BASIS to Private

[Anonymous]

Nobody cares. Do as you're told by DCPS and charters, go private or move.

[Anonymous]

NP who recommends that the charter middle school bound face....reality.

DC public middle schools and high schools don't have the resources, ambition or leadership to offer middle schoolers high school course work, period. The only exception seems to be STEM subjects at BASIS.

The toughest math, humanities and language content my bright kid has access to at Deal is at least 2 years behind what my my sibling's children have access to in Fairfax. We tried BASIS for two years and left (better than Deal for math and science, mostly worse for the rest). I'm told that in Fairfax, qualified 8th and 9th graders freely take AP courses and exams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP who has a couple weeks to decide if we take our BASIS spot for a kid who excels in math and Spanish or stay at Oyster-Adams with a view to going private at some point, trying to lottery into DCI (which sounds impossible for Spanish), or moving to the burbs. We haven't been happy with STEM or humanities challenge in DCPS thus far.

I just read through this thread, and a couple other recent BASIS threads. Reading between the lines, BASIS sounds militant about what students learn and don't learn. The business of demanding that kids who came up through immersion language study take beginning languages sounds a big detour from best ed practices. Why can't middle school kids with the background to study a particular AP subject offered at BASIS do so long before 11th grade, be it calculus (which, apparently, is allowed), or a humanities subject, or a language? Who would be hurt by some flexibility, particularly where like-minded parents are prepared to organize and pay for after-school instruction? I also don't get why there's no PTA at BASIS, if I got that right.

On a call with a BASIS admin to ask these questions this past week, I was told that the obstacles to middle school students who are ready for AP work from pursuing it outside math are threefold. In a nutshell, "scheduling and resource obstacles and a policy not to overwhelm students pursuing rigor in other areas." This approach doesn't sound like a 21st century solution. Before anybody jumps on me for being entitled in wanting "preferential treatment," consider the fact that the highest-performing middle schools in this country aren't prone to require their most advanced students to take beginning classes in subjects they've long since mastered.

I say this in an effort to help you avoid a huge mistake. DO NOT ENROLL AT BASIS. When you start your post describing the defined curriculum as "militant" and then conclude that what they do and how they do it doesn't match your expectations, when you are focused on Spanish and know up front your kid won't be able to jump ahead, what decision do you have to make? You are a bad fit for what they do, and they a bad fit for what you want. I would respectfully suggest that you view as militant is actually the school trying to be transparent so that people like you go in with eyes wide open. If you enroll, you will be back here daily to complain about the things you knew going in. Caveat emptor.

P.S. You are never going to be happy at DCPS or any charter. Enroll in private school now. Or move to Fairfax.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP who has a couple weeks to decide if we take our BASIS spot for a kid who excels in math and Spanish or stay at Oyster-Adams with a view to going private at some point, trying to lottery into DCI (which sounds impossible for Spanish), or moving to the burbs. We haven't been happy with STEM or humanities challenge in DCPS thus far.

I just read through this thread, and a couple other recent BASIS threads. Reading between the lines, BASIS sounds militant about what students learn and don't learn. The business of demanding that kids who came up through immersion language study take beginning languages sounds a big detour from best ed practices. Why can't middle school kids with the background to study a particular AP subject offered at BASIS do so long before 11th grade, be it calculus (which, apparently, is allowed), or a humanities subject, or a language? Who would be hurt by some flexibility, particularly where like-minded parents are prepared to organize and pay for after-school instruction? I also don't get why there's no PTA at BASIS, if I got that right.

On a call with a BASIS admin to ask these questions this past week, I was told that the obstacles to middle school students who are ready for AP work from pursuing it outside math are threefold. In a nutshell, "scheduling and resource obstacles and a policy not to overwhelm students pursuing rigor in other areas." This approach doesn't sound like a 21st century solution. Before anybody jumps on me for being entitled in wanting "preferential treatment," consider the fact that the highest-performing middle schools in this country aren't prone to require their most advanced students to take beginning classes in subjects they've long since mastered.

I used to think that parents who enrolled at BASIS expecting the school to bend to their whims were the most entitled parents on earth. You, madam, have shown me the error of my ways. You aren't even enrolled and still have 3 paragraphs of suggestions and critiques about the way the school is run. You seem genuinely surprised that the HOS didn't change the school based on your suggestions. Well played!!!!

[Anonymous]

I think its more simple than that. Basis cares immensely about its test scores. Time, energy, and resources spent helping a small minority of middle school students continue with advanced Spanish does not really serve that purpose.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP who has a couple weeks to decide if we take our BASIS spot for a kid who excels in math and Spanish or stay at Oyster-Adams with a view to going private at some point, trying to lottery into DCI (which sounds impossible for Spanish), or moving to the burbs. We haven't been happy with STEM or humanities challenge in DCPS thus far.

I just read through this thread, and a couple other recent BASIS threads. Reading between the lines, BASIS sounds militant about what students learn and don't learn. The business of demanding that kids who came up through immersion language study take beginning languages sounds a big detour from best ed practices. Why can't middle school kids with the background to study a particular AP subject offered at BASIS do so long before 11th grade, be it calculus (which, apparently, is allowed), or a humanities subject, or a language? Who would be hurt by some flexibility, particularly where like-minded parents are prepared to organize and pay for after-school instruction? I also don't get why there's no PTA at BASIS, if I got that right.

On a call with a BASIS admin to ask these questions this past week, I was told that the obstacles to middle school students who are ready for AP work from pursuing it outside math are threefold. In a nutshell, "scheduling and resource obstacles and a policy not to overwhelm students pursuing rigor in other areas." This approach doesn't sound like a 21st century solution. Before anybody jumps on me for being entitled in wanting "preferential treatment," consider the fact that the highest-performing middle schools in this country aren't prone to require their most advanced students to take beginning classes in subjects they've long since mastered.

I used to think that parents who enrolled at BASIS expecting the school to bend to their whims were the most entitled parents on earth. You, madam, have shown me the error of my ways. You aren't even enrolled and still have 3 paragraphs of suggestions and critiques about the way the school is run. You seem genuinely surprised that the HOS didn't change the school based on your suggestions. Well played!!!!

Your problem, sir, is that the parent and taxpayer above is right.

We'd have better public schools if "best ed practices" were the order of the day, vs. having charter franchises force students who've already mastered content to sit in beginning classes, yea.

More actual innovation wouldn't be misplaced in one of the country's lowest performing urban school systems. I'm tired of charters paying lip service to innovation and experimentation when the game they're playing is to promote the opposite. Too many talented, accomplished kids who get spots at BASIS don't enroll because their parents read the writing on the wall. We know top 5th grade math students EotP whose parents had the same (logical) reaction as PP above.

These kids move or go private. Who wins, you? How?

-Signed BASIS parent of 2 years

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think its more simple than that. Basis cares immensely about its test scores. Time, energy, and resources spent helping a small minority of middle school students continue with advanced Spanish does not really serve that purpose.

Where were the "time, energy and resources" spent? The parents doing the organizing and were willing to cover all costs. I've followed this story as a BASIS parent. You don't have the full picture.The truth is that it's common for BASIS juniors to score 3s and 4s on AP Spanish although it's an easy test.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP who has a couple weeks to decide if we take our BASIS spot for a kid who excels in math and Spanish or stay at Oyster-Adams with a view to going private at some point, trying to lottery into DCI (which sounds impossible for Spanish), or moving to the burbs. We haven't been happy with STEM or humanities challenge in DCPS thus far.

I just read through this thread, and a couple other recent BASIS threads. Reading between the lines, BASIS sounds militant about what students learn and don't learn. The business of demanding that kids who came up through immersion language study take beginning languages sounds a big detour from best ed practices. Why can't middle school kids with the background to study a particular AP subject offered at BASIS do so long before 11th grade, be it calculus (which, apparently, is allowed), or a humanities subject, or a language? Who would be hurt by some flexibility, particularly where like-minded parents are prepared to organize and pay for after-school instruction? I also don't get why there's no PTA at BASIS, if I got that right.

On a call with a BASIS admin to ask these questions this past week, I was told that the obstacles to middle school students who are ready for AP work from pursuing it outside math are threefold. In a nutshell, "scheduling and resource obstacles and a policy not to overwhelm students pursuing rigor in other areas." This approach doesn't sound like a 21st century solution. Before anybody jumps on me for being entitled in wanting "preferential treatment," consider the fact that the highest-performing middle schools in this country aren't prone to require their most advanced students to take beginning classes in subjects they've long since mastered.

I say this in an effort to help you avoid a huge mistake. DO NOT ENROLL AT BASIS. When you start your post describing the defined curriculum as "militant" and then conclude that what they do and how they do it doesn't match your expectations, when you are focused on Spanish and know up front your kid won't be able to jump ahead, what decision do you have to make? You are a bad fit for what they do, and they a bad fit for what you want. I would respectfully suggest that you view as militant is actually the school trying to be transparent so that people like you go in with eyes wide open. If you enroll, you will be back here daily to complain about the things you knew going in. Caveat emptor.

P.S. You are never going to be happy at DCPS or any charter. Enroll in private school now. Or move to Fairfax.

I'm not the PP you're responding to, but I suggest the opposite. Enroll in BASIS, politely shake admins up, organize like-minded parents, lobby your DC council member for better treatment of the kids. Taxpayers and students deserve better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think its more simple than that. Basis cares immensely about its test scores. Time, energy, and resources spent helping a small minority of middle school students continue with advanced Spanish does not really serve that purpose.

Where were the "time, energy and resources" spent? The parents doing the organizing and were willing to cover all costs. I've followed this story as a BASIS parent. You don't have the full picture.The truth is that it's common for BASIS juniors to score 3s and 4s on AP Spanish although it's an easy test.

+1.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP who has a couple weeks to decide if we take our BASIS spot for a kid who excels in math and Spanish or stay at Oyster-Adams with a view to going private at some point, trying to lottery into DCI (which sounds impossible for Spanish), or moving to the burbs. We haven't been happy with STEM or humanities challenge in DCPS thus far.

I just read through this thread, and a couple other recent BASIS threads. Reading between the lines, BASIS sounds militant about what students learn and don't learn. The business of demanding that kids who came up through immersion language study take beginning languages sounds a big detour from best ed practices. Why can't middle school kids with the background to study a particular AP subject offered at BASIS do so long before 11th grade, be it calculus (which, apparently, is allowed), or a humanities subject, or a language? Who would be hurt by some flexibility, particularly where like-minded parents are prepared to organize and pay for after-school instruction? I also don't get why there's no PTA at BASIS, if I got that right.

On a call with a BASIS admin to ask these questions this past week, I was told that the obstacles to middle school students who are ready for AP work from pursuing it outside math are threefold. In a nutshell, "scheduling and resource obstacles and a policy not to overwhelm students pursuing rigor in other areas." This approach doesn't sound like a 21st century solution. Before anybody jumps on me for being entitled in wanting "preferential treatment," consider the fact that the highest-performing middle schools in this country aren't prone to require their most advanced students to take beginning classes in subjects they've long since mastered.

I used to think that parents who enrolled at BASIS expecting the school to bend to their whims were the most entitled parents on earth. You, madam, have shown me the error of my ways. You aren't even enrolled and still have 3 paragraphs of suggestions and critiques about the way the school is run. You seem genuinely surprised that the HOS didn't change the school based on your suggestions. Well played!!!!

Your problem, sir, is that the parent and taxpayer above is right.

We'd have better public schools if "best ed practices" were the order of the day, vs. having charter franchises force students who've already mastered content to sit in beginning classes, yea.

More actual innovation wouldn't be misplaced in one of the country's lowest performing urban school systems. I'm tired of charters paying lip service to innovation and experimentation when the game they're playing is to promote the opposite. Too many talented, accomplished kids who get spots at BASIS don't enroll because their parents read the writing on the wall. We know top 5th grade math students EotP whose parents had the same (logical) reaction as PP above.

These kids move or go private. Who wins, you? How?

-Signed BASIS parent of 2 years

The point you fail to grasp is that no one is "forced" to attend BASIS or be subjected to their curriculum choices. We have choice in DC. I happen to agree that we'd be better off if DCPS provided better options, but they don't. So your choice is a DCPS option, BASIS, private or move out of DC. You chose, but what you really advocate for is BASIS to be what you want and wish DCPS provided. It's ok to want things. It is something else entirely to play the martyr card and act like you are being forced to stay at BASIS. I have more patience and respect for the people that left and come here to complain years later. You, sir, are hypocrite. You stay at BASIS and enjoy the STEM focused curriculum and rigor that is by all accounts innovative, while you loudly complain.

The "winners" are the kids who choose to stay at BASIS and thrive, the kids who choose to move to privates and thrive, the kids who choose to go to Walls and thrive, and the kids who choose to move to Fairfax and thrive. You seem not to understand "choice".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP who has a couple weeks to decide if we take our BASIS spot for a kid who excels in math and Spanish or stay at Oyster-Adams with a view to going private at some point, trying to lottery into DCI (which sounds impossible for Spanish), or moving to the burbs. We haven't been happy with STEM or humanities challenge in DCPS thus far.

I just read through this thread, and a couple other recent BASIS threads. Reading between the lines, BASIS sounds militant about what students learn and don't learn. The business of demanding that kids who came up through immersion language study take beginning languages sounds a big detour from best ed practices. Why can't middle school kids with the background to study a particular AP subject offered at BASIS do so long before 11th grade, be it calculus (which, apparently, is allowed), or a humanities subject, or a language? Who would be hurt by some flexibility, particularly where like-minded parents are prepared to organize and pay for after-school instruction? I also don't get why there's no PTA at BASIS, if I got that right.

On a call with a BASIS admin to ask these questions this past week, I was told that the obstacles to middle school students who are ready for AP work from pursuing it outside math are threefold. In a nutshell, "scheduling and resource obstacles and a policy not to overwhelm students pursuing rigor in other areas." This approach doesn't sound like a 21st century solution. Before anybody jumps on me for being entitled in wanting "preferential treatment," consider the fact that the highest-performing middle schools in this country aren't prone to require their most advanced students to take beginning classes in subjects they've long since mastered.

I say this in an effort to help you avoid a huge mistake. DO NOT ENROLL AT BASIS. When you start your post describing the defined curriculum as "militant" and then conclude that what they do and how they do it doesn't match your expectations, when you are focused on Spanish and know up front your kid won't be able to jump ahead, what decision do you have to make? You are a bad fit for what they do, and they a bad fit for what you want. I would respectfully suggest that you view as militant is actually the school trying to be transparent so that people like you go in with eyes wide open. If you enroll, you will be back here daily to complain about the things you knew going in. Caveat emptor.

P.S. You are never going to be happy at DCPS or any charter. Enroll in private school now. Or move to Fairfax.

I'm not the PP you're responding to, but I suggest the opposite. Enroll in BASIS, politely shake admins up, organize like-minded parents, lobby your DC council member for better treatment of the kids. Taxpayers and students deserve better.

Tell me you haven't a clue how the charter system in DC works without telling me. That little problem aside, I would love to be a fly on the wall as Council staff discusses amongst themselves the urgent need to intervene at the school with the best test scores in the city instead of, say, Eastern or any one of the DCPS schools with single digit on grade level PARCC scores.

[Anonymous]

You guys don't sound like BASIS parents. With kids in the high school I know that every family doesn't toe the franchise line on every matter for 8 yrs.

There are resourceful families who've been advised by school counselors not to have grads take gap years who plan and take them anyway. There are students who take AP classes not offered at BASIS over summers. There are a few students signing up for Nov Cambridge International A-Levels at the British School of DC, mostly for languages after a summer of immersion study. There are middle school parent-led study groups set up for immersion language maintenance meeting off campus. We know a couple seniors who study languages past the AP level in the evenings in US Dept of Ag classes alongside adults.

There are ways and ways to adapt a rigid curriculum and management structure to meet your family's needs and interests w/out running off to a private or Fairfax. You guys don't sound like you know about how BASIS was forced to change its ways in weeding out SpEd students a decade back. There were many complaints to city council members and a number of lawsuits. There was also a time when BASIS wouldn't permit a student govt in the HS. There is a student govt now.

Things can change, not quickly, easily or dramatically but productively nonetheless.

[Anonymous]

I agree. We’ve topped up the BASIS experience in all sorts of ways for years, much cheaper than paying for Sidwell.