How to help child succeed at BASIS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

You just provided a summary of most threads in this forum!

[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.

l

Better put on your tinfoil hat. She is still reading your brain waves!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

You're painting with much too broad a brush, PP. Believe it or not, some students who ace BASIS middle school academics aren't happy there. Two years in, we realized that we wanted a school with a strong sense of community for our straight-A students and found one. We never tried to change the system. We simply left for greener pastures.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

You're painting with much too broad a brush, PP. Believe it or not, some students who ace BASIS middle school academics aren't happy there. Two years in, we realized that we wanted a school with a strong sense of community for our straight-A students and found one. We never tried to change the system. We simply left for greener pastures.

Oh right the mystery school that you are afraid to name. Where the community is strong and your little straight A geniuses can luxuriate in the computer lab.

[Anonymous]

Get a life. There are half a dozen pleasant K-8 parochial schools in Upper NW and Arlington that run you 12K a year, or less, if you're OK with Catholic school (many families who aren't Catholic at ours). The writing instruction at our school is a vast improvement over that at BASIS and music and sports programs are strong. Science isn't as good, but my kid will be doing residential Johns Hopkins CTY for biology at a college in PA this summer. There's life after BASIS after all.

[Anonymous]

There are few things that sound as miserable to me as Catholic school and for my family it’s a non-starter. But glad you found a better school for your family and child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Get a life. There are half a dozen pleasant K-8 parochial schools in Upper NW and Arlington that run you 12K a year, or less, if you're OK with Catholic school (many families who aren't Catholic at ours). The writing instruction at our school is a vast improvement over that at BASIS and music and sports programs are strong. Science isn't as good, but my kid will be doing residential Johns Hopkins CTY for biology at a college in PA this summer. There's life after BASIS after all.

Just re-read your posts. All you do is constantly defend your choice of leaving Basis for Our Lady of Victory by bragging about your kids and bashing Basis.

Maybe you should get a life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

The problem is that there is no school in DC that has good academics in a building with natural light. Why these two are incompatible I’m not sure, but they are.

[Anonymous]

DCI's modern building has a great deal of natural light and the academics are decent.

The Deal building has good natural light.

Stuart-Hobson's big addition is modern and gets a lot of natural light, academics are just OK.

The BASIS building gets the least natural light by a long shot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get a life. There are half a dozen pleasant K-8 parochial schools in Upper NW and Arlington that run you 12K a year, or less, if you're OK with Catholic school (many families who aren't Catholic at ours). The writing instruction at our school is a vast improvement over that at BASIS and music and sports programs are strong. Science isn't as good, but my kid will be doing residential Johns Hopkins CTY for biology at a college in PA this summer. There's life after BASIS after all.

Just re-read your posts. All you do is constantly defend your choice of leaving Basis for Our Lady of Victory by bragging about your kids and bashing Basis.

Maybe you should get a life.

You were the one who asked the poster which school they left for and re-read posts. PP isn't wrong that many families would leave BASIS if they could afford a school with comparable academics and better facilities and ECs without having to leave the District.

[Anonymous]

Was the building selection (and the choice to continue to remain at the same location going forward) possibly partly a strategy by BASIS to deter students from attending who aren’t primarily focused on academics?

[Anonymous]

Lol at these posts about “natural light”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Was the building selection (and the choice to continue to remain at the same location going forward) possibly partly a strategy by BASIS to deter students from attending who aren’t primarily focused on academics?

No. The bad building materialized because Fenty’s people signed off in a centrally located rehab that wasn’t up to code for a school building. The people on the BASIS team who chose the building were real amateurs who weren’t on the DC scene for long and didn’t have an ample budget to work with. Rhee wouldn’t free up a suitable building. Attempts by contractors and charter board officials to convince the BASIS team to design outdoor space on the roof failed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are few things that sound as miserable to me as Catholic school and for my family it’s a non-starter. But glad you found a better school for your family and child.

+1 nooooo thank you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Was the building selection (and the choice to continue to remain at the same location going forward) possibly partly a strategy by BASIS to deter students from attending who aren’t primarily focused on academics?

No. The bad building materialized because Fenty’s people signed off in a centrally located rehab that wasn’t up to code for a school building. The people on the BASIS team who chose the building were real amateurs who weren’t on the DC scene for long and didn’t have an ample budget to work with. Rhee wouldn’t free up a suitable building. Attempts by contractors and charter board officials to convince the BASIS team to design outdoor space on the roof failed.

I don't believe this. BASIS bought this building. They bought a building that is clearly lacking in amenities most people consider to be standard in education -- a library, an auditorium, etc. Basis is centrally controlled, and they already had experience with schools before they came to DC. Look at other Basis facilities -- very few (if any?) look like Basis DC.

I agree with PP -- I think the choice of building, despite what Basis DC may claim, was done in order to make only the people who were focused on academics and willing to put up with the lack of other facilities apply to them in the lottery.