Thoughts on DCI, Latin or BASIS

[Anonymous]

18:23, are these parents of current YY 5th graders or current 4th graders. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BASIS parents fight all the time - on this board, to the detriment of BASIS
BASIS has discipline issues as well -
for example, the girl's bathroom on the first floor is constantly trashed - no holes, but they have taken the towel thing off the wall etc
dismantled some things that I would not have expected and require some strength - and this is the girls!

BASIS is the epitome of unethical institution. They use comp exams to boost the grades of certain students and totally plummet the grades of others -- especially at the high school level

And what about the unethical DCPS practice of social promotion??? And fraud?

Basis kids - even the highest performers - cheat on the Comps and the administration is well aware of this - at least in the Middle School, where they WANT the numbers to keep getting their money. They only confiscate cell phones for AP Exams.

So in terms of the environment, by turning a blind eye they are practicing a form of social promotion, and my kids have been really upset/discouraged by their friends who cheat although they would not rat them out in a million years. Too small a community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How much homework do kids at DCI, Latin and Basis get each day? Thanks.

Basis - my kids have had 1-2 hrs in middle school. Slightly more in high school.

Basis - my (academically advanced math) kids had 2-3 hours a night in middle school to stay on Distinguished Honor Roll (top 5% of the class), although one dropped to Honor Roll one year (top 15%).

If you are advanced and ambitious you are taking 3 AP classes in 9th grade at least - the required US Gov't, either AP Calc AB or BC, and an elective. Some kids are taking 4 AP courses. This year the offerings were Computer Science, Psychology, and Environmental Science. Oh and AP Chemistry if you were in LEAP Chem in 8th grade and wanted to get there early in the morning. But Chem and CS conflicted, and because the school is so small, you never know if they will offer the same AP electives next year.

8th grade LEAP Chem only had a final not a comp, and it was so tough it discouraged a lot of the students in it (but it was only 30% or so of the grade, not 50% like the comps), and if you failed it you could probably still have passed the class if you did all your homework, quizzes, tests, quiz and test corrections, etc. But there is no LEAP Chem class this year.

So not many kids in AP Chemistry this year. Don't know what they will do next year in terms of science APs, not having had a LEAP class and with so much attrition of the 8th graders who were in LEAP (the ones they allegedly are trying to keep).

In 9th grade taking 3 or 4 AP classes means a lot of homework - but some took 2 AP courses in 8th and and took the AP exam at least in World History - which was an option for every 8th grade student - one student (who left) took 3 AP courses and exams in 8th grade and did very well.

If you can hit the lowest rung on the AP exam - get a 3, your final grade for the class improves dramatically. They have a chart. Of course hitting a 3 gets you nowhere if you are aiming for the highest rung in terms of colleges. And some teachers are not teaching to the test or not teaching well at all.

Growing pains probably, but tough if you are growing with Basis. But the aim is 30-40% attrition between 8th and 9th which is tough socially and academically in DC. They have a pyramid model, and as the school grows by grade the incoming classes will have to be smaller so the high school will get smaller as well unless they change something.

Washington Latin I think offers more regularly scheduled AP subjects (Basis is young), and of course with DCI I think it is too soon to tell?

Basis in the lower grades is STEM heavy and there are 8 classes 6th-8th including 3 years of Biology (where everything is new each year), and 3 years of Chemistry and Physics which are so repetitive they bore the heck out of the kids who got it the first time around, but you still have to do the homework and study for the quizzes and tests and precomps and comps. Then you have History, English, Math, foreign language (after 6th you can stick with Latin or take Spanish or French), music/art/drama (no comps) and PE (no comps). Maybe PE drops out at some point, don't remember.

If your kid does not have a good memory, or is disorganized, or anxious about tests or grades, Basis is not ideal. Especially after 5th when the knowledge measured becomes cumulative (although that is always kind of true in math and both my kids took math comps their first year in). But if you are not in Algebra I in 5th grade, you do not have to take a single comp. The rubber meets the road in 6th.

And then in High School with the required AP courses and how your scores on the AP exams, which you are required to take, affect your grades. NOT for the faint of heart, or kids who are actively pursuing some time consuming beyond school extra-curricular activity. I could easily see doing that at Latin. (Yes, we have had kids at both). They are incredibly different schools to say the least. No experience with DCI but actively dislike the tech heavy focus especially at lunch etc.

I think there are discipline problems at all schools but I sure wish Basis would adopt a Restorative Justice model (never gonna happen)

Also, at Latin you as a parent can monitor homework etc via the web whereas Basis makes the kids more independent.

Probably TMI but all the knowledge I have. Oh and kids at Latin are now staying for high school more and more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BASIS parents fight all the time - on this board, to the detriment of BASIS
BASIS has discipline issues as well -
for example, the girl's bathroom on the first floor is constantly trashed - no holes, but they have taken the towel thing off the wall etc
dismantled some things that I would not have expected and require some strength - and this is the girls!

BASIS is the epitome of unethical institution. They use comp exams to boost the grades of certain students and totally plummet the grades of others -- especially at the high school level

And what about the unethical DCPS practice of social promotion??? And fraud?

Fraud is synonymous with BASIS. This is not an opinion.

I have no dog in this fight, but when you say things like this, you just sound moronic.

So you have never had a kid at BASIS. It may sound moronic to you, but I completely agree with the statement about fraud, and all kinds of tricks, both unethical and illegal, going on at BASIS. Most with the knowledge, consent, and even blessing of the current and former Head of Schools, and some of the administration that has remained unchanged in spots or stripes.

Teachers leave over this. Good teachers. Some teachers who even just transfer to other BASIS schools. As do ethical "learning specialists" (a special ed thing, a problem that still has not been solved and they don't want to). But they don't set foot in another BASIS school.

I would call it fraud rather than cream skimming, because they decide who is the cream and it is not based on academic potential or prowess.

-former BASIS parent,
who stuck with the school for too many years instead of listening to my child,
and now feels guilty about it

[Anonymous]

There may be fraud, but saying that it is "synonymous with" is moronic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Different poster but I think kids should not have access to cell phones during the school day when they are in middle school. Not sure why school allows it given that there is no academic benefit. Seems crazy.

That sounds like a very legitimate concern. Are you talking about DCI, or which school?

Students at DCI can use their phones during the school day.

I don't know about Washington Latin.

BASIS middle school students are not allowed access to cell phones during the school day.

And yet they use them in the bathroom to cheat on tests and comps. How odd!
Especially when EVERY OTHER disciplinary rule is enforced as if Basis were a reform school rather than an incubator for the Ivies.
It may have something to do with the pyramid/ponzi model that relies on 5th - 8th graders to fund the entire school.
And then after 8th grade they cannot even keep all the high scoring cheaters because the kids are so miserable. How sad!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:17:33 sounds like you don't have any concerns which is great. DCI is working for your DC. However, the concerns other parents have about kids having access to phones during the school day is a legitimate concern. Kids are allowed to use phones during lunch and break time. Not sure what the benefit of letting MS kids have access to phones during the school day.

Maybe the school will change the policy when they move to the new building and kids have a place to put phones. Maybe the school thinks this is a good policy but it would be helpful to the school to explain why, especially since this policy differs from other MS charter schools.

and I have trouble making my 70 year old parents drop their phones or computers for meal times when we visit with our kids!

[Anonymous]

so how many 8th graders tend to stay for latin hs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You would think DCI would care more about this attrition of feeder kids. This impacts their model and mission greatly. Shouldn't they want to keep the kids with the second language, rather than fill the spaces with English speaking only lottery spaces?

They don't seem to have much attrition at all from feeders, despite all the posturing on this board!

It's not from lacking of trying. I personally know of six families at YY who wasted lottery picks trying to get into Deal, Latin and Basis. They all said that they ranked DCI second or third of the four schools. Their children will be attending DCI. According to the moms, they don't qualify for much financial aid to go private and they cannot personally afford to foot a private school education. DCI was better than their in-bound schools. I am sure their are other families who also attempted to lottery out, I am just not personally familiar with them. With that said, I think the six families that I am familiar with who will send their kids to DCI as their second choice will help to make the school great. Some of them were very active at YY.

They wasted lottery picks at BASIS and Latin if they did not try to get in for 5th
- 172 on the 5th grade wait list at Latin

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There may be fraud, but saying that it is "synonymous with" is moronic.

BASIS DC epitomizes it. Done and done. Stop your whining, person without a dog in the fight and let's get back on topic please.

[Anonymous]

21:10 DCI sounds like a great fit for your family and your 70 yo parents. In my house we don't read our look at our phones at meals. I want my DC to understand that you can put down your phone for 30 minutes to focus on other things, such as eating. Again, when the kids already have access to computers during class, why do they need a phone during lunch? It sees a lot of parents don't share your support for the phone policy and would like some explanation as to the benefits of having phones.

[Anonymous]

21:13

Are you a YY parent?

[Anonymous]

What's amazing about this thread is we are talking about a school that is not even two academic years old, and people are acting as if it's a long-standing institution with deplorable policies rather than a place that's dealing with a temporary location, adding a new grade every year, and still, it seems to me inevitably, working out some of the kinks -- and has, in spite of this, managed to get IB accreditation at least a year before expected. I understand the impatience of parents whose kids are currently enrolled at DCI, because it's not easy being one of the pioneers when your kid's education is at stake, and I'm sure there are plenty of issues. (Although it's my impression that many of the actual DCI parents on this thread seem to like the school.) But for people whose kids are still at feeder schools and don't yet have direct experience of DCI to be articulating harsh and sweeping judgments that appear to be based mainly on information gleaned from an anonymous thread on the Internet seems a little short-sighted.

Signed, a parent at a DCI feeder who is curious to see how the school develops.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What's amazing about this thread is we are talking about a school that is not even two academic years old, and people are acting as if it's a long-standing institution with deplorable policies rather than a place that's dealing with a temporary location, adding a new grade every year, and still, it seems to me inevitably, working out some of the kinks -- and has, in spite of this, managed to get IB accreditation at least a year before expected. I understand the impatience of parents whose kids are currently enrolled at DCI, because it's not easy being one of the pioneers when your kid's education is at stake, and I'm sure there are plenty of issues. (Although it's my impression that many of the actual DCI parents on this thread seem to like the school.) But for people whose kids are still at feeder schools and don't yet have direct experience of DCI to be articulating harsh and sweeping judgments that appear to be based mainly on information gleaned from an anonymous thread on the Internet seems a little short-sighted.

Signed, a parent at a DCI feeder who is curious to see how the school develops.

Agree. The feeder school parents were not the pioneers at their schools. They walked lotteried into programs that were mostly developed with permanent facilities.

This is new for them, and not everyone has the stomach for it. I do think that it is harder to contemplate giving your middle school student to a new institution than it is for a PK student. The academic demands and stakes are indeed higher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What's amazing about this thread is we are talking about a school that is not even two academic years old, and people are acting as if it's a long-standing institution with deplorable policies rather than a place that's dealing with a temporary location, adding a new grade every year, and still, it seems to me inevitably, working out some of the kinks -- and has, in spite of this, managed to get IB accreditation at least a year before expected. I understand the impatience of parents whose kids are currently enrolled at DCI, because it's not easy being one of the pioneers when your kid's education is at stake, and I'm sure there are plenty of issues. (Although it's my impression that many of the actual DCI parents on this thread seem to like the school.) But for people whose kids are still at feeder schools and don't yet have direct experience of DCI to be articulating harsh and sweeping judgments that appear to be based mainly on information gleaned from an anonymous thread on the Internet seems a little short-sighted.

Signed, a parent at a DCI feeder who is curious to see how the school develops.

+ 1 We are feeder parents in grade 1, excited and optimistic about DCI