What will you do if you don't get into BASIS/Latin?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a kid who is not sporty and all the good things I hear about EH have to do with the sports and extracurriculars. He already has his own outside extras. What EH parents won't say, and perhaps they don't know, is how watered down is the curriculum to accommodate 80% of the kids not on grade level? That is what I care about, not the "free" bus that takes them to swim meets and to golf or whatever other sport.

There are a ton of other clubs the kids have a lot of fun with not just sports. If you need your kid to be in a gifted program it’s probably not for you. My smart kid is very engaged by many of his classes. Someone else mentioned ELA which I am also pleasantly surprised by. Frankly I’m not sure the academic experience is that different from the other DCPS MS. And the teachers are incredibly accessible and supportive.

EH does have good company - there are a lot of truly awful DCPS middle schools.

[Anonymous]

it is pretty well-known that 5th grade at Basis is overall pretty great but 6th grade includes comps

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How can you be ok with Inspired Teaching and SWWFS and not BASIS?

May as well keep them at EH then.

BASIS has such high attrition rates that you can be ok with BASIS for 5th grade, but there's a good chance it's not going to turn out to be the full middle school plan. It's on my list, but that concerns me -- that a lot of families that go to BASIS initially wind up having to figure out alternatives in a couple of years later anyway.

I have a theory about this. The attrition comes from the kids who did not want to go to BASIS in the first place, but didn't get into Latin, and parents felt they should give BASIS a shot when offered a spot. BASIS is not for everyone. I know lots of families who did not put it on their list.

BASIS has the most advanced curriculum of any public school in DC and is the only school in DC that doesn’t backfill or socially promote.

So that means it is a good fit for academically advanced kids and those with the potential to be academically advanced, but not for others.

If you are only sending your kid to BASIS because he or she didn’t get into Latin and not because he or she is a good fit or BASIS, your kid will likely drop out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How can you be ok with Inspired Teaching and SWWFS and not BASIS?

May as well keep them at EH then.

BASIS has such high attrition rates that you can be ok with BASIS for 5th grade, but there's a good chance it's not going to turn out to be the full middle school plan. It's on my list, but that concerns me -- that a lot of families that go to BASIS initially wind up having to figure out alternatives in a couple of years later anyway.

I have a theory about this. The attrition comes from the kids who did not want to go to BASIS in the first place, but didn't get into Latin, and parents felt they should give BASIS a shot when offered a spot. BASIS is not for everyone. I know lots of families who did not put it on their list.

BASIS has the most advanced curriculum of any public school in DC and is the only school in DC that doesn’t backfill or socially promote.

So that means it is a good fit for academically advanced kids and those with the potential to be academically advanced, but not for others.

If you are only sending your kid to BASIS because he or she didn’t get into Latin and not because he or she is a good fit or BASIS, your kid will likely drop out.

+1.

Here are the 4+ PARCC scores for 10th grade for BASIS and Latin, after the kids have been there for a number of years.

10th grade

BASIS

ELA 90.00
Math 87.5

Latin

ELA 71.91
Math <=10.00

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How can you be ok with Inspired Teaching and SWWFS and not BASIS?

May as well keep them at EH then.

BASIS has such high attrition rates that you can be ok with BASIS for 5th grade, but there's a good chance it's not going to turn out to be the full middle school plan. It's on my list, but that concerns me -- that a lot of families that go to BASIS initially wind up having to figure out alternatives in a couple of years later anyway.

I have a theory about this. The attrition comes from the kids who did not want to go to BASIS in the first place, but didn't get into Latin, and parents felt they should give BASIS a shot when offered a spot. BASIS is not for everyone. I know lots of families who did not put it on their list.

BASIS has the most advanced curriculum of any public school in DC and is the only school in DC that doesn’t backfill or socially promote.

So that means it is a good fit for academically advanced kids and those with the potential to be academically advanced, but not for others.

If you are only sending your kid to BASIS because he or she didn’t get into Latin and not because he or she is a good fit or BASIS, your kid will likely drop out.

+1.

Here are the 4+ PARCC scores for 10th grade for BASIS and Latin, after the kids have been there for a number of years.

10th grade

BASIS

ELA 90.00
Math 87.5

Latin

ELA 71.91
Math <=10.00

That seems alarming!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How can you be ok with Inspired Teaching and SWWFS and not BASIS?

May as well keep them at EH then.

BASIS has such high attrition rates that you can be ok with BASIS for 5th grade, but there's a good chance it's not going to turn out to be the full middle school plan. It's on my list, but that concerns me -- that a lot of families that go to BASIS initially wind up having to figure out alternatives in a couple of years later anyway.

I have a theory about this. The attrition comes from the kids who did not want to go to BASIS in the first place, but didn't get into Latin, and parents felt they should give BASIS a shot when offered a spot. BASIS is not for everyone. I know lots of families who did not put it on their list.

BASIS has the most advanced curriculum of any public school in DC and is the only school in DC that doesn’t backfill or socially promote.

So that means it is a good fit for academically advanced kids and those with the potential to be academically advanced, but not for others.

If you are only sending your kid to BASIS because he or she didn’t get into Latin and not because he or she is a good fit or BASIS, your kid will likely drop out.

+1.

Here are the 4+ PARCC scores for 10th grade for BASIS and Latin, after the kids have been there for a number of years.

10th grade

BASIS

ELA 90.00
Math 87.5

Latin

ELA 71.91
Math <=10.00

That seems alarming!

High school PARCC scores for math can be misleading.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From the open house, I understood that they routinely hold kids back. If a child does not want to repeat the grade, they have to leave, so technically you cannot fault the school or call the practice illegal, as the parent is choosing to withdraw.

Most public schools do not hold kids back even if they are way behind. Both are problematic in their own different ways.

I actually struggle to see what is problematic about holding back students who are behind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From the open house, I understood that they routinely hold kids back. If a child does not want to repeat the grade, they have to leave, so technically you cannot fault the school or call the practice illegal, as the parent is choosing to withdraw.

Most public schools do not hold kids back even if they are way behind. Both are problematic in their own different ways.

I actually struggle to see what is problematic about holding back students who are behind.

I agree, but if not done early, the social stigma can push kids to simply drop out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From the open house, I understood that they routinely hold kids back. If a child does not want to repeat the grade, they have to leave, so technically you cannot fault the school or call the practice illegal, as the parent is choosing to withdraw.

Most public schools do not hold kids back even if they are way behind. Both are problematic in their own different ways.

I actually struggle to see what is problematic about holding back students who are behind.

I agree, but if not done early, the social stigma can push kids to simply drop out.

If BASIS is actually advanced, is failure to pass comps evidence that kids are not at grade level?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How can you be ok with Inspired Teaching and SWWFS and not BASIS?

May as well keep them at EH then.

BASIS has such high attrition rates that you can be ok with BASIS for 5th grade, but there's a good chance it's not going to turn out to be the full middle school plan. It's on my list, but that concerns me -- that a lot of families that go to BASIS initially wind up having to figure out alternatives in a couple of years later anyway.

I have a theory about this. The attrition comes from the kids who did not want to go to BASIS in the first place, but didn't get into Latin, and parents felt they should give BASIS a shot when offered a spot. BASIS is not for everyone. I know lots of families who did not put it on their list.

BASIS has the most advanced curriculum of any public school in DC and is the only school in DC that doesn’t backfill or socially promote.

So that means it is a good fit for academically advanced kids and those with the potential to be academically advanced, but not for others.

If you are only sending your kid to BASIS because he or she didn’t get into Latin and not because he or she is a good fit or BASIS, your kid will likely drop out.

+1.

Here are the 4+ PARCC scores for 10th grade for BASIS and Latin, after the kids have been there for a number of years.

10th grade

BASIS

ELA 90.00
Math 87.5

Latin

ELA 71.91
Math <=10.00

That seems alarming!

High school PARCC scores for math can be misleading.

HOW?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From the open house, I understood that they routinely hold kids back. If a child does not want to repeat the grade, they have to leave, so technically you cannot fault the school or call the practice illegal, as the parent is choosing to withdraw.

Most public schools do not hold kids back even if they are way behind. Both are problematic in their own different ways.

I actually struggle to see what is problematic about holding back students who are behind.

I agree, but if not done early, the social stigma can push kids to simply drop out.

If BASIS is actually advanced, is failure to pass comps evidence that kids are not at grade level?

Given it starts in 5th, there is only so much they can do with kids coming in at 2nd grade level.

[Anonymous]

They tell the students that they would need to repeat the grade fully intending for most of them to leave.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From the open house, I understood that they routinely hold kids back. If a child does not want to repeat the grade, they have to leave, so technically you cannot fault the school or call the practice illegal, as the parent is choosing to withdraw.

Most public schools do not hold kids back even if they are way behind. Both are problematic in their own different ways.

Yeah, I also heard this at the open house (maybe we were at the same one)... She said that around 20 percent of the kids don't pass their comps, and while they have a chance to retake it (or repeat), the student often leaves.

DP. I think the attrition is more nuanced than that. Yes, there are kids who don’t pass the comps and choose to leave rather than repeat a grade (although some can do summer school to avoid being held back). A lot of other students leave after 8th grade to go to an application high school or private. The high school curriculum is different than most high schools and I can see how that plus small class sizes wouldn’t appeal to everyone. But oddly, there are more than a few 5th graders who have been doing private school tours since the beginning of the school year. In other words, these kids were at Basis for all of 4 weeks or so before embarking on the private school tour circuit last fall. It led me to think that maybe some families put their kid at Basis for 5th knowing/hoping they’ll leave in 6th. It seems odd to me to move your kid to Basis for only one year, but maybe I’m an outlier in that regard.

We did that. 5th grade at our IB school was terrible, and I wasn't too impressed by the 5th grade in the surrounding schools either. I wanted to move to a MS that started in 6th, so we went to BASIS for 5th and then moved on. It was actually a great experience because BASIS taught my kid how to be organized -- he used that to hit the ground running in private school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How can you be ok with Inspired Teaching and SWWFS and not BASIS?

May as well keep them at EH then.

BASIS has such high attrition rates that you can be ok with BASIS for 5th grade, but there's a good chance it's not going to turn out to be the full middle school plan. It's on my list, but that concerns me -- that a lot of families that go to BASIS initially wind up having to figure out alternatives in a couple of years later anyway.

I have a theory about this. The attrition comes from the kids who did not want to go to BASIS in the first place, but didn't get into Latin, and parents felt they should give BASIS a shot when offered a spot. BASIS is not for everyone. I know lots of families who did not put it on their list.

+1. I listed both BASIS and Latin, but I knew that if I didn't get into BASIS that I would only spend 5th grade at Latin and then move to private or to the suburbs. Latin wouldn't be a great fit for my kid beyond 5th grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How can you be ok with Inspired Teaching and SWWFS and not BASIS?

May as well keep them at EH then.

BASIS has such high attrition rates that you can be ok with BASIS for 5th grade, but there's a good chance it's not going to turn out to be the full middle school plan. It's on my list, but that concerns me -- that a lot of families that go to BASIS initially wind up having to figure out alternatives in a couple of years later anyway.

I have a theory about this. The attrition comes from the kids who did not want to go to BASIS in the first place, but didn't get into Latin, and parents felt they should give BASIS a shot when offered a spot. BASIS is not for everyone. I know lots of families who did not put it on their list.

+1. I listed both BASIS and Latin, but I knew that if I didn't get into BASIS that I would only spend 5th grade at Latin and then move to private or to the suburbs. Latin wouldn't be a great fit for my kid beyond 5th grade.

Same but we didn't even bother listing Latin.