BASIS DC to open in 2012-2013

[Anonymous]

BS. Check out the public schools anywhere else in the developed world and actually in any large school system in the USA and you will see magnet and application schools allowing students to pursue specialized programming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

The way to raise the performance for charters is the way it's happening now. You develop a school that has such high expectations that it will encourage families to self select and discourage those who are struggling academically. That is what is happening with the likes of Latin, BASIS and now Sela.

In effect, creating private schools using public money.

This is breathtakingly inappropriate. You seem to be arguing that only those who can pay for a private school deserve to go to a school with high expectations. What is wrong with you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The way to raise the performance for charters is the way it's happening now. You develop a school that has such high expectations that it will encourage families to self select and discourage those who are struggling academically. That is what is happening with the likes of Latin, BASIS and now Sela.

In effect, creating private schools using public money.

This is breathtakingly inappropriate. You seem to be arguing that only those who can pay for a private school deserve to go to a school with high expectations. What is wrong with you?

S/he is entitled to her views. High expectations aren't the only issue. Creating academic stars in HS from kids who can't so much as score Advanced on DC-CAS tests lower down is no more feasible than producing musical prodigies from kids without much musical talent. Too many kids who won't bring sufficient academic promise will coast into Basis on lottery luck. True of all races and classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

The way to raise the performance for charters is the way it's happening now. You develop a school that has such high expectations that it will encourage families to self select and discourage those who are struggling academically. That is what is happening with the likes of Latin, BASIS and now Sela.

In effect, creating private schools using public money.

What about that makes it 'private'? Are public schools only allowed to offer mediocre programs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
S/he is entitled to her views. High expectations aren't the only issue. Creating academic stars in HS from kids who can't so much as score Advanced on DC-CAS tests lower down is no more feasible than producing musical prodigies from kids without much musical talent. Too many kids who won't bring sufficient academic promise will coast into Basis on lottery luck. True of all races and classes.

just as they coast into Kipp or Latin...but they won't coast THROUGH these schools So if the program doesn't offer enough support to students, there will be severe attrition and the school won't be solvent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The way to raise the performance for charters is the way it's happening now. You develop a school that has such high expectations that it will encourage families to self select and discourage those who are struggling academically. That is what is happening with the likes of Latin, BASIS and now Sela.

What on earth makes you add Sela to this list? It's a language immersion school, just like Stokes, Mundo Verde, DC Bilinugal, Yu Ying... What do you think sets it apart from these other schools???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A school like Basis, or Latin, for that matter, would surely flourish as an academic magnet, like those in NYC. With luck as the only criterion for admission, the middle school will surely muddle through, but the high school can only be mediocre when compared to suburban magnets (look at Latin, where the the middle school is 41% white and the high school just 11%, with white as a proxy for upper-middle-class and nothing more). Great teaching, great leadership, great planning, great facilities won't change this in DC.

As you probably know, in NYC, kids test into talented and gifted elementary and middle schools, which feed into some of the nation's best public high schools, Bronx Science, Hunter, Stuyvesant, Bronx Tech, Bard etc. If a student scores poorly on the SSAT, NYC's magent admissions exam given in 8th grade, they can't attend one of the elite high schools. But rigorous test prep is given freely to middle school kids from low-income families at various city centers.

Why is the concept of what some cities call "exam schools" (Boston Latin was the first) still anathama in DC when such schools are now found all over the country? I note that the great majority of the high schools on the US News and World Report "Gold" list are magnets, not charters where the state law mandates one open lottery per school as the only route to admission. Why is luck the best criterion for admission when, as a society, we don't hesitate to exclude kids without the requisite talent and drive from competing in elite youth sports, music, chess or whatever. Genius springs up in odd places - why not focus on finding some of the brightest and most disciplined kids in the District and drawing them to Basis? That's what Takoma Park MS does with its math/science/computer magenet (admitting 16% of students) and the spectacular results are plain to see - kids, even poor ones, winning INTEL prizes etc. a few years hence. I don't get it, why not in DC. Why is this impossible in our city but not in others with large minority populations, like Chicago and Atlanta? Enlighten me.

My own children aren't even of school age yet, but I ask this in all seriousness. In the DC burbs, academic magnet programs serve to keep upper-middle-class parents from voting with their feet in droves after elementary - what's so horrible about that? Surely poor kids benefit from keeping the affluent engaged in K-12 public education in large numbers. I interview seniors in DCPS and charters applying to my Ivy alma mater as an alum volunteer every fall. They don't fare at all well as a group, and not for lack of brains or industry. While Stuyveswant will get 30-40 into any particular Ivy every year, Wilson, SWW, Banneker, and now Latin, are lucky to get a handful. Ivies work well for the poor because they're practically a free college education as much as anything else.

PP is clearly thinking a little logically for DCPS & DC Charter! Yes, public resources will be squandered trying to turn eager, but academically average or below average, kids escaping weak/middling neighborhood Mschools into academic superstars in high school. Basis would be far better off screening for aptitude, and working with available talent, no matter who’s in charge, than relying on an open lottery.

“Must Test Advanced on 4th Grade DC-CAS” to apply would hardly be an unreasonable policy. FARMs kids who test advanced should have an automatic in, as long as their schools aren’t under investigation for cheating. The CS Board should work with the DC City Council to amend the law, which has been amended before (twice).

NYC MS magnets work that way –a kid gets a certain combined score on the 4th and 5th grade NYC standardized tests or can’t go. Remembering that this is not one of the several lowest-performing urban school districts in the country for nothing helps you get your head around why DC charters can’t select students who are a good fit, like the independents do. Yu Ying doesn’t even have a lottery for Chinese-speaking kids, helping explain why they’re only a handful in the school, and the kids almost always speak English when not addressing a teacher. And YY is the paragon, right?!

Hilarious. ANY school would be better off screening for aptitude and working with available talent. That's exactly why the private schools do it - because they can. But, a magnet charter? That is ground that DC will not cede willingly to the charters. Charter law does not allow it, and everyone knows that if they could cherry-pick, they would. So, if anyone is going to allowed to do it, it will be a DCPS middle school. Not Basis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

The way to raise the performance for charters is the way it's happening now. You develop a school that has such high expectations that it will encourage families to self select and discourage those who are struggling academically. That is what is happening with the likes of Latin, BASIS and now Sela.

In effect, creating private schools using public money.

No, charter schools that are rigorous help meet the needs of students who are advanced and those who are willing to work hard.

Unfortunately, most public schools do not meet the need of students who are advanced learners and who are willing to work hard Why is it ok to only meet the needs of struggling students or average students but not the others???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:


Hilarious. ANY school would be better off screening for aptitude and working with available talent. That's exactly why the private schools do it - because they can. But, a magnet charter? That is ground that DC will not cede willingly to the charters. Charter law does not allow it, and everyone knows that if they could cherry-pick, they would. So, if anyone is going to allowed to do it, it will be a DCPS middle school. Not Basis.

Yes, but the charter school law could always be changed. Why is it ok for magnet public schools to screen applicants but not some charter schools????

Seems to me that the law should be changed to allow for some application based charter schools so that all students needs are met unlike now where they are not.

[Anonymous]

Hilarious. ANY school would be better off screening for aptitude and working with available talent. That's exactly why the private schools do it - because they can. But, a magnet charter? That is ground that DC will not cede willingly to the charters. Charter law does not allow it, and everyone knows that if they could cherry-pick, they would. So, if anyone is going to allowed to do it, it will be a DCPS middle school. Not Basis.

If only it were hilarious. DC Charter law is hardly set in stone- as somebody pointed out, it has already been modified more than once. Even as things stand, nothing would stop the city from supporting two Basis type MS-HS schools, one with an open lottery as a charter and one as a MS magnet where only kids scoring advanced on the 4th or 5th grade DC-CAS can apply. Deal and SWW would be mediocre by comparison. A selective MS will surely emerge within the next decade. If cherry picking means meeting the academic needs of a critical mass of kids, voters will embrace the concept eventually by pushing pols to play ball, as in Chicago in the 80s and 90s.

[Anonymous]

"Seems to me that the law should be changed to allow for some application based charter schools so that all students needs are met unlike now where they are not."

Because, as PPs have noted, this would create tax payer funded private schools serving a very small subset of the children in DC. In reality, all of DC's children deserve an education that meets their needs, not just the those represented by parent groups who want to game the system to their own ends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Seems to me that the law should be changed to allow for some application based charter schools so that all students needs are met unlike now where they are not."

Because, as PPs have noted, this would create tax payer funded private schools serving a very small subset of the children in DC. In reality, all of DC's children deserve an education that meets their needs, not just the those represented by parent groups who want to game the system to their own ends.

You missed the point that the needs of advanced learners are not[u] being met by public schools. Do not these students count as well? Shall we not meet their needs?

So no, these charter schools are not tax payer funded private schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Seems to me that the law should be changed to allow for some application based charter schools so that all students needs are met unlike now where they are not."

Because, as PPs have noted, this would create tax payer funded private schools serving a very small subset of the children in DC. In reality, all of DC's children deserve an education that meets their needs, not just the those represented by parent groups who want to game the system to their own ends.

Do you consider Wilson Academies, SWW, Banneker, Ellington McKinley all private schools funded by the public? Are the parents whose kids apply to the program gaming the system? You pay for those programs with your taxes just like you would pay for a selective charter school with your taxes. As part of a system that meets the needs of all kids in the city.

[Anonymous]

"You missed the point that the needs of advanced learners are not[u] being met by public schools. Do not these students count as well? Shall we not meet their needs?"

The vast majority of students' needs are not being met. The average, the above average, the special needs students, and the challenged. The so called advanced learners are not entitled to any greater services than any other city child. Their families should not be allowed to change the charter law to allow them to keep their precious lottery spot throughout high school at taxpayer expense unless every other child gets a fair chance to join that school and cannot be shut out because the families of allegedly advanced students got lucky when their kid is in kinder.

You can't shut out other kids you don't want in your tax payer funded school, under some foolish delusion that you earned it because your child is advanced, and somehow, underserved.

what's wrong with you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"You missed the point that the needs of advanced learners are not[u] being met by public schools. Do not these students count as well? Shall we not meet their needs?"

The vast majority of students' needs are not being met. The average, the above average, the special needs students, and the challenged. The so called advanced learners are not entitled to any greater services than any other city child. Their families should not be allowed to change the charter law to allow them to keep their precious lottery spot throughout high school at taxpayer expense unless every other child gets a fair chance to join that school and cannot be shut out because the families of allegedly advanced students got lucky when their kid is in kinder.

You can't shut out other kids you don't want in your tax payer funded school, under some foolish delusion that you earned it because your child is advanced, and somehow, underserved.

what's wrong with you?

There is nothing wrong with me You are kidding yourself if you think DC schools serve advanced learners since DC schools do not even have gifted IEPs or any gifted programs. In fact, most public schools around the country do not have gifted education or only have so-called "gifted education" programs for a couple of hours a week especially in elementary or middle schools.

OTOH DC schools most certainly to try to serve struggling learners and special needs kids with IEPs or via sending kids to private schools. Most public school classrooms set their priorities on struggling learners and allow advanced learners to not really learn anything.

How do you propose to meet the needs of a kid who is years ahead of their classmates??????

I guess you do not believe in serving the needs of all kids.

As for shutting other kids out of schools, I am not advocating that. I am advocating choices for those who want or need a rigorous education in order to meet the needs of all kids. I also think admissions criteria is not necessarily a bad thing.

Why is it ok to have try outs for sports teams??? Is not this discriminatory???? Why is it ok for sports teams to have try outs but not some schools???