BASIS board meeting minutes: I Street elementary Location meets obstacles

[Anonymous]

If you look at the USN&WR top 100 public high schools in the entire United States, Basis has 10 of the top 100 (10%).

Basis DC, which only opened 11 years ago, is now ranked the #1 public middle school in DC, the #1 charter school in DC, and the #1 non-selective high school in DC.

Once they open a K-4, within a decade, Basis DC will be the top public public elementary school in the city.

[Anonymous]

The USN&WR ed rankings brand isn't what it was a few short years ago. They're coming under fire from many quarters, with more Ivy Plus grad and undergrad programs refusing to cooperate by releasing new data to them with each passing year. Elite high schools will be next. All the stellar rankings under the sun can't make BASIS DC a first-rate school. Hint: most students still vote with their feet before 12th grade. The quality of leadership, instruction, facilities, ECs and counseling didn't impress us enough to care to stick around after MS. As others have noted, if you have the dough or the willingness to move from your EotP neighborhood, you leave BASIS DC along the way. In the future, if you have access to Key, Mann, Lafayette, Murch, Ross, Brent, Maury etc. you won't touch the vaunted BASIS ES.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you look at the USN&WR top 100 public high schools in the entire United States, Basis has 10 of the top 100 (10%).

Basis DC, which only opened 11 years ago, is now ranked the #1 public middle school in DC, the #1 charter school in DC, and the #1 non-selective high school in DC.

Once they open a K-4, within a decade, Basis DC will be the top public public elementary school in the city.

Can't wait! By golly, we'll spend the entire decade longing for that moment to arrive!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is BASIS DC's dirty little secret. They don't pay or offer good enough working conditions to attract and retain qualified teachers across the board, particularly at the middle school level. They burn teachers out - all those after-school office hours. It's particularly hard for BASIS to find teachers with experience teaching both ms and serious STEM subjects (full years of physics, chem, bio not normally taught at the ms level). What often happens is that they often hire either hs STEM teachers who don't last long teaching sciences at the ms level or hire ms teachers with weak subject backgrounds. This is why parents have started pushing for better teacher pay and started lobbying for hiring input. A group of at least 90 concerned parents formed and organized during SY 2022-2023. They send a group to each BASIS board meeting.

Tell me you aren't a BASIS parent without telling me. Were you one you'd know they are matching DCPS now. But go on, tell us more!

I'm not the PP, but I will say that "Matching DCPS" when you only hire the youngest and least qualified teachers still isn't a very good salary. And DCPS' Impact rating system, even though the teachers hate it, is capable of delivering pretty sizeable bonuses, plus a bump for working in Title I schools. Is BASIS matching that?

https://dcps.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dcps/page_content/attachments/WTU%20FY20-FY23.pdf

To summarize, you, like the poster you supported, didn't know BASIS was matching DCPS. In true DCUM form you didn't let your ignorance get in the way of your opinion and chimed in to aske whether BASIS, which is not a Title I school (a point hammered home over and over as if anyone but the bleeding hearts an haters think that's a bad thing), is matching Title I bonuses? You also wanted to let us know that even if BASIS matches DCPS, DCPS doesn't actually pay that well so it doesn't make a difference anyway?

Thank you, PP, for being the poster child for every BASIS hater on DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is BASIS DC's dirty little secret. They don't pay or offer good enough working conditions to attract and retain qualified teachers across the board, particularly at the middle school level. They burn teachers out - all those after-school office hours. It's particularly hard for BASIS to find teachers with experience teaching both ms and serious STEM subjects (full years of physics, chem, bio not normally taught at the ms level). What often happens is that they often hire either hs STEM teachers who don't last long teaching sciences at the ms level or hire ms teachers with weak subject backgrounds. This is why parents have started pushing for better teacher pay and started lobbying for hiring input. A group of at least 90 concerned parents formed and organized during SY 2022-2023. They send a group to each BASIS board meeting.

Tell me you aren't a BASIS parent without telling me. Were you one you'd know they are matching DCPS now. But go on, tell us more!

I'm not the PP, but I will say that "Matching DCPS" when you only hire the youngest and least qualified teachers still isn't a very good salary. And DCPS' Impact rating system, even though the teachers hate it, is capable of delivering pretty sizeable bonuses, plus a bump for working in Title I schools. Is BASIS matching that?

https://dcps.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dcps/page_content/attachments/WTU%20FY20-FY23.pdf

To summarize, you, like the poster you supported, didn't know BASIS was matching DCPS. In true DCUM form you didn't let your ignorance get in the way of your opinion and chimed in to aske whether BASIS, which is not a Title I school (a point hammered home over and over as if anyone but the bleeding hearts an haters think that's a bad thing), is matching Title I bonuses? You also wanted to let us know that even if BASIS matches DCPS, DCPS doesn't actually pay that well so it doesn't make a difference anyway?

Thank you, PP, for being the poster child for every BASIS hater on DCUM.

Hon. To summarize, I know BASIS is not a Title I school, that was a rhetorical question.

What I am saying is that BASIS matching DCPS doesn't mean that BASIS actually pays good salaries. Because BASIS' teachers are so young and inexperienced. What an awesome school BASIS is!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you look at the USN&WR top 100 public high schools in the entire United States, Basis has 10 of the top 100 (10%).

Basis DC, which only opened 11 years ago, is now ranked the #1 public middle school in DC, the #1 charter school in DC, and the #1 non-selective high school in DC.

Once they open a K-4, within a decade, Basis DC will be the top public public elementary school in the city.

This is true. It's also true that they have significant teacher turnover and hiring problems. Things are much better this year than last year, but it's far from perfect. It's also true that Basis has much lower share of poor students than other DC schools.

- Basis parent who likes the school but isn't blind to its shortcomings or to the fact that its success is due in large part to its demographic advantages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is BASIS DC's dirty little secret. They don't pay or offer good enough working conditions to attract and retain qualified teachers across the board, particularly at the middle school level. They burn teachers out - all those after-school office hours. It's particularly hard for BASIS to find teachers with experience teaching both ms and serious STEM subjects (full years of physics, chem, bio not normally taught at the ms level). What often happens is that they often hire either hs STEM teachers who don't last long teaching sciences at the ms level or hire ms teachers with weak subject backgrounds. This is why parents have started pushing for better teacher pay and started lobbying for hiring input. A group of at least 90 concerned parents formed and organized during SY 2022-2023. They send a group to each BASIS board meeting.

Tell me you aren't a BASIS parent without telling me. Were you one you'd know they are matching DCPS now. But go on, tell us more!

I'm not the PP, but I will say that "Matching DCPS" when you only hire the youngest and least qualified teachers still isn't a very good salary. And DCPS' Impact rating system, even though the teachers hate it, is capable of delivering pretty sizeable bonuses, plus a bump for working in Title I schools. Is BASIS matching that?

https://dcps.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dcps/page_content/attachments/WTU%20FY20-FY23.pdf

To summarize, you, like the poster you supported, didn't know BASIS was matching DCPS. In true DCUM form you didn't let your ignorance get in the way of your opinion and chimed in to aske whether BASIS, which is not a Title I school (a point hammered home over and over as if anyone but the bleeding hearts an haters think that's a bad thing), is matching Title I bonuses? You also wanted to let us know that even if BASIS matches DCPS, DCPS doesn't actually pay that well so it doesn't make a difference anyway?

Thank you, PP, for being the poster child for every BASIS hater on DCUM.

Hon. To summarize, I know BASIS is not a Title I school, that was a rhetorical question.

What I am saying is that BASIS matching DCPS doesn't mean that BASIS actually pays good salaries. Because BASIS' teachers are so young and inexperienced. What an awesome school BASIS is!

What? You were being sarcastic in asking whether a school that isn't Title I is going to pay a Title I school bonus? Yeah, that makes all kinds of sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you look at the USN&WR top 100 public high schools in the entire United States, Basis has 10 of the top 100 (10%).

Basis DC, which only opened 11 years ago, is now ranked the #1 public middle school in DC, the #1 charter school in DC, and the #1 non-selective high school in DC.

Once they open a K-4, within a decade, Basis DC will be the top public public elementary school in the city.

This is true. It's also true that they have significant teacher turnover and hiring problems. Things are much better this year than last year, but it's far from perfect. It's also true that Basis has much lower share of poor students than other DC schools.

- Basis parent who likes the school but isn't blind to its shortcomings or to the fact that its success is due in large part to its demographic advantages.

Bolded was true of every school in the area last year. Not to excuse BASIS but the self centeredness of BASIS parents who didn't understand an industrywide issue is a little much to take.

-BASIS parent who likes the school, isn't blind to the fact that it isn't perfect and thinks USN&WR rankings for high schools is dumb, bit not nearly as inane and stupid as their attempt at MS rankings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you look at the USN&WR top 100 public high schools in the entire United States, Basis has 10 of the top 100 (10%).

Basis DC, which only opened 11 years ago, is now ranked the #1 public middle school in DC, the #1 charter school in DC, and the #1 non-selective high school in DC.

Once they open a K-4, within a decade, Basis DC will be the top public public elementary school in the city.

This is great news for DC parents. Options are always good.

I always laugh when people call USN&WR rankings "dumb." You realize that they are based on data, right? And that they compare schools using the same set of consistent, objective criteria? And that they are more reliable than the anonymous self-serving screeds you see on DCUM?

You have to love the posters whose kids are at mediocre schools justifying their choices by claiming that the PARCC test is "dumb," USN&WR is "dumb," and every other ranking/metric is "dumb." Maybe they are the ones who are dumb?

The fact is that the USN&WR ratings generally do track the quality of schools. For example, TJ is clearly the best public school in the area, and it is no surprise that USN&WR ranks them the #5 public high school in the U.S. Maybe you wouldn't want to live in Fairfax and send your kid to TJ but it is clearly an excellent school. There is nothing "dumb" about that ranking.

[Anonymous]

There's an awful lot that's dumb about BASIS though. At this point I'd include my kid's US history teacher who knows less history than she does and her Spanish teacher with the painful accent--he's not a native speaker and admits to never having lived or worked in a Spanish-speaking country--who gives her one assignment after another that wouldn't have challenged her in the 3rd grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you look at the USN&WR top 100 public high schools in the entire United States, Basis has 10 of the top 100 (10%).

Basis DC, which only opened 11 years ago, is now ranked the #1 public middle school in DC, the #1 charter school in DC, and the #1 non-selective high school in DC.

Once they open a K-4, within a decade, Basis DC will be the top public public elementary school in the city.

+ 1 million

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you look at the USN&WR top 100 public high schools in the entire United States, Basis has 10 of the top 100 (10%).

Basis DC, which only opened 11 years ago, is now ranked the #1 public middle school in DC, the #1 charter school in DC, and the #1 non-selective high school in DC.

Once they open a K-4, within a decade, Basis DC will be the top public public elementary school in the city.

BASIS games the US News stats by making it a requirement that a student get at least a 3 on an AP test before senior year. That requirement gives BASIS a 100/100 rating on US News’s “college readiness” index, because the only thing that is being measured is the number of kids who took at least 1 AP and got at least a 3.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you look at the USN&WR top 100 public high schools in the entire United States, Basis has 10 of the top 100 (10%).

Basis DC, which only opened 11 years ago, is now ranked the #1 public middle school in DC, the #1 charter school in DC, and the #1 non-selective high school in DC.

Once they open a K-4, within a decade, Basis DC will be the top public public elementary school in the city.

+ 1 million

+100

[Anonymous]

You call it “gaming the system” but making sure a student gets a 3 on one AP exam by senior year should be the minimum goal of all schools. This is not a high bar. It’s sad that most schools don’t make “college readiness” more of a priority.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You call it “gaming the system” but making sure a student gets a 3 on one AP exam by senior year should be the minimum goal of all schools. This is not a high bar. It’s sad that most schools don’t make “college readiness” more of a priority.

If Basis earned its CRI scores by teaching every student to that standard, you might be right. But they get those scores the easy way, by kicking kids out before senior year. They’re not increasing the numerator (college-ready students), they’re shrinking the denominator (high school seniors). Any school could do the same thing, without improving the quality of its instruction one whit.