Anonymous wrote:I've been an Ivy interviewer in this area for quite a while. I am also a DCPS parent, so I'm lookingcarefully at potential schools. Some things about BASIS concern me.
One is acceleration for acceleration's sake. Acceleration is something you do for kids who are bored. It's important that the kids be held to the same standard as older kids in terms of mastering the material. It's not clear to me that that is happening at BASIS. Lots of 11th graders at Wilson and Walls get 5's on AP tests; I see their scores when I interview them. If BASIS is having kids take APs in the eighth grade and then is satisfied when they get 3's, they are really disadvantaging these kids at college admissions time. [b]It is much better to get a 5 as an 11th grader than to get a 3 as an eighth grader.
BASIS parent here. We just got my 8th grader's AP scores. He got a 4 and a 5. BASIS kids in general tend to do well on APs, no matter what grade they are in when they take them. BASIS DC kids are also doing really well on the AP exams - this information was provided at a talk last year by Sean Aiken and has proved to be the case for my child. Going into high school having gotten a 5 on the first AP you ever took is a real confidence booster for my child, and reassures parents like me who have been told that the AP exams "are so much harder now" than they were when we took them. I think that for kids who are prepared by their teachers to take the AP exams (and my child was prepared for the AP exams taken), getting a freebie/trial run in 8th is a good thing.
BASIS's proposal for their DC schools is also non committal as to what they will provide post-calculus. Their plan is full of qualifiers like "if there is sufficient student interest". If they think they can find someone to teach linear algebra competently on a DC charter salary, Godspeed.
My child is one of only a few in the entire school who took AP Calculus AB this year, and one of very few 8th graders in the class. My child got a 4 on the AP and we expect that there are other kids who got 5s (including at least one 8th grader) because our child is not the top student in the class. The class is small and it started out with 6th-8th graders, who are now going into 9th-11th, and the class has gotten smaller over the years as some kids have left after 8th grade. To be quite honest, we want our kid to get a 4 or 5 on the AP Calculus BC exam and get out of the game. This child is not really all that interested in math per se. Very interested, however, in placing out of Calculus for college and not pursuing math after BC. I don't know if a 4 would do that. But we are going to work hard for a 5 this time around on the BC exam.
For other kids who have a true passion for math it will be a different story. But it is possible that BASIS DC might have to wait until other kids finish BC to get a core group who wants to do linear algebra. No shame in that is there?
The second is the lack of project based science opportunities. BASIS kids are entirely absent from the DC STEM Fair. Selective colleges love kids who do original research. Where are the BASIS Intel and Siemens entries? I'm not sure how they can sell themselves as a school for STEM kids if they don't actually have the kids get in there and DO STEM.
The third is the lack of extracurriculars. If you want to be competitive for admission to a selective college, you need to be performing at a regional / state level in extracurriculars. It can be a sport, music, journalism, Eagle Scout, whatever, but you need to do it in a way that suggests commitment and mastery at a high level.
Each year we seem to have had BASIS DC kids doing official BASIS extra curriculars who perform at at least a regional level. The Certamen team is one example. Another is some French competition where two of our BASIS DC kids (one an 8th grader at the time) scored 4th and 6th in the nation this spring (the name escapes me). The debate team and the Science Bowl competitors also got to nationals. So if you want to do extra-curriculars that way through BASIS DC it is quite possible.
Like many at BASIS DC, our kids have other interests that began and will remain outside of school - music and scouting, among others. We like them to have multiple peer groups. We think long term commitments and mastery at a high level in those areas will suffice as formal extra curricular activities. We are also hoping for a few internships in specific areas of interest over the summers before 12th grade. Our older child does no BASIS DC extra curriculars.
If you think we are wrong in our assessment that this will be enough, please tell us.
I am grateful for the opinions and concerns that have been expressed here by you and others and I particularly value your opinion as a college interviewer.
In terms of Walls and Wilson, some BASIS DC kids who left for Walls the first year were not all enthusiastic about it. Some of them tried to come back to BASIS DC after a few weeks at Walls and we could not, at the time, let them back in. That is why we changed our charter. My child was accepted to Walls and did the research and decided they did not want to go there. We agreed that it was not a good fit for this child.
Wilson seems like a fantastic place for a variety of types of kids - who want "wider" high school experiences, to play high school sports, do high school drama, make sure they get to take every AP class they want, in a large school setting. And it also has an established track record of college admissions. But this child does not feel comfortable in huge schools..........
All I can say is right now our child is staying for 9th grade at BASIS DC and is comfortable with the decision, despite the fact that many peers made different decisions and went elsewhere. It is always sad to have friends split up.
I am not saying that I am not scared about my child being a part of only the third graduating class at BASIS DC. We as parents go back and forth all the time, worried about whether we are doing the right thing by allowing the child to stay or whether we are limiting his possibilities of getting into college. But right now the child wants to stay.
And the kid did well on the AP exams taken in 8th grade, including AP Calculus AB
(actually I don't know how good a 4 is, but surely there is a big difference between a 4 and a 3? - you seem to think so - can you tell me please?), and the 5 the child got reassured me as a parent and my kid is incredibly proud that all the hard work paid off and that the teacher will be proud as well.
We have another child who just started BASIS DC this year who I am sure will want to continue on in math after AP Calculus BC in 9th grade, and by the time that child reaches that point, we are fairly confident that linear algebra or something else will be available because between the older and younger kids there will be "sufficient interest" in taking such a course. But I don't think my older child has any interest in taking such a course.
Could you please, as a college interviewer, tell us if we are making a horrible mistake in terms of college admissions? What we keep saying to ourselves is that having a happy teenager is also important, but if we had to switch to Wilson I guess we would, even though our child really has thrived in this small environment.
I am just a parent trying to do the best I can for my kids at BASIS DC, both of whom are very good at math - but only the younger one really loves math for itself.........
Please no flames. Just want a response from the college interviewer. Do not want to overrule my child's decisions about where to go to school unless I have to..... Again, having a happy teenager is a valuable thing.
PS I realize that we are incredibly lucky to have gotten into Walls (but I think most BASIS DC kids did) and that we are even more lucky to be zoned for Wilson. We have additional children who may take other paths and have other interests and might hate BASIS for all we know. Each kid is different. I am only talking about my two who are there now, one of whom is starting high school at BASIS DC in a few weeks.... The new HOS sounds great to us.
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