Data Goldmine: YoY Enrollment Patterns by School

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05/08/2023 15:30

Subject: Re:Data Goldmine: YoY Enrollment Patterns by School

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Anonymous wrote:Bigger news to me would be the massive bleed of Basis kids in general. They enroll 150 at 5th I think? So 35 kids leave after the first year. By 9th grade only FIFTY kids are left? Yikes.

Those numbers are not new. The challenge is trying to assess the attrition without data from other schools. Because BASIS doesn't backfill, seats that empty are not replaced. Most other schools backfill so the numbers remain pretty constant. Latin, for instance, adds 15 kids in 9th and an average of 4 every year from 6th on up.

Before you and others with a hard on for BASIS chime in, this is a value neutral observation about data and NOT a discussion of whether they can or should backfill. It is a logical, data driven response to PP who is looking at a number that cannot be measured against other schools because other schools don't publish the number of kids who started in 5th/entry year.

Well, it seems that BASIS high school does lose less than 10 kids per year, it's just that they were all to schools outside the public DC system. That kind of surprises me, I would have expected a few to JR now and then. If a school has 59 9th graders and only 50 stay for 10th, that's not super wow. If a school has 51 9th graders and 50 stay for 10th, that's good.

I think people's argument about BASIS isn't that the students who attend it are miserable and they leave. It's that BASIS isn't anywhere near as good as its boosters would like others to think, and that it doesn't do a fair share of the more difficult work of the school system.

So, to summarize, BASIS parents are often defending BASIS and trying to explain that, notwithstanding the DCUM haters, BASIS families are often times quite happy and kids choose to remain for HS and are happy to have done so. Someone shows you data that says kids don't leave the HS for other charter or DCPS schools (as in zero) and your conclusion is that BASIS isn;t as good for those families (none of whom leave) as they say it is?

Also, BASIS families don't give a dam if you think BASIS does "its fair share". We're trying to get our kids educated. And, with all due respect, if you are IB for JR I don't really have patience for your commentary about what BASIS isn't doing.

Typical BASIS booster anger and aggression. I do care about all the kids in the city, and the functioning of the system as a whole, and if you don't, well, that's between you and your conscience.

I believe that BASIS isn't that great a school. I believe that it's so-called "success" is the result of its demographics rather than of excellent teaching or whatever else. I believe that if you took a matching slice of JR students (those who have attended a well-performing school starting in 5th grade and who were on grade level almost every year since), it would look no worse than BASIS does. I am not IB for JR, rather I'm a parent who researched BASIS for my kid and decided not to apply at all.

I also believe that parents often stay at schools that aren't that great, or aren't that good a fit, for lack of a better option and because it's hard to move teenagers away from their friends. Like any other school in the city, some of its families are more satisfied than others, and I don't assume retention indicates actual satisfaction.

I honestly feel sorry for you. This is a school you have never attended, have no first hand experience with and one you claim you didn't even want to attend, and yet you frequent DCUM to lecture parents who have kids at the school that the school their kids are at is not great? Because your research tells you more about what is a good school for their kids than their personal experience? Really? Wow.

If you only listen to people who actually enrolled, you won't get the whole picture. I did my research, I spoke with friends who were kind enough to be candid with me, and I decided it isn't that impressive. My best wishes to you and your child at BASIS!