Middle school options

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not quite true. SH offers grade level tracking for ELA (a step up from remedial ELA), nothing more. SH doesn't track for science or social studies either (although they occasionally bump 6th and 7th graders up a grade for social studies, like Charles Allen's girl; not sure what happens to the bumped up kids in 8th). DCPS is ridiculous in its zeal to deny appropriate MS humanities and science academic tracking forever.

We rejected SH in-bounds not just because of the dearth of tracking but because we're both East Asian-American and SH is 0-1% Asian.

Unfortunately DCPS admin doesn’t have the best record with Asian American kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a little nervous about asking this based on how conversations about BASIS usually go, but I have a rising 4th grader and need to figure this out, so here it goes:

Would BASIS be a good fit for a kid who tests way above grade level in reading and writing, but either right on target or *just* above grade level in math? It can be a bit hard to ascertain math level because while they have a very good grasp of concepts and have their multiplication tables down, I think there is still room for better fluency with math facts. They are clearly often bored in class, especially when reviewing concepts they already feel very comfortable with.

The only math supplementing we've done is at home Beast Academy workbooks that we allowed them to work through at their own pace and preference in 1st and 2nd. Will do some reinforcement of math facts this summer but nothing else planned.

Could a kid like this do well at BASIS? Would they be challenged in ELA and social studies? Would most of the other kids be far beyond them in math? It's very hard to guess at whether it would be a good fit just based on scores through the middle of 4th, but that's all we will have to go on when the lottery happens.

I think our first choice is Latin but it sounds like that's a total luck of the draw, whereas odds of BASIS are higher. Our IB is E-H but we are at an S-H feeder.

Totally fine.

Basis has different math tracks in upper grades. My kid wasn’t a math kid but ended up doing the advanced track and has been doing well. You never know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not quite true. SH offers grade level tracking for ELA (a step up from remedial ELA), nothing more. SH doesn't track for science or social studies either (although they occasionally bump 6th and 7th graders up a grade for social studies, like Charles Allen's girl; not sure what happens to the bumped up kids in 8th). DCPS is ridiculous in its zeal to deny appropriate MS humanities and science academic tracking forever.

We rejected SH in-bounds not just because of the dearth of tracking but because we're both East Asian-American and SH is 0-1% Asian.

Unfortunately DCPS admin doesn’t have the best record with Asian American kids.

Come to BASIS; one of the most diverse charters and one with most Asians (7%) after Yu Ying (8%).

[Anonymous]

Or deal with reality and move to MoCo. Robert Frost MS in Rockville is around 30% Asian. We’re Asian and never got off the BASIS WL. We rejected YY because there aren’t more than a handful of native kid speakers of Chinese in the school, enrolling in a JKLM DCPS instead (for much better academics).