BASIS DC will seek to expand to include K to 4th grade

[Anonymous]

Where is BASIS planning to locate this school?

Or, really, how low-income a student body is BASIS willing to serve?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Latin and Basis are so wildly different that I'm not understanding how parents could think both schools could be a great fit for their kid.

Come on, most parents who enroll don't think these schools are a "great fit" for their kids. BASIS has crappy facilities and high teacher turnover and Latin's facilities aren't great. Neither school has the dough to offer first-rate extra curriculars/enrichment, especially for 5th graders. Neither school tracks for humanities subjects in middle school, other than Latin for kids who start Latin after 5th grade.

Kids go to Latin and BASIS not so much because either is a "great fit," but because middle-class Hill families East of Rock Creek lack viable middle school options. Plenty of BASIS families would have sent their children to the original Latin if they could have. It works the other way, too, but not to the same extent.

Depends on the kid.

Latin's academics are subpar. BASIS families looking for a "normal" school with subpar academics might have been hoping for Latin and just not have gotten in through the lottery. Most of them have moved on to other schools long ago.

The BASIS families still around by 9th grade that we know do think that the school is a "great fit."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The reason my kids are at BASIS and not SH is because SH does not offer adequate tracking across subjects, plus the lack of a high school path.

And the primary reason my kids will stay at BASIS and not attend Walls is because Walls does not offer strong enough academics (my kid got in but did not want to repeat Algebra II or a variety of science classes, among others).

If DCPS offered genuine tracking and a truly accelerated curriculum at an actual test-in magnet school, we'd have likely stayed in DCPS for middle school and high school respectively.

This is not a matter of "charter school drain." Rather, it's a failure of DCPS to serve its most advanced students, particularly in upper levels.

Yes, you have to love the posters slamming BASIS for "stealing" kids from crummy DCPS middle schools.

Agree that DCPS is failing to serve its most advanced students. That is why people go to BASIS, leave for the burbs, or go private.

And then we read about how DCPS awarded over a quarter of billion dollars in illegal contracts over the last 3 years:

https://dcist.com/story/23/05/11/dcps-unlawfully-awarded-contracts-worth-270-million/

But yet some posters want to pin blame on successful charters such as BASIS, which are succeeding wildly with limited resources.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The reason my kids are at BASIS and not SH is because SH does not offer adequate tracking across subjects, plus the lack of a high school path.

And the primary reason my kids will stay at BASIS and not attend Walls is because Walls does not offer strong enough academics (my kid got in but did not want to repeat Algebra II or a variety of science classes, among others).

If DCPS offered genuine tracking and a truly accelerated curriculum at an actual test-in magnet school, we'd have likely stayed in DCPS for middle school and high school respectively.

This is not a matter of "charter school drain." Rather, it's a failure of DCPS to serve its most advanced students, particularly in upper levels.

Yes, you have to love the posters slamming BASIS for "stealing" kids from crummy DCPS middle schools.

Agree that DCPS is failing to serve its most advanced students. That is why people go to BASIS, leave for the burbs, or go private.

And then we read about how DCPS awarded over a quarter of billion dollars in illegal contracts over the last 3 years:

https://dcist.com/story/23/05/11/dcps-unlawfully-awarded-contracts-worth-270-million/

But yet some posters want to pin blame on successful charters such as BASIS, which are succeeding wildly with limited resources.

When is BASIS going to bring its wild success EOTR? This seems like the perfect opportunity!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where is BASIS planning to locate this school?

Or, really, how low-income a student body is BASIS willing to serve?

I would guess in one of the many empty office buildings downtown.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Latin and Basis are so wildly different that I'm not understanding how parents could think both schools could be a great fit for their kid.

Come on, most parents who enroll don't think these schools are a "great fit" for their kids. BASIS has crappy facilities and high teacher turnover and Latin's facilities aren't great. Neither school has the dough to offer first-rate extra curriculars/enrichment, especially for 5th graders. Neither school tracks for humanities subjects in middle school, other than Latin for kids who start Latin after 5th grade.

Kids go to Latin and BASIS not so much because either is a "great fit," but because middle-class Hill families East of Rock Creek lack viable middle school options. Plenty of BASIS families would have sent their children to the original Latin if they could have. It works the other way, too, but not to the same extent.

Depends on the kid.

Latin's academics are subpar. BASIS families looking for a "normal" school with subpar academics might have been hoping for Latin and just not have gotten in through the lottery. Most of them have moved on to other schools long ago.

The BASIS families still around by 9th grade that we know do think that the school is a "great fit."

The "come on" PP is absolutely right. Sure, Latin and BASIS are each a great fit for some kids and most families prefer one or the other. But my kids go to a SH feeder and the majority of families list Latin, Latin 2, BASIS in some order and leave if they get into one. Not all, but most. For the students who are left, the majority stay on and go to SH. If the lottery results had been reversed between the groups, the outcome would be similar with different kids. If BASIS gets harder to get into, more kids from our ES will end up at SH. Now there could be a tipping point and, at some point, there may be so few "outlet" MS slots available that less people will stay at the ES through 4th/will seek alternative paths earlier.... even if they otherwise would have gone to SH as a lottery loser. But in the short term, the majority of Hill families want BASIS or Latin and will take the IB MS if they don't get one. HS is totally different. No one is going to Eastern.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I skipped through the Basis debates. Any more perspectives on what this means for Capitol Hill? We are in Watkins and have been interested to see more and more neighbors heading to Stuart Hobson (the enrollment data that someone posted in another thread backs this up). Given the number of Cap Hill kids that head to Basis for middle school, Basis adding a primary school seems like it would reduce middle school slots for Cap Hill kids and drive them to SH or Eliot Hine, right? SH in particular seems to be becoming a viable option quickly and I’ve heard Maury parents are increasingly sending to EH. Seems like this move by Basis will only help Cap Hill schools improve, yes? Am I understanding this correctly?

This is likely bad news for Watkins and neutral news for SH. People will lottery out of Watkins for BASIS for the guaranteed middle/high school path.

Also BASIS has stated that they intend to make sure there is a path to BASIS in 5th. It's possible they would, for example, just have a couple classes.

SH will struggle until Eastern gets its act together, which will probably happen never, due to charter schools.

Totally agree with the bolded. The looming Peabody to Watkins transition along w/ the increasing UMC exodus from Watkins means that Peabody kids will lottery for BASIS in large numbers for K. I'd guess they'll be the single biggest feeder. It will also be popular for the non-Brent/Maury/L-T Hill ESes. I think less so for those 3, but obviously some families there will go too b/c of the MS aspect.

[Anonymous]

I think a lot depends on where this school is located. If it's downtown, I'm not interested in taking a kindergartner on the metro to school everyday if I can walk to an ES on the Hill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I skipped through the Basis debates. Any more perspectives on what this means for Capitol Hill? We are in Watkins and have been interested to see more and more neighbors heading to Stuart Hobson (the enrollment data that someone posted in another thread backs this up). Given the number of Cap Hill kids that head to Basis for middle school, Basis adding a primary school seems like it would reduce middle school slots for Cap Hill kids and drive them to SH or Eliot Hine, right? SH in particular seems to be becoming a viable option quickly and I’ve heard Maury parents are increasingly sending to EH. Seems like this move by Basis will only help Cap Hill schools improve, yes? Am I understanding this correctly?

This is likely bad news for Watkins and neutral news for SH. People will lottery out of Watkins for BASIS for the guaranteed middle/high school path.

Also BASIS has stated that they intend to make sure there is a path to BASIS in 5th. It's possible they would, for example, just have a couple classes.

SH will struggle until Eastern gets its act together, which will probably happen never, due to charter schools.

Totally agree with the bolded. The looming Peabody to Watkins transition along w/ the increasing UMC exodus from Watkins means that Peabody kids will lottery for BASIS in large numbers for K. I'd guess they'll be the single biggest feeder. It will also be popular for the non-Brent/Maury/L-T Hill ESes. I think less so for those 3, but obviously some families there will go too b/c of the MS aspect.

What increasing UMC exodus? Watkins is 36% IB right now, which is much higher than it was when my kids went through it. It's not like the IB percentage was once higher than this and is now coming down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I skipped through the Basis debates. Any more perspectives on what this means for Capitol Hill? We are in Watkins and have been interested to see more and more neighbors heading to Stuart Hobson (the enrollment data that someone posted in another thread backs this up). Given the number of Cap Hill kids that head to Basis for middle school, Basis adding a primary school seems like it would reduce middle school slots for Cap Hill kids and drive them to SH or Eliot Hine, right? SH in particular seems to be becoming a viable option quickly and I’ve heard Maury parents are increasingly sending to EH. Seems like this move by Basis will only help Cap Hill schools improve, yes? Am I understanding this correctly?

This is likely bad news for Watkins and neutral news for SH. People will lottery out of Watkins for BASIS for the guaranteed middle/high school path.

Also BASIS has stated that they intend to make sure there is a path to BASIS in 5th. It's possible they would, for example, just have a couple classes.

SH will struggle until Eastern gets its act together, which will probably happen never, due to charter schools.

Totally agree with the bolded. The looming Peabody to Watkins transition along w/ the increasing UMC exodus from Watkins means that Peabody kids will lottery for BASIS in large numbers for K. I'd guess they'll be the single biggest feeder. It will also be popular for the non-Brent/Maury/L-T Hill ESes. I think less so for those 3, but obviously some families there will go too b/c of the MS aspect.

What increasing UMC exodus? Watkins is 36% IB right now, which is much higher than it was when my kids went through it. It's not like the IB percentage was once higher than this and is now coming down.

I said UMC exodus... Enrollment has fallen for a bunch of years in a row. Projected enrollment next year even lower. Couldn't come close to filling its seats in the lottery this year (in any grade!). How else do you think they ended up back at T1?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think a lot depends on where this school is located. If it's downtown, I'm not interested in taking a kindergartner on the metro to school everyday if I can walk to an ES on the Hill.

Just a guess - BASIS will take advantage of the real estate deals on empty office buildings in downtown and add the k-4 (or possibly k-5) grades in the new building. I think a lot of the success of BASIS is the proximity to metro access and they will try to keep it centrally located near the existing building. Thus, I would expect to see another downtown location - in which I ask, where's the outdoor space? Expect rooftop playground proposals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think a lot depends on where this school is located. If it's downtown, I'm not interested in taking a kindergartner on the metro to school everyday if I can walk to an ES on the Hill.

Indeed. But if you’re at Watkins and it doesn’t work out, you’ll lottery for SWS and other schools on the Hill, plus BASIS.

And if you have a BASIS 5th grader and younger kids having a challenging experience, you’ll list BASIS first so siblings can stay together.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think a lot depends on where this school is located. If it's downtown, I'm not interested in taking a kindergartner on the metro to school everyday if I can walk to an ES on the Hill.

May not be convenient for you but a lot of parents work downtown and would be very interested in dropping kids off at a downtown location. I can walk to work from BASIS's main building.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I skipped through the Basis debates. Any more perspectives on what this means for Capitol Hill? We are in Watkins and have been interested to see more and more neighbors heading to Stuart Hobson (the enrollment data that someone posted in another thread backs this up). Given the number of Cap Hill kids that head to Basis for middle school, Basis adding a primary school seems like it would reduce middle school slots for Cap Hill kids and drive them to SH or Eliot Hine, right? SH in particular seems to be becoming a viable option quickly and I’ve heard Maury parents are increasingly sending to EH. Seems like this move by Basis will only help Cap Hill schools improve, yes? Am I understanding this correctly?

This is likely bad news for Watkins and neutral news for SH. People will lottery out of Watkins for BASIS for the guaranteed middle/high school path.

Also BASIS has stated that they intend to make sure there is a path to BASIS in 5th. It's possible they would, for example, just have a couple classes.

SH will struggle until Eastern gets its act together, which will probably happen never, due to charter schools.

Totally agree with the bolded. The looming Peabody to Watkins transition along w/ the increasing UMC exodus from Watkins means that Peabody kids will lottery for BASIS in large numbers for K. I'd guess they'll be the single biggest feeder. It will also be popular for the non-Brent/Maury/L-T Hill ESes. I think less so for those 3, but obviously some families there will go too b/c of the MS aspect.

What increasing UMC exodus? Watkins is 36% IB right now, which is much higher than it was when my kids went through it. It's not like the IB percentage was once higher than this and is now coming down.

I said UMC exodus... Enrollment has fallen for a bunch of years in a row. Projected enrollment next year even lower. Couldn't come close to filling its seats in the lottery this year (in any grade!). How else do you think they ended up back at T1?

Exactly. Watkins is back to Title I after almost a decade, during a period when housing prices soared within its boundaries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Latin and Basis are so wildly different that I'm not understanding how parents could think both schools could be a great fit for their kid.

Come on, most parents who enroll don't think these schools are a "great fit" for their kids. BASIS has crappy facilities and high teacher turnover and Latin's facilities aren't great. Neither school has the dough to offer first-rate extra curriculars/enrichment, especially for 5th graders. Neither school tracks for humanities subjects in middle school, other than Latin for kids who start Latin after 5th grade.

Kids go to Latin and BASIS not so much because either is a "great fit," but because middle-class Hill families East of Rock Creek lack viable middle school options. Plenty of BASIS families would have sent their children to the original Latin if they could have. It works the other way, too, but not to the same extent.

Depends on the kid.

Latin's academics are subpar. BASIS families looking for a "normal" school with subpar academics might have been hoping for Latin and just not have gotten in through the lottery. Most of them have moved on to other schools long ago.

The BASIS families still around by 9th grade that we know do think that the school is a "great fit."

Not buying it. The BASIS families we've known for many years who are still around from 9th grade+ talk about staying on in the program as preferable to moving to the burbs of paying for privates. BASIS doesn't have strong enough ECs, leadership or teaching (too much turnover) to be a "great fit" for much of anybody. Parents who can pay for serious HS ECs do. BASIS does the job, not more.