BASIS charter expansion is up for public comment
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Anonymous
If DCPS put them out of business by offering a test-in, accelerated STEM school, I wouldn't be sad for a moment. But right now, this is who is interested in providing real math and science to my non-JR zoned kids. |
Anonymous
Yeah, I mean, if it gets it done for your kids, you should do it. But so many people going in look at those washout numbers and think “oh that won’t be my kid” but statistically, it will be. And it’s infuriating that BADIS administrators bring kids in and know that they can’t educate 60 percent of them, but don’t try to change their method or discourage the kids who aren’t going to make it. They’re looking to get paid so they have to take kids in they have no intention or ability to get through to graduation and they convince a whole lot of parents that they’re going to help their kids when they won’t. It’s messed up. |
Anonymous
DP. Your post makes absolutely no sense. What are the "washout" numbers you keep referring to? Where are you getting that 60% of the kids aren't being educated? I have to assume you're referring to the attrition numbers which--to be clear--does not represent the number of kids who failed. The number of kids who don't pass the year-end comps is actually pretty small. But kids choose to leave for a number of reasons. You also argue that the school isn't doing anything to "discourage" the kids who aren't going to make it...soooo, what would you have them do? Maybe require the students to take a year-end test that they have to pass in order to get promoted to the next grade? Oh wait... What's actually messed up is the fact that DC has so many failing schools---schools that are allowed to remain open and take tax dollars yet less than 5% of the kids are at grade level! THAT's what you should be upset about. Those are the kids who aren't being educated. The stats suggest that the kids at BASIS are, in fact, getting an education. I'm not suggesting that BASIS is perfect, and it sounds like it didn't work out for your child, but whatever ax you have to grind is getting in the way of facts. |
Anonymous
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What's also messed up is that BASIS DC picked a subpar building years ago and isn't a well-managed program today. It's still all too common for good teachers to quit after a year or two, and for the younger middle school students, particularly boys, to bounce off the walls for lack of fresh air and exercise during the (extended) school day. It's also messed up that senior admins tend to be inflexible, even myopic, in face of all manner of parent concerns and requests, however modest and well thought through. Even more messed up, high school ECs are essentially a joke, pushing most HS families to pricey DIY ECs. Right, all of us who point out such shortcomings have....an axe to grind.
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Anonymous
It might be my kids. But the more years BASIS can take them, the fewer years I'm renting or paying for private school. They don't have to graduate from the high school for me to think this was a good choice. And I would love for BASIS to give assessment tests prior to the lottery and give kids feedback on whether this is likely to be a good option for them, assuming they could get something predictive working. But DC would not like that. And what BASIS doesn't provide academically, you can get elsewhere. I'd much rather have them focus narrowly on what they're the only ones doing. |
Anonymous
Sixty percent of the kids who go in, don't graduate. That's not success. The fact that 40 percent are successful is dismal. It's good for those 40 percent, but it's an indictment of the school overall. If it was a public school you'd call that a failing school. If it was a private school and only 40 percent of the kids who start make it to graduation people wouldn't send their kids. In theory, I guess, the curriculum isn't a terrible idea, but if they want to cater to that minority of students who it fits well, they should have a smaller—not larger—student body, and they should focus on those kids. Whether they're flunking or quitting, it's clearly not working for most people who go there. And what's troubling is that as a for-profit, they have no incentive to change that. They keep pulling in kids who they can't educate—either because the kids can't cut it, or because they aren't providing an environment where most kids (who are already a self-selecting bunch of over-achievers looking for a better education) can thrive. Now they want to suck more kids into this system. All for the sake of making shareholders wealthier. BASIS might be a fine curriculum—I'm skeptical, because even the people I know whose kids graduated felt they over-cooked, over-load-them mentality was, at the end of the day less productive—but if you want a school that caters to a small group of over-achieving students who can handle a super-accelerated curriculum that does not include art, music, physical education or extra-curriculars, you should send them to a private school that does that. You shouldn't take tax dollars for a system that the majority of students won't get the education they deserve. You won't get any argument from me that DCPS sucks, but you won't convince me that a for-profit charter is the solution. With bad public schools or sketchy non-profit charters, it's a story of educational failure and it's not acceptable, but at least you know someone isn't getting rich off the failure. |
Anonymous
Yeah, but if you get two high school years out of BASIS and your kid leaves feeling burnt-out, resentful, desperately unhappy doing math/science and feeling like they were set up to fail and now are not good enough to stay (which I know several kids who left feel exactly like)... they're not going to do well in their final two years of HS. Not only can you save your kid a lot of grief—which is a nice thing to do as a parent—but having a kid who doesn't feel like shit about school will result in a kid who does better at school, whatever your metric for success is. |
Anonymous
I've set expectations with my kid. They know I will not view them as a failure if it's not the right school, and we'll keep paying attention to this. But my kid is very unhappy with the low expectations at their current school, wants a more academically focused environment, and would be miserable at our local MS. |
Anonymous
I feel like if you go in with conversations about how it's okay to not make it, you're not going to make it. And maybe you should save yourself some trouble and start somewhere else. |
Anonymous
I feel like if your take is both "it's cruel to make your kid feel like they have to make it" and "if you're telling your kid they don't have to make it, you're not going to make it", your actual issue might be something else. |
Anonymous
You are reading the data wrong. Families leave DC all the time (transient city). Those kids aren't backfilled at BASIS so you don't notice them at other schools. You also ignore the application HS process. If kids apply to SWW or Banneker or DESA and decide to attend that doesn't mean BASIS failed. It means kids had options and chose something else. Some kids do indeed leave (lots between 6th and 7th) because the school is not a good fit for them. And that is ok. It doesn't have to be. The fundamental failure of your argument is that kids who aren't a good fit and leave for a better fit is an indication of BASIS's "failure". That is no more true than it is to say that a kid who opts to leave BASIS because it isn't a good fit "failed". Tl  r Your analytical skills and critical thinking failed you.
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Anonymous
I don't follow. My problem with BASIS isn't parents pressuring their kids to succeed. Setting high expectations is great. It can be cruel if you do it wrong, but it's not inherently cruel to expect your kids to be successful. And, I guess, if you want to send your kid to BASIS with the message "you're probably not going to make it here, and that's okay!", it's okay... but if you have the expectation it's not going to work in the long-run, you probably shouldn't get involved in the first place. Self-fulfilling prophecy and all that. |
Anonymous
That's in no way my message. I don't know how you got that. |
Anonymous
If you saw that garbled mess of an answer to any other school, public or private, you would call bullshit. And what's weird is that none of the other schools (public or private) that have comparable test scores, have this issue of a dramatic decline in class size from 9th to 12th... How many kids start at 9th grade finish with a diploma? If it's not 75-80%+ the school isn't working. |
Anonymous
Based on your comments about MS, sounds like they're a fifth grader? Just here to say that things you and your 5th grader see eye-to-eye on are not what you hormonal 14-year old whose friends are passing college math when they can't, will see eye-to-eye on. The keep paying attention part is key. Watch like a hawk. |