BASIS charter expansion is up for public comment

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wrong. I’m the PP and I’ve lived on the Hill since the 90s. We’ve only stayed because grandparents offered to pay for a private. Otherwise, we’d have moved to VA by now. We turned down a BASIS spot after much deliberation.

So you're in the BASIS thread but your kid never went to BASIS?

This thread is about whether BASIS should be allowed to hoover up more taxpayer dollars for its shareholders by expanding its program. If we're going to trying to say who should and shouldn't be bothering with this, current BASIS parents should take a walk, because you're already there.

Current parents can love BASIS all they want, the question is do we want more of this profiteering in our public school system?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a Basis parent, I will tell you as a matter of fact that curriculums are not that important. The Basis DC high school has a reasonably good curriculum but the school falls down to mediocre in other areas:

1) Quality of teachers - typically inexperienced and prone to leave (underpaid, high cost city, often using teaching as a stopgap)
2) Quality of Students -- the high school has bright kids but there is quite a brain drain in 7th and 8th grades as kids and parents go to alternatives....good thing is few kids are troublemakers
3) Quality of Extracurriculars --- no funding
4) Quality of Facilities --- terrible
5) Quality of Administration --- few true educators on staff, lazy and arrogant admins

We stuck with it knowing some of these things but would do otherwise if had the choice again

What would you have done? Asking bc we are enrolled at BASIS for 5th next year, but will likely get a spot at Ross (to SWWFS) and Hyde Addison (to Hardy and MacArthur) and will have to make a decision.

The problem is that my son is really excited about it. He loves his shadow day, and the 5th grade dean, and what he has heard of the curriculum.

You should TOTALLY be making school decisions based on posts on DCUM. Makes perfect sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You make this observation because you're not dealing with a sophisticated school system. The better systems in this country now permit students to test out of required language study by demonstrating proficiency in various languages, even if they aren't taught in schools. Many systems allow students to test out in any of the 7 AP languages: Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Latin and Spanish. Some also allow testing-out for the 3 NEWL Languages: Korean, Russian and Arabic. Some systems will even let students test out for less common major immigrant languages, e.g. Vietnamese, Tagalog, Farsi, Hindi and Yoruba. Come on, it's never a positive, perceived or otherwise, to fail to reward teenage students for advanced language skills. I would have thought that BASIS, founded by a multi-lingual European immigrant, Olga Block, would have been ahead of the times on the issue. But BASIS doesn't allow any kind of testing-out for language proficients.

Why would you want to test out of language study? I want my child to learn more languages, not less.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP above, you might want to read through the whole thread, if you haven't already, and a couple of other recent BASIS threads. If you do enroll, you'll rub shoulders with families who are all over the map in their thinking about the program, giving you more insight. You could always try to lottery into DCI, Hardy etc. for 6th grade if you're not happy at BASIS. Some families just stay for 5th.

Hint: the criticism doesn't change much on BASIS threads from one year to the next, and neither does the laudatory palaver.

From what I've seen this year, it's the same 10 people in every thread, so not surprising.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You make this observation because you're not dealing with a sophisticated school system. The better systems in this country now permit students to test out of required language study by demonstrating proficiency in various languages, even if they aren't taught in schools. Many systems allow students to test out in any of the 7 AP languages: Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Latin and Spanish. Some also allow testing-out for the 3 NEWL Languages: Korean, Russian and Arabic. Some systems will even let students test out for less common major immigrant languages, e.g. Vietnamese, Tagalog, Farsi, Hindi and Yoruba. Come on, it's never a positive, perceived or otherwise, to fail to reward teenage students for advanced language skills. I would have thought that BASIS, founded by a multi-lingual European immigrant, Olga Block, would have been ahead of the times on the issue. But BASIS doesn't allow any kind of testing-out for language proficients.

Why would you want to test out of language study? I want my child to learn more languages, not less.

To each their own. We take our kids, who we are raising bilingual in an E Asian language and English, to rigorous heritage language classes on weekends. Romance languages build on one another, non-Indo European languages not so much. I'd much rather have my kid ace one extremely difficult language than speak, read and write multiple languages poorly. The point is that you can't force kids/families to learn languages to an advanced level. Much better to work with them on building language skills they want to acquire. Not the BASIS way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP above, you might want to read through the whole thread, if you haven't already, and a couple of other recent BASIS threads. If you do enroll, you'll rub shoulders with families who are all over the map in their thinking about the program, giving you more insight. You could always try to lottery into DCI, Hardy etc. for 6th grade if you're not happy at BASIS. Some families just stay for 5th.

Hint: the criticism doesn't change much on BASIS threads from one year to the next, and neither does the laudatory palaver.

Yes, I've been reading all the BASIS threads this year, and they just made me ever more ambivalent. I love some things, I hate some things. I'm also a former high school teacher, and when I hear that teachers quit mid year, that is a glaring red flag.

To be fair, most are fired mid-year. I only know of one who quit.

[Anonymous]

Yes, it's a school that needs to fire the odd teacher mid-year, on a regular basis.

The best post on this thread was a few pages back, the one mentioning arrogant and lazy admins. These guys promote a culture in which students aren't given enough scope to excel academically by building on singular talents and interests. If the BASIS curriculum offered better electives and more choice, more 8th graders would stay for high school. More would crack the most highly competitive colleges. A few of the most ambitious students wind up taking AP exams in subjects that BASIS doesn't teach at other schools.

I can't imagine that the elementary school would be any different. The MO will be shut up and take Chinese, never mind the fact that the kids will forget it later on, before being allowed to study Chinese again in 8th grade...at the beginning level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You make this observation because you're not dealing with a sophisticated school system. The better systems in this country now permit students to test out of required language study by demonstrating proficiency in various languages, even if they aren't taught in schools. Many systems allow students to test out in any of the 7 AP languages: Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Latin and Spanish. Some also allow testing-out for the 3 NEWL Languages: Korean, Russian and Arabic. Some systems will even let students test out for less common major immigrant languages, e.g. Vietnamese, Tagalog, Farsi, Hindi and Yoruba. Come on, it's never a positive, perceived or otherwise, to fail to reward teenage students for advanced language skills. I would have thought that BASIS, founded by a multi-lingual European immigrant, Olga Block, would have been ahead of the times on the issue. But BASIS doesn't allow any kind of testing-out for language proficients.

Why would you want to test out of language study? I want my child to learn more languages, not less.

Fewer languages...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP above, you might want to read through the whole thread, if you haven't already, and a couple of other recent BASIS threads. If you do enroll, you'll rub shoulders with families who are all over the map in their thinking about the program, giving you more insight. You could always try to lottery into DCI, Hardy etc. for 6th grade if you're not happy at BASIS. Some families just stay for 5th.

Hint: the criticism doesn't change much on BASIS threads from one year to the next, and neither does the laudatory palaver.

From what I've seen this year, it's the same 10 people in every thread, so not surprising.

How would you know?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it's a school that needs to fire the odd teacher mid-year, on a regular basis.

The best post on this thread was a few pages back, the one mentioning arrogant and lazy admins. These guys promote a culture in which students aren't given enough scope to excel academically by building on singular talents and interests. If the BASIS curriculum offered better electives and more choice, more 8th graders would stay for high school. More would crack the most highly competitive colleges. A few of the most ambitious students wind up taking AP exams in subjects that BASIS doesn't teach at other schools.

I can't imagine that the elementary school would be any different. The MO will be shut up and take Chinese, never mind the fact that the kids will forget it later on, before being allowed to study Chinese again in 8th grade...at the beginning level.

Sock puppetry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wrong. I’m the PP and I’ve lived on the Hill since the 90s. We’ve only stayed because grandparents offered to pay for a private. Otherwise, we’d have moved to VA by now. We turned down a BASIS spot after much deliberation.

So you're in the BASIS thread but your kid never went to BASIS?

This thread is about whether BASIS should be allowed to hoover up more taxpayer dollars for its shareholders by expanding its program. If we're going to trying to say who should and shouldn't be bothering with this, current BASIS parents should take a walk, because you're already there.

Current parents can love BASIS all they want, the question is do we want more of this profiteering in our public school system?

Some of us also have younger kids who might benefit from having a BASIS model elementary option, so, I’m not going to take a walk, thank you very much. The school model is absolutely wrong for many, probably most, kids, but it’s a huge help to some kids, and having it as an option for those kids is really great, which is exactly what the charter school system is designed to do. The for-profit corporation issue is important, but it doesn’t make sense to write off the school or potential elementary expansion because of that.

[Anonymous]

OK, what would your grounds for writing the BASIS elementary school off be? I have concerns about the way that Ward 6 relies on BASIS as a viable middle school more than any other ward. Awkward question, but if young Ward 6 families don't jump on the BASIS elementary school at K en masse, won't they largely be shut out of the middle school? Won't their exodus from Maury, Brent, LT, SWS etc. after PreK4 hurt the Capitol Hill elementary schools? I haven't seen any real discussion along these lines on this thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it's a school that needs to fire the odd teacher mid-year, on a regular basis.

The best post on this thread was a few pages back, the one mentioning arrogant and lazy admins. These guys promote a culture in which students aren't given enough scope to excel academically by building on singular talents and interests. If the BASIS curriculum offered better electives and more choice, more 8th graders would stay for high school. More would crack the most highly competitive colleges. A few of the most ambitious students wind up taking AP exams in subjects that BASIS doesn't teach at other schools.

I can't imagine that the elementary school would be any different. The MO will be shut up and take Chinese, never mind the fact that the kids will forget it later on, before being allowed to study Chinese again in 8th grade...at the beginning level.

Sock puppetry.

Put a sock in it, mate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a Basis parent, I will tell you as a matter of fact that curriculums are not that important. The Basis DC high school has a reasonably good curriculum but the school falls down to mediocre in other areas:

1) Quality of teachers - typically inexperienced and prone to leave (underpaid, high cost city, often using teaching as a stopgap)
2) Quality of Students -- the high school has bright kids but there is quite a brain drain in 7th and 8th grades as kids and parents go to alternatives....good thing is few kids are troublemakers
3) Quality of Extracurriculars --- no funding
4) Quality of Facilities --- terrible
5) Quality of Administration --- few true educators on staff, lazy and arrogant admins

We stuck with it knowing some of these things but would do otherwise if had the choice again

What would you have done? Asking bc we are enrolled at BASIS for 5th next year, but will likely get a spot at Ross (to SWWFS) and Hyde Addison (to Hardy and MacArthur) and will have to make a decision.

The problem is that my son is really excited about it. He loves his shadow day, and the 5th grade dean, and what he has heard of the curriculum.

I'm not the PP you're responding to, I'm the one above who worked at BASIS when the school was new and elected not to send my kid after researching the current state of the program. The post above assessing BASIS DC quality is worth considering because the poster really hits the nail on the head. What BASIS DC has got these days are deadweight, supercilious admins more interested in pushing families around than helping students embrace joy of learning as a springboard for elite college admissions. As far as I know, none of these admins is themselves a grad of a college admitting in the single digits. Get their names and look up their bios. I suggest that you educate yourself on how the franchise works while asking yourself what your own philosophy of education might be before making your enrollment decision. Fact is, the Blocks of Arizona, Olga and Michael, the BASIS founders, aren't educators either. Even so, they've spent 30 years developing a corporate formula for building successful applicants to blue chip colleges, which may or may not jive with your world view. I saw far too much at BASIS that ran contrary to best practices in liberal learning and management to want to stay on, although I admired some of what the franchise does, particularly inculcating strong executive function skills and a work ethic in middle school students. Same for DCPS options. After many years in a DCPS ES, we'd lost faith and couldn't take another year in the system, regardless of the school or program. I wouldn't let the 10 or 11-year-old call the shots here when they're too young to understand what your family would be getting into.

These sort of posts are so dumb.

You worked at Basis more than a decade ago. The school is very different today than it was. Why did you leave? Who knows? Maybe you were a bad teacher/admin and were pushed out. You obviously have a chip on your shoulder about the school.

You “researched” the current state of the program and concluded that “deadweight, supercilious admins more interested in pushing families around than helping students embrace joy of learning as a springboard for elite college admissions.” Really? Exactly what research did you do? You interviewed all the admins and concluded that they were deadweight and supercilious and just wanted to push families around rather than send them to elite colleges? Please enlighten us on your “research” and provide specific evidence for your conclusions.

You whine that the Basis admins themselves did not go to elite colleges. What school did you choose for your kids so we can examine the bios of the admins there? You really think that HYPSM grads are running public schools in DC? And since when does the alma mater of an admin of a school determine where kids end up? Basis sends plenty of kids to top colleges every year.

You complain about the Blocks but the fact is that the Basis charter network is the most successful in the whole country. They have 11 public high schools in the top 100 USN&WR rankings--way above any other charter network--including the #1 public high school in the whole country. Basis DC is the #1 public ranked middle school in DC, #1 charter school, and #1 non-selective high school--and the school is only a dozen years old. That is a sold record of success and achievement.

You sound like you left for the suburbs. Feel free to let us know where you sent your kids so we can understand why you think it is so much better.

+100. Of course, the PP won't respond.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: ...More would crack the most highly competitive colleges. A few of the most ambitious students wind up taking AP exams in subjects that BASIS doesn't teach at other schools..

BASIS kids this year (and in years past) have done very well in terms of college acceptance - especially when you consider the small class size.