Does anyone know the status of the Proposed BASIS Expansion

[Anonymous]

The basis way works well for my child. I totally get how it wouldn’t for most. But we could have gone almost anywhere for high school (private, accepted at walls, inbound JR, and actually would have been an easy move to a “great” school district). But the kid was thriving and has a great cohort, so I wasn’t moving her. I haven’t regretted the decision for a moment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The basis way works well for my child. I totally get how it wouldn’t for most. But we could have gone almost anywhere for high school (private, accepted at walls, inbound JR, and actually would have been an easy move to a “great” school district). But the kid was thriving and has a great cohort, so I wasn’t moving her. I haven’t regretted the decision for a moment.

Pp from this post. I was responding to recent posts. But I forgot to be on topic. I’m opposed to the Basis expansion to elementary. I’m very happy we had a different experience for elementary. It helped create a more balanced person.

[Anonymous]

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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.

Popularity is not really the point here. And neither is the wait list.

Unlike Latin, BASIS offers a rigorous curriculum, does tons of testing, and doesn't socially promote. It is definitely more suited to more academically motivated kids--and those kids are going to be scattered around DC. True, it does get a lot of kids from the Hill but the Hill also has a lot of academically motivated kids.

However, plenty of people list BASIS in the lottery, especially people that don't have good in-bounds options, because all they have to do is check a box. Then, if they get in, they realize that the school isn't a good fit for their kid and go elsewhere. Other parents decide on BASIS because they don't have a good in-bounds option and, if that is their sole reason for sending their kid, are often disappointed.

Saying Latin is more popular than BASIS is like saying a Billie Eilish concert is more popular than a hackathon. A concert is easy and fun; a hackathon is tough and challenging. Sure, a concert is a more popular but a hackathon is more valuable.

The fact is that there is plenty of demand for an elementary school like BASIS but BASIS will never be truly "popular" because it is hard and challenging.

Right, Latin's a walk in the park through and through, explaining why our neighbor's kid was admitted to Princeton from Latin two years ago. That same spring, zero BASIS students were admitted to Ivies.

You're painting with much too broad a brush, PP.

Our BASIS student was bored in humanities and language classes in middle school. We didn't stay for high school. Don't buy the hype about high octane BASIS academics. It's not a GT program.

NP Here. I'm a BASIS parent with two DCs in high school. I am FAR from a BASIS booster, but two things you can't really quibble with are the rigor of its curriculum and student outcomes. It's not a GT program because it's an open enrollment/lottery school. But the school asks a lot of every student, regardless of that student's strengths. Is it a bit of a sink or swim environment? Yes. But I would put high achieving BASIS students up against the best public and private school students in the area. And you're simply wrong that zero students were admitted to Ivies two years ago. In 2022 BASIS DC had Yale, Harvard, Brown, Columbia, Penn, and Cornell admits in addition to many Ivy+ and selective SLAC admits. Unlike you, I have actual receipts. If you control for the fact that BASIS is not an application school and the SES of the student student population (contrary to popular belief, the school is not comprised completely of wealthy Hill families), its outcomes are extraordinary. Is BASIS one size fits all? Of course not. Does it provide an excellent option for many DC families? Yes. The same can be said of many other local schools, public and private.

I have those 2022 receipts as well. The list you're talking about is the acceptance list. The final matriculation list that year was this:

Barnard College

Bangor University (UK)

Beloit College

Brown University (*)

Clemson University

College of William & Mary (*)

Drexel University (*)

Duke University

Fordham University

George Mason University

Georgia Institute of Technology

Georgia State University

Haverford College

Howard University

Indiana University

Macalester College

Mary Baldwin University

Michigan State University (*)

Morehouse College

Northwestern University

Oberlin College

Pennsylvania State University (*)

Purdue University (*)

Radford University

Sarah Lawrence College

St. John's College

Syracuse University

Temple University (*)

University of Chicago

University of the District of Columbia

University of Maryland, College Park

University of Massachusetts, Amherst

University of North Carolina, Wilmington

University of Vermont (*)

University of Virginia

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (*)

Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Xavier University of Louisiana

Yale University (*)


(*) indicates that more than one student will attend this college.

Looks good to me.

Plus, not everyone wants to go to or can afford an Ivy.

For example, a full ride to Duke beats paying for Cornell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You're the one who should let it go.

Fact is, most DC BASIS families still leave before the terminal grade. I used to teach at NCS (um, no need to ask friends). Hardly anybody leaves NCS. I overestimate nothing. BASIS did work for my family by your definition, worked well in fact. Kid had nice friends, kid performed at "an extremely high level," kid got a 5 on BC Calc in 10th grade. But he certainly wasn't able to shine as he could have done at a school where students were encouraged to run with their particular interests and strengths, and where the faculty was stable. Thank goodness we had the means to go.

You should probably pipe down about how terrific BASIS. Tolerable for somewhere between 40 and 50% of the families to the bitter end, I'll grant you that.

Spare us a factory BASIS elementary school.

Why would you send your kids to BASIS if you worked at NCS?

Ha ha. Exactly.

Methinks PP is just a troll.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You're the one who should let it go.

Fact is, most DC BASIS families still leave before the terminal grade. I used to teach at NCS (um, no need to ask friends). Hardly anybody leaves NCS. I overestimate nothing. BASIS did work for my family by your definition, worked well in fact. Kid had nice friends, kid performed at "an extremely high level," kid got a 5 on BC Calc in 10th grade. But he certainly wasn't able to shine as he could have done at a school where students were encouraged to run with their particular interests and strengths, and where the faculty was stable. Thank goodness we had the means to go.

You should probably pipe down about how terrific BASIS. Tolerable for somewhere between 40 and 50% of the families to the bitter end, I'll grant you that.

Spare us a factory BASIS elementary school.

This is so funny. I hate that your vitriol makes me feel obligated to defend the school when i have plenty of bad things to say about it, but I am compelled. Of course families don't leave NCS. If you taught there then you are obviously familiar with the overwhelming sense of prestige and superiority that courses through the school. Families wear it like a badge of honor. There are huge societal pressures in some communities in this city to be a part of that world and to be perceived as thriving. My point was that if you think places like NCS are some Xanadu where every child is happy, met on their own terms, and all their needs met I think you're kidding yourself. I suspect you know that though. Plenty of kids there aren't able to "shine" with their particular interests, especially if you are an athlete, for example. I never said BASIS was perfect. It works for many. You seem intent on speaking on behalf of a community you were unhappy with and decided to leave. I'm simply suggesting you are in no position to speak for us now and you should probably keep our names out of your mouth. I think one thing we can agree on though is that thank goodness you had the means to go. Good luck to your kid at his highly selective college! I'm glad you found something that worked for them.

BASIS parent of a number of years reading through this thread and calling out a knee-jerk post. I'm not reading "vitriol" here, or parents claiming to speak for an entire school community. It's undeniable BASIS DC doesn't work well for most of its families through high school, given that the majority leave along the way. The narrow curriculum, miserable building, leaden management and high teacher turnover take their toll over time. Yes, there's rigor across the board, but that's about it. No surprise that families who can leave without major disruptions to their lives generally do at some point. At a good school, public or private, encouraging students to run with their academic strengths and interests is standard. At BASIS, the emphasis is on students marching in step on the road to a portfolio of high AP exam scores, with mixed results. If you believe in the BASIS way, great, sell the program on DCUM, share your joy, vs. knocking parents who make valid points about what ails the program.

Oh yes? What year did your kid drop out?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The basis way works well for my child. I totally get how it wouldn’t for most. But we could have gone almost anywhere for high school (private, accepted at walls, inbound JR, and actually would have been an easy move to a “great” school district). But the kid was thriving and has a great cohort, so I wasn’t moving her. I haven’t regretted the decision for a moment.

Pp from this post. I was responding to recent posts. But I forgot to be on topic. I’m opposed to the Basis expansion to elementary. I’m very happy we had a different experience for elementary. It helped create a more balanced person.

You are happy with your choice. Why do you want to deny other parents a different choice?

[Anonymous]

I have a kid at BASIS now, and another one at a Montessori elementary school. I cannot imagine having an elementary school experience that is as rigid as BASIS. I think that would suck all the joy out of learning far too early.

[Anonymous]

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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.

I think it is-- it's DCPS trying to look out for their own insiders by making the process as opaque and accountability-free as possible.

Like one of the prior poster says - email the people on the flier, visit the school, talk to parents currently in the program, lots of ways to get these questions answered. From my understanding there is a component that is based on GPA and other assessment data, and an application (since my child is still in middle school I have not personally clicked through it to see what it consists of). Then students meet with a counselor to determine if they are a good fit for the program. I assume things can change as enrollment grows, or from lessons learned.

But why does it have to be requested? Why isn't it on MySchoolDC, which exists for the purpose of providing this kind of information?

"We might tell you eventually if you ask" is not transparency. Just put it online like the other selective schools do. Not that complicated.

Lots of schools have internal programs you have to apply for and that are not explained in detail on MySchoolDC (e.g., all the JR academies). MySchoolDC only deals with admission to the school itself not programs within it.

Not true, there's a whole section on Early College at Coolidge.

https://www.myschooldc.org/schools/profile/414

That is a separate program that admits directly via the lottery. The Eastern program, like the J-R academies, is not.

Are the J-R academics academically selective though?

Yes. There are also other similar programs. SH has a drama program (actual graded classes, not just an afterschool extracurricular), which is selective, for instance. There is tracking for individual subjects that affects your entire schedule at some schools (DCI is a prime example of that, where a high level language means you have other high flyers in all of your classes). Obviously these are all shades of gray, but Eastern's program is only available to students already at Eastern and doesn't affect admission to the school, which is the key for MySchoolDC. It is much more akin to tracking than a separate school.

And are the J-R and SH programs equally as hide-the-ball? It's bizarre to think no prospective parents would be interested.

So "everyone" at LT knows about the SH drama program because a bunch of our alums do it; LT's musical theatre program is one of the best/most popular clubs at the school, so there's natural synergy; and many folks have heard from families with older kids there/younger sibs still at LT that it's a great way to get your kids a good cohort at the school even if they aren't a natural theater kid (i.e., because it affects scheduling and is selective, do it for your smart kid even if they hate the stage... they can always do costumes or lighting or whatever). All that said, I've done a tour of SH and it wasn't clear to me at all from that tour alone that drama was admissions based or even that it was an actual class, let alone that it affects scheduling for all classes. All of which is to say, yeah, I think the details of the programs are probably a little hard to come by at most schools unless you go digging. If you're interested in a school though... go digging!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You're the one who should let it go.

Fact is, most DC BASIS families still leave before the terminal grade. I used to teach at NCS (um, no need to ask friends). Hardly anybody leaves NCS. I overestimate nothing. BASIS did work for my family by your definition, worked well in fact. Kid had nice friends, kid performed at "an extremely high level," kid got a 5 on BC Calc in 10th grade. But he certainly wasn't able to shine as he could have done at a school where students were encouraged to run with their particular interests and strengths, and where the faculty was stable. Thank goodness we had the means to go.

You should probably pipe down about how terrific BASIS. Tolerable for somewhere between 40 and 50% of the families to the bitter end, I'll grant you that.

Spare us a factory BASIS elementary school.

Why would you send your kids to BASIS if you worked at NCS?

Ha ha. Exactly.

Methinks PP is just a troll.

Yes, because everybody who ever worked at NCS stayed there for the entirety of their career to take advantage of enrollment and fi aid perks for the children of faculty.

Reasonable objecting voices should be heard here, whatever their source. The crux of the argument is that there should be much more to high school than AP exam prep, much more to middle school than high school prep, and much more to elementary school than middle school prep.

We get it, BASIS is a point of light for UMC families with hard-working students EotP in a sea of low standards, poor teaching and management, and general dysfunction in DC public schools. But the situation says far more about the sorry state of our schools than the wonder of BASIS. My BASIS middle school kid had a few green young teachers with such weak classroom management skills and poor training that they were in tears up in front of their classes at times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a kid at BASIS now, and another one at a Montessori elementary school. I cannot imagine having an elementary school experience that is as rigid as BASIS. I think that would suck all the joy out of learning far too early.

Do your research.

They don’t run their ES like they do MS and HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You're the one who should let it go.

Fact is, most DC BASIS families still leave before the terminal grade. I used to teach at NCS (um, no need to ask friends). Hardly anybody leaves NCS. I overestimate nothing. BASIS did work for my family by your definition, worked well in fact. Kid had nice friends, kid performed at "an extremely high level," kid got a 5 on BC Calc in 10th grade. But he certainly wasn't able to shine as he could have done at a school where students were encouraged to run with their particular interests and strengths, and where the faculty was stable. Thank goodness we had the means to go.

You should probably pipe down about how terrific BASIS. Tolerable for somewhere between 40 and 50% of the families to the bitter end, I'll grant you that.

Spare us a factory BASIS elementary school.

Why would you send your kids to BASIS if you worked at NCS?

Ha ha. Exactly.

Methinks PP is just a troll.

Yes, because everybody who ever worked at NCS stayed there for the entirety of their career to take advantage of enrollment and fi aid perks for the children of faculty.

Reasonable objecting voices should be heard here, whatever their source. The crux of the argument is that there should be much more to high school than AP exam prep, much more to middle school than high school prep, and much more to elementary school than middle school prep.

We get it, BASIS is a point of light for UMC families with hard-working students EotP in a sea of low standards, poor teaching and management, and general dysfunction in DC public schools. But the situation says far more about the sorry state of our schools than the wonder of BASIS. My BASIS middle school kid had a few green young teachers with such weak classroom management skills and poor training that they were in tears up in front of their classes at times.

Not our experience but make up whatever you want.

Not sure why you keep posting here. Sounds like you have a huge chip on your shoulder.

[Anonymous]

Denying what you want only works so well. BASIS never hires greenhorns who can’t cope, got it. We will be sure to try to convince a new batch of young families of that when they try for spots at the elementary school that might not materialize.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Denying what you want only works so well. BASIS never hires greenhorns who can’t cope, got it. We will be sure to try to convince a new batch of young families of that when they try for spots at the elementary school that might not materialize.

I think you just proved PP’s point.

lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Denying what you want only works so well. BASIS never hires greenhorns who can’t cope, got it. We will be sure to try to convince a new batch of young families of that when they try for spots at the elementary school that might not materialize.

I think you just proved PP’s point.

lol

Yes. This same person with this sarcastic style ("exaggerated positive statement about BASIS and then "sure" or "got it") is almost certainly not even a BASIS parent and never has been.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a kid at BASIS now, and another one at a Montessori elementary school. I cannot imagine having an elementary school experience that is as rigid as BASIS. I think that would suck all the joy out of learning far too early.

Two kids at BASIS and I completely agree. I would never give BASIS an elementary school kid.