Basis elements

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Nonsense. BASIS exceptionalism gets old. It's not all that unusual for students in DC privates to take, and excel at, calculus by 10th grade, along with a few at Walls and Wilson. The foreign language requirements at BASIS are light (absurdly so) for kids coming in from strong K-8 language immersion programs, years in weekend heritage schools, bilingual and bilterate homes etc. AP history in 9th or 10th grade is nothing special in the District. There doesn't need to be wiggle room if BASIS DC would bother to identify and admit 9th graders who could handle their curriculum, which is hardly stratospheric. Some private school parents would switch to public if 9th grade at BASIS were an option, to save dough.

I'm not suggesting any degree of BASIS exceptionalism. Most schools don't prioritize math acceleration to the degree that BASIS does. Thus, most kids would not be sufficiently advanced in math to be allowed into BASIS. I can't speak for DCPS kids, but it is quite rare for FCPS AAP kids to take Algebra II in 8th. That would be needed to be ready for pre-calc at BASIS in 9th. I don't necessarily agree with the rigid math requirements at BASIS, but they are a significant barrier.

AZ BASIS schools allow kids to join at any grade level beyond 5th, providing that they pass a placement test for that grade level. My kid joined in 7th and had to score highly enough on the pre-Algebra final exam as well as on a grammar/reading/writing test to indicate readiness for Algebra I and 7th grade language arts. I don't know why BASIS DC doesn't do the same.

Because the lottery rules don't allow it to.

[Anonymous]

Not that simple. The rules aren't set in stone because the US Dept. of Ed has no history of dictating to the states where charter admissions policy is concerned. A dozen states have essentially run test-in charters without Federal interference for many years, mainly for language immersion.

If the rules were immutable, BASIS wouldn't have been allowed to set up DC's only public MS w/out social promotion.

I see two problems with BASIS DC taking new HS students. The main problem is the space constraint. If the HS were to grow significantly, far fewer 5th graders could be admitted. That particular problem could create real headaches for Charles Allen and other DC politicians, since most Hill families haven't been willing to touch the 3 by-right middle schools in Ward 6 for decades. The second problem is that the BASIS franchise doesn't want to spend more political capital in DC. The leadership sees much more fertile ground for expansion elsewhere - Nevada, Texas, Minnesota, California etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some of you may not know that back in 2011, when BASIS got permission to open a DC campus, the franchise was able to negotiate a special deal with DCPCB and the City Council to open DC's first public middle school without social promotion. At every other DC public middle school, 6th an 7th grade students who fail to meet academic standards to work at grade level have been free to advance to the next grade since the 1980s.

I wouldn't rule out the possibility that the BASIS franchise could negotiate a new deal to arrange for 9th graders to test in, like they do in AZ and elsewhere. Problem is, the franchise has been hassled so much politically in DC from the start that they're pretty clearly not going to bother to try to negotiate new terms. They haven't sought permission to open a second or third campus in the District, as they've done in several of the states where they established a foothold around the same time BASIS DC opened.

They did seek to expand to lower grades, but were unsuccessful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^That is one of the most naive postings I’ve read in a BASIS thread.

Not really.

It is naive to think BASIS can simply demand a test-in option. Have you not read the threads shaming the school for not implementing an at-risk preference?

[Anonymous]

I thought it was naive of the franchise to demand that no social promotion be permitted a decade back. They were slammed for their naivete on these boards in 2011. They got what they wanted.

2 students into MIT in 2020 of out a graduating class of under 50; 2 more in 2021.

[Anonymous]

It doesn't matter what anybody posting on this thread thinks. No test-in option at BASIS for at least a decade. Nothing will change before your middle schooler is off to college. If you don't like BASIS element arrangement, pick your poison, move, private school, maybe Deal if you can afford NW real estate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of you may not know that back in 2011, when BASIS got permission to open a DC campus, the franchise was able to negotiate a special deal with DCPCB and the City Council to open DC's first public middle school without social promotion. At every other DC public middle school, 6th an 7th grade students who fail to meet academic standards to work at grade level have been free to advance to the next grade since the 1980s.

I wouldn't rule out the possibility that the BASIS franchise could negotiate a new deal to arrange for 9th graders to test in, like they do in AZ and elsewhere. Problem is, the franchise has been hassled so much politically in DC from the start that they're pretty clearly not going to bother to try to negotiate new terms. They haven't sought permission to open a second or third campus in the District, as they've done in several of the states where they established a foothold around the same time BASIS DC opened.

They did seek to expand to lower grades, but were unsuccessful.

They didn't try too hard. They have bigger fish to fry out West and in Texas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Not going to happen. BASIS' approach has always been to weed around half the middle school kids out before HS, to grind them into submission by making them miserable. This has been their MO in Arizona since the early 90s. Trust me, the kids who can't move at a "brisker pace" will mostly be gone by 9th grade. You simply need to be patient for the Hobbesian results to kick in.

BASIS parent in AZ here. That's not at all how it works, and many of the kids are very happy at BASIS. Mine absolutely love it! It is true that the 5th grade class is around 180 kids, but only about 90 seniors graduate per year. Most of it is not due to weeding out the kids, but rather kids leave to attend the local magnet high school (think TJ-lite), move out of area, want a new social scene, or want competitive high school sports teams. None of these reasons for leaving are that the kids were weeded out. I would imagine that DC BASIS is similar, where many families use it for middle school and then switch out for high school.

The main reason BASIS graduates only half of their starting kids is that the system is set up to make it nearly impossible for new kids to join after maybe 6th grade. If a kid leaves after 8th grade, they can't simply offer the slot to another kid. Few kids would meet the pre-requisites if they hadn't been in BASIS all along. At least at my kids' school, to join in 9th grade, a kid would need to be ready for pre-calculus, be ready for an AP level history class, and have a full year of high school level foreign language. There isn't a lot of wiggle room to accommodate kids who aren't at that level.

Nonsense. BASIS exceptionalism gets old. It's not all that unusual for students in DC privates to take, and excel at, calculus by 10th grade, along with a few at Walls and Wilson. The foreign language requirements at BASIS are light (absurdly so) for kids coming in from strong K-8 language immersion programs, years in weekend heritage schools, bilingual and bilterate homes etc. AP history in 9th or 10th grade is nothing special in the District. There doesn't need to be wiggle room if BASIS DC would bother to identify and admit 9th graders who could handle their curriculum, which is hardly stratospheric. Some private school parents would switch to public if 9th grade at BASIS were an option, to save dough.

PS. I've interviewed one or two Basis DC applicants for my Ivy every year for the past five years. None has been admitted. I've interviewed a few stronger applicants from Walls and Wilson who were admitted.

I interview for an Ivy too and Basis DC kids seem fine. For instance, this last year, kids were admitted to Yale and Harvard. I guess you didn't go to one of those schools and/or didn't interview those kids.

For a school that opened only 9 years ago in DC and has a senior class of around 50 kids, Basis DC has nothing to worry about.

[Anonymous]

I think the point was that BASIS seniors aren't necessarily ahead of peers in the DC public system academically, whatever the franchise, and the boosters like to claim.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Not going to happen. BASIS' approach has always been to weed around half the middle school kids out before HS, to grind them into submission by making them miserable. This has been their MO in Arizona since the early 90s. Trust me, the kids who can't move at a "brisker pace" will mostly be gone by 9th grade. You simply need to be patient for the Hobbesian results to kick in.

BASIS parent in AZ here. That's not at all how it works, and many of the kids are very happy at BASIS. Mine absolutely love it! It is true that the 5th grade class is around 180 kids, but only about 90 seniors graduate per year. Most of it is not due to weeding out the kids, but rather kids leave to attend the local magnet high school (think TJ-lite), move out of area, want a new social scene, or want competitive high school sports teams. None of these reasons for leaving are that the kids were weeded out. I would imagine that DC BASIS is similar, where many families use it for middle school and then switch out for high school.

The main reason BASIS graduates only half of their starting kids is that the system is set up to make it nearly impossible for new kids to join after maybe 6th grade. If a kid leaves after 8th grade, they can't simply offer the slot to another kid. Few kids would meet the pre-requisites if they hadn't been in BASIS all along. At least at my kids' school, to join in 9th grade, a kid would need to be ready for pre-calculus, be ready for an AP level history class, and have a full year of high school level foreign language. There isn't a lot of wiggle room to accommodate kids who aren't at that level.

Nonsense. BASIS exceptionalism gets old. It's not all that unusual for students in DC privates to take, and excel at, calculus by 10th grade, along with a few at Walls and Wilson. The foreign language requirements at BASIS are light (absurdly so) for kids coming in from strong K-8 language immersion programs, years in weekend heritage schools, bilingual and bilterate homes etc. AP history in 9th or 10th grade is nothing special in the District. There doesn't need to be wiggle room if BASIS DC would bother to identify and admit 9th graders who could handle their curriculum, which is hardly stratospheric. Some private school parents would switch to public if 9th grade at BASIS were an option, to save dough.

PS. I've interviewed one or two Basis DC applicants for my Ivy every year for the past five years. None has been admitted. I've interviewed a few stronger applicants from Walls and Wilson who were admitted.

I interview for an Ivy too and Basis DC kids seem fine. For instance, this last year, kids were admitted to Yale and Harvard. I guess you didn't go to one of those schools and/or didn't interview those kids.

For a school that opened only 9 years ago in DC and has a senior class of around 50 kids, Basis DC has nothing to worry about.

I went to a different Ivy. Hint: it's in NYC. I'm not white and went on massive fi aid.

Disagree. The BASIS applicants I've interviewed over the years, not just from DC, but from two of the Arizona campuses, seemed programmed to an absurd degree and more than a little burned out from the grind, or maybe time in the building. Sorry, but these kids didn't wow me, not by any stretch of the imagination.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^That is one of the most naive postings I’ve read in a BASIS thread.

Seriously! The only public school in DC that does (some) screening that I am aware of is SWS. Other than that, schools aren't allowed to screen out kids who can't cut it - it is pure lottery (so if BASIS opened up 9th grade, inevitably kids would attempt to lottery in even if they did not have the necessary solid/advanced foundation in math to handle the curriculum).

The only way for charters to select students is by lottery, per the Federal law that established DC charter schools in 1996. No testing (achievement or aptitude):

(b) Criteria for Admission.--A public charter school may not limit enrollment on the basis of a student's intellectual or athletic ability, measures of achievement or aptitude, or a student's disability. A public charter school may limit enrollment to specific grade levels or areas of focus of the school, such as mathematics, science, or the arts, where such a limitation is consistent with the charter granted to the school.
(c) Random Selection.--If there are more applications to enroll in a public charter school from students who are residents of the District of Columbia than there are spaces available, students shall be admitted using a random selection process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
The only way for charters to select students is by lottery, per the Federal law that established DC charter schools in 1996. No testing (achievement or aptitude):

AZ gets around this by offering admission to everyone who gets a slot in the lottery, but not necessarily admission in the grade level that they prefer. All 5th graders get into 5th with no testing and no questions asked. If your child gets picked in the lottery, and you want your child in 7th grade, but your child doesn't pass the 7th grade tests, they'll offer your child a spot in 6th grade instead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The only way for charters to select students is by lottery, per the Federal law that established DC charter schools in 1996. No testing (achievement or aptitude):

AZ gets around this by offering admission to everyone who gets a slot in the lottery, but not necessarily admission in the grade level that they prefer. All 5th graders get into 5th with no testing and no questions asked. If your child gets picked in the lottery, and you want your child in 7th grade, but your child doesn't pass the 7th grade tests, they'll offer your child a spot in 6th grade instead.

That's just f'ed up. No one has an issue with it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The only way for charters to select students is by lottery, per the Federal law that established DC charter schools in 1996. No testing (achievement or aptitude):

AZ gets around this by offering admission to everyone who gets a slot in the lottery, but not necessarily admission in the grade level that they prefer. All 5th graders get into 5th with no testing and no questions asked. If your child gets picked in the lottery, and you want your child in 7th grade, but your child doesn't pass the 7th grade tests, they'll offer your child a spot in 6th grade instead.

That's just f'ed up. No one has an issue with it?

To be clear, the Federal charter school law discussed above only applies to DC schools. Whatever AZ is doing is under the laws of that state.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The only way for charters to select students is by lottery, per the Federal law that established DC charter schools in 1996. No testing (achievement or aptitude):

AZ gets around this by offering admission to everyone who gets a slot in the lottery, but not necessarily admission in the grade level that they prefer. All 5th graders get into 5th with no testing and no questions asked. If your child gets picked in the lottery, and you want your child in 7th grade, but your child doesn't pass the 7th grade tests, they'll offer your child a spot in 6th grade instead.

That's just f'ed up. No one has an issue with it?

I don't think it is, but then I'm an older parent who grew up in the 70s. Social promotion from 1st-8th grades wasn't a given in public schools in my state or community. I had a number of classmates who were "held back" a year in the upper elementary or middle school grades, because they couldn't work at grade level. The practice wasn't out of the ordinary then. The students who were held back who remain in my life went on to earn BAs and MAs, and to pursue solid careers. Good for BASIS AZ for setting and upholding standards for academic advancement.