Does anyone know the status of the Proposed BASIS Expansion
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Anonymous
They lose a lot after 8th. |
Anonymous
About half that leave attend Walls, Banneker, or go elite private. That’s a great result overall. And the core that stays seems to do fantastic in terms of college admissions. From a parent perspective, these are the metrics that matter in the main, especially when compared to other DC middle schools (which are oddly off the hook). |
Anonymous
It's just not a great result overall. No secret that many of the BASIS 8th graders leave in search of halfway decent school facilities, extra-curriculars and electives, much better. BASIS also loses students after 9th, 10th and even 11th grades to greener pastures, and not just because families move. Clued-in BASIS parents know that college admissions don't always go well for students with weak extra-curriculars, particularly if they're white and UMC students, no matter how many AP exams they may have aced. |
Anonymous
For BASIS boosters, anyone getting into a selective school proves that BASIS is great. Anyone going to any other school proves that that kid is dumb and/or lazy. There's literally no outcome that reflects negatively on BASIS. It isn't possible for them to comprehend. |
Anonymous
It’s a great result if those who leave indeed find greener pastures (which most do) and those who stay get great college admissions (which they do). What’s the complaint? |
Anonymous
The complaint is that BASIS is not in fact all that green a pasture. And the kids who stick it out and get into good colleges are not necessarily getting in because of anything about BASIS. They'd probably be fine at any number of schools. |
Anonymous
Nonsense. Everybody at BASIS doesn't end the journey with great college admissions results. The HS electives that BASIS offers serve the kids poorly because they run on shoestring budgets and don't offer much variety or quality either. The set-up negatively impacts college admissions. Some of us get fed up with the BASIS way or the highway. Think about it. Is there a good reason for preventing students from studying languages at school before 8th grade, and then only at the beginning level? The arrangement says all you need to know about BASIS (so far from educational best practices that best practices were clearly given scant consideration in planning the curriculum). For that matter, why are they only teaching one of the 4 AP physics classes? The school is only so good: where is the demand for expansion? We ran out of joy of learning at BASIS around 7th grade. |
Anonymous
Here’s the problem with those stats - they drive out the kids who are not as strong and only keep the top scoring ones. It’s possible that they turn the kids who remain into strong students, but it’s a better chance the strong students change. So, basically, if your kid was a strong student, and a top scorer, they’ll be able to stick it out and do well… but they could do that anywhere. OTOH, if your kid is a kid who needs some encouragement and molding, and you WANT them to be a strong student and a high scorer, it’s not the school for them. Other schools could also have basis level scores if they could dump all the low scorers. |
Anonymous
Bingo! Basis boots the kids who don’t get high scores and keeps the strong students and markets themselves as a place to turn your kid into a great student… but it’s not. Statistically, your kid won’t make it through - most kids leave - and if they’re one of the minority who is going to do well, they could do it anywhere and possibly be better off not going to a school run for profit and the benefit of shareholders in Phoenix. It’s a place for great students to do what they can do elsewhere, at a much lower cost to dc taxpayers. |
Anonymous
Not really. |
Anonymous
Bitter much? Too bad the facts contradict your lunatic ravings. https://enrollbasis.com/2024-us-news-rankings/ |
Anonymous
I think a lot of the criticism here is based on a completely different conceptual framework than the one many families bring to BASIS—especially those who are being well-served by it. Yes, not every student thrives at BASIS. And yes, it’s not designed to mold every child into a “top scorer.” But for families with students who are ready for and seeking true academic rigor, BASIS offers something that very few DC middle schools provide: a serious, structured, and accelerated curriculum—not perfect, but not interchangeable with what’s available elsewhere either. This isn’t about test scores or college branding for many of us. It’s about whether the school provides an environment where kids who are hungry for challenge can actually get it. And frankly, those kids often are underserved at schools with broader, slower-paced models. No one’s pretending BASIS is ideal for everyone, and many of us are fine with that. The right question isn’t “Does BASIS serve all kids equally well?”—because no school does. It’s “Does it serve a critical mass of students well who otherwise wouldn’t find what they need in this system?” And the answer to that is clearly yes. The fact that some students leave doesn’t invalidate the value for those who stay and thrive. In DC, where middle school options are thin, BASIS fills a vital role for families who are not asking to co-author the school’s pedagogy, but rather seeking a coherent and serious academic experience, even if imperfect in some dimensions. |
Anonymous
+1. This is exactly how I feel. I'm well aware of the cons (we are at BASIS now), but my kids need an accelerated curriculum and I am not interested in the DCPS middle school curriculum. If you looks at the courses and syllabi, you would see that they are quite different. This isn't just a matter of getting rid of the low scorers to boost test scores -- the content of what they learn is very different. And my DS is actually perfectly happy, so maybe the cons don't get to him. |
Anonymous
What you're saying here is that BASIS students find what they need in this system because the system is lousy overall (fine by you). Do they really find what they need in the crappy building with many inexperienced teachers and a gratingly top-down management structure? My BASIS middle school students found what they needed, and much of what they wanted, mainly because I provided so many of their academic and extra-curricular inputs. We ran around town after school accessing basic sports, enrichment and performance opportunities. I practically taught them entire subjects when their right-out-of-grad school-teachers couldn't or didn't. The coherent and serious academic experience you describe just isn't what it's cracked up to be. Imperfect is too tame a word for teaching a BASIS student who's practically fluent in Spanish being forced to take beginning Spanish for several years, for what amounts to weak English instruction, and for parents being compelled, egads, to top up teachers' inadequate pay every year they have children in the program. What we don't have in DC are great public schools. Not at Walls, not at BASIS, not at J-R, not at DCI, not at Banneker. We settle for BASIS for as long as we can stand it because it beats moving to MoCo, Fairfax or Arlington. Nothing more. |
Anonymous
| Nothing more is right. No expansion needed. |