Anonymous]

If BASIS backfilled with the aim of attracting top DC STEM students who could ace their math and science curriculum wouldn’t they come out ahead? Every math whiz who might be a great fit for the BASIS HS wasn’t around for the 5th grade lottery, or didn’t enroll in the middle school. Widening the gene pool in search of talent tends to pay off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What would BASIS gain by backfilling?

I have a 9th grader who likes the small class size. There also seems to be more intermingling within the high school — my daughter has 10th graders in her science, math and elective, for example. So the “social pool” is not limited to her grade.

Money. They would gain money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If BASIS backfilled with the aim of attracting top DC STEM students who could ace their math and science curriculum wouldn’t they come out ahead? Every math whiz who might be a great fit for the BASIS HS wasn’t around for the 5th grade lottery, or didn’t enroll in the middle school. Widening the gene pool in search of talent tends to pay off.

Welp… they’re doing the opposite of that: https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1156807.page

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If BASIS backfilled with the aim of attracting top DC STEM students who could ace their math and science curriculum wouldn’t they come out ahead? Every math whiz who might be a great fit for the BASIS HS wasn’t around for the 5th grade lottery, or didn’t enroll in the middle school. Widening the gene pool in search of talent tends to pay off.

But how would that actually work? It's an open lottery school, a fact that seems to escape a lot of posters. If they open the lottery to backfill upper grades, there's no way to backfill only with "top DC STEM students" and "widen the gene pool." You seem unaware of how the city-wide lottery works here in DC. This backfilling nonsense is a misplaced criticism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If BASIS backfilled with the aim of attracting top DC STEM students who could ace their math and science curriculum wouldn’t they come out ahead? Every math whiz who might be a great fit for the BASIS HS wasn’t around for the 5th grade lottery, or didn’t enroll in the middle school. Widening the gene pool in search of talent tends to pay off.

Welp… they’re doing the opposite of that: https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1156807.page

If you had been paying attention, you'd realize that Basis has been blasted on other threads for NOT allowing the equitable access preference. Now they are, and it's STILL a problem.

It's not surprising that they are now getting criticized for doing the very thing that so many people criticized them for not doing. This school can do nothing right according to some of you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What would BASIS gain by backfilling?

I have a 9th grader who likes the small class size. There also seems to be more intermingling within the high school — my daughter has 10th graders in her science, math and elective, for example. So the “social pool” is not limited to her grade.

Money. They would gain money.

The school is full - physically full. Larger upper grades would just be offset by smaller lower grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Appropriate placement, yes, push them down multiple grades, especially if they're URMs and at-risk, no way.

Yes, in Arizona, no in DC. Won't fly politically, non-starter. BASIS knows it so has taken the path of least resistance since its inception: no backfilling after 6th grade.

That doesn't happen in Arizona either. Few kids are enrolling even one grade level lower. None are doing more than that. There's a ton of self selection in entering the lottery for a grade higher than 5th. For the most part, if the kids don't pass the tests to move into their age appropriate grade level, they turn down the Basis spot.

OK, thanks for sharing. So why hasn't BASIS DC adopted the same system? Serious question.

They are barred by their charter and PCSB.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If BASIS backfilled with the aim of attracting top DC STEM students who could ace their math and science curriculum wouldn’t they come out ahead? Every math whiz who might be a great fit for the BASIS HS wasn’t around for the 5th grade lottery, or didn’t enroll in the middle school. Widening the gene pool in search of talent tends to pay off.

Come on, in theory BASIS DC could do exactly what the AZ campuses have done for decades. Those campuses permit open lottery backfilling prospective students to enroll and take subject placement tests. The next step would be to scare off the backfilling but poorly prepared by announcing appropriate cohort placements. Nothing in the BASIS charter would prevent this approach and the DCPSCB couldn’t stop it. But the political furor backfilling with transparent rigor would create would be epic, so it’s not done.