Do parents choose Latin/BASIS over Deal/J-R?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:The Latin vs. DCI debate is kind of silly. Latin (and BASIS) is mostly full of kids who went through DCPS elementary schools (happily) and chose not to lottery into the DCI feeders. I'm happy DCI is working out for those families, but the need to insult Latin makes no sense. Very few families are actively making that choice in 5th/6th grade -- it's done. The choice was made much, much earlier. They are choosing between Latin, BASIS, privates or moving to the Deal/Hardy zone.

I don’t think anyone insulted Latin once. I genuinely think you’ll feel insulted unless people praise Latin and say they wish they could send their kids there. Latin isn’t a school we are interested in, but I don’t mean to insult anyone who sends their kid there at all. I am really happy a good school like Latin exists and I’m also glad the language immersion schools aren’t the only “good” schools in DC.

I'm the PP you are responding to, and I actually have no skin in the game -- we chose BASIS over Latin. However, we have many friends at Latin who seem to be getting a perfectly good education, with high standards, and a very happy environment, and quite decent CAPE scores (at least in middle school). There are all people who can from good DCPS elementary schools and DCI or the feeders truly never crossed their minds. Im just imagining DCI parents saying some of these comments out loud to our friends and it feels kind of horrifying.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Latin vs. DCI debate is kind of silly. Latin (and BASIS) is mostly full of kids who went through DCPS elementary schools (happily) and chose not to lottery into the DCI feeders. I'm happy DCI is working out for those families, but the need to insult Latin makes no sense. Very few families are actively making that choice in 5th/6th grade -- it's done. The choice was made much, much earlier. They are choosing between Latin, BASIS, privates or moving to the Deal/Hardy zone.

Agree. We unsuccessfully tried to lottery our kids into what are now called DCI feeders for years. But at some point, we stopped because a native English speaker joining an immersion program from a non-immersion program from about third grade on makes no sense. We never tried for DCI because we weren’t coming from immersion or a feeder. We did throw our hat in for Latin, BASIS because there was no language immersion hurdle.

Incorrect. You can attend DCI with no language background.

Also many CH BTW try to lottery into 6th if they strike out in 5th

How can you get into DCI without coming from a feeder?

Why would you?

There are spots for non-feeders but less each year as the school continues to get better every year and most feeder kids track. No chance to get in for spanish track but you have a chance for French or Chinese. They have language 101 classes for these kids.

Doing well in an IB diploma absolutely makes you stand out among the dime a dozen kids doing AP courses. It also gives you so much more flexibility in college options abroad where IB is the accepted. BTW good abroad programs are much, much less expensive then in the states. Lastly, there is a heavy focus on writing in addition to mini-thesis requirement, and these kids typically are much stronger writers.

Also they multiple levels of math tracking with the highest basically taking AP Calculus in 10th and post Calculus math for 11th and 12th with 2 different levels in each class - standard and high level.

I have looked, but I have yet to find, a college or university math department that gives post-calculus credit for any score on any IB math exam. Most seem to treat even HL IB math as equivalent to AP Calc AB. And few give any credit at all for SL IB math.

That doesn’t mean IB math is bad. It might be beneficial for students who accelerated young to repeat basic algebra and calculus concepts in a different format. IB math seems to be an adequate substitute for AP math if you have to pick one. And IB math allows you to get an IB diploma. But if you actually want “post-calculus” math, you should be looking at dual enrollment in actual post-calculus math courses, not messing around with IB.

I think, going forward, universities are just going to be less likely grant credit for AP math classes and more likely to just let you take a more advanced class. This is already true for BC where, if you want to be a math major or engineering, you tend to get put into a more advanced multi variate rather than get a pass out of multi variate. Universities just can’t trust the training, and an AP score isn’t necessary and sufficient to assume kids don’t have something foundational and important.

BC isn’t multi variable calculus so of course it doesn’t get you credit. Your argument doesn’t really make sense.

Yeah, but there is something there. I used my BC calc score to test out of the first two semesters of calc and was put in multi variate, and I had to drop the class because I was lost (and I was an excellent math student up until that point). I would have been much better served by retaking Calc. This was at a state flagship. Maybe husband went to a much better college and they made everyone retake calc there and now he works in STEM.

Not to say that it's not very valuable to take the highest levels of math in high school -- but maybe not for the point of skipping ahead.

I’m a HS math teacher and plenty of kids get credit for BC and start with multivariable. I have kids come back or email me every year that they are minoring in math because they only have to take a few courses. Or start with multivariable even when going into a stem major. It is common enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Latin vs. DCI debate is kind of silly. Latin (and BASIS) is mostly full of kids who went through DCPS elementary schools (happily) and chose not to lottery into the DCI feeders. I'm happy DCI is working out for those families, but the need to insult Latin makes no sense. Very few families are actively making that choice in 5th/6th grade -- it's done. The choice was made much, much earlier. They are choosing between Latin, BASIS, privates or moving to the Deal/Hardy zone.

Agree. We unsuccessfully tried to lottery our kids into what are now called DCI feeders for years. But at some point, we stopped because a native English speaker joining an immersion program from a non-immersion program from about third grade on makes no sense. We never tried for DCI because we weren’t coming from immersion or a feeder. We did throw our hat in for Latin, BASIS because there was no language immersion hurdle.

Incorrect. You can attend DCI with no language background.

Also many CH BTW try to lottery into 6th if they strike out in 5th

How can you get into DCI without coming from a feeder?

Why would you?

There are spots for non-feeders but less each year as the school continues to get better every year and most feeder kids track. No chance to get in for spanish track but you have a chance for French or Chinese. They have language 101 classes for these kids.

Doing well in an IB diploma absolutely makes you stand out among the dime a dozen kids doing AP courses. It also gives you so much more flexibility in college options abroad where IB is the accepted. BTW good abroad programs are much, much less expensive then in the states. Lastly, there is a heavy focus on writing in addition to mini-thesis requirement, and these kids typically are much stronger writers.

Do students starting with French or Chinese 101 take all their other classes in English?

Yes but those with more advanced language take history (called I&S) and electives in their target language.

Feeder family not at DCI yet but my understanding is that languages tracks and there are 5 levels. Kids in the higher levels can take other courses like above in the language so essentially a track within a track.

If scenario above is PP’s kid is not coming from feeder with no language background then kid will only have the language course in the language. The kids are required to take the language every year from 6-12th so if PP’s kids does well in the language and moves up in the levels in 2 or 3 years or however long, then yes they can take other courses in the language

Students weak in the language don’t have the option which is as it should be. Need to be learn the language first and be proficient before taking other subjects in the language.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Yes, but the fact remains that these aren't great options as compared to the best options in the near burbs, not even close.

Our family keeps in close touch with friends who moved from Cap Hill to MoCo, Arlington and Fairfax for schools. We also visit their kids' schools now and again for sporting events, competitions, high school musicals and the like.

It's clear to me that none of our public high school options in the District--BASIS, Latin, DCI, Walls, J-R--can touch these suburban programs on any level. Top suburban schools might as well be on a different planet. If you never tour suburban schools and aren't familiar with their offerings, this fact may be lost on you. I'm particularly jealous of honors middle school classes across the board in Arlington and Fairfax.

I've been shown printouts from suburban high schools listing more than 100 serious sounding electives any student can take. None of you ask yourselves how BASIS, Latin, DCI, J-R and Walls compare because....moving to the burbs for high school is a fate worse than death or what?

Whoever wrote this knows nothing about J-R.

I don’t doubt some suburban schools have more electives…but that’s a small consideration in selecting a high school.

For kids taking rigorous, 10+ AP schedules plus PE, art and music requirements…there aren’t many slots left for electives. There are really no slots if you are in a JR academy like engineering as you are essentially taking those classes as electives.

This post makes no sense. The suburbs seldom have art or music requirements in HS, and not much in the way of PE/Health either. No student needs to take 10 AP classes anywhere, no matter how ambitious they may be on the college admissions front. In the burbs, students can often meet PE requirements on-line or over summers. The burbs don't just offer dozens of serious electives, but feeder middle schools with strong academics/honors classes, better trained teachers overall, more STEM classes, more and languages (e.g. HS Russian, Korean, Japanese, Hebrew, Portuguese, Hindi etc). They also offer high-performing IB Diploma programs that don't operate as IB for all like at DCI. The burbs offer far richer opportunities for a kid to shine in running with their interests, without parents have to pay out of pocket.

We didn't make it through Deal. The teaching was far too uneven, most classes weren't hard enough, and the building was much too chaotic. We got into BASIS and, on close inspection, weren't impressed. If you don't want to move to the burbs, fine, but you're not going to convince me that public schools are....better here.

Wow, it’s amazing that your kid managed to start at Deal and transfer to BASIS, considering how BASIS never admits anyone after 5th grade, and Deal doesn’t start until 6th.

That's not what PP claimed. They must have lotteried into BASIS from the Deal district for 5th grade but didn't take the spot. Same for us, we considered BASIS because our eldest was bored in a Deal feeder, but the building was just too awful. We're at a parochial school for middle school, a stretch for us financially, hoping for Walls.

Not like the Walls building and “campus” is so great either. Plus, getting into Walls nowadays is a total crapshoot given the stupid admissions requirements.

Enjoy paying for Catholic school through graduation. ✝️

DP. You seem like a really nice BASIS parent whose attitude makes other parents want their kids to go to BASIS.

I am a bitter Walls parent.

Too funny! Makes me sad PPP isn't self aware enough to realize the self-own.