Parents are pulling their children out of Basis FAST!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think it was necessarily for incoming students to be "advanced", but there is definitely an expectation of rigor, an expectation that the curriculum will be accelerated and will push hard on subjects like math and science, that there will not be social promotion, and accordingly that kids and parents will need to be committed, motivated and hard-working. It's not a school for slackers. If it was anyone's notion that they could just coast through BASIS as with a DCPS school, that was their own mistake.

Do you really not hear how obnoxious that sounds? Do you really believe that parents of students who are struggling are supposed to give up and have low expectations for their children?

I am not a Basis parent, I don't have a dog in this fight. What I find amazing about these sorts of assertions, is the underlying assumption that families with children "less special" than your snowflake, are supposed to back-off, bow out, and/or give up, so that you can direct all the resources to your child. It's all their fault, for not agreeing with your worldview that your snowflake deserves extra-special treatment, at tax-payer expense.

No but many parents believe just putting their child in a rigorous school will suddenly make their child smarter/attentive/eager to learn and it doesn't work like that. If the basics are lacking, they will never get anywhere.

Then it's the responsibility of the school to allocate resources and use research based methods (hint: this doesn't mean retention which has been shown time and time again to not work) to address the lack of basics in the students they are serving.

DC law does not allow schools to refuse to serve kids because they are missing the basics. Basis knew that when they chose to come here. It also does not allow schools to fail to educate the kids sitting in their classrooms.

I seriously do not appreciate the repeated use of the term "snowflake" on this forum, it has distinctly racist undertones, as though we are talking about some supposedly special and unique little WHITE child.

Your unfamiliarity with the etymology of the term doesn't mean the rest of us are racists. It means you're so busy being agitated that you can't be bothered to be educated. There's no color thing involved, and if you had even half a clue you'd know that.

Uh-huh. Either dishonest or clueless. Everyone else knows full well it's racist. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=snowflake

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think it was necessarily for incoming students to be "advanced", but there is definitely an expectation of rigor, an expectation that the curriculum will be accelerated and will push hard on subjects like math and science, that there will not be social promotion, and accordingly that kids and parents will need to be committed, motivated and hard-working. It's not a school for slackers. If it was anyone's notion that they could just coast through BASIS as with a DCPS school, that was their own mistake.

Do you really not hear how obnoxious that sounds? Do you really believe that parents of students who are struggling are supposed to give up and have low expectations for their children?

I am not a Basis parent, I don't have a dog in this fight. What I find amazing about these sorts of assertions, is the underlying assumption that families with children "less special" than your snowflake, are supposed to back-off, bow out, and/or give up, so that you can direct all the resources to your child. It's all their fault, for not agreeing with your worldview that your snowflake deserves extra-special treatment, at tax-payer expense.

No but many parents believe just putting their child in a rigorous school will suddenly make their child smarter/attentive/eager to learn and it doesn't work like that. If the basics are lacking, they will never get anywhere.

Then it's the responsibility of the school to allocate resources and use research based methods (hint: this doesn't mean retention which has been shown time and time again to not work) to address the lack of basics in the students they are serving.

DC law does not allow schools to refuse to serve kids because they are missing the basics. Basis knew that when they chose to come here. It also does not allow schools to fail to educate the kids sitting in their classrooms.

I seriously do not appreciate the repeated use of the term "snowflake" on this forum, it has distinctly racist undertones, as though we are talking about some supposedly special and unique little WHITE child.

Your unfamiliarity with the etymology of the term doesn't mean the rest of us are racists. It means you're so busy being agitated that you can't be bothered to be educated. There's no color thing involved, and if you had even half a clue you'd know that.

Uh-huh. Either dishonest or clueless. Everyone else knows full well it's racist. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=snowflake

Yes but your link to the urban dictionary suggests a racial overtone only if the child in question is a very unique white girl. Has PP identified their child as a girl? If not, maybe #2 in the urban dictionary applies which is distinctly not racist. I never thought of snowflake as a racist term.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Can other BASIS 5th and 6th grade parents confirm this? Are many BASIS families really preparing to pull their children out after a year or two (but keeping it to themselves)?

Visit Latin, dude, the other charter built on great rigor. Observe many white and Asian kids (many adopted by whites) in 5th grade. Observe a handful of white and Asian kids in 10th through 12th. Note that the white parents aren't talking about leaving, the opposite. Put two and two together. High SES attrition is rampant at Latin and will occur at Basis. The only questions are how high the attrition will be and if the school will care to address the problem head on. Departing parents speak euphamistically about "good fit" schools" elsewhere when, privately, most aren't convinced that academic standards will be terribly high, or social environments all that positive, when most of their kids classmates come from multi-generational low-income families.

This is why we need gifted elementary and test-in middle school programs, and much stronger test-in high school programs, in this city - if affluent parents know that low-income kids had to clear a high bar to enter, the well-heeled will generally stay with enthusiasm. It's why whites beat down the door to get their kids into Stuyvesant High School and Thomas Jefferson, and largely stay the course. DC's leading education reformers don't get it and Basis' may or may not. All too easy to term a charter "succesful" despite the fact that most of the high SES/white families drop out along the way. But then I don't know my charter legislation, right?

[Anonymous]

^

What the HS attrition at Latin shows is one and only one thing - the lack of strong High School level public college prep options and yes, it needs to start even earlier than MS - there need to be strong programs at the ES level too.

[Anonymous]

What is BASIS and why do people have such views about it? Lived in DC for 18 years and I have no idea what you people are prattling on about.

[Anonymous]

I think the other thing that drags schools like Latin down is social promotion - with each time that happens, there is increasing likelihood that students haven't mastered the building blocks of each grade and will then be struggling more and more as they progress.

[Anonymous]

What schools like Latin do you have in mind? Boston Latin, Roxbury Latin, and Washington Latin would never use use social promotion in any form.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What schools like Latin do you have in mind? Boston Latin, Roxbury Latin, and Washington Latin would never use use social promotion in any form.

Washington Latin does promote socially.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What schools like Latin do you have in mind? Boston Latin, Roxbury Latin, and Washington Latin would never use use social promotion in any form.

It seems like Washington Latin is a perfectly good urban charter school but you can't honestly be putting it on the same level as Roxbury Latin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What schools like Latin do you have in mind? Boston Latin, Roxbury Latin, and Washington Latin would never use use social promotion in any form.

Washington Latin does promote socially.

Sorry, no.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It will be really interesting to see how many of the high SES parents actually stay to 12th grade. The only way to tell is to look at: a) the # and % of FARMS kids taking the DC-CAS year-on-year and, b) the # and % of white kids taking the DC-CAS year-on-year. By late next year, the first round of results broken down by race will have been made public. Will Basis' DC-CAS scores for 5th graders beat Latin's? Probably.

Latin has fewer white and Asian kids, and more FARMS kids, every year as you go up. Nearly half the 5th graders are high-SES (almost all white or Asian) but only around 5% of the 12th graders. It will also be interesting to see how many high SES families stick with Latin in the coming years. If their high school goes from around 15% white and Asian now to one-third within five years, I'll be surprised. The truth of the matter is that most high-SES Hill families won't send their kids to a high school that's majority AA, unless there's a school-within-a-school program/academy that isn't. I say this as an AA parent. We don't live in neighborhoods that are majority low-SES and don't want our kids in classes that are either. Go on, pitch another hissy fit arch liberal white boosters.

Latin is only 13.5% FARMS. Latin also scored 79% in DCCAS. Black woman where are you receiving your data. Btw-- I don't think you will find a large Asian school population in any DC public school. Maybe not even DC private. This is not Annandale or Rockville.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Visit Latin, dude, the other charter built on great rigor. Observe many white and Asian kids (many adopted by whites) in 5th grade. Observe a handful of white and Asian kids in 10th through 12th. Note that the white parents aren't talking about leaving, the opposite. Put two and two together. High SES attrition is rampant at Latin and will occur at Basis. The only questions are how high the attrition will be and if the school will care to address the problem head on. Departing parents speak euphamistically about "good fit" schools" elsewhere when, privately, most aren't convinced that academic standards will be terribly high, or social environments all that positive, when most of their kids classmates come from multi-generational low-income families.

What you see in the upper grades at Latin is that the school struggled under previous leadership. Some of the high SES kids left (not really sure what color -- does it matter?). Latin doesn't admit after 9th. I see a lot of kids who are choosing to stay at Latin for HS, including kids who get into private and Walls. I see Latin offering a lot of support to students who struggle -- extra work during the elective period, after school help, and summer school. I think you will also see a lot of students staying at Latin just looking at their college placement. Latin got every single graduating senior into college from its first graduating class and in terms of scholarship money for their first graduating class more than Walls did on a per student basis (8 million versus 5.5 million; 109 graduating seniors versus 42).

I don't think you can make any assumptions about high SES attrition at Basis. With Wilson closed to OOB, where do the high SES kids go who don't want to do private and don't live in bounds for Wilson?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What schools like Latin do you have in mind? Boston Latin, Roxbury Latin, and Washington Latin would never use use social promotion in any form.

Washington Latin does promote socially.

Sorry, no.

Your evidence?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What schools like Latin do you have in mind? Boston Latin, Roxbury Latin, and Washington Latin would never use use social promotion in any form.

Washington Latin does promote socially.

Sorry, no.

Your evidence?

Now that's funny. This whole thread started with someone basically screaming FIRE! and running out of the room. Evidence, not one piece of evidence has been provided for anything posted on this thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What schools like Latin do you have in mind? Boston Latin, Roxbury Latin, and Washington Latin would never use use social promotion in any form.

It seems like Washington Latin is a perfectly good urban charter school but you can't honestly be putting it on the same level as Roxbury Latin.

And therein lies the problem. I wouldn't send DC to a high school not on par academically (could care less about social) with TJ, Stuy, Roxbury Latin, Exeter, Andover, etc. perhaps Basis DC will reach that level - certainly hope so. Otherwise, we'll be moving or paying so that DC can go to a first rate high school.