BASIS DC first graduating class college acceptances list

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well BASIS pattern is not that different from Washington Latin; Latin's first 2 graduating classes were 42 and 44 students (from initial classes of 90) and they accepted new students at 9th.

For years LAMB had huge attrition -- with only 18 students.

If the kids coming out of BASIS were failing wherever they go next, I might agree it's a problem. But they aren't -- in fact they are among some of the strongest students at Wilson, SWW and Banneker. They're getting a good middle school education, and exercising their right to change schools.

LAMB retained just 18 students through 5th from a K class of 48 (in 2015).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard from a very reliable source that the average SAT of the graduating class was in the low 900's, lower than Latin, Wilson or Walls.
So what happened to all the fast track and AP classes?

The graduating class started with almost 90 students, and only the top 16 survived, took advanced classes and several AP's and scored no more than a regular DCPS school?

The class started with 49 kids, not 90.

https://osse.dc.gov/publication/fy13-lea-and-school-level-enrollment-audit-reports

NP here.
According to the 2012 school handbook, there were 3 8th grade classes (Br, Li, Cs) and 87 students in January 2013.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard from a very reliable source that the average SAT of the graduating class was in the low 900's, lower than Latin, Wilson or Walls.
So what happened to all the fast track and AP classes?

The graduating class started with almost 90 students, and only the top 16 survived, took advanced classes and several AP's and scored no more than a regular DCPS school?

The class started with 49 kids, not 90.

https://osse.dc.gov/publication/fy13-lea-and-school-level-enrollment-audit-reports

NP here.
According to the 2012 school handbook, there were 3 8th grade classes (Br, Li, Cs) and 87 students in January 2013.

OSSE's 2012-13 enrollment audit showed 49 BASIS 8th graders in 2012-13. https://osse.dc.gov/publication/fy13-lea-and-school-level-enrollment-audit-reports

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard from a very reliable source that the average SAT of the graduating class was in the low 900's, lower than Latin, Wilson or Walls.
So what happened to all the fast track and AP classes?

The graduating class started with almost 90 students, and only the top 16 survived, took advanced classes and several AP's and scored no more than a regular DCPS school?

The class started with 49 kids, not 90.

https://osse.dc.gov/publication/fy13-lea-and-school-level-enrollment-audit-reports

NP here.
According to the 2012 school handbook, there were 3 8th grade classes (Br, Li, Cs) and 87 students in January 2013.

Do you mean the directory? Those are done by parents, and usually filled with errors. The leading class was always small, definitely never had more than 2 sections.

[Anonymous]

Chart the demographic changes of the basis students from inception through the next 5 years and you will see a sea change in the quality of college acceptances

[Anonymous]

Maybe. They don't seem to be promoting/arranging the STEM mentoring, lab research and publishing relationships that the top public math/science high school programs elsewhere use to help kids stand out when applying to the country's best programs, e.g. MIT, Princeton, Cornell Engineering, Cal Tech. Attend a TJ open house and you'll understand what I'm talking about. Where are the NASA, National Academy of Sciences and Smithsonian Air and Space internships for the BASIS DC crew? They attract the STEM professional parents who could help arrange the mentoring, but hardly use them to do it. They're wasting a hell of a resource.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe. They don't seem to be promoting/arranging the STEM mentoring, lab research and publishing relationships that the top public math/science high school programs elsewhere use to help kids stand out when applying to the country's best programs, e.g. MIT, Princeton, Cornell Engineering, Cal Tech. Attend a TJ open house and you'll understand what I'm talking about. Where are the NASA, National Academy of Sciences and Smithsonian Air and Space internships for the BASIS DC crew? They attract the STEM professional parents who could help arrange the mentoring, but hardly use them to do it. They're wasting a hell of a resource.

It isn't a STEM school.

And in fact the graduates headed to Princeton and Barnard did their senior projects with two different Smithsonians (on ocean acidification and astronomy respectively) and are planning on pursuing those fields in college. One had been working with the museum scientists for the last 2 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe. They don't seem to be promoting/arranging the STEM mentoring, lab research and publishing relationships that the top public math/science high school programs elsewhere use to help kids stand out when applying to the country's best programs, e.g. MIT, Princeton, Cornell Engineering, Cal Tech. Attend a TJ open house and you'll understand what I'm talking about. Where are the NASA, National Academy of Sciences and Smithsonian Air and Space internships for the BASIS DC crew? They attract the STEM professional parents who could help arrange the mentoring, but hardly use them to do it. They're wasting a hell of a resource.

It isn't a STEM school.

And in fact the graduates headed to Princeton and Barnard did their senior projects with two different Smithsonians (on ocean acidification and astronomy respectively) and are planning on pursuing those fields in college. One had been working with the museum scientists for the last 2 years.

I am not the PP and I hear this. The above is great. However, shouldn't it be sort of an 'everything' school given what it presents as an accelerated in every subject curriculum? As much as we loved Latin, we also saw weakness in STEM in the early years and they also could have tapped into parents and partnerships much more in the early years. I would not be complacent. Even if not a STEM school, it surely has STEM kids and the opportunities above are in this area for the plucking. Perhaps a parent committee if the school is strapped for bandwidth?

[Anonymous]

I'm 6:54. I think they are building a school with a lot of strengths and which can support a wide range of student interests (I have a Basis high school student and a middle schooler).

The kids have to master a lot of science and math to graduate; they don't have to enter science fairs or take AP computer science or AP engineering classes but those classes are offered. That's what I mean by not 'STEM.'

But the PP who said no Basis students were interning at the Smithsonian, NASA etc is just wrong. They already are. And more will.

Can they do more? Yes. Should they have kids who are entering big national science fairs by now? Maybe - if that's what the kids want. The teachers are ready to support them when they do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe. They don't seem to be promoting/arranging the STEM mentoring, lab research and publishing relationships that the top public math/science high school programs elsewhere use to help kids stand out when applying to the country's best programs, e.g. MIT, Princeton, Cornell Engineering, Cal Tech. Attend a TJ open house and you'll understand what I'm talking about. Where are the NASA, National Academy of Sciences and Smithsonian Air and Space internships for the BASIS DC crew? They attract the STEM professional parents who could help arrange the mentoring, but hardly use them to do it. They're wasting a hell of a resource.

It isn't a STEM school.

And in fact the graduates headed to Princeton and Barnard did their senior projects with two different Smithsonians (on ocean acidification and astronomy respectively) and are planning on pursuing those fields in college. One had been working with the museum scientists for the last 2 years.

BASIS treats its students so differently.
Given the exorbitant amount of homework and constant testing, most students will barely have time to sleep, let alone do any kind of after school activity.
But then, there are those students who get all kinds of preferential treatment, like taking the weekly tests many times until the desirable grade is reached. These asre the students whose precomprehensive and comprehensive grades are adjusted and curved. These students will have the opportunity to do any kind of after school activity since they know their grades will not suffer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe. They don't seem to be promoting/arranging the STEM mentoring, lab research and publishing relationships that the top public math/science high school programs elsewhere use to help kids stand out when applying to the country's best programs, e.g. MIT, Princeton, Cornell Engineering, Cal Tech. Attend a TJ open house and you'll understand what I'm talking about. Where are the NASA, National Academy of Sciences and Smithsonian Air and Space internships for the BASIS DC crew? They attract the STEM professional parents who could help arrange the mentoring, but hardly use them to do it. They're wasting a hell of a resource.

It isn't a STEM school.

And in fact the graduates headed to Princeton and Barnard did their senior projects with two different Smithsonians (on ocean acidification and astronomy respectively) and are planning on pursuing those fields in college. One had been working with the museum scientists for the last 2 years.

I am not the PP and I hear this. The above is great. However, shouldn't it be sort of an 'everything' school given what it presents as an accelerated in every subject curriculum? As much as we loved Latin, we also saw weakness in STEM in the early years and they also could have tapped into parents and partnerships much more in the early years. I would not be complacent. Even if not a STEM school, it surely has STEM kids and the opportunities above are in this area for the plucking. Perhaps a parent committee if the school is strapped for bandwidth?

It seems to me that parents should find the appropriate school for their child. If your DC is into STEM, why not apply to McKinley Tech or Phelps? Also, it is not the school's job to find outside programming to support the interests of every student, that's what parents are for. If parents can find time and opportunities to engage their snowflakes in futsol, yoga, etc, then parents can take the time to find academic programming outside of school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

BASIS treats its students so differently.
Given the exorbitant amount of homework and constant testing, most students will barely have time to sleep, let alone do any kind of after school activity.
But then, there are those students who get all kinds of preferential treatment, like taking the weekly tests many times until the desirable grade is reached. These asre the students whose precomprehensive and comprehensive grades are adjusted and curved. These students will have the opportunity to do any kind of after school activity since they know their grades will not suffer.

I call bullshit. Our kid has been there 5 years and we never saw favoritism or teachers bending the rules for only select kids. Now some kids may have IEPs with testing accommodations but that is not favoritism. Also, showing favoritism via inflating grades would go against the school's model and is not likely at all since the school wants kids to succeed with their curriculum which is quite demanding.

As for activities, every kid is different and some will be able to do a lot of activities and others not so much. Our kid has consistently done at least 2 activities per year and some years more but it varied since the workload can be demanding depending on the year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm 6:54. I think they are building a school with a lot of strengths and which can support a wide range of student interests (I have a Basis high school student and a middle schooler).

The kids have to master a lot of science and math to graduate; they don't have to enter science fairs or take AP computer science or AP engineering classes but those classes are offered. That's what I mean by not 'STEM.'

But the PP who said no Basis students were interning at the Smithsonian, NASA etc is just wrong. They already are. And more will.

Can they do more? Yes. Should they have kids who are entering big national science fairs by now? Maybe - if that's what the kids want. The teachers are ready to support them when they do.

I've mentored several TJ students as a STEM professional, so I know that it's not an easy as "the teachers are ready to support them when they do."

For a group of elite STEM-oriented students at a HS to compete successfully in national science competitions, e.g. Siemens, Google and INTEL, admins must cultivate the supporting mentoring relationships needed to build students into strong competitors. This must be done relentlessly, year in and year out, by teachers and mentoring/competition/academic paper publishing coordinators who aren't carrying a full teaching load.

The school also needs to work the mentoring time into the schedule. BASIS DC admins could study how TJ approaches the exercise. TJ offers summer academics terms, to help kids dust off course requirements, freeing them up to focus on working with mentors during the spring and fall semesters, catering to the mentors' schedules. TJ also has parent leaders fundraise to support their mentoring program. You want every parent with any kind of connection to the Smithsonians, NASA, NAS etc. asked to help build the mentoring network every semester, as at TJ, and to kick in some dough to make it happen. None of this appears to be happening at BASIS DC, other than piecemeal for a few kids.

The working assumption of the last few BASIS heads seems to have been that because their Arizona campus graduates tend to do brilliantly in college admissions, so, too, will most of their DC seniors, at least once those who've had the full "BASIS treatment" from 5th grade reach the finish line. Problem is, the Metro area applicant pool is one of the several most competitive in the country. BASIS isn't in Arizona anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm 6:54. I think they are building a school with a lot of strengths and which can support a wide range of student interests (I have a Basis high school student and a middle schooler).

The kids have to master a lot of science and math to graduate; they don't have to enter science fairs or take AP computer science or AP engineering classes but those classes are offered. That's what I mean by not 'STEM.'

But the PP who said no Basis students were interning at the Smithsonian, NASA etc is just wrong. They already are. And more will.

Can they do more? Yes. Should they have kids who are entering big national science fairs by now? Maybe - if that's what the kids want. The teachers are ready to support them when they do.

I've mentored several TJ students as a STEM professional, so I know that it's not an easy as "the teachers are ready to support them when they do."

For a group of elite STEM-oriented students at a HS to compete successfully in national science competitions, e.g. Siemens, Google and INTEL, admins must cultivate the supporting mentoring relationships needed to build students into strong competitors. This must be done relentlessly, year in and year out, by teachers and mentoring/competition/academic paper publishing coordinators who aren't carrying a full teaching load.

The school also needs to work the mentoring time into the schedule. BASIS DC admins could study how TJ approaches the exercise. TJ offers summer academics terms, to help kids dust off course requirements, freeing them up to focus on working with mentors during the spring and fall semesters, catering to the mentors' schedules. TJ also has parent leaders fundraise to support their mentoring program. You want every parent with any kind of connection to the Smithsonians, NASA, NAS etc. asked to help build the mentoring network every semester, as at TJ, and to kick in some dough to make it happen. None of this appears to be happening at BASIS DC, other than piecemeal for a few kids.

The working assumption of the last few BASIS heads seems to have been that because their Arizona campus graduates tend to do brilliantly in college admissions, so, too, will most of their DC seniors, at least once those who've had the full "BASIS treatment" from 5th grade reach the finish line. Problem is, the Metro area applicant pool is one of the several most competitive in the country. BASIS isn't in Arizona anymore.

By junior or senior year, a BASIS student can elect an independent study period to do just such a science project. BASIS students have done it in Arizona already -- so the flexibility in the curriculum and model is there and the science teachers in different parts of BASIS collaborate (see this story about a recent AZ BASIS graduate and Intel finalist who presented her project to President Obama. http://blog.basisindependent.com/bklyn/basis-scottsdale-student-acknowledged-by-obama-for-disease-fighting-research.

Building that kind of program takes some time, both for the school and the students to see what it's all about. And yes TJ and also Blair have built amazing programs, although they have vastly larger budgets and selective admissions going for them.

It's piecemeal in DC because there are ONLY a few kids in the high school at this point and not all of their interests are in science. Just 16 graduating seniors, 14-15 juniors and 45-46 sophomores, some of whom plan on graduating a year early.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm 6:54. I think they are building a school with a lot of strengths and which can support a wide range of student interests (I have a Basis high school student and a middle schooler).

The kids have to master a lot of science and math to graduate; they don't have to enter science fairs or take AP computer science or AP engineering classes but those classes are offered. That's what I mean by not 'STEM.'

But the PP who said no Basis students were interning at the Smithsonian, NASA etc is just wrong. They already are. And more will.

Can they do more? Yes. Should they have kids who are entering big national science fairs by now? Maybe - if that's what the kids want. The teachers are ready to support them when they do.

I've mentored several TJ students as a STEM professional, so I know that it's not an easy as "the teachers are ready to support them when they do."

For a group of elite STEM-oriented students at a HS to compete successfully in national science competitions, e.g. Siemens, Google and INTEL, admins must cultivate the supporting mentoring relationships needed to build students into strong competitors. This must be done relentlessly, year in and year out, by teachers and mentoring/competition/academic paper publishing coordinators who aren't carrying a full teaching load.

The school also needs to work the mentoring time into the schedule. BASIS DC admins could study how TJ approaches the exercise. TJ offers summer academics terms, to help kids dust off course requirements, freeing them up to focus on working with mentors during the spring and fall semesters, catering to the mentors' schedules. TJ also has parent leaders fundraise to support their mentoring program. You want every parent with any kind of connection to the Smithsonians, NASA, NAS etc. asked to help build the mentoring network every semester, as at TJ, and to kick in some dough to make it happen. None of this appears to be happening at BASIS DC, other than piecemeal for a few kids.

The working assumption of the last few BASIS heads seems to have been that because their Arizona campus graduates tend to do brilliantly in college admissions, so, too, will most of their DC seniors, at least once those who've had the full "BASIS treatment" from 5th grade reach the finish line. Problem is, the Metro area applicant pool is one of the several most competitive in the country. BASIS isn't in Arizona anymore.

Very interesting and thoughtful response regarding STEM. Can you clarify a little more about what you mean by BASIS Arizona and BASIS DC being in completely different competitive environments regarding college admissions? Are you basically saying that it is much easier for students to get into competitive colleges from Arizona than from the DC Metro area? If this is true than the BASIS model in DC may not be as effective in terms of successful admittance into elite colleges, right? Also, are you saying that DC is in the same competitive market as Northern Virginia and/or Montgomery County? Definitely something to consider though it remains to be seen how much an impact this will ultimately make.