Does anyone know the status of the Proposed BASIS Expansion

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think this is pushed by parents in DC (many parents who are happy with their DCPS elementary move on to BASIS for middle). It's being pushed by BASIS, because all their other schools are K-12 and this helps create a "BASIS student" who is effective the way they want them to be.

Not sure how it will fit into the DC landscape where there are many good elementaries but very few good middle schools.

BASIS wants it because its middle and high school can look more "successful" if they pre-stock it with rising 5th graders who have stuck with it. i.e. the more academically gifted, compliant, no special needs kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think this is pushed by parents in DC (many parents who are happy with their DCPS elementary move on to BASIS for middle). It's being pushed by BASIS, because all their other schools are K-12 and this helps create a "BASIS student" who is effective the way they want them to be.

Not sure how it will fit into the DC landscape where there are many good elementaries but very few good middle schools.

No current BASIS parents that I know want a BASIS elementary. This is all being pushed by BASIS HQ in Arizona

[Anonymous]

Is Basis really all that hard to get into for middle school? Latin definitely is. I guess a Basis elementary that feeds into the Basis middle school would remove many of the current 5th grade seats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is Basis really all that hard to get into for middle school? Latin definitely is. I guess a Basis elementary that feeds into the Basis middle school would remove many of the current 5th grade seats.

You can see here: https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/aaron2446/viz/MSDCSeatsandWaitlistOfferData_draft/MSDCPublicDisplay

I wouldn't say it's super hard, but if you look at those stats you'll see a lot of people get in on sibling preference. For non-siblings, chances aren't that great.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:BASIS kids commute in from all 8 Wards, and there is currently a culture of using public transit. Of course they want to find a central location.

Riiiiight and the wealth of the area is purely coincidental.

What are you trying to say?

I'm trying to say that choice of location, both now and in the past, is part of how BASIS shapes its student body to avoid having a lot of low-income students.

Is it really so wrong to have one school in the charter system that is popular with kids from all Wards and of all income levels (including upper) who want accelerated math and science work? When there are many in the system that do very well with lower income students (DC Prep and KIPP)? And to realize that kids are coming from literally all over, including Ward 3 and Ward 6, and that they need to be centrally located? And have priority spots set aside for at-risk kids who want to go, too?

Dupont cannot reasonably described as central to students in DC.

Dupont Circle is literally 3 metro stops to BASIS DC on the red line.

Current basis location is also close to orange, blue, yellow, and green - Dupont/the red line is far less accessible to most of the city.

You know you can transfer between lines, right?

And that Basis draws lots of kids from NW?

Depends what you mean by NW. Not that many kids who are IB for J-R or MacArthur, if that's what you're asking.

Are you at the school? We are and know MANY people who live in upper NW and are IB for JR or MacArthur. Flooded with capitol Hill people, and we are Ward 2 people, and I feel like I've talked to parents from all over (including both white and black parents from EOTR.) it truly draws from all over.

Agree that being near all the lines, not just Red, seems more convenient.

Ok but would a BASIS elementary be that different from Ward 3 elementaries, enough that parents would undertake a longer commute for it? That's the real question.

Well for starters, the BASIS K-4 won’t be wasting any space or time on a playground or soccer field.

And no preschool, which I know a lot of W3 families don't have, but due to preference, many that do have W3 preschool also have an elementary aged child. So sending their older kids to BASIS elementary means their younger kid loses sibling preference at the IB. Unappealing.

Appletree and communikids are walking distance or a 5 min drive to a huge chunk of ward 3. They absorb most of the demand for PK3 in ward 3 now. I really don't see anyone from ward 3 really caring about this BASIS expansion.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:BASIS kids commute in from all 8 Wards, and there is currently a culture of using public transit. Of course they want to find a central location.

Riiiiight and the wealth of the area is purely coincidental.

What are you trying to say?

I'm trying to say that choice of location, both now and in the past, is part of how BASIS shapes its student body to avoid having a lot of low-income students.

Is it really so wrong to have one school in the charter system that is popular with kids from all Wards and of all income levels (including upper) who want accelerated math and science work? When there are many in the system that do very well with lower income students (DC Prep and KIPP)? And to realize that kids are coming from literally all over, including Ward 3 and Ward 6, and that they need to be centrally located? And have priority spots set aside for at-risk kids who want to go, too?

Dupont cannot reasonably described as central to students in DC.

Dupont Circle is literally 3 metro stops to BASIS DC on the red line.

Current basis location is also close to orange, blue, yellow, and green - Dupont/the red line is far less accessible to most of the city.

You know you can transfer between lines, right?

And that Basis draws lots of kids from NW?

Depends what you mean by NW. Not that many kids who are IB for J-R or MacArthur, if that's what you're asking.

Are you at the school? We are and know MANY people who live in upper NW and are IB for JR or MacArthur. Flooded with capitol Hill people, and we are Ward 2 people, and I feel like I've talked to parents from all over (including both white and black parents from EOTR.) it truly draws from all over.

Agree that being near all the lines, not just Red, seems more convenient.

Ok but would a BASIS elementary be that different from Ward 3 elementaries, enough that parents would undertake a longer commute for it? That's the real question.

Well for starters, the BASIS K-4 won’t be wasting any space or time on a playground or soccer field.

And no preschool, which I know a lot of W3 families don't have, but due to preference, many that do have W3 preschool also have an elementary aged child. So sending their older kids to BASIS elementary means their younger kid loses sibling preference at the IB. Unappealing.

Appletree and communikids are walking distance or a 5 min drive to a huge chunk of ward 3. They absorb most of the demand for PK3 in ward 3 now. I really don't see anyone from ward 3 really caring about this BASIS expansion.

PK4 though

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would Brent area families want to commute to the Dupont Circle area for elementary school?

To lock in their spot for middle.

But there's no reason to think this benefits them more than the status quo. This will kill the number of MS spots available and it remains to be seen what the lottery pool for BASIS ES will look like.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would Brent area families want to commute to the Dupont Circle area for elementary school?

To lock in their spot for middle.

But there's no reason to think this benefits them more than the status quo. This will kill the number of MS spots available and it remains to be seen what the lottery pool for BASIS ES will look like.

Ya. If you look through the documents and see all the public comments from current parents, no one really wants it. However, I can see why BASIS wants it (why is this one school an outlier? and the other BASIS schools do better on the rankings and maybes it's related). So it may just happen, and I actually have faith that they'll pull it off as well as they do their other elementary schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would Brent area families want to commute to the Dupont Circle area for elementary school?

To lock in their spot for middle.

But there's no reason to think this benefits them more than the status quo. This will kill the number of MS spots available and it remains to be seen what the lottery pool for BASIS ES will look like.

Ya. If you look through the documents and see all the public comments from current parents, no one really wants it. However, I can see why BASIS wants it (why is this one school an outlier? and the other BASIS schools do better on the rankings and maybes it's related). So it may just happen, and I actually have faith that they'll pull it off as well as they do their other elementary schools.

I agree. I think there will actually be even more self-selection involved, because only (largely) a certain kind of parent is going to opt into BASIS and only (largely) for a certain kind of student. I think the self-selection will be even stronger in ES where there are more options and more good options than in middle where there are fewer options and fewer still acceptable options. I absolutely come from a place of having kids that I think would be a good fit for BASIS MS and not wanting to opt them out of their joyful, largely IB/closeby community-focused ES. If we had a worse IB I would do it though.

[Anonymous]

^^ Sorry, which is all to say that I, as a parent, don't like the BASIS ES... but I can absolutely see why BASIS thinks it will help its stats even more for multiple reasons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^ Sorry, which is all to say that I, as a parent, don't like the BASIS ES... but I can absolutely see why BASIS thinks it will help its stats even more for multiple reasons.

As a BASIS parent with one in, and one in elementary, I'm open to it. I would totally consider moving my younger one there for 3rd or 4th if they open in time and have a playground as well as academics (and they are considering moving the 5th graders to the elementary building too, which I think is a good idea).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^ Sorry, which is all to say that I, as a parent, don't like the BASIS ES... but I can absolutely see why BASIS thinks it will help its stats even more for multiple reasons.

As a BASIS parent with one in, and one in elementary, I'm open to it. I would totally consider moving my younger one there for 3rd or 4th if they open in time and have a playground as well as academics (and they are considering moving the 5th graders to the elementary building too, which I think is a good idea).

If they would combine it with only offering MS spots for 6th graders, I could come around to the concept since I think its effect on ESes would then be neutral overall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^ Sorry, which is all to say that I, as a parent, don't like the BASIS ES... but I can absolutely see why BASIS thinks it will help its stats even more for multiple reasons.

As a BASIS parent with one in, and one in elementary, I'm open to it. I would totally consider moving my younger one there for 3rd or 4th if they open in time and have a playground as well as academics (and they are considering moving the 5th graders to the elementary building too, which I think is a good idea).

If they would combine it with only offering MS spots for 6th graders, I could come around to the concept since I think its effect on ESes would then be neutral overall.

I don't totally understand what they are saying will happen with the MS lottery spots, but I think it would still adversely affect DCPS ES — because to secure your MS spot, you may well still have to opt out of your local ES — just even earlier than usual.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No NW parents were even lobbying for this. It seems to be a 75% brent families effort.

Brent families are not pushing for this. Where are you even getting this from?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No NW parents were even lobbying for this. It seems to be a 75% brent families effort.

Brent families are not pushing for this. Where are you even getting this from?

There was some survey where most of the respondents were Brent families.

But even so, BASIS is super diverse and serves all wards!!!!!