BASIS to Deal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can you explain the grading system at Basis with the comps PP? Are you saying the comps are 50% of last report card or for the year? Thanks.

NP but Basis parent.

Comps are given in grades 6-8 (not 5th). The comp grades are used to calculate 50% of the final year-end grade for the course.

More detail on this and much more is in the Basis Handbook (relevant portion starts on page 22) http://basisdc.org/school/parent-student-handbook

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can you explain the grading system at Basis with the comps PP? Are you saying the comps are 50% of last report card or for the year? Thanks.

The precomps are 1/2 of the GP3 grade (there are five grading periods) and the comps are 1/2 of the GP5 grade -- and must be passed in order to move up to the next grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you explain the grading system at Basis with the comps PP? Are you saying the comps are 50% of last report card or for the year? Thanks.

The precomps are 1/2 of the GP3 grade (there are five grading periods) and the comps are 1/2 of the GP5 grade -- and must be passed in order to move up to the next grade.

Sorry -- meant to say comps are 1/2 of the year total grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you explain the grading system at Basis with the comps PP? Are you saying the comps are 50% of last report card or for the year? Thanks.

The precomps are 1/2 of the GP3 grade (there are five grading periods) and the comps are 1/2 of the GP5 grade -- and must be passed in order to move up to the next grade.

I believe this is wrong info. The final comprehensive exam is worth 50% of final grade for the year and the cumulative course grade average after the final grading period is worth 50% of the final grade of the year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you explain the grading system at Basis with the comps PP? Are you saying the comps are 50% of last report card or for the year? Thanks.

The precomps are 1/2 of the GP3 grade (there are five grading periods) and the comps are 1/2 of the GP5 grade -- and must be passed in order to move up to the next grade.

I believe this is wrong info. The final comprehensive exam is worth 50% of final grade for the year and the cumulative course grade average after the final grading period is worth 50% of the final grade of the year.

This poster is correct.

[Anonymous]

I forgot to add that you only need a 60% to pass for a final grade.

[Anonymous]

You can retake them before the new year starts to a passing grade, and you must pass all but math to go on to the next grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can retake them before the new year starts to a passing grade, and you must pass all but math to go on to the next grade.

With most teachers trying hard, caring about the kids and teaching well (we have had some bad ones but my kid has been there 3 years and never failed a comp) but even the bad teachers never trying to hide the ball, 60% on a comp is a pretty low bar. If your comp grade (50%) plus your total grade up til then (the other 50%) ends up less than 60%, you have to complete a packet, but retention is not an issue. And as the pp said, you can repeat math, which is the hardest start for many kids coming from not so great schools. I think this is just about no social promotion, basically done European style - high stakes at the end of every term and every year, O levels and A levels. Ring a bell with anyone? It is great as the posters on the Latin thread said to be in a school where everyone goes to college, but Basis is designed so that those who don't want to aggressively go to college don't stay for high school. They still get a great MS education for most. There are outliers, like poor OP's kid, who is just overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information even though good/interested in math and science. And there are others who just don't test well. But the only way to figure out if you have a Basis kid is to give it a shot. And sometimes your kid will surprise you by being more up for it than you expected, and sometimes your kid will clearly turn out to be less than up for it. If it is turning any kid off from education, my advice is head elsewhere while they still like school........

OP,
good luck to you and your son
soft and happy landing at Deal

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can retake them before the new year starts to a passing grade, and you must pass all but math to go on to the next grade.

With most teachers trying hard, caring about the kids and teaching well (we have had some bad ones but my kid has been there 3 years and never failed a comp) but even the bad teachers never trying to hide the ball, 60% on a comp is a pretty low bar. If your comp grade (50%) plus your total grade up til then (the other 50%) ends up less than 60%, you have to complete a packet, but retention is not an issue. And as the pp said, you can repeat math, which is the hardest start for many kids coming from not so great schools. I think this is just about no social promotion, basically done European style - high stakes at the end of every term and every year, O levels and A levels. Ring a bell with anyone? It is great as the posters on the Latin thread said to be in a school where everyone goes to college, but Basis is designed so that those who don't want to aggressively go to college don't stay for high school. They still get a great MS education for most. There are outliers, like poor OP's kid, who is just overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information even though good/interested in math and science. And there are others who just don't test well. But the only way to figure out if you have a Basis kid is to give it a shot. And sometimes your kid will surprise you by being more up for it than you expected, and sometimes your kid will clearly turn out to be less than up for it. If it is turning any kid off from education, my advice is head elsewhere while they still like school........

OP,
good luck to you and your son
soft and happy landing at Deal

This is hogwash. We are not staying for high school and my child aggressively wants to go to college. It is also nice to know that 8th grade science does labs, can't wait. However, you guys are fooling yourselves if you think that BASIS is rooting them in the math fundamentals. They move too fast for it. My child can do the advanced concepts and I KNOW he is really slow on some basic concepts. I trusted the system last year and assumed he was being reinforced in these basics. Early this year, I discovered that he was not and am working with him. He resists because "he knows all the advanced concepts" and does not want to accept that what I am reinforcing is important. He went in strong in writing because his elementary had writer's workshop daily but he has regressed there. Keep you heads in the sand. Being able to do something on paper and understanding the application of it are two different things. I'm not happy because I am considering putting him in summer school next summer and he works to hard with good grades to have to spend five weeks of his summer in academics that he should have learned doing the school year.

OP - I don't think Deal will hold your child back if they do not pass the comps. However, he may have to take PreAlgebra which less than half of the 6th grade class is taking now. They will give your child a math test to determine placement. Call the Principal or Assistant Principal!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can retake them before the new year starts to a passing grade, and you must pass all but math to go on to the next grade.

With most teachers trying hard, caring about the kids and teaching well (we have had some bad ones but my kid has been there 3 years and never failed a comp) but even the bad teachers never trying to hide the ball, 60% on a comp is a pretty low bar. If your comp grade (50%) plus your total grade up til then (the other 50%) ends up less than 60%, you have to complete a packet, but retention is not an issue. And as the pp said, you can repeat math, which is the hardest start for many kids coming from not so great schools. I think this is just about no social promotion, basically done European style - high stakes at the end of every term and every year, O levels and A levels. Ring a bell with anyone? It is great as the posters on the Latin thread said to be in a school where everyone goes to college, but Basis is designed so that those who don't want to aggressively go to college don't stay for high school. They still get a great MS education for most. There are outliers, like poor OP's kid, who is just overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information even though good/interested in math and science. And there are others who just don't test well. But the only way to figure out if you have a Basis kid is to give it a shot. And sometimes your kid will surprise you by being more up for it than you expected, and sometimes your kid will clearly turn out to be less than up for it. If it is turning any kid off from education, my advice is head elsewhere while they still like school........

OP,
good luck to you and your son
soft and happy landing at Deal

This is hogwash. We are not staying for high school and my child aggressively wants to go to college. It is also nice to know that 8th grade science does labs, can't wait. However, you guys are fooling yourselves if you think that BASIS is rooting them in the math fundamentals. They move too fast for it. My child can do the advanced concepts and I KNOW he is really slow on some basic concepts. I trusted the system last year and assumed he was being reinforced in these basics. Early this year, I discovered that he was not and am working with him. He resists because "he knows all the advanced concepts" and does not want to accept that what I am reinforcing is important. He went in strong in writing because his elementary had writer's workshop daily but he has regressed there. Keep you heads in the sand. Being able to do something on paper and understanding the application of it are two different things. I'm not happy because I am considering putting him in summer school next summer and he works to hard with good grades to have to spend five weeks of his summer in academics that he should have learned doing the school year.

OP - I don't think Deal will hold your child back if they do not pass the comps. However, he may have to take PreAlgebra which less than half of the 6th grade class is taking now. They will give your child a math test to determine placement. Call the Principal or Assistant Principal!

Can the PP explain what basic concepts their child doesn't know? And, as a parent, how did you find out that he doesn't know them? I'm sincere in asking this question because as a fellow BASIS parent, I look at my child's math grade (which is decent) and I look at their textbook (which looks really hard to me) and I feel like they're learning a whole lot of math. I wouldn't know what to even ask my child to find out if he doesn't really know what he's doing.

[Anonymous]

Totally agree with pp about it being BS-my kid is honors almost every term and without question all A's and therefore always 90's club, and has akready decided he wants to attend MIT, but he wont stay for high school. He too has regressed in his writing ability. Not everyone in DC with great academic aspirations stays at BAsis through HS, which is why kids at Wilson and Walls and privates end up at such great colleges-Basis has yet to graduate a class, so who knows how many will end up graduating from BDC to even go to college.

[Anonymous]

So, let me get this straight -- DCPS teaches math better than BASIS? While we won't have BASIS DC high school scores yet to compare with DCPS, we do have the scores on the SAT and APs from their other schools. Even without Scottsdale, they don't seem to be shirking their duty and BASIS uses Saxon systemwide.

I don't know or have a strong feeling about math fundamentals. I have a BA from a good university, passed all my math classes (including calculus) and I was still a little surprised and mystified the first time my then-second-grader brought home DCPS math homework that I couldn't understand or help with, due to the way it was being taught now. I was also shocked when that same child was about to enter BASIS and I realized that the multiplication tables were never memorized. This child is in advanced math classes at BASIS now and getting As and I don't care how or when geometry is absorbed.

[Anonymous]

^^ Where on this thread was it said that DCPS teaches math better than BASIS? It was said that Deal teaches math better than BASIS.

[Anonymous]

^^ doesn't all of DCPS use the same textbooks for math, i.e., not Saxon? The attack was on the Saxon method of teaching math with geometry mixed in instead of as a separate class, which is why BASIS expats end up getting screwed when they return to DCPS at Deal or Walls or wherever. The PP thinks BASIS goes too fast, but all they are doing is getting through each of the Saxon textbooks from front to back in one year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^ doesn't all of DCPS use the same textbooks for math, i.e., not Saxon? The attack was on the Saxon method of teaching math with geometry mixed in instead of as a separate class, which is why BASIS expats end up getting screwed when they return to DCPS at Deal or Walls or wherever. The PP thinks BASIS goes too fast, but all they are doing is getting through each of the Saxon textbooks from front to back in one year.

They go too fast, go one chapter after the other, sometimes skip chapters expecting the kids to do it on their own. The aim is to cover the book.
As for the pp whose kid is doing really great, it does not mean much.