BASIS Lottery ONLY for 5th grade?

[Anonymous]

As a (mostly content) Basis parent to a current 6th grader it is always very interesting to see the rage that Basis engenders in some parents (of non Basis students and a few former Basis students).

In my experience the math and science instruction has been top notch (this is after coming from Brent, which is no slouch in these departments). English has been a bit perplexing for me, since it has been so heavily focused on grammar, and not much expository writing (but teachers have been very good both 5th and 6th). Social studies/history - the content is great - the teachers vary. Latin has been super solid teaching both years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is always an exodus of kids from
basis to Deal in 6th grade. My daughter met two friends at Deal who had come from Basis after 5th.

Exodus is not the word you’re looking for unless Deal is again taking OOB students.

https://dcpcsb.org/sites/default/files/BASIS-DC-PCS.pdf

These are students inboundary for Deal who did Basis for a year.

I expect a lot of movement next year. I live in a JKLM neighborhood and know a number of families who put their kids in Basis this year for 5th because of Covid (they thought there would be a higher likelihood of Basis being in-person
so they took spots off the waitlist in the summer when they came up). They intend to move their kids to Deal next year.

Many JKLM families play the Deal and Basis lotteries just because they can. They usually take the Latin spots and turn down Basis but this year many took Basis.
I would expect next year's Basis 6th grade to be very small.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is always an exodus of kids from
basis to Deal in 6th grade. My daughter met two friends at Deal who had come from Basis after 5th.

Exodus is not the word you’re looking for unless Deal is again taking OOB students.

https://dcpcsb.org/sites/default/files/BASIS-DC-PCS.pdf

These are students inboundary for Deal who did Basis for a year.

I expect a lot of movement next year. I live in a JKLM neighborhood and know a number of families who put their kids in Basis this year for 5th because of Covid (they thought there would be a higher likelihood of Basis being in-person
so they took spots off the waitlist in the summer when they came up). They intend to move their kids to Deal next year.

Many JKLM families play the Deal and Basis lotteries just because they can. They usually take the Latin spots and turn down Basis but this year many took Basis.
I would expect next year's Basis 6th grade to be very small.

Two city-wide charter schools drawing from all 8 wards and this board thinks they both revolve around the JKLM crowd. Never change DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is always an exodus of kids from
basis to Deal in 6th grade. My daughter met two friends at Deal who had come from Basis after 5th.

Exodus is not the word you’re looking for unless Deal is again taking OOB students.

https://dcpcsb.org/sites/default/files/BASIS-DC-PCS.pdf

These are students inboundary for Deal who did Basis for a year.

I expect a lot of movement next year. I live in a JKLM neighborhood and know a number of families who put their kids in Basis this year for 5th because of Covid (they thought there would be a higher likelihood of Basis being in-person
so they took spots off the waitlist in the summer when they came up). They intend to move their kids to Deal next year.

Many JKLM families play the Deal and Basis lotteries just because they can. They usually take the Latin spots and turn down Basis but this year many took Basis.
I would expect next year's Basis 6th grade to be very small.

Two city-wide charter schools drawing from all 8 wards and this board thinks they both revolve around the JKLM crowd. Never change DCUM.

I know, right! BASIS 6th grade is going to be tiny because JKLM parents will move their kids to Deal! There are dozens of them! Scores!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a (mostly content) Basis parent to a current 6th grader it is always very interesting to see the rage that Basis engenders in some parents (of non Basis students and a few former Basis students).

In my experience the math and science instruction has been top notch (this is after coming from Brent, which is no slouch in these departments). English has been a bit perplexing for me, since it has been so heavily focused on grammar, and not much expository writing (but teachers have been very good both 5th and 6th). Social studies/history - the content is great - the teachers vary. Latin has been super solid teaching both years.

Parent of middle schoolers and I would mostly agree with this. Grammar instruction was non-existent at our DCPS elementary (not Brent) so I don’t mind the heavy emphasis at Basis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is always an exodus of kids from
basis to Deal in 6th grade. My daughter met two friends at Deal who had come from Basis after 5th.

This year’s enrollment data (from the school directory) shows that Basis’ 6th grade currently has 128 students (down from ~135 5th graders last year). At least two of these kids repeatedly bragged to my daughter that they were failing most of their subjects. Neither were inbound for Deal.

I don’t know anything about the other kids, but I seriously doubt they all went to Deal.

I just don’t see where the term “exodus” comes from, given that 95% of all 5th graders stayed for 6th.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a (mostly content) Basis parent to a current 6th grader it is always very interesting to see the rage that Basis engenders in some parents (of non Basis students and a few former Basis students).

In my experience the math and science instruction has been top notch (this is after coming from Brent, which is no slouch in these departments). English has been a bit perplexing for me, since it has been so heavily focused on grammar, and not much expository writing (but teachers have been very good both 5th and 6th). Social studies/history - the content is great - the teachers vary. Latin has been super solid teaching both years.

Parent of middle schoolers and I would mostly agree with this. Grammar instruction was non-existent at our DCPS elementary (not Brent) so I don’t mind the heavy emphasis at Basis.

Very happy to hear that Basis focuses on grammar!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is always an exodus of kids from
basis to Deal in 6th grade. My daughter met two friends at Deal who had come from Basis after 5th.

Exodus is not the word you’re looking for unless Deal is again taking OOB students.

https://dcpcsb.org/sites/default/files/BASIS-DC-PCS.pdf

These are students inboundary for Deal who did Basis for a year.

I expect a lot of movement next year. I live in a JKLM neighborhood and know a number of families who put their kids in Basis this year for 5th because of Covid (they thought there would be a higher likelihood of Basis being in-person
so they took spots off the waitlist in the summer when they came up). They intend to move their kids to Deal next year.

Many JKLM families play the Deal and Basis lotteries just because they can. They usually take the Latin spots and turn down Basis but this year many took Basis.
I would expect next year's Basis 6th grade to be very small.

Two city-wide charter schools drawing from all 8 wards and this board thinks they both revolve around the JKLM crowd. Never change DCUM.

I know, right! BASIS 6th grade is going to be tiny because JKLM parents will move their kids to Deal! There are dozens of them! Scores!

And this JKLM-based, 5th grade Basis parent has no interest in Deal next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a (mostly content) Basis parent to a current 6th grader it is always very interesting to see the rage that Basis engenders in some parents (of non Basis students and a few former Basis students).

In my experience the math and science instruction has been top notch (this is after coming from Brent, which is no slouch in these departments). English has been a bit perplexing for me, since it has been so heavily focused on grammar, and not much expository writing (but teachers have been very good both 5th and 6th). Social studies/history - the content is great - the teachers vary. Latin has been super solid teaching both years.

Parent of middle schoolers and I would mostly agree with this. Grammar instruction was non-existent at our DCPS elementary (not Brent) so I don’t mind the heavy emphasis at Basis.

Very happy to hear that Basis focuses on grammar!

I will say it's much more compatible with distance learning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is always an exodus of kids from
basis to Deal in 6th grade. My daughter met two friends at Deal who had come from Basis after 5th.

This year’s enrollment data (from the school directory) shows that Basis’ 6th grade currently has 128 students (down from ~135 5th graders last year). At least two of these kids repeatedly bragged to my daughter that they were failing most of their subjects. Neither were inbound for Deal.

I don’t know anything about the other kids, but I seriously doubt they all went to Deal.

I just don’t see where the term “exodus” comes from, given that 95% of all 5th graders stayed for 6th.

Several of them are repeating 5th grade. I'm guessing those two!

[Anonymous]

The two kids I know of are not in the 5th grade directory, so they left. (One in particular had significant behavior problems last year. He was in my daughter’s element and I heard about him all the time.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The two kids I know of are not in the 5th grade directory, so they left. (One in particular had significant behavior problems last year. He was in my daughter’s element and I heard about him all the time.)

Actually, I was wrong! One of the two kids is in 5th grade (again).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am sure that you can find opportunities for advanced math at any DCPS school. However, there is no question that, generally speaking, the BASIS math curriculum is advanced compared to other schools. And the numbers seem to bear that out. If you look at the math PARCC scores for 8th grade at BASIS and Deal from 2018-2019 (last year available), you will see that BASIS students scored far higher than Deal.

Come on, Deal's a giant school while BASIS is a small one. If the scores were broken down comparing apples to apples--Deal 7th graders who take algebra to BASIS 7th graders, all of whom take algebra or harder math--I'd wager that you'd see little difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a (mostly content) Basis parent to a current 6th grader it is always very interesting to see the rage that Basis engenders in some parents (of non Basis students and a few former Basis students).

In my experience the math and science instruction has been top notch (this is after coming from Brent, which is no slouch in these departments). English has been a bit perplexing for me, since it has been so heavily focused on grammar, and not much expository writing (but teachers have been very good both 5th and 6th). Social studies/history - the content is great - the teachers vary. Latin has been super solid teaching both years.

Give us a break. We left BASIS last year without "rage" in the mix, which wasn't unusual. We weren't happy that our nearly bilingual Spanish-speaking 6th grader was going to be forced to take beginning Chinese f or years, rather than being permitted to take advanced Spanish in 7th and 8th grades due to "scheduling issues." We were also unhappy with the lack of fresh air, exercise and a decent music or art program, particularly performing arts. And, frankly, we didn't like the dearth of character training and instruction in ethics.

BASIS is a cram school with a one-size fits all curriculum for middle school. Works great for some families, not for others, including some extremely bright, talented and hard-working kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a (mostly content) Basis parent to a current 6th grader it is always very interesting to see the rage that Basis engenders in some parents (of non Basis students and a few former Basis students).

In my experience the math and science instruction has been top notch (this is after coming from Brent, which is no slouch in these departments). English has been a bit perplexing for me, since it has been so heavily focused on grammar, and not much expository writing (but teachers have been very good both 5th and 6th). Social studies/history - the content is great - the teachers vary. Latin has been super solid teaching both years.

Give us a break. We left BASIS last year without "rage" in the mix, which wasn't unusual. We weren't happy that our nearly bilingual Spanish-speaking 6th grader was going to be forced to take beginning Chinese f or years, rather than being permitted to take advanced Spanish in 7th and 8th grades due to "scheduling issues." We were also unhappy with the lack of fresh air, exercise and a decent music or art program, particularly performing arts. And, frankly, we didn't like the dearth of character training and instruction in ethics.

BASIS is a cram school with a one-size fits all curriculum for middle school. Works great for some families, not for others, including some extremely bright, talented and hard-working kids.

I think this is a fair assessment, but there does seem to be a weird ragy response to posts by many people.

That said, I don't understand why parents whose kids are coming from immersion schools come to Basis and then get frustrated that they can't change the curriculum regarding language. I understand how you would want to have them continue studying, but why would you choose basis in the first place?