BASIS

[Anonymous]

Well I'm not carping mom. Call me skeptical dad who'd be leaving if we had a better option. PP above sugarcoats the situation. Rude and dismissive "apologist" parents are the ones with nothing to add to the conversation. What they do is slam anybody with the gall to call out a self-serving administration (new one, last one), and not just here on DCUM. They're grasping at straws on PARCC scores. It's not even PARCC anymore, it's CAPE and many high performing high school students don't take the useless test seriously. Why should they? What's it in for them? Some top students do leave for Walls.

No, BASIS students aren't "as good" as Walls' students overall because they aren't supported in building impressive CVs in the same way. Strong ECs can make all the difference in college admissions.

The point about BASIS' inability to replace high-fliers is a fair one, but I'm not sure that things are set in stone as all that. Some of us think that BASIS could and should try to rework their DC charter, like other DC charters have done. But our opinion counts for zilch. Parents have no say at BASIS, none, teachers, too. This is the franchise that bans PTAs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can we also stop with the narrative that it's just one or two parents "endlessly carping" about the school on these threads? Sounds to me like we haven't heard from Stockholm Syndrome mom before. Fact is, BASIS DC always loses more than half the families who started in 5th grade by 9th, and at least 60% by 12th. Please stop telling the BASIS families who point out glaring problems with the program on DCUM to shut up and go away. No DC taxpayer needs to listen to an obnoxious jerk advising them to send their kid to a crappy neighborhood school if a poorly run charter hasn't worked out. Pipe down, particularly middle school parents waxing enthusiastic about a "highly rated" high school they haven't used yet.

All you do is endlessly sh*t on BASIS and then complain when people call you out. What is your goal here? Do you have a kid at the school and just want to vent? Did your kid drop out and you want to get revenge? What is the point of your posts? So, yeah, I have zero problem labeling you the Carping Mom and dismissing your completely unhelpful rants. You have added absolutely nothing constructive to this conversation.

Given the Basis charter, advanced curriculum, inability to do do placement tests, and no-social-promotion policy, the school has to follow an attrition model. As kids drop out (for whatever reason), they aren’t replaced. Most of the kids who drop out are struggling academically; some drop out because they move out of the area or go overseas; and some go to other schools such as Walls, Duke, Coolidge, or private. I’m sure Basis would love to replace the kids who leave with high-fliers but they can’t under their charter. Plenty of top kids stay at Basis and the ones who go to Walls, Duke, or private are not necessarily the top ones. I would say that the handful of students who decamp to Walls every year are generally good students but they are hardly all at the top of the class. Similarly, kids who go to Duke are often not top students and go to Duke for non-academic reasons. Finally, kids that go private are not necessarily top students either--some of them are talented athletes who who rather go to a school where they shine in that area.

For example, here are last year’s high school 4+ PARCC scores for Walls and BASIS:

Walls

ELA 94.07
Math 67.44

BASIS

ELA 92.06
Math 66.12

In other words, BASIS a 100% lottery school, basically has the same PARCC results as Walls, which supposedly selects the top students in the city for the school. So, you are absolutely wrong to think that the best students leave for Walls. Those that remain for high school are just as good as Walls.

Lastly, you really think Basis is poorly run compared to, say, Walls? You have no clue.

So, maybe you should pipe down Carping Mom. We are tired of your constant BS.

First, you are talking to more than one person. I’m not the PP you are complaining about. Second, you sound like someone whose kid either didn’t get into Walls or who did and chose to stay for friends and regrets it. It’s bizarre that you need to so aggressively defend BASIS against legitimate concerns. Get a life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why 6th graders? Where would they go? 7th isn’t a standard entry year anywhere in this area.

They go to their IB, other DCPS, charters, or move.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well I'm not carping mom. Call me skeptical dad who'd be leaving if we had a better option. PP above sugarcoats the situation. Rude and dismissive "apologist" parents are the ones with nothing to add to the conversation. What they do is slam anybody with the gall to call out a self-serving administration (new one, last one), and not just here on DCUM. They're grasping at straws on PARCC scores. It's not even PARCC anymore, it's CAPE and many high performing high school students don't take the useless test seriously. Why should they? What's it in for them? Some top students do leave for Walls.

No, BASIS students aren't "as good" as Walls' students overall because they aren't supported in building impressive CVs in the same way. Strong ECs can make all the difference in college admissions.

The point about BASIS' inability to replace high-fliers is a fair one, but I'm not sure that things are set in stone as all that. Some of us think that BASIS could and should try to rework their DC charter, like other DC charters have done. But our opinion counts for zilch. Parents have no say at BASIS, none, teachers, too. This is the franchise that bans PTAs.

+1. High school CAPE scores don't matter and the new BASIS HoS isn't an improvement.

[Anonymous]

My above average with words and below average with numbers child was pretty stressed and wanted better sports and extracurriculars. It seemed the path to joy was narrow for them at BASIS. We are moving away so our child has more room to breath, stretch out and to have a broader path forward.

[Anonymous]

My kid was a top (recognized top 5% every grading period) BASIS kid and left for Walls for social reasons. Quite happy - but acknowledges to me when I press kid that academics were better at BASIS. And, it is a fact that some of kid's top 5% friends stayed at BASIS (I know them! They are doing great/learning a lot!). So - room/places for everyone! Not a zero sum game; the grass is not always greener; recognize the positives that each school has (along with the negatives).

[Anonymous]

We’ve come to recognize that no DCPS public school is all that great after elementary. BASIS academics are only first-rate for math, and science that’s tested by AP. DC public extra curriculars are nothing special across the board outside a few points of light.