BASIS DC - New Head of School

[Anonymous]

NP interested in hearing 17:43 perspective too.

Has the new HOS addressed the middle school grade retention issues or are students returning to neighboring schools after count day/pre-comps results? What about high school students, are resources in place to ensure they fulfill graduation requirements?

[Anonymous]

“are resources in place to ensure they fulfill graduation requirements?” Really? The school graduated its first class last year, with no problems. These things are worked out before a new charter school opens. BASIS DC opened in 2012, I think, so you’re question I should circa 2011!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The de facto head of school mom will do everything in her power to keep Mrs. Garrett as the head of school for another couple years until her 3rd kid is off to college.

Meow . . .

sadly I know who this person is and it fits the cult label

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:“are resources in place to ensure they fulfill graduation requirements?” Really? The school graduated its first class last year, with no problems. These things are worked out before a new charter school opens. BASIS DC opened in 2012, I think, so you’re question I should circa 2011!

The first 2 classes (2017 and 2018) are tiny, and all have graduated without issues.

The concern is that there are (supposedly) some sophomores and juniors who have taken the right courses to graduate with a DC diploma, but they have not yet passed at least 1 AP exam with a grade of 3 or higher. That is a BASIS DC graduation requirement, not an OSSE/DC requirement.

Since AP exam results don't come in until July it's hard to predict what will happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP interested in hearing 17:43 perspective too.

Has the new HOS addressed the middle school grade retention issues or are students returning to neighboring schools after count day/pre-comps results? What about high school students, are resources in place to ensure they fulfill graduation requirements?

Yes, some students still leave mid-year, or after the end of a year for lots of reasons.

My son is in 8th now and 2 of his classmates transferred as OOB students in fall 2018 to Hardy because they want to go to Wilson. They were doing fine on comps, tracking toward graduation but had an opportunity to get into a high school they wanted and took it.

There are definitely more academic supports - formal and informal - in place than there have ever been before. But there is still a lot of responsibility placed on the students to avail themselves of the tutoring and so forth.

[Anonymous]

Thanks to the above 2 posters for your honest and open insight. To poster at 12:25 "The concern is that there are (supposedly) some sophomores and juniors who have taken the right courses to graduate with a DC diploma, but they have not yet passed at least 1 AP exam with a grade of 3 or higher. That is a BASIS DC graduation requirement, not an OSSE/DC requirement." What happens here? Will Basis repeat seniors?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks to the above 2 posters for your honest and open insight. To poster at 12:25 "The concern is that there are (supposedly) some sophomores and juniors who have taken the right courses to graduate with a DC diploma, but they have not yet passed at least 1 AP exam with a grade of 3 or higher. That is a BASIS DC graduation requirement, not an OSSE/DC requirement." What happens here? Will Basis repeat seniors?

I don't know. It's obviously a situation that has never happened before here, and everyone wants these kids to graduate on time, from Basis. I think right now everyone is working really hard to help the kids master the content so they can pass.

[Anonymous]

How is this possibke? Did they not take the tests? Or did they not score a 3 or higher? The juniors should have had several AP classes by now

[Anonymous]

For context, in addition to these being very early graduating classes (i.e. BASIS may not have considered what they would do), the DCPS graduation scandal has led to changes in PCSB policy that faces schools - they now require any graduation requirement exceptions for individual students be approved by a school's Board of Trustees. As someone who helped start a high school...it's easy to set super-high graduation standards that exceed the baseline DC requirement and then be completely blindsided when the majority of kids don't meet them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How is this possibke? Did they not take the tests? Or did they not score a 3 or higher? The juniors should have had several AP classes by now

Juniors would have taken 3 exams by now (and will take another 3 in May 2018). A few have not yet passed one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How is this possibke? Did they not take the tests? Or did they not score a 3 or higher? The juniors should have had several AP classes by now

Juniors would have taken 3 exams by now (and will take another 3 in May 2018). A few have not yet passed one.

By way of comparison below are the numbers of students at Banneker, Walls and Wilson who have taken an AP exam, and the number who have passed at least 1 with a 3, 4 or 5 (from 2017)

SWW 417 students have taken 1 or more AP exam; 312 have passed 1 or more exam (with a 3, 4 or 5)

Wilson 833 have taken 1 or more AP exam; 463 have passed 1 or more exam

Banneker 256 have taken 1 or more AP exam; 256 have passed 1 or more exam

[Anonymous]

Oops

Banneker

256 test takers; 122 have passed with a 3 or higher

[Anonymous]

SMH, BASIS doesn't have consistency, I'd be worried to send me kid there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:SMH, BASIS doesn't have consistency, I'd be worried to send me kid there.

Since BASIS does not accept new students past 6th grade, the current sophomores and juniors have had at least 5 years of rigorous world class education in every subject. So how is the school justifying the fact that many students are not getting at least a "3" on the AP exam? Also, I heard from a very reliable source that the SAT scores are in general quite mediocre two years in a row. Since the school has the upside down pyramid model and the weak students have been weeded out or left, shouldn't the majority of the students who survived score well?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SMH, BASIS doesn't have consistency, I'd be worried to send me kid there.

Since BASIS does not accept new students past 6th grade, the current sophomores and juniors have had at least 5 years of rigorous world class education in every subject. So how is the school justifying the fact that many students are not getting at least a "3" on the AP exam? Also, I heard from a very reliable source that the SAT scores are in general quite mediocre two years in a row. Since the school has the upside down pyramid model and the weak students have been weeded out or left, shouldn't the majority of the students who survived score well?

I'm not surprised given 25% of students at SWW and 30% of students at Banneker, who all had to test into those schools, can't pass an AP exam either.

My DC is at BDC in high school. Several students didn't take the SAT at all, but opted for the ACT. BASIS administered both the new Pre-ACT and PSAT so students could choose which to take.