Basis Charter School - Experience and Insight Requested
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Anonymous
No, that’s not my logic. It’s a for profit corporation that controls the curriculum, the brand and the real estate and they set up a local non profit to handle the contract with the school district. If for profit basis doesn’t get paid, or if nonprofit basis doesn’t abide by the for profits system, there is no nonprofit. It’s different from your scenario because if it’s purely a landlord tenant relationship, the school, its curriculum and teaching material isn’t ties to the landlord. So, yes, the local is a nonprofit - but the basis system is a for profit operation and all of the nonprofits (they link both for profit and nonprofit schools around the country) rely on the for profit arm. This isn’t a secret - they pioneered the system starting out of Arizona and facing pushback about having education be a totally for profit system, they incorporated some of the branches as nonprofits, which does provide some insulation between kids and investors. But whether the local operation is a for or nonprofit, independently operated or run by the parent, it’s essentially a franchise of a successful for profit company (albeit one that has recently become over leveraged). Look, in some places it’s been a successful system (depending on your chosen metrics) and it’s not totally insane to understand… There are other charter networks that are purely nonprofit (parent and local) although if you’d like to argue about whether they are really nonprofit I’m happy to do that to. None of this affects the debate over whether basis’ test scores are reality or whatever else everyone is banging on about, but you should understand the scenario. |
Anonymous
Nearly all high-performing middle and high schools in the DMV also have lovely buildings. With kilns. And gyms and athletic fields and windows in the cafeteria. Good facilities don’t cause bad test scores. Basis facilities are subpar. That fact is outweighed for some by other considerations, but don’t get it twisted. Bad facilities are still bad. |
Anonymous
lol. Lots of terrible low-performing public middle and high schools in DC have lovely buildings, kilns, and much else. DC spent over $128 million renovating Dunbar and almost all the kids there are below grade level in reading and math. |
Anonymous
Are you actually trying to argue that good facilities cause bad test scores? |
Anonymous
PP's point is that spending money on a middle school or high school building doesn't cause or correlate with academic achievement. |
Anonymous
Given that BASIS is the top charter network in the United States, with 11 of the top 100 high schools in the country, it sounds like other charter networks should be following its model. |
Anonymous
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BASIS DC only has 47 in the graduating class but here is a selection of colleges to which kids were admitted (some were admitted to more than one of these).
Per capita, no other public school in DC comes close to these results. Bryn Mawr Carnegie Mellon Cornell Dartmouth Duke Edinburgh Elon Emory Georgetown GW Harvard NYU Northeastern Northwestern Oxford Pomona Smith St. Andrews Tufts UC Berkeley UPenn U Mich UT-Austin UVA Wesleyan Wisconsin-Madison Yale |
Anonymous
Terrible schools. I know they’re terrible because every single one of them has not just one but multiple kilns on campus. Plus athletic fields, gymnasiums, libraries, theaters, windows—all the hallmarks of bad schools. |
Anonymous
If you kicked out all of the kids who aren’t in AP classes at the other high schools they’d have similar numbers. BASIS does a good job on those 47, but the real advantage is shaking off the ones who aren’t top tier students. It’s such a simple sleight of hand trick, it’s amazing that a school so famous for its math slips it by so many people. |
Anonymous
There are some things where it doesn’t really matter how you get the result… education is one of those things where it does matter. The most profitable way is not necessarily the best way, even if it sometimes deliver good standardized test scores. |
Anonymous
You keep saying that. But here are a few questions for you: Can you acknowledge that the curriculum at BASIS differs from DCPS? (Requires you to just take a cursory look at the required classes to know this is true, but if you saw the syllabus, as parents do, you would know it's dramatically different and BASIS teaches much more content). Do you acknowledge that it's possible that the kids who survive BASIS might be learning more than they would have through DCPS? Can you acknowledge that many of the kids who make it through 8th and then decide to leave for Walls or Private (about half the kids who start) were actually pretty well served by the middle school curriculum? And now these 50 kids who make it all the way through to graduate -- yes, I agree that these 50 probably would have been successful anywhere. But maybe, just maybe, they actually like the curriculum at BASIS. Maybe they had opportunities there they wouldnt have had at a different school. |
Anonymous
To go back to OP’s questions: I have 2 kids at BASIS. 1 in HS, 1 in MS. — no I have not hired tutors, nor have they needed to drop ECs to study — in 5th grade, some teachers were great, some so bad that they were replaced mid-year (this happened for both kids) — Admin has kept me informed — older kid got into both Walls and privates, but decided to stay at BASIS for HS after visiting schools/doing shadow days. When younger kid reaches 8th, we will again offer to apply out in case they want to leave and have a different HS experience |
Anonymous
Yes - it looks like Basis is doing well by the kids that leave earlier for Walls, Banneker, and privates. Maybe they didn’t like Basis as an experience (or at least had their full of it), but they certainly landed well and compiled good enough academic records while at Basis, painful as it may have been. Combined with the 1/3 of kids that make it all the way through, it’s quite likely that Basis does well by a strong majority of kids. Basis can’t really advertise (or defend) itself by its middle-to-HS school “exit” options but it does matter for families weighing it as an option. None of this is necessarily to defend Basis as a model that should be supported by public tax dollars. I’m conflicted about that… (P.S. - plenty of private school families hire tutors; same with TJ families.) |
Anonymous
Basis doesn’t need to be anything close to the “best” way. It’ just needs to do a solid enough job by a critical mass of students, who are hardly harmed by decamping to Walls, Banneker, or privates for HS or staying and getting a spot at Carnegie Mellon or Haverford. |
Anonymous
Can you acknowledge that a lot of kids leave basis feeling hurt and disillusioned and discouraged from learning? It’s an intriguing idea and clearly works for some kids, but when dcps has so many problems, pouring money into a system that works for so few - and is frankly designed to work for so few - is disturbing. It seems like a great idea for a private school, where a specific model can be implemented and if you don’t fit the curriculum and the culture, you’re free to leave - not a public school system which is supposed to serve everyone. I’ve got no problem with a curriculum with heavy emphasis on math and science and testing, and it’s nice to see those who suceed, but the cost, both financially and in terms of those who don’t succeed seems awfully high. |