Basis elements

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

AZ gets around this by offering admission to everyone who gets a slot in the lottery, but not necessarily admission in the grade level that they prefer. All 5th graders get into 5th with no testing and no questions asked. If your child gets picked in the lottery, and you want your child in 7th grade, but your child doesn't pass the 7th grade tests, they'll offer your child a spot in 6th grade instead.

That's just f'ed up. No one has an issue with it?

Well, you have to pick one of the two:
1. Social promotion and letting kids into whatever grade level they want, and then slowing down the classes to accommodate the kids who otherwise wouldn't be ready.
2. Only let kids enter 6th grade-12th grade who are ready for the material, and then continue teaching at a brisk pace.

BASIS would be just like every other school if they chose option 1 over option 2. I mean, I guess they could admit unready kids into their preferred grade level, let them get buried under the work, and then flunk them, but that's even more cruel than telling them to repeat a grade. It's not like kids need astronomically high scores to get admitted into a preferred grade. They just need to pass the final from the previous year.

Also, if you want your child in 7th, and they don't pass the tests, it's not like you have to accept the BASIS 6th grade slot. You can send your child to some other charter or the local public and put your kid in 7th. The main benefit is that the BASIS schools in AZ offer a chance for advanced 6th-12th graders to join the school, whereas in DC, if you don't get picked in the 5th grade lottery, you're out of luck.

[Anonymous]

What I dislike about the not-picked-for-5th-or-6th-and-can-never-attend BASIS DC deal is that it promotes an attitude of patronizing superiority on the part of families involved. The condescension is no secret in neighborhood circles EotP. You hear how kids who attend other DC public middle schools "could never handle" the BASIS HS curriculum. One of my children, a DCPS student, takes MS GT science and math classes on-line through JH CTY and Stanford. S/he scored in the high 600s on SATs in 7th grade to make the cut to enroll in these classes. Not buying that BASIS 9th grade work would crush the kid, but then we'll never know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What I dislike about the not-picked-for-5th-or-6th-and-can-never-attend BASIS DC deal is that it promotes an attitude of patronizing superiority on the part of families involved. The condescension is no secret in neighborhood circles EotP. You hear how kids who attend other DC public middle schools "could never handle" the BASIS HS curriculum. One of my children, a DCPS student, takes MS GT science and math classes on-line through JH CTY and Stanford. S/he scored in the high 600s on SATs in 7th grade to make the cut to enroll in these classes. Not buying that BASIS 9th grade work would crush the kid, but then we'll never know.

Who the heck are you associating with? I'm on the Hill with a kid in Basis and I never hear any of this. If anything, all I hear are complaints about how the building and how awful it is for students.

[Anonymous]

Why would other BASIS parents be lambasting DCPS middle school programs to you?

We have a kid in a DCPS middle school. I can't count the number of times local BASIS parents have told us that the reason BASIS doesn't admit kids after 6th grade is that nobody coming in from the outside could possibly handle the math or science past 6th. Total BS for high performers who might come in from privates, homeschool, DCPS, suburban programs....if that were allowed at BASIS.

[Anonymous]

Why would a DCPS parent click on a thread about BASIS elements, which is a total inside-baseball thing only remotely of interest to people at the school, and then complain about parents at a school with which they don't have any connection?

[Anonymous]

I can't speak for other parents, but we'd probably go for BASIS for high school if we could. We enrolled at at our IB DCPS MS after failing to get off the BASIS 5th and 6th grade waiting lists. Very interested to hear that Arizona BASIS lets students with lottery luck who can handle grade level work join cohorts after 6th. I just assumed that nobody could start after 6th nationally. You post what you like to post and leave it others to do the same.

[Anonymous]

The end.

[Anonymous]

How uneven is the grading / challenge across subjects? My 5th grader is doing well in every other class without much homework or concern. But in one class he is doing terribly - in spite of not much homework. Not blaming the teacher at all. Kid seems to have a lot of catch up to do. We are supplementing some.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How uneven is the grading / challenge across subjects? My 5th grader is doing well in every other class without much homework or concern. But in one class he is doing terribly - in spite of not much homework. Not blaming the teacher at all. Kid seems to have a lot of catch up to do. We are supplementing some.

Will vary student to student. When my kiddo was in 5, science was hard - the class was structured with more cutting and pasting of pages into a note book, etc. She is in 7 now, brought home a grade report yesterday with science grades of 99, 99, 100. Just needed more focused teachers and to get into the groove.

Just shoot the teacher an email and ask how class is going/anything else, they should be doing and so on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How uneven is the grading / challenge across subjects? My 5th grader is doing well in every other class without much homework or concern. But in one class he is doing terribly - in spite of not much homework. Not blaming the teacher at all. Kid seems to have a lot of catch up to do. We are supplementing some.

I also have a fifth grader there and see something similar. Is the class where the grade is weaker a class that they don’t have daily, e.g., Latin? Mine is not doing well in Latin and I think it is the infrequency.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How uneven is the grading / challenge across subjects? My 5th grader is doing well in every other class without much homework or concern. But in one class he is doing terribly - in spite of not much homework. Not blaming the teacher at all. Kid seems to have a lot of catch up to do. We are supplementing some.

I also have a fifth grader there and see something similar. Is the class where the grade is weaker a class that they don’t have daily, e.g., Latin? Mine is not doing well in Latin and I think it is the infrequency.

Not in middle - no. But Basis isn't kidding when they say that 5th grade is really about just skills. They will basically do Latin again from the beginnning next year, so don't sweat it too much. It's ok if they do poorly on one thing or another. The skills they need to learn - getting organized, learning to self advocate, learning to go to student hours when they need to, etc. is really the point of the year. I didn't really believe this when I was in your shoes, but by the end of the year it made more sense to me. Letting them fails is ok -- and probably a really good thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How uneven is the grading / challenge across subjects? My 5th grader is doing well in every other class without much homework or concern. But in one class he is doing terribly - in spite of not much homework. Not blaming the teacher at all. Kid seems to have a lot of catch up to do. We are supplementing some.

I also have a fifth grader there and see something similar. Is the class where the grade is weaker a class that they don’t have daily, e.g., Latin? Mine is not doing well in Latin and I think it is the infrequency.

Not in middle - no. But Basis isn't kidding when they say that 5th grade is really about just skills. They will basically do Latin again from the beginnning next year, so don't sweat it too much. It's ok if they do poorly on one thing or another. The skills they need to learn - getting organized, learning to self advocate, learning to go to student hours when they need to, etc. is really the point of the year. I didn't really believe this when I was in your shoes, but by the end of the year it made more sense to me. Letting them fails is ok -- and probably a really good thing.

Thanks - this is encouraging!!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How uneven is the grading / challenge across subjects? My 5th grader is doing well in every other class without much homework or concern. But in one class he is doing terribly - in spite of not much homework. Not blaming the teacher at all. Kid seems to have a lot of catch up to do. We are supplementing some.

Will vary student to student. When my kiddo was in 5, science was hard - the class was structured with more cutting and pasting of pages into a note book, etc. She is in 7 now, brought home a grade report yesterday with science grades of 99, 99, 100. Just needed more focused teachers and to get into the groove.

Just shoot the teacher an email and ask how class is going/anything else, they should be doing and so on.

There were no grade reports issued yesterday. The last grade report was 2 weeks ago and the GP ends Friday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How uneven is the grading / challenge across subjects? My 5th grader is doing well in every other class without much homework or concern. But in one class he is doing terribly - in spite of not much homework. Not blaming the teacher at all. Kid seems to have a lot of catch up to do. We are supplementing some.

Will vary student to student. When my kiddo was in 5, science was hard - the class was structured with more cutting and pasting of pages into a note book, etc. She is in 7 now, brought home a grade report yesterday with science grades of 99, 99, 100. Just needed more focused teachers and to get into the groove.

Just shoot the teacher an email and ask how class is going/anything else, they should be doing and so on.

There were no grade reports issued yesterday. The last grade report was 2 weeks ago and the GP ends Friday.

Bothe my 5th and 7th graders brought home grade reports yesterday… they were paper copies. Check your kid’s backpack.

[Anonymous]

NP and mew BASIS parent of a 5th-grader. Like previous posters, my child is doing well in all classes but one. I agree with the above. This year is about learning how to learn and asking for help when you need it. My child now also knows what is needed to be successful in that one class.