How's basis going so far?

[Anonymous]

The sad reality is that a good many of the low SES kids who can indeed "do the work" won't have the time as teens. Their cash-strapped families will rely on them to work part-time jobs as much as 30 hours per week to earn money to cover bare essentials, babysit a lot for children in the extended family, do most of the housework, shopping etc. Moreover, they are unlikely to have quiet, well-lit places to study at home, or the sense of well-being, to focus. I say this having taught sciences in a G/T program in FL where around 10% of the FARMS kids who entered in 2nd grade were still there, taking 6-10 AP classes or pursuing the IB diploma, in 12th.

If most other high SES families go along the way, we will go. I want my kid to enjoy HS, not to feel like a fish out of water if she mentions how she visits family and friends abroad regularly, shares her home with a foreign au pair caring for a younger sibling etc. Latin simply isn't keeping all that many high SES or white families to 12th, and neither is Wilson, and these schools will probably emerge as Basis' main competitors.

Will this particularly DC charter be different from all others to the point that we will enter an alternate universe where most high SES parents don't vote with their feet eventually? In'shallah as the Arabs say (God willing), but I'm not holding my breath.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The sad reality is that a good many of the low SES kids who can indeed "do the work" won't have the time as teens. Their cash-strapped families will rely on them to work part-time jobs as much as 30 hours per week to earn money to cover bare essentials, babysit a lot for children in the extended family, do most of the housework, shopping etc. Moreover, they are unlikely to have quiet, well-lit places to study at home, or the sense of well-being, to focus.

You watch wayyyyy to much TV, or you are old as dirt!

[Anonymous]

We're in 5th, high SES AA. I'd like to see a well-researched report on why at least three-quarters of high SES DCPS and DC Charter families in NW currently leave before high school graduation. Are there any?

I am with pps who strongly suspect that academic concerns are not the whole story. If they were, Banneker, not a bad high school, wouldn't remain almost entirely AA.

We don't want our kid around groups of teens who don't speak grammatically, are disrespectual to adults, have sex, wear sloppy clothes and scary hair, visit parents in prison and so forth, even if they can handle calc at Basis. Do you? A few sure, but not a pack.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We're in 5th, high SES AA. I'd like to see a well-researched report on why at least three-quarters of high SES DCPS and DC Charter families in NW currently leave before high school graduation. Are there any?

I am with pps who strongly suspect that academic concerns are not the whole story. If they were, Banneker, not a bad high school, wouldn't remain almost entirely AA.

We don't want our kid around groups of teens who don't speak grammatically, are disrespectual to adults, have sex, wear sloppy clothes and scary hair, visit parents in prison and so forth, even if they can handle calc at Basis. Do you? A few sure, but not a pack.
This no matter what their SES is!

[Anonymous]

The schools that are currently suffering from high-SES attrition are those that have lowered their standards.

That's what's happening to Latin and some of the other better schools. Once schools start compromising their values and model, they might as well throw their "stellar" reputations right out the window.

If high-quality, college-preparatory options are not available, high-SES parents will do just that - explore their options and vote with their feet, whether going private or moving to a location with better schools.

As a parent, I absolutely do not want to see BASIS consigned to the same fate. The District desperately needs viable options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A different 5th grade parent here. We, and DC, are very happy so far. We would love to be able to stay through 12th grade, both because we don't want DC to be in a ritzy private nor a weak or wild public.

The things that will make us leave? DC being crushed by workload (don't want basis to water this down, but will not put a life preserver on DC if it's really too much for DC personally) and discipline problems. I don't care whether the school is majority AA, so long as the students are there to learn and reverse racism, bullying, fighting, cheating (our last school was DCPS, can you tell?) are nipped in the bud and the chronic troublemakers are thrown out.

Just reverse racism? So it would bother you to be in a school that racist?

Don't be dense /cute-- in our previous DCPS, DC was in the minority (white) and was threatned/bullied by low ses black kids. I would love it if we have made it to the point where racism can just be called what it is when it's black on white, which is not uncommon in DC proper. These kids learned it from their parents like the bad way things have existed among certain white families, when we are allowed to just call it "racist".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would love it if we have made it to the point where racism can just be called what it is when it's black on white, which is not uncommon in DC proper. These kids learned it from their parents like the bad way things have existed among certain white families, when we are allowed to just call it "racist".

What you claim here is incorrect and not supported by research. What is supported by research (time to read Nurture Shock, for example) is that this type of racism and stereotyping develops in diverse environments in which racial (and other differences) are not discussed, in which they are made to be a taboo, one in which kids should grow up in a diverse environment and somehow magically develop an understanding for one another. The truth is that children will, out of their own need for classifications and generalizations, develop and act on social categories that "make sense". Many school districts have recognized this - not DC obviously, not beyond some not very well managed pilots last year anyway. Montgomery County for example uses an intervention called Community Circles to address this problem and provide safe environments for students to practice "higher-order thinking" when it comes to race (and other diversity categories). And, as PP demonstrates vividly, parents are in equal need of such intervention.

And to put it more bluntly, if you see that kind of bullying as a white minority, blame the school not the parents. My DC is in such a setting without the same negatives you describe, quite likely because our school climate copes better with it and addressed racial bullying and discrimination as it addresses any form of bullying and discrimination.

[Anonymous]

^18:25: It's a big mistake to discount environment. A great deal of behavior is modeled from the behavior of others in the environment - the atrocious behavior seen in many low-SES children is not so much a function of poverty or race, as it is a function of who in their environment they model themselves after. Schools can help to mitigate that, as can parental involvement, but it is insidious and can come from a lot of different directions, most particularly peers and others outside the school environment.

[Anonymous]

^^ My kids are really little, so we'll see where Basis is once it has an entire high school. But I know that if the school population is more than around one-quarter low SES AA kids, my spouse won't be interested, no matter what the story is academically. This is because, growing up as a low SES Asian kid in largely low SES AA schools, he was called chink almost every school day, with the standard corner-of-eyes pulling gesture, and worse. After his parents complained, the taunting intensified. I can try to reason with him, tell him the school system has implemented the sort of conflict intervention program you mention, but he won't believe that his own children won't be similarly tortured.

As for lowering standards, how else can middle schools reliant on city funding attract much AA talent in one of the country's lowest-performing school systems? Even Detroit and New Orleans do GT screening and support programs. The most academic low SES kids still tend to get scooped up by privates in this city. You watch, Basis will prep them in MS and lose them for HS to scholarships.

I'm glad that social issues are finally being raised on this thread. Thanks, pps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^18:25: It's a big mistake to discount environment.

18:25 here: That's precisely what I wrote. Those who claim parents (="nurture") are the deciding force, they discount the environment. And if you claim environment is key, then school is where that environment "happens". Today's children of all socioeconomic backgrounds spend more waking hours in school or other organized activities than out on the street making friends. If environment counts ==> school counts. The problem is that schools do not own up to that responsibility, especially not if those who may need a more profound exposure to social realities and connections are lectured to or bent over homework sheets from dawn to dusk instead of building skills and practicing critical judgement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The problem is that schools do not own up to that responsibility, especially not if those who may need a more profound exposure to social realities and connections are lectured to or bent over homework sheets from dawn to dusk instead of building skills and practicing critical judgement.

This is an excellent point, but I think it's not either/or: Basis, in theory, could have the high expectations it has AND also reach for a way to allow a dialogue on diversity, racism and intolerance of all kinds. The Basis founders may think such discussions are either superfluous to their mission or just nonsense, not sure where they stand on it. But the fact that they embraced the idea of opening a Basis in this racially charged environment would seem to indicate at least the seed of a desire to begin to tackle the broader mandates of educating the whole person. There are private schools that tackle racial inequity in their mission, but I've found even that to be insufficient; I've seen parents deeply committed to racial tolerance turn around and encourage their child in discriminating against kids who seem weird, snooty, pathetic, lazy, hot-headed, wealthy or poor or, yes, racist. My child at Basis has already been called faggot, idiot, liar and more; he has probably dished it out as well. Intolerance is complicated and I hope Basis will tackle it with the same insight they apply to academics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^ My kids are really little, so we'll see where Basis is once it has an entire high school. But I know that if the school population is more than around one-quarter low SES AA kids, my spouse won't be interested, no matter what the story is academically. This is because, growing up as a low SES Asian kid in largely low SES AA schools, he was called chink almost every school day, with the standard corner-of-eyes pulling gesture, and worse. After his parents complained, the taunting intensified. I can try to reason with him, tell him the school system has implemented the sort of conflict intervention program you mention, but he won't believe that his own children won't be similarly tortured.

As for lowering standards, how else can middle schools reliant on city funding attract much AA talent in one of the country's lowest-performing school systems? Even Detroit and New Orleans do GT screening and support programs. The most academic low SES kids still tend to get scooped up by privates in this city. You watch, Basis will prep them in MS and lose them for HS to scholarships.

I'm glad that social issues are finally being raised on this thread. Thanks, pps.

I agree. This happens now. I talk to parents who have high school age kids at our very sought after charter. Many of the older sibs of lower SES minority kids go to private schools including some very prestigious New England boarding schools on scholarship.

[Anonymous]

"You watch, Basis will prep them in MS and lose them for HS to scholarships."

Except for the fact that BASIS is planning to continue to build right on through HS, just as they already do with their 8 Arizona schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^18:25: It's a big mistake to discount environment.

18:25 here: That's precisely what I wrote. Those who claim parents (="nurture") are the deciding force, they discount the environment. And if you claim environment is key, then school is where that environment "happens". Today's children of all socioeconomic backgrounds spend more waking hours in school or other organized activities than out on the street making friends. If environment counts ==> school counts. The problem is that schools do not own up to that responsibility, especially not if those who may need a more profound exposure to social realities and connections are lectured to or bent over homework sheets from dawn to dusk instead of building skills and practicing critical judgement.

PP here, and NO, that's NOT what you wrote. Not even imprecisely. It's not all on the schools. Schools are part of the environment, yes, but just as a small part. A much bigger part are families and communities. The student is only in the school for a few hours out of the day, and for part of the year - the rest of their time may well be a horror story. There's only so much that schools can mitigate and deal with... at some point, families and communities need to step up, do their part and deal with the remaining 75% of the problems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^ My kids are really little, so we'll see where Basis is once it has an entire high school. But I know that if the school population is more than around one-quarter low SES AA kids, my spouse won't be interested, no matter what the story is academically. This is because, growing up as a low SES Asian kid in largely low SES AA schools, he was called chink almost every school day, with the standard corner-of-eyes pulling gesture, and worse. After his parents complained, the taunting intensified. I can try to reason with him, tell him the school system has implemented the sort of conflict intervention program you mention, but he won't believe that his own children won't be similarly tortured.

As for lowering standards, how else can middle schools reliant on city funding attract much AA talent in one of the country's lowest-performing school systems? Even Detroit and New Orleans do GT screening and support programs. The most academic low SES kids still tend to get scooped up by privates in this city. You watch, Basis will prep them in MS and lose them for HS to scholarships.

I'm glad that social issues are finally being raised on this thread. Thanks, pps.

I agree. This happens now. I talk to parents who have high school age kids at our very sought after charter. Many of the older sibs of lower SES minority kids go to private schools including some very prestigious New England boarding schools on scholarship.

Oh, sure. Sidwell, Potomac, Holton, Maret and the rest of the snooty, hoity-toity privates are just chomping at the bit to get your punkass bad-attitude kid who somehow amazingly managed to pull off a B+ in math in their crappy DCPS school. Dream on.