How to help child succeed at BASIS

[Anonymous]

We're still at BASIS. Give us a break, no kid is a good fit for the bad building or the way BASIS DC does business. 3 heads in 4 years hasn't worked well. You make the best of the program whether you stay or go, for lack of a better public school option. No more to say. Move on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We're still at BASIS. Give us a break, no kid is a good fit for the bad building or the way BASIS DC does business. 3 heads in 4 years hasn't worked well. You make the best of the program whether you stay or go, for lack of a better public school option. No more to say. Move on.

I was going to chime in but since you have declared there is nothing more to say and that I need to move on, I guess that's what I should do. That's the response of a child afraid of a discussion, FWIW.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BASIS needs no selling because the parents of hundreds of Ward 5 and 6 public school 4th graders are desperate for a public MS offering good discipline and academic rigor. They're happy to put up with the bad building, weak electives, and a slew of green admins and teachers.

Can you imagine carrying around this much animosity for a former employer? Poor dude (guessing) is so disgruntled that he spends his time following threads and chiming in aggressively on a school that he hasn't worked at in a number of years. I honestly feel pity for him.

I posted above. I'm not a former employee. I'm a current parent who won't be returning in the fall. I'm tired of dealing with admins and teachers who aren't very good at their jobs in a building that isn't healthy for the kids. I don't post on DCUM much. You guys need a life. BASIS is just OK a nd you know it.

Information now gleaned from your posts:

* Basis was a bad fit for your kid - That's fine. Not every school is a great fit for every kid.
* Basis's admins were unreceptive to your suggestions for improvements - That's ok too. You had a right to make requests and demands. And they had a right to refuse your requests and demands. The fact that they are young doesn't mean they were wrong; that seems a very odd thing for you to fixate on. It also isn't clear why you would have been surprised that they refused your suggestions. In my experience Basis is open and vocal that they don't want to hear how you'd change things. They actually tell you that during open houses!
* You are tired of "dealing with a building that isn't healthy for kids" - This one feels like sour grapes. Did you not know what the building looked like when you enrolled? This feels like bootstrapping the fact that it wasn't a good fit for your kid, but instead of just acknowledging that moving on you are leaning into other things.

Your repeated griping about the youth of the admins or that they were "not good at their jobs" doesn't provide any useful information. By all objective measures (academic performance) they are excelling. If you are willing to share why it wasn't a good fit for your kid that might actually be helpful to other families considering Basis. Otherwise what we know from you so far is that the admins are young, you don't like the building and Basis was a bad fit for your kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We're still at BASIS. Give us a break, no kid is a good fit for the bad building or the way BASIS DC does business. 3 heads in 4 years hasn't worked well. You make the best of the program whether you stay or go, for lack of a better public school option. No more to say. Move on.

When I read stuff like this I marvel at how different my kid's experience is. Are we the outliers or are you?? I am in awe of the breadth of material my 7th grader has covered/learned this year. The physics/Bio/chem is stuff I didn't see until high school. Legit learning is going on there. And - hasn't the current head been HOS for almost three years now? FWIW I think he is pretty darn good - very calm, cool and collected - sure he is "young" but he knows what he is doing and doesn't let (older) parents push him around. Good for him!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There’s nothing weird or strange about a school offering a very short test to new students to learn information relevant to classroom placement and overall preparation.

Dci does this to measure language proficiency.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're still at BASIS. Give us a break, no kid is a good fit for the bad building or the way BASIS DC does business. 3 heads in 4 years hasn't worked well. You make the best of the program whether you stay or go, for lack of a better public school option. No more to say. Move on.

When I read stuff like this I marvel at how different my kid's experience is. Are we the outliers or are you?? I am in awe of the breadth of material my 7th grader has covered/learned this year. The physics/Bio/chem is stuff I didn't see until high school. Legit learning is going on there. And - hasn't the current head been HOS for almost three years now? FWIW I think he is pretty darn good - very calm, cool and collected - sure he is "young" but he knows what he is doing and doesn't let (older) parents push him around. Good for him!

What grade is your kid in? This HS parent considers the current HOS to be an intellectually challenged jerk and an ass, the worst we've dealt with. We didn't have a better option before now, so we've put up with the whole shebang (without defending it to the hilt like many here). Your kid eats lunch in a cafeteria with no windows and learns in a building with little natural light. We're thrilled to be moving on to a lovely private with stellar academics, facilities and ECs on good fi aid.

The legit science learning, yes.

[Anonymous]

+100.We’d leave for a better school in a minute IF we had the option w/out moving to the burbs. The idiot boosters are OT ridiculous.GOOD LUCK to you guys.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're still at BASIS. Give us a break, no kid is a good fit for the bad building or the way BASIS DC does business. 3 heads in 4 years hasn't worked well. You make the best of the program whether you stay or go, for lack of a better public school option. No more to say. Move on.

When I read stuff like this I marvel at how different my kid's experience is. Are we the outliers or are you?? I am in awe of the breadth of material my 7th grader has covered/learned this year. The physics/Bio/chem is stuff I didn't see until high school. Legit learning is going on there. And - hasn't the current head been HOS for almost three years now? FWIW I think he is pretty darn good - very calm, cool and collected - sure he is "young" but he knows what he is doing and doesn't let (older) parents push him around. Good for him!

What grade is your kid in? This HS parent considers the current HOS to be an intellectually challenged jerk and an ass, the worst we've dealt with. We didn't have a better option before now, so we've put up with the whole shebang (without defending it to the hilt like many here). Your kid eats lunch in a cafeteria with no windows and learns in a building with little natural light. We're thrilled to be moving on to a lovely private with stellar academics, facilities and ECs on good fi aid.

The legit science learning, yes.

My kid (who had a fantastic year) is finishing 7th (8th next year). I don't care about the cafeteria or lack of natural light and my kid hasn't mentioned it once this year (sure, in a perfect world would be nice to have, but the building is what it is). What, specifically, are the problems you have encountered? Would like to know what to be on guard for!

[Anonymous]

BASIS has become better this year after the parent who was the de facto principal left. From day one, she was the one deciding who stayed and who went. All 3 of her mediocre children graduated with a very high GPA and numerous AP courses, all with "5"s. Those teachers who objected to the "A"s lost their jobs. A principal was also forced to resign a few months into the school year.
Even stunned classmates who asked questions about the huge discrepancy between what these students actually knew and the grades they received (including math, sciences or foreign language) received "D's or "F"s in their end of year report cards and were pushed out of the school.
The day after the 3rd child graduated, the whole family left DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:BASIS has become better this year after the parent who was the de facto principal left. From day one, she was the one deciding who stayed and who went. All 3 of her mediocre children graduated with a very high GPA and numerous AP courses, all with "5"s. Those teachers who objected to the "A"s lost their jobs. A principal was also forced to resign a few months into the school year.
Even stunned classmates who asked questions about the huge discrepancy between what these students actually knew and the grades they received (including math, sciences or foreign language) received "D's or "F"s in their end of year report cards and were pushed out of the school.
The day after the 3rd child graduated, the whole family left DC.

This is amusing to read but I don't believe a word of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BASIS has become better this year after the parent who was the de facto principal left. From day one, she was the one deciding who stayed and who went. All 3 of her mediocre children graduated with a very high GPA and numerous AP courses, all with "5"s. Those teachers who objected to the "A"s lost their jobs. A principal was also forced to resign a few months into the school year.
Even stunned classmates who asked questions about the huge discrepancy between what these students actually knew and the grades they received (including math, sciences or foreign language) received "D's or "F"s in their end of year report cards and were pushed out of the school.
The day after the 3rd child graduated, the whole family left DC.

This is amusing to read but I don't believe a word of it.

So they didn't know the material but the teachers were forced to give them As - but they also got 5s on all their APs? How did they force the anonymous and unknown AP graders to give them 5s when they didn't know the material? Agreed: This makes no sense.

[Anonymous]

There’s nothing weird about a placement test. Making kids take the test during an “ice cream social” is kinda strange. I guess this is what passes for “fun”? 😊

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There’s nothing weird about a placement test. Making kids take the test during an “ice cream social” is kinda strange. I guess this is what passes for “fun”? 😊

This was my take as well. Ice cream social = not weird. Placement test = not weird. Ice cream social with a placement test = weird.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're still at BASIS. Give us a break, no kid is a good fit for the bad building or the way BASIS DC does business. 3 heads in 4 years hasn't worked well. You make the best of the program whether you stay or go, for lack of a better public school option. No more to say. Move on.

When I read stuff like this I marvel at how different my kid's experience is. Are we the outliers or are you?? I am in awe of the breadth of material my 7th grader has covered/learned this year. The physics/Bio/chem is stuff I didn't see until high school. Legit learning is going on there. And - hasn't the current head been HOS for almost three years now? FWIW I think he is pretty darn good - very calm, cool and collected - sure he is "young" but he knows what he is doing and doesn't let (older) parents push him around. Good for him!

What grade is your kid in? This HS parent considers the current HOS to be an intellectually challenged jerk and an ass, the worst we've dealt with. We didn't have a better option before now, so we've put up with the whole shebang (without defending it to the hilt like many here). Your kid eats lunch in a cafeteria with no windows and learns in a building with little natural light. We're thrilled to be moving on to a lovely private with stellar academics, facilities and ECs on good fi aid.

The legit science learning, yes.

My kid (who had a fantastic year) is finishing 7th (8th next year). I don't care about the cafeteria or lack of natural light and my kid hasn't mentioned it once this year (sure, in a perfect world would be nice to have, but the building is what it is). What, specifically, are the problems you have encountered? Would like to know what to be on guard for!

NP who can tell you this. After leaving BASIS for Walls my eldest was a different kid. Space, fresh air, light, pleasant, quiet places in the building to reflect and study, sports facilities, choice of classes, it's all made a big difference. DC is clearly in better shape mentally and physically than in middle school, even if academics aren't as rigorous as they could be.

I didn't care about the cafeteria or lack of natural light either, but common sense tells me I....should have.

[Anonymous]

The problem here is that there really are two different experiences and parents don’t see it.

If your kid can handle the academics and thrives on them, the kid is both happy and has lots of opportunities for extracurriculars and a whole gang of friends who are similarly minded.

If your kid can’t handle the academics, the school tries to pull them up by supplementing. This supplementing comes at the expense of the extracurriculars. So the child is struggling with academics, loses all the fun part of school, has no recourse and also doesn’t fit in with the other kids.

Both stories are very true. It isn’t a good fit for everyone, but the problem is the parents that fight it and think they can change the system because it doesn’t work for their kid. They can’t, and they need someone to blame for the fact that they put their kid into a school that wasn’t good for them.