Does anyone know the status of the Proposed BASIS Expansion

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Disagree. You overestimate the popularity of the Basis middle school. Most CH families with 4th graders who enter the 5th grade lottery list both Latins ahead of Basis. The Basis waitlist also moves 60+ spots every summer; this means that there are 60+ families who listed Basis on their lottery bingo card and then after matching declined the space. You also underestimate the extent to which some core CH families moved into their current home in part due to the IB elementary school. They are not likely to give that up in early elementary to commute to Basis simply to lock in the middle school. Lastly, people will disagree here, SH/EH have some buy-in now where not everyone is likely to know precisely how they feel about that option until they take a harder look at it in the late elementary years. Shaw is its own different question mark with rights to Francis Stevens and Euclid.

SH/EH do both have some buy in now. Enough that it angers me to no end that they didn’t combine them to do a Deal for Ward 6. It would have worked.

Yes -- this is the way!

Right! Never happening. Why dwell on it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Disagree. You overestimate the popularity of the Basis middle school. Most CH families with 4th graders who enter the 5th grade lottery list both Latins ahead of Basis. The Basis waitlist also moves 60+ spots every summer; this means that there are 60+ families who listed Basis on their lottery bingo card and then after matching declined the space. You also underestimate the extent to which some core CH families moved into their current home in part due to the IB elementary school. They are not likely to give that up in early elementary to commute to Basis simply to lock in the middle school. Lastly, people will disagree here, SH/EH have some buy-in now where not everyone is likely to know precisely how they feel about that option until they take a harder look at it in the late elementary years. Shaw is its own different question mark with rights to Francis Stevens and Euclid.

SH/EH do both have some buy in now. Enough that it angers me to no end that they didn’t combine them to do a Deal for Ward 6. It would have worked.

Yes -- this is the way!

This never was a good option and never will be. DC will never make a separate magnet Middle School that will somehow magically only take higher achieving students, which I think is a good thing . And if the suggestion is to create one giant Middle School that has a higher number of kids at all levels, there is nowhere within the broader Capitol Hill area to house a school of that size, and as a parent with a child at a Capitol Hill Middle School, I would not want my child to go to a middle school with a thousand children anyway.

The thousand children isn't the stumbling block. We have a bunch of Hill pals and neighbors who've run off to Arlington and Fairfax middle schools with a thousand students, or close, that they like. I'm told that these schools offer a full menu of honors classes for 7th and 8th grades and math as advanced as the most advanced BASIS middle school math track. They also offer great facilities, an indoor track at one, impressive auditoriums, big playing fields, nicely kept tennis courts, green houses and school vegetable gardens, multiple big practice music rooms, free instrumental music lessons to all who sign up for daily band or orchestra etc.

What we have are so-so or crappy public schools after elementary because most DC voters are fine with the arrangement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Disagree. You overestimate the popularity of the Basis middle school. Most CH families with 4th graders who enter the 5th grade lottery list both Latins ahead of Basis. The Basis waitlist also moves 60+ spots every summer; this means that there are 60+ families who listed Basis on their lottery bingo card and then after matching declined the space. You also underestimate the extent to which some core CH families moved into their current home in part due to the IB elementary school. They are not likely to give that up in early elementary to commute to Basis simply to lock in the middle school. Lastly, people will disagree here, SH/EH have some buy-in now where not everyone is likely to know precisely how they feel about that option until they take a harder look at it in the late elementary years. Shaw is its own different question mark with rights to Francis Stevens and Euclid.

SH/EH do both have some buy in now. Enough that it angers me to no end that they didn’t combine them to do a Deal for Ward 6. It would have worked.

Yes -- this is the way!

This never was a good option and never will be. DC will never make a separate magnet Middle School that will somehow magically only take higher achieving students, which I think is a good thing . And if the suggestion is to create one giant Middle School that has a higher number of kids at all levels, there is nowhere within the broader Capitol Hill area to house a school of that size, and as a parent with a child at a Capitol Hill Middle School, I would not want my child to go to a middle school with a thousand children anyway.

The thousand children isn't the stumbling block. We have a bunch of Hill pals and neighbors who've run off to Arlington and Fairfax middle schools with a thousand students, or close, that they like. I'm told that these schools offer a full menu of honors classes for 7th and 8th grades and math as advanced as the most advanced BASIS middle school math track. They also offer great facilities, an indoor track at one, impressive auditoriums, big playing fields, nicely kept tennis courts, green houses and school vegetable gardens, multiple big practice music rooms, free instrumental music lessons to all who sign up for daily band or orchestra etc.

What we have are so-so or crappy public schools after elementary because most DC voters are fine with the arrangement.

Yes. It's because there's no single building on the Hill where it would fit.

And yes, I don't really care because I know I'd never get in OOB. Our IB middle is way worse than any of the three Hill middles so changing that would be my priority in voting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Disagree. You overestimate the popularity of the Basis middle school. Most CH families with 4th graders who enter the 5th grade lottery list both Latins ahead of Basis. The Basis waitlist also moves 60+ spots every summer; this means that there are 60+ families who listed Basis on their lottery bingo card and then after matching declined the space. You also underestimate the extent to which some core CH families moved into their current home in part due to the IB elementary school. They are not likely to give that up in early elementary to commute to Basis simply to lock in the middle school. Lastly, people will disagree here, SH/EH have some buy-in now where not everyone is likely to know precisely how they feel about that option until they take a harder look at it in the late elementary years. Shaw is its own different question mark with rights to Francis Stevens and Euclid.

SH/EH do both have some buy in now. Enough that it angers me to no end that they didn’t combine them to do a Deal for Ward 6. It would have worked.

Yes -- this is the way!

This never was a good option and never will be. DC will never make a separate magnet Middle School that will somehow magically only take higher achieving students, which I think is a good thing . And if the suggestion is to create one giant Middle School that has a higher number of kids at all levels, there is nowhere within the broader Capitol Hill area to house a school of that size, and as a parent with a child at a Capitol Hill Middle School, I would not want my child to go to a middle school with a thousand children anyway.

The thousand children isn't the stumbling block. We have a bunch of Hill pals and neighbors who've run off to Arlington and Fairfax middle schools with a thousand students, or close, that they like. I'm told that these schools offer a full menu of honors classes for 7th and 8th grades and math as advanced as the most advanced BASIS middle school math track. They also offer great facilities, an indoor track at one, impressive auditoriums, big playing fields, nicely kept tennis courts, green houses and school vegetable gardens, multiple big practice music rooms, free instrumental music lessons to all who sign up for daily band or orchestra etc.

What we have are so-so or crappy public schools after elementary because most DC voters are fine with the arrangement.

Yes. It's because there's no single building on the Hill where it would fit.

And yes, I don't really care because I know I'd never get in OOB. Our IB middle is way worse than any of the three Hill middles so changing that would be my priority in voting.

I know they exist in the suburbs, but for my family at least, I still would not want my kid at a middle school with a thousand kids regardless. I went to a high school that had several thousand students, And while the facilities were great and they offered a million different classes and programs, it was very easy for kids to get lost in the shuffle. Not to mention the pressure cooker mentality when there are so many kids competing to be the best at everything (sports, academics, arts, etc)

[Anonymous]

Beggars can't be choosers. I'd kill for a seriously good by-right Ward 6 middle school, even if it had more than a thousand kids. I'd also go for a strong high school with more than 2,000 students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even more desperate but, collectively, there aren't as many UMC families in those neighborhoods as on the Hill. And the ones there are less likely to be as dug in as the CH crowd, mostly longtime homeowners. Many of these people arrives as Hill staffers in their early 20s. Now they're in their 40s and 50s and aren't in the mood to leave.

Maybe you should get out more. Bloomingdale and Shaw are lousy with UMC homeowners with mid-elementary-age children.

Can verify that this is true. Getting trickier as this wave reaches middle school age... Many people moved at that point, we went with BASiS, have several friends at Latin, and lots of people choose ITDS with the hopes of getting their kids into one of the application high schools or private. There is a lot of enthusiasm for the John Francis option for those three grades who now have those rights in Shaw, and a bit of nervousness around the new Euclid option. I really really hope that DCPS makes that school appealing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Disagree. You overestimate the popularity of the Basis middle school. Most CH families with 4th graders who enter the 5th grade lottery list both Latins ahead of Basis. The Basis waitlist also moves 60+ spots every summer; this means that there are 60+ families who listed Basis on their lottery bingo card and then after matching declined the space. You also underestimate the extent to which some core CH families moved into their current home in part due to the IB elementary school. They are not likely to give that up in early elementary to commute to Basis simply to lock in the middle school. Lastly, people will disagree here, SH/EH have some buy-in now where not everyone is likely to know precisely how they feel about that option until they take a harder look at it in the late elementary years. Shaw is its own different question mark with rights to Francis Stevens and Euclid.

SH/EH do both have some buy in now. Enough that it angers me to no end that they didn’t combine them to do a Deal for Ward 6. It would have worked.

Yes -- this is the way!

This never was a good option and never will be. DC will never make a separate magnet Middle School that will somehow magically only take higher achieving students, which I think is a good thing . And if the suggestion is to create one giant Middle School that has a higher number of kids at all levels, there is nowhere within the broader Capitol Hill area to house a school of that size, and as a parent with a child at a Capitol Hill Middle School, I would not want my child to go to a middle school with a thousand children anyway.

The thousand children isn't the stumbling block. We have a bunch of Hill pals and neighbors who've run off to Arlington and Fairfax middle schools with a thousand students, or close, that they like. I'm told that these schools offer a full menu of honors classes for 7th and 8th grades and math as advanced as the most advanced BASIS middle school math track. They also offer great facilities, an indoor track at one, impressive auditoriums, big playing fields, nicely kept tennis courts, green houses and school vegetable gardens, multiple big practice music rooms, free instrumental music lessons to all who sign up for daily band or orchestra etc.

What we have are so-so or crappy public schools after elementary because most DC voters are fine with the arrangement.

Yes. It's because there's no single building on the Hill where it would fit.

And yes, I don't really care because I know I'd never get in OOB. Our IB middle is way worse than any of the three Hill middles so changing that would be my priority in voting.

I suggested during the boundary revision process that they make EH an application, IB-focused school. No minimum grades or test scores but some simple requirements like attending an info session and writing a paragraph about why you're interested. Make it city-wide but with a preference for students who live IB for Eastern or attend an elementary school in the Eastern feeder pattern. If it gets too many applicants, admit via lottery.

Then make JA a 6th grade academy where everyone who's IB for Eastern or attends a school in the feeder pattern has rights to attend. Look at Grand Rapids' 6th grade academies for inspiration. Get the kids into smaller "teams" there, add in a lot of soft-skill training on stuff like executive function (BASIS does this well, actually) and conflict resolution, do some great field trips and other special events, and really bond the kids before sending them all off to SH for 7th and 8th grade. This would work with building capacities, strengthen the momentum for Eastern, make big enough cohorts to provide a range of classes (including tracking for math and ELA), and allow for sports teams and other extracurriculars similar to what kids get at Deal.

I wish they would have considered it. Maybe 10 years from now when they look at boundaries again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Disagree. You overestimate the popularity of the Basis middle school. Most CH families with 4th graders who enter the 5th grade lottery list both Latins ahead of Basis. The Basis waitlist also moves 60+ spots every summer; this means that there are 60+ families who listed Basis on their lottery bingo card and then after matching declined the space. You also underestimate the extent to which some core CH families moved into their current home in part due to the IB elementary school. They are not likely to give that up in early elementary to commute to Basis simply to lock in the middle school. Lastly, people will disagree here, SH/EH have some buy-in now where not everyone is likely to know precisely how they feel about that option until they take a harder look at it in the late elementary years. Shaw is its own different question mark with rights to Francis Stevens and Euclid.

SH/EH do both have some buy in now. Enough that it angers me to no end that they didn’t combine them to do a Deal for Ward 6. It would have worked.

Yes -- this is the way!

This never was a good option and never will be. DC will never make a separate magnet Middle School that will somehow magically only take higher achieving students, which I think is a good thing . And if the suggestion is to create one giant Middle School that has a higher number of kids at all levels, there is nowhere within the broader Capitol Hill area to house a school of that size, and as a parent with a child at a Capitol Hill Middle School, I would not want my child to go to a middle school with a thousand children anyway.

The thousand children isn't the stumbling block. We have a bunch of Hill pals and neighbors who've run off to Arlington and Fairfax middle schools with a thousand students, or close, that they like. I'm told that these schools offer a full menu of honors classes for 7th and 8th grades and math as advanced as the most advanced BASIS middle school math track. They also offer great facilities, an indoor track at one, impressive auditoriums, big playing fields, nicely kept tennis courts, green houses and school vegetable gardens, multiple big practice music rooms, free instrumental music lessons to all who sign up for daily band or orchestra etc.

What we have are so-so or crappy public schools after elementary because most DC voters are fine with the arrangement.

Yes. It's because there's no single building on the Hill where it would fit.

And yes, I don't really care because I know I'd never get in OOB. Our IB middle is way worse than any of the three Hill middles so changing that would be my priority in voting.

I suggested during the boundary revision process that they make EH an application, IB-focused school. No minimum grades or test scores but some simple requirements like attending an info session and writing a paragraph about why you're interested. Make it city-wide but with a preference for students who live IB for Eastern or attend an elementary school in the Eastern feeder pattern. If it gets too many applicants, admit via lottery.

Then make JA a 6th grade academy where everyone who's IB for Eastern or attends a school in the feeder pattern has rights to attend. Look at Grand Rapids' 6th grade academies for inspiration. Get the kids into smaller "teams" there, add in a lot of soft-skill training on stuff like executive function (BASIS does this well, actually) and conflict resolution, do some great field trips and other special events, and really bond the kids before sending them all off to SH for 7th and 8th grade. This would work with building capacities, strengthen the momentum for Eastern, make big enough cohorts to provide a range of classes (including tracking for math and ELA), and allow for sports teams and other extracurriculars similar to what kids get at Deal.

I wish they would have considered it. Maybe 10 years from now when they look at boundaries again.

PP here--I used IB two different ways here. EH would be an International Baccalaurate-focused program, to go along with Eastern's IB program. In-bounds students would have a preference for admission.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even more desperate but, collectively, there aren't as many UMC families in those neighborhoods as on the Hill. And the ones there are less likely to be as dug in as the CH crowd, mostly longtime homeowners. Many of these people arrives as Hill staffers in their early 20s. Now they're in their 40s and 50s and aren't in the mood to leave.

Maybe you should get out more. Bloomingdale and Shaw are lousy with UMC homeowners with mid-elementary-age children.

Can verify that this is true. Getting trickier as this wave reaches middle school age... Many people moved at that point, we went with BASiS, have several friends at Latin, and lots of people choose ITDS with the hopes of getting their kids into one of the application high schools or private. There is a lot of enthusiasm for the John Francis option for those three grades who now have those rights in Shaw, and a bit of nervousness around the new Euclid option. I really really hope that DCPS makes that school appealing.

The best thing they could have done for Euclid would have been to make Francis-Stevens PK-5 and send the middle schoolers from Ross, F-S, and Thomson to Euclid along with the kids from Seaton, Garrison, and Cleveland. That would be a big enough school that kids at any level of achievement would have a good number of peers, and it could offer a range of classes, clubs, and sports. Now any momentum is split between the two middle schools and they each need to spend on administrators.

[Anonymous]

Eastern is already running some super-non-transparent application program for kids who apply. Typical DCPS fashion of being really secretive and subjective about admissions.

https://www.easternhighschooldcps.org/pdf/2023_EPIC_edition1_newsletter.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Eastern is already running some super-non-transparent application program for kids who apply. Typical DCPS fashion of being really secretive and subjective about admissions.

https://www.easternhighschooldcps.org/pdf/2023_EPIC_edition1_newsletter.pdf

yes but that's for kids who already got in (by living in-bounds, going to a feeder, or getting a space through the lottery). There's a lot DCPS could do at the middle school level to increase the number of in-boundary kids who want to go to Eastern and getting kids more prepared for high school by the time they enroll in Eastern.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eastern is already running some super-non-transparent application program for kids who apply. Typical DCPS fashion of being really secretive and subjective about admissions.

https://www.easternhighschooldcps.org/pdf/2023_EPIC_edition1_newsletter.pdf

yes but that's for kids who already got in (by living in-bounds, going to a feeder, or getting a space through the lottery). There's a lot DCPS could do at the middle school level to increase the number of in-boundary kids who want to go to Eastern and getting kids more prepared for high school by the time they enroll in Eastern.

I don't think the issue is intentional secrecy, if you go to an open house or reach out to the school they are happy to explain it. I think it is a newer program and it has some overlap with criteria to other selective programs. They talked about it when I went to an open house last year. This could be a separate thread in itself, but as someone with a child in one of the feeder middle schools, I am curious to hear how that program is for the kids who are enrolled.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eastern is already running some super-non-transparent application program for kids who apply. Typical DCPS fashion of being really secretive and subjective about admissions.

https://www.easternhighschooldcps.org/pdf/2023_EPIC_edition1_newsletter.pdf

yes but that's for kids who already got in (by living in-bounds, going to a feeder, or getting a space through the lottery). There's a lot DCPS could do at the middle school level to increase the number of in-boundary kids who want to go to Eastern and getting kids more prepared for high school by the time they enroll in Eastern.

I don't think the issue is intentional secrecy, if you go to an open house or reach out to the school they are happy to explain it. I think it is a newer program and it has some overlap with criteria to other selective programs. They talked about it when I went to an open house last year. This could be a separate thread in itself, but as someone with a child in one of the feeder middle schools, I am curious to hear how that program is for the kids who are enrolled.

If it's so not-secret, what are the criteria? And how does it work with the lottery?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eastern is already running some super-non-transparent application program for kids who apply. Typical DCPS fashion of being really secretive and subjective about admissions.

https://www.easternhighschooldcps.org/pdf/2023_EPIC_edition1_newsletter.pdf

yes but that's for kids who already got in (by living in-bounds, going to a feeder, or getting a space through the lottery). There's a lot DCPS could do at the middle school level to increase the number of in-boundary kids who want to go to Eastern and getting kids more prepared for high school by the time they enroll in Eastern.

I don't think the issue is intentional secrecy, if you go to an open house or reach out to the school they are happy to explain it. I think it is a newer program and it has some overlap with criteria to other selective programs. They talked about it when I went to an open house last year. This could be a separate thread in itself, but as someone with a child in one of the feeder middle schools, I am curious to hear how that program is for the kids who are enrolled.

If it's so not-secret, what are the criteria? And how does it work with the lottery?

It's for kids who are already enrolled in the school, through the lottery or otherwise, so it makes sense that information about it is directed to current students and their families. If you go to one of the tours or then my school DC fair in December, you could ask about it, or email the folks on the flier pp posted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eastern is already running some super-non-transparent application program for kids who apply. Typical DCPS fashion of being really secretive and subjective about admissions.

https://www.easternhighschooldcps.org/pdf/2023_EPIC_edition1_newsletter.pdf

yes but that's for kids who already got in (by living in-bounds, going to a feeder, or getting a space through the lottery). There's a lot DCPS could do at the middle school level to increase the number of in-boundary kids who want to go to Eastern and getting kids more prepared for high school by the time they enroll in Eastern.

I don't think the issue is intentional secrecy, if you go to an open house or reach out to the school they are happy to explain it. I think it is a newer program and it has some overlap with criteria to other selective programs. They talked about it when I went to an open house last year. This could be a separate thread in itself, but as someone with a child in one of the feeder middle schools, I am curious to hear how that program is for the kids who are enrolled.

If they said publicly "we give an admissions test, this is for students who are working above grade level, and you will be in tracked classes for all of your core academic subjects", the response would be intense both from opponents of that approach as as well as from parents who wanted to send their kids. (Which would be a problem if this became the destination for UMC kids on the hill, attracting more of that first kind of attention.) Being vague about what they're doing reduces that attention. I don't think that's nefarious, but it sure makes it a lot less helpful in terms of letting parents plan high school options.