Teacher turnover at BASIS

[Anonymous]

While Basis is a great school, the Dean, the staff and a few others are not equipped to deal with children on all levels. My child has behavioral issues due to losing 7 family members to death. It is hard fir an adult to deal with the death of a family member, so just imagine for a second, a child losing 7 family members, transitioning from elementary to middle school and having to deal with adolescence all at once. It is hard and it seems to me only the Dean of Student Affairs and the Psychologist even care. The rest of the team is all about suspension. What happened to NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND??? That is some crap. If a child is having behavioral issues, there should be someone at the school equipped to deal with that. Children spend the majority of their childhood in and around school. Where is the Assistance?

Angry Parent--

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:While Basis is a great school, the Dean, the staff and a few others are not equipped to deal with children on all levels. My child has behavioral issues due to losing 7 family members to death. It is hard fir an adult to deal with the death of a family member, so just imagine for a second, a child losing 7 family members, transitioning from elementary to middle school and having to deal with adolescence all at once. It is hard and it seems to me only the Dean of Student Affairs and the Psychologist even care. The rest of the team is all about suspension. What happened to NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND??? That is some crap. If a child is having behavioral issues, there should be someone at the school equipped to deal with that. Children spend the majority of their childhood in and around school. Where is the Assistance?

Angry Parent--

That sounds really hard. I would be looking at alternatives with a critical eye.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You make the best of things at BASIS. What you want are better facilities, trained college counselors, a library and so forth on top of all the good rigor. But you can't have all that without moving to the burbs or paying for a private, so you make the best of things. That's all you do. You came here and boost and rationalize away without changing that.

The BASIS facilities are given an unfair bad rap, particularly considering the location -- blocks away from museums, the mall, everything that DC has to offer. As far as a on campus library, what is a waste of resources when we are a couple blocks from the MLK library. I'd personally rather my DC learn to use a real library that they can use for the rest of their life that has so much more to offer than a limited school library. Trained college counselors? That is the last thing on my "wish list." I would like more sports teams, a leadership class, and a parent google group. Expert college counselors are easy to outsource if you aren't happy with the in-house options.

BASIS is better than many of the burb schools or the privates. Maybe not compared to Sidwell, but that can't be the standard since 99% of Americans cannot afford to send their children to Sidwell. DC should be commended for having a public school like BASIS available, particularly with the rich NoVA burbs paying for the private equivalent. DC doesn't appreciate it, because we see schools like Sidwell, Georgetown Day, etc, but if I lived anywhere else, I'd knock DC parents on top of their heads for having any complaints about a public option like BASIS. Friends that rubbed in their admissions to Latin now wish they had ended up in BASIS, IB Deal parents tell me that they had considered BASIS, the K-8 charter schools wish they could compete with a school like BASIS. Those who got in should be counting their lucky stars.

I don't know a single person, of the dozens of people I know who have kids at Latin, who wishes they had done BASIS instead. Plenty of friends of my kids at BASIS still wishing they had gotten into Latin instead. DC#1 got into BASIS, but we ran screaming when they described the lack of physical movement, the fact that they didn't waste time going to the museums or Mall (I'm paraphrasing but that was the distinct gist), and showed their inability to deal with kids with non-academic special needs. When DC#2 came along to BASIS age, we happily picked another school without ever looking at BASIS again. I know people who have kids who are happy at BASIS, but I know a lot more who are themselves miserable with the program or whose kids were either miserable and left or who are not all that happy there. I also saw for myself an example of a friend's kid being failed despite no grades below an 80 documented in the CJ or anywhere else. Lower income AA family. Funnily enough, when Mom went in to question it, they stated that the teachers made mistakes on the grades and changed them all to passing. So either the teachers were so negligent that they accidently gave 20's on report cards for a passing student or they had a student who was secretly receiving failing grades but never indicated such in the CJ nor communicated with the parents, nor approached the child, etc. Or they wanted this kid, who lives in subsidized housing, out of the school because standardized test scores would be average not superior and grades would always hover around 85% or so. In other words, a perfectly lovely kid doing a slightly above average job. Mom was thrilled to pull her kid out and said kid now attends a private high school on a huge merit scholarship which is richly deserved.

I think it's great that BASIS offers accelerated learning. DC#3 is advanced and such a program could be a great fit. However, not understanding child development, maintaining a happy and supported teaching staff, retaining adminstrators, special education, the list goes on -- that doesn't work for me. We will, happily, continue to pursue our kids' education elsewhere, thank you very much.

[Anonymous]

You don't need to be lieutenant Columbo to figure out what's going on at BASIS and how the data coordinator has license to redact and edit students' grades, final GPA's and much more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don't need to be lieutenant Columbo to figure out what's going on at BASIS and how the data coordinator has license to redact and edit students' grades, final GPA's and much more.

Wow. Don't forget your tinfoil hat.


Students and parents have access to all quiz and test results and are given reports at least 10 times a year for middle school and at least 6 times a year for upper school. Additionally parents can request current grades in any class at any time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You don't need to be lieutenant Columbo to figure out what's going on at BASIS and how the data coordinator has license to redact and edit students' grades, final GPA's and much more.

Wow. Don't forget your tinfoil hat.


Students and parents have access to all quiz and test results and are given reports at least 10 times a year for middle school and at least 6 times a year for upper school. Additionally parents can request current grades in any class at any time.

But your child's graded pre-comps and comps -- the assessments with the biggest impact on the final grades -- are never sent home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You don't need to be lieutenant Columbo to figure out what's going on at BASIS and how the data coordinator has license to redact and edit students' grades, final GPA's and much more.

Wow. Don't forget your tinfoil hat.


Students and parents have access to all quiz and test results and are given reports at least 10 times a year for middle school and at least 6 times a year for upper school. Additionally parents can request current grades in any class at any time.

But your child's graded pre-comps and comps -- the assessments with the biggest impact on the final grades -- are never sent home.

No - but you can go and review them in person.

The only assessments at BASIS which impact grades that you can't see are AP exams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You don't need to be lieutenant Columbo to figure out what's going on at BASIS and how the data coordinator has license to redact and edit students' grades, final GPA's and much more.

Wow. Don't forget your tinfoil hat.


Students and parents have access to all quiz and test results and are given reports at least 10 times a year for middle school and at least 6 times a year for upper school. Additionally parents can request current grades in any class at any time.

But your child's graded pre-comps and comps -- the assessments with the biggest impact on the final grades -- are never sent home.

No - but you can go and review them in person.

The only assessments at BASIS which impact grades that you can't see are AP exams.

So what? I did review DCs pre-comps one year. It was a PITA. I sat in an office one for an hour or so one afternoon. Couldn't take them home. Couldn't make copies. Couldn't research the questions.

The BASIS pre-comps and comps should be sent home so that parents and students can review them. There is no need for all the secrecy. Transparency in grading ensures fairness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The reality for my kid-3 years at Basis and they never went to the library, or anywhere except for the Mall for gym and the Navy/Archives plaza for fire drills.

This BS. Every year the 5th grade students do field trips during comps. Also, my kid had a class where they often went to Smithsonian Art Museum for class or to the sculpture garden. There are also after school clubs that take kids to art museums. Of course, there could be more field trips but there definitely has not been none.

Kid attended for 6th, 7th & 8th, didn't take art. Statement is 100% true. They never left the building.

My 8th grader was just out with his class yesterday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The reality for my kid-3 years at Basis and they never went to the library, or anywhere except for the Mall for gym and the Navy/Archives plaza for fire drills.

This BS. Every year the 5th grade students do field trips during comps. Also, my kid had a class where they often went to Smithsonian Art Museum for class or to the sculpture garden. There are also after school clubs that take kids to art museums. Of course, there could be more field trips but there definitely has not been none.

Kid attended for 6th, 7th & 8th, didn't take art. Statement is 100% true. They never left the building.

My 8th grader was just out with his class yesterday.

GREAT! Where did they go?

[Anonymous]

Come on, the kids seldom leave the claustrophobic building in every grade. You hear the term "Chipotle charter chain" used for BASIS. What works in suburban Arizona is grafted onto a downtown DC program. BASIS DC has a downtown building primarily to afford families city-wide access, not to pile on enrichment.

[Anonymous]

BASIS 5th graders do about 8 field trip days a year -- they come in clusters and happen when the older students are doing pre-comps and comps.

Other trips outside are captured on their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/BASISDC/?fref=ts

But no, they do not 'use the city' in any significant way outside of the end of the year 'project week.' Even there it's pretty hit or miss and teacher dependent.

[Anonymous]

my child has a great art class three times a week as an elective, which is tracking what is learned in the 6th grade world history class. last year fifth grade had numerous field trips to museums all over the city when the older kids had precomps and comps in the winter and spring . once a month after school the art teacher takes a group of kids to a museum to those interested. not sure what more they should be doing.

[Anonymous]

Mom of a 4th year Basis student here- please be honest about the outings, people! The 3 days 5th graders need to be out of the building thus go to the local museums isn't "enrichment", and the only field trips people go on during project week they usually pay for. Be honest about what bAsis does well, and don't try to sugar coat what they don't do at all. My kid goes in early most days so he can talk to his friends and he is not a morning person, but 20 minutes at lunch isn't enough down time for most kids that age. Grat teachers, The kids learn an incredible amount, but everything else is suboptimal.

[Anonymous]

+1. Thanks for your honesty. You rock.