Basis Charter School - Experience and Insight Requested

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BASIS DC only has 47 in the graduating class but here is a selection of colleges to which kids were admitted (some were admitted to more than one of these).

Per capita, no other public school in DC comes close to these results.

Bryn Mawr
Carnegie Mellon
Cornell
Dartmouth
Duke
Edinburgh
Elon
Emory
Georgetown
GW
Harvard
NYU
Northeastern
Northwestern
Oxford
Pomona
Smith
St. Andrews
Tufts
UC Berkeley
UPenn
U Mich
UT-Austin
UVA
Wesleyan
Wisconsin-Madison
Yale

If you kicked out all of the kids who aren’t in AP classes at the other high schools they’d have similar numbers.

BASIS does a good job on those 47, but the real advantage is shaking off the ones who aren’t top tier students.

It’s such a simple sleight of hand trick, it’s amazing that a school so famous for its math slips it by so many people.

You keep saying that. But here are a few questions for you:

Can you acknowledge that the curriculum at BASIS differs from DCPS? (Requires you to just take a cursory look at the required classes to know this is true, but if you saw the syllabus, as parents do, you would know it's dramatically different and BASIS teaches much more content).

Do you acknowledge that it's possible that the kids who survive BASIS might be learning more than they would have through DCPS?

Can you acknowledge that many of the kids who make it through 8th and then decide to leave for Walls or Private (about half the kids who start) were actually pretty well served by the middle school curriculum?

And now these 50 kids who make it all the way through to graduate -- yes, I agree that these 50 probably would have been successful anywhere. But maybe, just maybe, they actually like the curriculum at BASIS. Maybe they had opportunities there they wouldnt have had at a different school.

Yes - it looks like Basis is doing well by the kids that leave earlier for Walls, Banneker, and privates. Maybe they didn’t like Basis as an experience (or at least had their full of it), but they certainly landed well and compiled good enough academic records while at Basis, painful as it may have been.

Combined with the 1/3 of kids that make it all the way through, it’s quite likely that Basis does well by a strong majority of kids. Basis can’t really advertise (or defend) itself by its middle-to-HS school “exit” options but it does matter for families weighing it as an option.

None of this is necessarily to defend Basis as a model that should be supported by public tax dollars. I’m conflicted about that…

(P.S. - plenty of private school families hire tutors; same with TJ families.)

Anecdotally it is a stretch to say the kids who exit early have been well served. A good friends daughter was so discouraged and sad and anxiety ridden after her sophomore year - her older sibling graduated but was deeply unhappy. Of course some kids are happy and there are plenty of schools that are tough, it just seems like people forget how hard and discouraging it is for a lot of the kids who have to leave early - and no one plans that when they start. They really should market it more clearly - “it’s more likely than not, you will leave”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BASIS DC only has 47 in the graduating class but here is a selection of colleges to which kids were admitted (some were admitted to more than one of these).

Per capita, no other public school in DC comes close to these results.

Bryn Mawr
Carnegie Mellon
Cornell
Dartmouth
Duke
Edinburgh
Elon
Emory
Georgetown
GW
Harvard
NYU
Northeastern
Northwestern
Oxford
Pomona
Smith
St. Andrews
Tufts
UC Berkeley
UPenn
U Mich
UT-Austin
UVA
Wesleyan
Wisconsin-Madison
Yale

If you kicked out all of the kids who aren’t in AP classes at the other high schools they’d have similar numbers.

BASIS does a good job on those 47, but the real advantage is shaking off the ones who aren’t top tier students.

It’s such a simple sleight of hand trick, it’s amazing that a school so famous for its math slips it by so many people.

You keep saying that. But here are a few questions for you:

Can you acknowledge that the curriculum at BASIS differs from DCPS? (Requires you to just take a cursory look at the required classes to know this is true, but if you saw the syllabus, as parents do, you would know it's dramatically different and BASIS teaches much more content).

Do you acknowledge that it's possible that the kids who survive BASIS might be learning more than they would have through DCPS?

Can you acknowledge that many of the kids who make it through 8th and then decide to leave for Walls or Private (about half the kids who start) were actually pretty well served by the middle school curriculum?

And now these 50 kids who make it all the way through to graduate -- yes, I agree that these 50 probably would have been successful anywhere. But maybe, just maybe, they actually like the curriculum at BASIS. Maybe they had opportunities there they wouldnt have had at a different school.

Yes - it looks like Basis is doing well by the kids that leave earlier for Walls, Banneker, and privates. Maybe they didn’t like Basis as an experience (or at least had their full of it), but they certainly landed well and compiled good enough academic records while at Basis, painful as it may have been.

Combined with the 1/3 of kids that make it all the way through, it’s quite likely that Basis does well by a strong majority of kids. Basis can’t really advertise (or defend) itself by its middle-to-HS school “exit” options but it does matter for families weighing it as an option.

None of this is necessarily to defend Basis as a model that should be supported by public tax dollars. I’m conflicted about that…

(P.S. - plenty of private school families hire tutors; same with TJ families.)

Anecdotally it is a stretch to say the kids who exit early have been well served. A good friends daughter was so discouraged and sad and anxiety ridden after her sophomore year - her older sibling graduated but was deeply unhappy. Of course some kids are happy and there are plenty of schools that are tough, it just seems like people forget how hard and discouraging it is for a lot of the kids who have to leave early - and no one plans that when they start. They really should market it more clearly - “it’s more likely than not, you will leave”

To be fair, they really do try to market it as an advanced and accelerated and very difficult curriculum. They say it many times in many different ways to prospective parents. It's often the parents fault for pushing their kids into a situation where they will fail.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BASIS DC only has 47 in the graduating class but here is a selection of colleges to which kids were admitted (some were admitted to more than one of these).

Per capita, no other public school in DC comes close to these results.

Bryn Mawr
Carnegie Mellon
Cornell
Dartmouth
Duke
Edinburgh
Elon
Emory
Georgetown
GW
Harvard
NYU
Northeastern
Northwestern
Oxford
Pomona
Smith
St. Andrews
Tufts
UC Berkeley
UPenn
U Mich
UT-Austin
UVA
Wesleyan
Wisconsin-Madison
Yale

If you kicked out all of the kids who aren’t in AP classes at the other high schools they’d have similar numbers.

BASIS does a good job on those 47, but the real advantage is shaking off the ones who aren’t top tier students.

It’s such a simple sleight of hand trick, it’s amazing that a school so famous for its math slips it by so many people.

You keep saying that. But here are a few questions for you:

Can you acknowledge that the curriculum at BASIS differs from DCPS? (Requires you to just take a cursory look at the required classes to know this is true, but if you saw the syllabus, as parents do, you would know it's dramatically different and BASIS teaches much more content).

Do you acknowledge that it's possible that the kids who survive BASIS might be learning more than they would have through DCPS?

Can you acknowledge that many of the kids who make it through 8th and then decide to leave for Walls or Private (about half the kids who start) were actually pretty well served by the middle school curriculum?

And now these 50 kids who make it all the way through to graduate -- yes, I agree that these 50 probably would have been successful anywhere. But maybe, just maybe, they actually like the curriculum at BASIS. Maybe they had opportunities there they wouldnt have had at a different school.

Yes - it looks like Basis is doing well by the kids that leave earlier for Walls, Banneker, and privates. Maybe they didn’t like Basis as an experience (or at least had their full of it), but they certainly landed well and compiled good enough academic records while at Basis, painful as it may have been.

Combined with the 1/3 of kids that make it all the way through, it’s quite likely that Basis does well by a strong majority of kids. Basis can’t really advertise (or defend) itself by its middle-to-HS school “exit” options but it does matter for families weighing it as an option.

None of this is necessarily to defend Basis as a model that should be supported by public tax dollars. I’m conflicted about that…

(P.S. - plenty of private school families hire tutors; same with TJ families.)

Anecdotally it is a stretch to say the kids who exit early have been well served. A good friends daughter was so discouraged and sad and anxiety ridden after her sophomore year - her older sibling graduated but was deeply unhappy. Of course some kids are happy and there are plenty of schools that are tough, it just seems like people forget how hard and discouraging it is for a lot of the kids who have to leave early - and no one plans that when they start. They really should market it more clearly - “it’s more likely than not, you will leave”

To be fair, they really do try to market it as an advanced and accelerated and very difficult curriculum. They say it many times in many different ways to prospective parents. It's often the parents fault for pushing their kids into a situation where they will fail.

It seems more productive - for the public and taxpayers - for them to be more selective in their admittance, or to replace the attrition with talented kids… but that business model isn’t attractive to the investors.

5-8th is cheaper to educate - you cast a wide net, boost your overall enrollment numbers to justify the value to taxpayers (saying you educate 400 middle schoolers and 45-55 high schoolers per grade gets more money than just educating 45-55 the whole eight years) but when it gets expensive, you winnow the numbers down to only the kids who were going to succeed anywhere and you declare that your method is genius. The enrollment is weighted towards the cheaper years, but the marketing focuses on the highly selected results.

Sleight of hand.

If it’s a legit system, get all the kids through or only take the 40 percent who are going to make it, or take 120 kids in fifth grade who can make it. If it’s a good system we should have no problem finding three times as many kids who can benefit, right?

[Anonymous]

Problem is, there's no predicting who will "make it." Plenty of kids will leave not because they can't make it, but because they don't want to spend more time in the miserable building largely confined to learning what a narrow curriculum teaches. They want a more normal school experience, and a happier one, not necessarily less challenging academics.

[Anonymous]

+1000. It’s a myth that most of the families who leave BASIS do it because the kids can’t handle the academics. Many leave for better schools overall, particularly Walls. We burned out on surprisingly uneven teaching and rowdy classrooms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:+1000. It’s a myth that most of the families who leave BASIS do it because the kids can’t handle the academics. Many leave for better schools overall, particularly Walls. We burned out on surprisingly uneven teaching and rowdy classrooms.

Are you saying that Walls is considered better than BASIS for a balanced high school experience?

[Anonymous]

Serious question? Of course. Walls is a normal HS with decent extra-curriculars and facilities and a fairly broad curriculum. But their STEM options aren't nearly as serious as those at BASIS. If STEM is your kid's thing in the BASIS middle school and they can bear the dreary scene without become unhappy, stay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:+1000. It’s a myth that most of the families who leave BASIS do it because the kids can’t handle the academics. Many leave for better schools overall, particularly Walls. We burned out on surprisingly uneven teaching and rowdy classrooms.

Basis has rowdy classrooms?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:+1000. It’s a myth that most of the families who leave BASIS do it because the kids can’t handle the academics. Many leave for better schools overall, particularly Walls. We burned out on surprisingly uneven teaching and rowdy classrooms.

Wrong. Some leave for other schools or just move away (BASIS doesn't backfill) but most leave because kids wash out.

-Longtime BASIS parent

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:+1000. It’s a myth that most of the families who leave BASIS do it because the kids can’t handle the academics. Many leave for better schools overall, particularly Walls. We burned out on surprisingly uneven teaching and rowdy classrooms.

Basis has rowdy classrooms?

lol.

That was written by someone who has no clue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BASIS DC only has 47 in the graduating class but here is a selection of colleges to which kids were admitted (some were admitted to more than one of these).

Per capita, no other public school in DC comes close to these results.

Bryn Mawr
Carnegie Mellon
Cornell
Dartmouth
Duke
Edinburgh
Elon
Emory
Georgetown
GW
Harvard
NYU
Northeastern
Northwestern
Oxford
Pomona
Smith
St. Andrews
Tufts
UC Berkeley
UPenn
U Mich
UT-Austin
UVA
Wesleyan
Wisconsin-Madison
Yale

If you kicked out all of the kids who aren’t in AP classes at the other high schools they’d have similar numbers.

BASIS does a good job on those 47, but the real advantage is shaking off the ones who aren’t top tier students.

It’s such a simple sleight of hand trick, it’s amazing that a school so famous for its math slips it by so many people.

You keep saying that. But here are a few questions for you:

Can you acknowledge that the curriculum at BASIS differs from DCPS? (Requires you to just take a cursory look at the required classes to know this is true, but if you saw the syllabus, as parents do, you would know it's dramatically different and BASIS teaches much more content).

Do you acknowledge that it's possible that the kids who survive BASIS might be learning more than they would have through DCPS?

Can you acknowledge that many of the kids who make it through 8th and then decide to leave for Walls or Private (about half the kids who start) were actually pretty well served by the middle school curriculum?

And now these 50 kids who make it all the way through to graduate -- yes, I agree that these 50 probably would have been successful anywhere. But maybe, just maybe, they actually like the curriculum at BASIS. Maybe they had opportunities there they wouldnt have had at a different school.

Can you acknowledge that a lot of kids leave basis feeling hurt and disillusioned and discouraged from learning?

It’s an intriguing idea and clearly works for some kids, but when dcps has so many problems, pouring money into a system that works for so few - and is frankly designed to work for so few - is disturbing. It seems like a great idea for a private school, where a specific model can be implemented and if you don’t fit the curriculum and the culture, you’re free to leave - not a public school system which is supposed to serve everyone.

I’ve got no problem with a curriculum with heavy emphasis on math and science and testing, and it’s nice to see those who suceed, but the cost, both financially and in terms of those who don’t succeed seems awfully high.

Then don't send your kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:+1000. It’s a myth that most of the families who leave BASIS do it because the kids can’t handle the academics. Many leave for better schools overall, particularly Walls. We burned out on surprisingly uneven teaching and rowdy classrooms.

Basis has rowdy classrooms?

lol.

That was written by someone who has no clue.

My kids’s elementary has rowdy classrooms w/o the rigor; it’s essentially become a SPED administration center.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:+1000. It’s a myth that most of the families who leave BASIS do it because the kids can’t handle the academics. Many leave for better schools overall, particularly Walls. We burned out on surprisingly uneven teaching and rowdy classrooms.

Basis has rowdy classrooms?

lol.

That was written by someone who has no clue.

My kids’s elementary has rowdy classrooms w/o the rigor; it’s essentially become a SPED administration center.

BASIS for MS? Definitely not rowdy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BASIS DC only has 47 in the graduating class but here is a selection of colleges to which kids were admitted (some were admitted to more than one of these).

Per capita, no other public school in DC comes close to these results.

Bryn Mawr
Carnegie Mellon
Cornell
Dartmouth
Duke
Edinburgh
Elon
Emory
Georgetown
GW
Harvard
NYU
Northeastern
Northwestern
Oxford
Pomona
Smith
St. Andrews
Tufts
UC Berkeley
UPenn
U Mich
UT-Austin
UVA
Wesleyan
Wisconsin-Madison
Yale

If you kicked out all of the kids who aren’t in AP classes at the other high schools they’d have similar numbers.

BASIS does a good job on those 47, but the real advantage is shaking off the ones who aren’t top tier students.

It’s such a simple sleight of hand trick, it’s amazing that a school so famous for its math slips it by so many people.

You keep saying that. But here are a few questions for you:

Can you acknowledge that the curriculum at BASIS differs from DCPS? (Requires you to just take a cursory look at the required classes to know this is true, but if you saw the syllabus, as parents do, you would know it's dramatically different and BASIS teaches much more content).

Do you acknowledge that it's possible that the kids who survive BASIS might be learning more than they would have through DCPS?

Can you acknowledge that many of the kids who make it through 8th and then decide to leave for Walls or Private (about half the kids who start) were actually pretty well served by the middle school curriculum?

And now these 50 kids who make it all the way through to graduate -- yes, I agree that these 50 probably would have been successful anywhere. But maybe, just maybe, they actually like the curriculum at BASIS. Maybe they had opportunities there they wouldnt have had at a different school.

Can you acknowledge that a lot of kids leave basis feeling hurt and disillusioned and discouraged from learning?

It’s an intriguing idea and clearly works for some kids, but when dcps has so many problems, pouring money into a system that works for so few - and is frankly designed to work for so few - is disturbing. It seems like a great idea for a private school, where a specific model can be implemented and if you don’t fit the curriculum and the culture, you’re free to leave - not a public school system which is supposed to serve everyone.

I’ve got no problem with a curriculum with heavy emphasis on math and science and testing, and it’s nice to see those who suceed, but the cost, both financially and in terms of those who don’t succeed seems awfully high.

Then don't send your kids.

i won't. Now explain to me why I should pay for it, when it doesn't seem to have a lot of value.

Why not just kill BASIS and double the size of Walls, or create a second school with the same curriculum and policies as Walls?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BASIS DC only has 47 in the graduating class but here is a selection of colleges to which kids were admitted (some were admitted to more than one of these).

Per capita, no other public school in DC comes close to these results.

Bryn Mawr
Carnegie Mellon
Cornell
Dartmouth
Duke
Edinburgh
Elon
Emory
Georgetown
GW
Harvard
NYU
Northeastern
Northwestern
Oxford
Pomona
Smith
St. Andrews
Tufts
UC Berkeley
UPenn
U Mich
UT-Austin
UVA
Wesleyan
Wisconsin-Madison
Yale

If you kicked out all of the kids who aren’t in AP classes at the other high schools they’d have similar numbers.

BASIS does a good job on those 47, but the real advantage is shaking off the ones who aren’t top tier students.

It’s such a simple sleight of hand trick, it’s amazing that a school so famous for its math slips it by so many people.

You keep saying that. But here are a few questions for you:

Can you acknowledge that the curriculum at BASIS differs from DCPS? (Requires you to just take a cursory look at the required classes to know this is true, but if you saw the syllabus, as parents do, you would know it's dramatically different and BASIS teaches much more content).

Do you acknowledge that it's possible that the kids who survive BASIS might be learning more than they would have through DCPS?

Can you acknowledge that many of the kids who make it through 8th and then decide to leave for Walls or Private (about half the kids who start) were actually pretty well served by the middle school curriculum?

And now these 50 kids who make it all the way through to graduate -- yes, I agree that these 50 probably would have been successful anywhere. But maybe, just maybe, they actually like the curriculum at BASIS. Maybe they had opportunities there they wouldnt have had at a different school.

Can you acknowledge that a lot of kids leave basis feeling hurt and disillusioned and discouraged from learning?

It’s an intriguing idea and clearly works for some kids, but when dcps has so many problems, pouring money into a system that works for so few - and is frankly designed to work for so few - is disturbing. It seems like a great idea for a private school, where a specific model can be implemented and if you don’t fit the curriculum and the culture, you’re free to leave - not a public school system which is supposed to serve everyone.

I’ve got no problem with a curriculum with heavy emphasis on math and science and testing, and it’s nice to see those who suceed, but the cost, both financially and in terms of those who don’t succeed seems awfully high.

Then don't send your kids.

i won't. Now explain to me why I should pay for it, when it doesn't seem to have a lot of value.

Why not just kill BASIS and double the size of Walls, or create a second school with the same curriculum and policies as Walls?

You could double Walls w/o regard to Basis. Or you simply allow Basis to be test in at all grades w/ backfilling mandated. Problem solved.