BASIS to Banneker

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because BASIS is offers far more serious HS academics than any other DC public school other than the fast track at J-R and Walls for humanities subjects. I don't care for their AP cram school approach and didn't take the 5th grade spot we got, but there's no denying that their math and science middle and high school prep is head and shoulders above that offered at any other DC public school. There's also no denying that some of the black families EotP who would have gone with Banneker or a DCPS middle school like Stuart Hobson in the past now head to BASIS. Banneker doesn't seem to be getting any students into MIT, Cal Tech, Princeton engineering. BASIS does.
Banneker's mediocre STEM prep has lost its sheen with BASIS in town.

Umm..Banneker is a Humanities school just like Walls so I don't know where STEM prep comes in. I majored in math and Basis is not it. It's just kill and drill with no depth. I was very disappointed when we toured and didn't even bother. Sure it may be better than other DCPS MS in Math but nothing to write home about. Just go with a math tutor for the win.The majority of the kids that have gone to the good eng schools have followed that model.

Oh, you went to an open house and are now an expert on the math program at BASIS?

We actually have kids taking math at BASIS. What they are doing is far more advanced than what we were doing at the same age. No question in our mind that it offers the most advanced math curriculum among DC publics.

I’d argue many of those kids have a surface understanding of the math but not a deep conceptual understanding. I’ve taught many kids who left Basis after middle school. Some are great at math, some are okay and most were accelerated too quickly and the gaps really showed. Flame away but I have a relatively large sample size for my observations.

It seems very likely that both of these are true -- that a lot of kids who leave after middle school were accelerated too fast and that some kids, particularly kids who it works for and who stay, are legitimately getting taught much more advanced math than they would get elsewhere. It's too bad that there isn't a way for kids who would benefit from that acceleration to be guaranteed a way of accessing it in DC.

OK, where do you teach, what grade, and how many ex-Basis kids have you had?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because BASIS is offers far more serious HS academics than any other DC public school other than the fast track at J-R and Walls for humanities subjects. I don't care for their AP cram school approach and didn't take the 5th grade spot we got, but there's no denying that their math and science middle and high school prep is head and shoulders above that offered at any other DC public school. There's also no denying that some of the black families EotP who would have gone with Banneker or a DCPS middle school like Stuart Hobson in the past now head to BASIS. Banneker doesn't seem to be getting any students into MIT, Cal Tech, Princeton engineering. BASIS does.
Banneker's mediocre STEM prep has lost its sheen with BASIS in town.

Umm..Banneker is a Humanities school just like Walls so I don't know where STEM prep comes in. I majored in math and Basis is not it. It's just kill and drill with no depth. I was very disappointed when we toured and didn't even bother. Sure it may be better than other DCPS MS in Math but nothing to write home about. Just go with a math tutor for the win.The majority of the kids that have gone to the good eng schools have followed that model.

Oh, you went to an open house and are now an expert on the math program at BASIS?

We actually have kids taking math at BASIS. What they are doing is far more advanced than what we were doing at the same age. No question in our mind that it offers the most advanced math curriculum among DC publics.

I’d argue many of those kids have a surface understanding of the math but not a deep conceptual understanding. I’ve taught many kids who left Basis after middle school. Some are great at math, some are okay and most were accelerated too quickly and the gaps really showed. Flame away but I have a relatively large sample size for my observations.

It seems very likely that both of these are true -- that a lot of kids who leave after middle school were accelerated too fast and that some kids, particularly kids who it works for and who stay, are legitimately getting taught much more advanced math than they would get elsewhere. It's too bad that there isn't a way for kids who would benefit from that acceleration to be guaranteed a way of accessing it in DC.

Well, the kids that drop out of BASIS DC are probably not the best sample….lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because BASIS is offers far more serious HS academics than any other DC public school other than the fast track at J-R and Walls for humanities subjects. I don't care for their AP cram school approach and didn't take the 5th grade spot we got, but there's no denying that their math and science middle and high school prep is head and shoulders above that offered at any other DC public school. There's also no denying that some of the black families EotP who would have gone with Banneker or a DCPS middle school like Stuart Hobson in the past now head to BASIS. Banneker doesn't seem to be getting any students into MIT, Cal Tech, Princeton engineering. BASIS does.
Banneker's mediocre STEM prep has lost its sheen with BASIS in town.

Umm..Banneker is a Humanities school just like Walls so I don't know where STEM prep comes in. I majored in math and Basis is not it. It's just kill and drill with no depth. I was very disappointed when we toured and didn't even bother. Sure it may be better than other DCPS MS in Math but nothing to write home about. Just go with a math tutor for the win.The majority of the kids that have gone to the good eng schools have followed that model.

Oh, you went to an open house and are now an expert on the math program at BASIS?

We actually have kids taking math at BASIS. What they are doing is far more advanced than what we were doing at the same age. No question in our mind that it offers the most advanced math curriculum among DC publics.

I’d argue many of those kids have a surface understanding of the math but not a deep conceptual understanding. I’ve taught many kids who left Basis after middle school. Some are great at math, some are okay and most were accelerated too quickly and the gaps really showed. Flame away but I have a relatively large sample size for my observations.

It seems very likely that both of these are true -- that a lot of kids who leave after middle school were accelerated too fast and that some kids, particularly kids who it works for and who stay, are legitimately getting taught much more advanced math than they would get elsewhere. It's too bad that there isn't a way for kids who would benefit from that acceleration to be guaranteed a way of accessing it in DC.

OK, where do you teach, what grade, and how many ex-Basis kids have you had?

This is all public. BASIS's slower math track starts kids on high school math in 7th grade. Last year, there were 49 sixth graders, or about 40% of the class, who scored below-proficient in sixth grade math. Those who stuck around got accelerated multiple years ahead of what they were ready for because that's BASIS's model. Many of those kids will wind up leaving. The charter school model doesn't allow schools to practice selective admissions or even tell parents "your kid will not succeed here", but it does allow them to have a curriculum that is developmentally inappropriate for most kids in DC and a good chunk of their students. It's very weird.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because BASIS is offers far more serious HS academics than any other DC public school other than the fast track at J-R and Walls for humanities subjects. I don't care for their AP cram school approach and didn't take the 5th grade spot we got, but there's no denying that their math and science middle and high school prep is head and shoulders above that offered at any other DC public school. There's also no denying that some of the black families EotP who would have gone with Banneker or a DCPS middle school like Stuart Hobson in the past now head to BASIS. Banneker doesn't seem to be getting any students into MIT, Cal Tech, Princeton engineering. BASIS does.
Banneker's mediocre STEM prep has lost its sheen with BASIS in town.

So go to BASIS if you can. Case closed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because BASIS is offers far more serious HS academics than any other DC public school other than the fast track at J-R and Walls for humanities subjects. I don't care for their AP cram school approach and didn't take the 5th grade spot we got, but there's no denying that their math and science middle and high school prep is head and shoulders above that offered at any other DC public school. There's also no denying that some of the black families EotP who would have gone with Banneker or a DCPS middle school like Stuart Hobson in the past now head to BASIS. Banneker doesn't seem to be getting any students into MIT, Cal Tech, Princeton engineering. BASIS does.
Banneker's mediocre STEM prep has lost its sheen with BASIS in town.

Umm..Banneker is a Humanities school just like Walls so I don't know where STEM prep comes in. I majored in math and Basis is not it. It's just kill and drill with no depth. I was very disappointed when we toured and didn't even bother. Sure it may be better than other DCPS MS in Math but nothing to write home about. Just go with a math tutor for the win.The majority of the kids that have gone to the good eng schools have followed that model.

Oh, you went to an open house and are now an expert on the math program at BASIS?

We actually have kids taking math at BASIS. What they are doing is far more advanced than what we were doing at the same age. No question in our mind that it offers the most advanced math curriculum among DC publics.

I’d argue many of those kids have a surface understanding of the math but not a deep conceptual understanding. I’ve taught many kids who left Basis after middle school. Some are great at math, some are okay and most were accelerated too quickly and the gaps really showed. Flame away but I have a relatively large sample size for my observations.

It seems very likely that both of these are true -- that a lot of kids who leave after middle school were accelerated too fast and that some kids, particularly kids who it works for and who stay, are legitimately getting taught much more advanced math than they would get elsewhere. It's too bad that there isn't a way for kids who would benefit from that acceleration to be guaranteed a way of accessing it in DC.

Well, the kids that drop out of BASIS DC are probably not the best sample….lol

NP but drop out is a weird way to phrase it. They leave after middle school. Lots of kids do that- I wouldn’t say a Deal kid who goes to Walls instead of JR ‘dropped out’ of Deal. And many leave for reasons that have nothing to do with academics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because BASIS is offers far more serious HS academics than any other DC public school other than the fast track at J-R and Walls for humanities subjects. I don't care for their AP cram school approach and didn't take the 5th grade spot we got, but there's no denying that their math and science middle and high school prep is head and shoulders above that offered at any other DC public school. There's also no denying that some of the black families EotP who would have gone with Banneker or a DCPS middle school like Stuart Hobson in the past now head to BASIS. Banneker doesn't seem to be getting any students into MIT, Cal Tech, Princeton engineering. BASIS does.
Banneker's mediocre STEM prep has lost its sheen with BASIS in town.

Umm..Banneker is a Humanities school just like Walls so I don't know where STEM prep comes in. I majored in math and Basis is not it. It's just kill and drill with no depth. I was very disappointed when we toured and didn't even bother. Sure it may be better than other DCPS MS in Math but nothing to write home about. Just go with a math tutor for the win.The majority of the kids that have gone to the good eng schools have followed that model.

Oh, you went to an open house and are now an expert on the math program at BASIS?

We actually have kids taking math at BASIS. What they are doing is far more advanced than what we were doing at the same age. No question in our mind that it offers the most advanced math curriculum among DC publics.

I’d argue many of those kids have a surface understanding of the math but not a deep conceptual understanding. I’ve taught many kids who left Basis after middle school. Some are great at math, some are okay and most were accelerated too quickly and the gaps really showed. Flame away but I have a relatively large sample size for my observations.

It seems very likely that both of these are true -- that a lot of kids who leave after middle school were accelerated too fast and that some kids, particularly kids who it works for and who stay, are legitimately getting taught much more advanced math than they would get elsewhere. It's too bad that there isn't a way for kids who would benefit from that acceleration to be guaranteed a way of accessing it in DC.

OK, where do you teach, what grade, and how many ex-Basis kids have you had?

This is all public. BASIS's slower math track starts kids on high school math in 7th grade. Last year, there were 49 sixth graders, or about 40% of the class, who scored below-proficient in sixth grade math. Those who stuck around got accelerated multiple years ahead of what they were ready for because that's BASIS's model. Many of those kids will wind up leaving. The charter school model doesn't allow schools to practice selective admissions or even tell parents "your kid will not succeed here", but it does allow them to have a curriculum that is developmentally inappropriate for most kids in DC and a good chunk of their students. It's very weird.

Not really.

Basis doesn’t socially promote or backfill, and teaches at a more advanced level than other public schools in DC. No surprise that kids leave.

And since Basis is 100% lottery there is also no surprise that not every kid in 5th and 6th grade is a math star. However, if you look at high school PARCC scores and average math SAT scores, after kids have been at Basis for a while, Basis is top in DC.

If you don’t think your kid can handle a rigorous curriculum, you don’t send them to Basis.

Also, they do math tracking so advanced kids can move ahead starting in 6th grade and slower kids can do less advanced work starting in 8th grade. So, contrary to your suggestion, not everyone is in lockstep.

Different but hardly “weird.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because BASIS is offers far more serious HS academics than any other DC public school other than the fast track at J-R and Walls for humanities subjects. I don't care for their AP cram school approach and didn't take the 5th grade spot we got, but there's no denying that their math and science middle and high school prep is head and shoulders above that offered at any other DC public school. There's also no denying that some of the black families EotP who would have gone with Banneker or a DCPS middle school like Stuart Hobson in the past now head to BASIS. Banneker doesn't seem to be getting any students into MIT, Cal Tech, Princeton engineering. BASIS does.
Banneker's mediocre STEM prep has lost its sheen with BASIS in town.

Umm..Banneker is a Humanities school just like Walls so I don't know where STEM prep comes in. I majored in math and Basis is not it. It's just kill and drill with no depth. I was very disappointed when we toured and didn't even bother. Sure it may be better than other DCPS MS in Math but nothing to write home about. Just go with a math tutor for the win.The majority of the kids that have gone to the good eng schools have followed that model.

Oh, you went to an open house and are now an expert on the math program at BASIS?

We actually have kids taking math at BASIS. What they are doing is far more advanced than what we were doing at the same age. No question in our mind that it offers the most advanced math curriculum among DC publics.

I’d argue many of those kids have a surface understanding of the math but not a deep conceptual understanding. I’ve taught many kids who left Basis after middle school. Some are great at math, some are okay and most were accelerated too quickly and the gaps really showed. Flame away but I have a relatively large sample size for my observations.

It seems very likely that both of these are true -- that a lot of kids who leave after middle school were accelerated too fast and that some kids, particularly kids who it works for and who stay, are legitimately getting taught much more advanced math than they would get elsewhere. It's too bad that there isn't a way for kids who would benefit from that acceleration to be guaranteed a way of accessing it in DC.

Well, the kids that drop out of BASIS DC are probably not the best sample….lol

NP but drop out is a weird way to phrase it. They leave after middle school. Lots of kids do that- I wouldn’t say a Deal kid who goes to Walls instead of JR ‘dropped out’ of Deal. And many leave for reasons that have nothing to do with academics.

Still a poor sample and, if you are a math teacher at some random school in DC, a small one as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because BASIS is offers far more serious HS academics than any other DC public school other than the fast track at J-R and Walls for humanities subjects. I don't care for their AP cram school approach and didn't take the 5th grade spot we got, but there's no denying that their math and science middle and high school prep is head and shoulders above that offered at any other DC public school. There's also no denying that some of the black families EotP who would have gone with Banneker or a DCPS middle school like Stuart Hobson in the past now head to BASIS. Banneker doesn't seem to be getting any students into MIT, Cal Tech, Princeton engineering. BASIS does.
Banneker's mediocre STEM prep has lost its sheen with BASIS in town.

Umm..Banneker is a Humanities school just like Walls so I don't know where STEM prep comes in. I majored in math and Basis is not it. It's just kill and drill with no depth. I was very disappointed when we toured and didn't even bother. Sure it may be better than other DCPS MS in Math but nothing to write home about. Just go with a math tutor for the win.The majority of the kids that have gone to the good eng schools have followed that model.

Oh, you went to an open house and are now an expert on the math program at BASIS?

We actually have kids taking math at BASIS. What they are doing is far more advanced than what we were doing at the same age. No question in our mind that it offers the most advanced math curriculum among DC publics.

I’d argue many of those kids have a surface understanding of the math but not a deep conceptual understanding. I’ve taught many kids who left Basis after middle school. Some are great at math, some are okay and most were accelerated too quickly and the gaps really showed. Flame away but I have a relatively large sample size for my observations.

It seems very likely that both of these are true -- that a lot of kids who leave after middle school were accelerated too fast and that some kids, particularly kids who it works for and who stay, are legitimately getting taught much more advanced math than they would get elsewhere. It's too bad that there isn't a way for kids who would benefit from that acceleration to be guaranteed a way of accessing it in DC.

OK, where do you teach, what grade, and how many ex-Basis kids have you had?

This is all public. BASIS's slower math track starts kids on high school math in 7th grade. Last year, there were 49 sixth graders, or about 40% of the class, who scored below-proficient in sixth grade math. Those who stuck around got accelerated multiple years ahead of what they were ready for because that's BASIS's model. Many of those kids will wind up leaving. The charter school model doesn't allow schools to practice selective admissions or even tell parents "your kid will not succeed here", but it does allow them to have a curriculum that is developmentally inappropriate for most kids in DC and a good chunk of their students. It's very weird.

Not really.

Basis doesn’t socially promote or backfill, and teaches at a more advanced level than other public schools in DC. No surprise that kids leave.

And since Basis is 100% lottery there is also no surprise that not every kid in 5th and 6th grade is a math star. However, if you look at high school PARCC scores and average math SAT scores, after kids have been at Basis for a while, Basis is top in DC.

If you don’t think your kid can handle a rigorous curriculum, you don’t send them to Basis.

Also, they do math tracking so advanced kids can move ahead starting in 6th grade and slower kids can do less advanced work starting in 8th grade. So, contrary to your suggestion, not everyone is in lockstep.

Different but hardly “weird.”

Where this started was you were arguing that BASIS wasn't accelerating kids in math before they were ready. That's what this was about. And the "less advanced" work in 8th grade is the second year of high school math. You can think it's just fine that they do this, but of course they are pushing kids faster in math than many of them are ready for. The excellent test scores are partly a function of the entirely-predictable attrition of kids who weren't ready for the coursework.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because BASIS is offers far more serious HS academics than any other DC public school other than the fast track at J-R and Walls for humanities subjects. I don't care for their AP cram school approach and didn't take the 5th grade spot we got, but there's no denying that their math and science middle and high school prep is head and shoulders above that offered at any other DC public school. There's also no denying that some of the black families EotP who would have gone with Banneker or a DCPS middle school like Stuart Hobson in the past now head to BASIS. Banneker doesn't seem to be getting any students into MIT, Cal Tech, Princeton engineering. BASIS does.
Banneker's mediocre STEM prep has lost its sheen with BASIS in town.

Umm..Banneker is a Humanities school just like Walls so I don't know where STEM prep comes in. I majored in math and Basis is not it. It's just kill and drill with no depth. I was very disappointed when we toured and didn't even bother. Sure it may be better than other DCPS MS in Math but nothing to write home about. Just go with a math tutor for the win.The majority of the kids that have gone to the good eng schools have followed that model.

Oh, you went to an open house and are now an expert on the math program at BASIS?

We actually have kids taking math at BASIS. What they are doing is far more advanced than what we were doing at the same age. No question in our mind that it offers the most advanced math curriculum among DC publics.

I’d argue many of those kids have a surface understanding of the math but not a deep conceptual understanding. I’ve taught many kids who left Basis after middle school. Some are great at math, some are okay and most were accelerated too quickly and the gaps really showed. Flame away but I have a relatively large sample size for my observations.

It seems very likely that both of these are true -- that a lot of kids who leave after middle school were accelerated too fast and that some kids, particularly kids who it works for and who stay, are legitimately getting taught much more advanced math than they would get elsewhere. It's too bad that there isn't a way for kids who would benefit from that acceleration to be guaranteed a way of accessing it in DC.

OK, where do you teach, what grade, and how many ex-Basis kids have you had?

This is all public. BASIS's slower math track starts kids on high school math in 7th grade. Last year, there were 49 sixth graders, or about 40% of the class, who scored below-proficient in sixth grade math. Those who stuck around got accelerated multiple years ahead of what they were ready for because that's BASIS's model. Many of those kids will wind up leaving. The charter school model doesn't allow schools to practice selective admissions or even tell parents "your kid will not succeed here", but it does allow them to have a curriculum that is developmentally inappropriate for most kids in DC and a good chunk of their students. It's very weird.

Not really.

Basis doesn’t socially promote or backfill, and teaches at a more advanced level than other public schools in DC. No surprise that kids leave.

And since Basis is 100% lottery there is also no surprise that not every kid in 5th and 6th grade is a math star. However, if you look at high school PARCC scores and average math SAT scores, after kids have been at Basis for a while, Basis is top in DC.

If you don’t think your kid can handle a rigorous curriculum, you don’t send them to Basis.

Also, they do math tracking so advanced kids can move ahead starting in 6th grade and slower kids can do less advanced work starting in 8th grade. So, contrary to your suggestion, not everyone is in lockstep.

Different but hardly “weird.”

Knock off the BASIS exceptionalism already. It's seriously hackneyed at this point. What's "weird" is how you cling to your myopic take on the push factors motivating at least half a given 5th grade BASIS cohort to bail before HS. You know as well as I do that plenty of 8th graders leave BASIS in search of a happier and better-rounded high education in a school with better facilities and ECs and less teacher turnover. Simply not the case that most of them leave because they couldn't handle the rigorous curriculum. A small number of the BASIS 8th graders head to Banneker, where, arguably, advanced humanities instruction is stronger than at BASIS. The truth is that the humanities teaching team at Banneker handling the most advanced classes is far more stable, experienced and autonomous than the one at BASIS in any given school year. We looked seriously into Banneker when we were fed up with the BASIS middle school, although our kid was a straight-A student. We went with a parochial high school on a music scholarship instead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because BASIS is offers far more serious HS academics than any other DC public school other than the fast track at J-R and Walls for humanities subjects. I don't care for their AP cram school approach and didn't take the 5th grade spot we got, but there's no denying that their math and science middle and high school prep is head and shoulders above that offered at any other DC public school. There's also no denying that some of the black families EotP who would have gone with Banneker or a DCPS middle school like Stuart Hobson in the past now head to BASIS. Banneker doesn't seem to be getting any students into MIT, Cal Tech, Princeton engineering. BASIS does.
Banneker's mediocre STEM prep has lost its sheen with BASIS in town.

Umm..Banneker is a Humanities school just like Walls so I don't know where STEM prep comes in. I majored in math and Basis is not it. It's just kill and drill with no depth. I was very disappointed when we toured and didn't even bother. Sure it may be better than other DCPS MS in Math but nothing to write home about. Just go with a math tutor for the win.The majority of the kids that have gone to the good eng schools have followed that model.

Oh, you went to an open house and are now an expert on the math program at BASIS?

We actually have kids taking math at BASIS. What they are doing is far more advanced than what we were doing at the same age. No question in our mind that it offers the most advanced math curriculum among DC publics.

I’d argue many of those kids have a surface understanding of the math but not a deep conceptual understanding. I’ve taught many kids who left Basis after middle school. Some are great at math, some are okay and most were accelerated too quickly and the gaps really showed. Flame away but I have a relatively large sample size for my observations.

It seems very likely that both of these are true -- that a lot of kids who leave after middle school were accelerated too fast and that some kids, particularly kids who it works for and who stay, are legitimately getting taught much more advanced math than they would get elsewhere. It's too bad that there isn't a way for kids who would benefit from that acceleration to be guaranteed a way of accessing it in DC.

Well, the kids that drop out of BASIS DC are probably not the best sample….lol

NP but drop out is a weird way to phrase it. They leave after middle school. Lots of kids do that- I wouldn’t say a Deal kid who goes to Walls instead of JR ‘dropped out’ of Deal. And many leave for reasons that have nothing to do with academics.

Still a poor sample and, if you are a math teacher at some random school in DC, a small one as well.

I’m curious what you would consider an acceptable or strong sample size.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because BASIS is offers far more serious HS academics than any other DC public school other than the fast track at J-R and Walls for humanities subjects. I don't care for their AP cram school approach and didn't take the 5th grade spot we got, but there's no denying that their math and science middle and high school prep is head and shoulders above that offered at any other DC public school. There's also no denying that some of the black families EotP who would have gone with Banneker or a DCPS middle school like Stuart Hobson in the past now head to BASIS. Banneker doesn't seem to be getting any students into MIT, Cal Tech, Princeton engineering. BASIS does.
Banneker's mediocre STEM prep has lost its sheen with BASIS in town.

Umm..Banneker is a Humanities school just like Walls so I don't know where STEM prep comes in. I majored in math and Basis is not it. It's just kill and drill with no depth. I was very disappointed when we toured and didn't even bother. Sure it may be better than other DCPS MS in Math but nothing to write home about. Just go with a math tutor for the win.The majority of the kids that have gone to the good eng schools have followed that model.

Oh, you went to an open house and are now an expert on the math program at BASIS?

We actually have kids taking math at BASIS. What they are doing is far more advanced than what we were doing at the same age. No question in our mind that it offers the most advanced math curriculum among DC publics.

I’d argue many of those kids have a surface understanding of the math but not a deep conceptual understanding. I’ve taught many kids who left Basis after middle school. Some are great at math, some are okay and most were accelerated too quickly and the gaps really showed. Flame away but I have a relatively large sample size for my observations.

It seems very likely that both of these are true -- that a lot of kids who leave after middle school were accelerated too fast and that some kids, particularly kids who it works for and who stay, are legitimately getting taught much more advanced math than they would get elsewhere. It's too bad that there isn't a way for kids who would benefit from that acceleration to be guaranteed a way of accessing it in DC.

OK, where do you teach, what grade, and how many ex-Basis kids have you had?

This is all public. BASIS's slower math track starts kids on high school math in 7th grade. Last year, there were 49 sixth graders, or about 40% of the class, who scored below-proficient in sixth grade math. Those who stuck around got accelerated multiple years ahead of what they were ready for because that's BASIS's model. Many of those kids will wind up leaving. The charter school model doesn't allow schools to practice selective admissions or even tell parents "your kid will not succeed here", but it does allow them to have a curriculum that is developmentally inappropriate for most kids in DC and a good chunk of their students. It's very weird.

Not really.

Basis doesn’t socially promote or backfill, and teaches at a more advanced level than other public schools in DC. No surprise that kids leave.

And since Basis is 100% lottery there is also no surprise that not every kid in 5th and 6th grade is a math star. However, if you look at high school PARCC scores and average math SAT scores, after kids have been at Basis for a while, Basis is top in DC.

If you don’t think your kid can handle a rigorous curriculum, you don’t send them to Basis.

Also, they do math tracking so advanced kids can move ahead starting in 6th grade and slower kids can do less advanced work starting in 8th grade. So, contrary to your suggestion, not everyone is in lockstep.

Different but hardly “weird.”

You can’t attribute those high test scores in high school to the quality of instruction when you have such high attrition rates in earlier grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because BASIS is offers far more serious HS academics than any other DC public school other than the fast track at J-R and Walls for humanities subjects. I don't care for their AP cram school approach and didn't take the 5th grade spot we got, but there's no denying that their math and science middle and high school prep is head and shoulders above that offered at any other DC public school. There's also no denying that some of the black families EotP who would have gone with Banneker or a DCPS middle school like Stuart Hobson in the past now head to BASIS. Banneker doesn't seem to be getting any students into MIT, Cal Tech, Princeton engineering. BASIS does.
Banneker's mediocre STEM prep has lost its sheen with BASIS in town.

Umm..Banneker is a Humanities school just like Walls so I don't know where STEM prep comes in. I majored in math and Basis is not it. It's just kill and drill with no depth. I was very disappointed when we toured and didn't even bother. Sure it may be better than other DCPS MS in Math but nothing to write home about. Just go with a math tutor for the win.The majority of the kids that have gone to the good eng schools have followed that model.

Oh, you went to an open house and are now an expert on the math program at BASIS?

We actually have kids taking math at BASIS. What they are doing is far more advanced than what we were doing at the same age. No question in our mind that it offers the most advanced math curriculum among DC publics.

I’d argue many of those kids have a surface understanding of the math but not a deep conceptual understanding. I’ve taught many kids who left Basis after middle school. Some are great at math, some are okay and most were accelerated too quickly and the gaps really showed. Flame away but I have a relatively large sample size for my observations.

It seems very likely that both of these are true -- that a lot of kids who leave after middle school were accelerated too fast and that some kids, particularly kids who it works for and who stay, are legitimately getting taught much more advanced math than they would get elsewhere. It's too bad that there isn't a way for kids who would benefit from that acceleration to be guaranteed a way of accessing it in DC.

OK, where do you teach, what grade, and how many ex-Basis kids have you had?

This is all public. BASIS's slower math track starts kids on high school math in 7th grade. Last year, there were 49 sixth graders, or about 40% of the class, who scored below-proficient in sixth grade math. Those who stuck around got accelerated multiple years ahead of what they were ready for because that's BASIS's model. Many of those kids will wind up leaving. The charter school model doesn't allow schools to practice selective admissions or even tell parents "your kid will not succeed here", but it does allow them to have a curriculum that is developmentally inappropriate for most kids in DC and a good chunk of their students. It's very weird.

Not really.

Basis doesn’t socially promote or backfill, and teaches at a more advanced level than other public schools in DC. No surprise that kids leave.

And since Basis is 100% lottery there is also no surprise that not every kid in 5th and 6th grade is a math star. However, if you look at high school PARCC scores and average math SAT scores, after kids have been at Basis for a while, Basis is top in DC.

If you don’t think your kid can handle a rigorous curriculum, you don’t send them to Basis.

Also, they do math tracking so advanced kids can move ahead starting in 6th grade and slower kids can do less advanced work starting in 8th grade. So, contrary to your suggestion, not everyone is in lockstep.

Different but hardly “weird.”

Where this started was you were arguing that BASIS wasn't accelerating kids in math before they were ready. That's what this was about. And the "less advanced" work in 8th grade is the second year of high school math. You can think it's just fine that they do this, but of course they are pushing kids faster in math than many of them are ready for. The excellent test scores are partly a function of the entirely-predictable attrition of kids who weren't ready for the coursework.

You are basing this on what? Do you even have a kid at BASIS?

Actually, some top math kids leave for privates or other schools, which drives the numbers down a bit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because BASIS is offers far more serious HS academics than any other DC public school other than the fast track at J-R and Walls for humanities subjects. I don't care for their AP cram school approach and didn't take the 5th grade spot we got, but there's no denying that their math and science middle and high school prep is head and shoulders above that offered at any other DC public school. There's also no denying that some of the black families EotP who would have gone with Banneker or a DCPS middle school like Stuart Hobson in the past now head to BASIS. Banneker doesn't seem to be getting any students into MIT, Cal Tech, Princeton engineering. BASIS does.
Banneker's mediocre STEM prep has lost its sheen with BASIS in town.

Umm..Banneker is a Humanities school just like Walls so I don't know where STEM prep comes in. I majored in math and Basis is not it. It's just kill and drill with no depth. I was very disappointed when we toured and didn't even bother. Sure it may be better than other DCPS MS in Math but nothing to write home about. Just go with a math tutor for the win.The majority of the kids that have gone to the good eng schools have followed that model.

Oh, you went to an open house and are now an expert on the math program at BASIS?

We actually have kids taking math at BASIS. What they are doing is far more advanced than what we were doing at the same age. No question in our mind that it offers the most advanced math curriculum among DC publics.

I’d argue many of those kids have a surface understanding of the math but not a deep conceptual understanding. I’ve taught many kids who left Basis after middle school. Some are great at math, some are okay and most were accelerated too quickly and the gaps really showed. Flame away but I have a relatively large sample size for my observations.

It seems very likely that both of these are true -- that a lot of kids who leave after middle school were accelerated too fast and that some kids, particularly kids who it works for and who stay, are legitimately getting taught much more advanced math than they would get elsewhere. It's too bad that there isn't a way for kids who would benefit from that acceleration to be guaranteed a way of accessing it in DC.

OK, where do you teach, what grade, and how many ex-Basis kids have you had?

This is all public. BASIS's slower math track starts kids on high school math in 7th grade. Last year, there were 49 sixth graders, or about 40% of the class, who scored below-proficient in sixth grade math. Those who stuck around got accelerated multiple years ahead of what they were ready for because that's BASIS's model. Many of those kids will wind up leaving. The charter school model doesn't allow schools to practice selective admissions or even tell parents "your kid will not succeed here", but it does allow them to have a curriculum that is developmentally inappropriate for most kids in DC and a good chunk of their students. It's very weird.

Not really.

Basis doesn’t socially promote or backfill, and teaches at a more advanced level than other public schools in DC. No surprise that kids leave.

And since Basis is 100% lottery there is also no surprise that not every kid in 5th and 6th grade is a math star. However, if you look at high school PARCC scores and average math SAT scores, after kids have been at Basis for a while, Basis is top in DC.

If you don’t think your kid can handle a rigorous curriculum, you don’t send them to Basis.

Also, they do math tracking so advanced kids can move ahead starting in 6th grade and slower kids can do less advanced work starting in 8th grade. So, contrary to your suggestion, not everyone is in lockstep.

Different but hardly “weird.”

Knock off the BASIS exceptionalism already. It's seriously hackneyed at this point. What's "weird" is how you cling to your myopic take on the push factors motivating at least half a given 5th grade BASIS cohort to bail before HS. You know as well as I do that plenty of 8th graders leave BASIS in search of a happier and better-rounded high education in a school with better facilities and ECs and less teacher turnover. Simply not the case that most of them leave because they couldn't handle the rigorous curriculum. A small number of the BASIS 8th graders head to Banneker, where, arguably, advanced humanities instruction is stronger than at BASIS. The truth is that the humanities teaching team at Banneker handling the most advanced classes is far more stable, experienced and autonomous than the one at BASIS in any given school year. We looked seriously into Banneker when we were fed up with the BASIS middle school, although our kid was a straight-A student. We went with a parochial high school on a music scholarship instead.

DP. Music scholarship to a parochial school? Is that even a thing?

I don't know much about BASIS but it looks like it is ranked the top public middle school and the top non-application high school in DC. And the school has only been around a decade or so.

So your personal anecdote is not every compelling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because BASIS is offers far more serious HS academics than any other DC public school other than the fast track at J-R and Walls for humanities subjects. I don't care for their AP cram school approach and didn't take the 5th grade spot we got, but there's no denying that their math and science middle and high school prep is head and shoulders above that offered at any other DC public school. There's also no denying that some of the black families EotP who would have gone with Banneker or a DCPS middle school like Stuart Hobson in the past now head to BASIS. Banneker doesn't seem to be getting any students into MIT, Cal Tech, Princeton engineering. BASIS does.
Banneker's mediocre STEM prep has lost its sheen with BASIS in town.

Umm..Banneker is a Humanities school just like Walls so I don't know where STEM prep comes in. I majored in math and Basis is not it. It's just kill and drill with no depth. I was very disappointed when we toured and didn't even bother. Sure it may be better than other DCPS MS in Math but nothing to write home about. Just go with a math tutor for the win.The majority of the kids that have gone to the good eng schools have followed that model.

Oh, you went to an open house and are now an expert on the math program at BASIS?

We actually have kids taking math at BASIS. What they are doing is far more advanced than what we were doing at the same age. No question in our mind that it offers the most advanced math curriculum among DC publics.

I’d argue many of those kids have a surface understanding of the math but not a deep conceptual understanding. I’ve taught many kids who left Basis after middle school. Some are great at math, some are okay and most were accelerated too quickly and the gaps really showed. Flame away but I have a relatively large sample size for my observations.

It seems very likely that both of these are true -- that a lot of kids who leave after middle school were accelerated too fast and that some kids, particularly kids who it works for and who stay, are legitimately getting taught much more advanced math than they would get elsewhere. It's too bad that there isn't a way for kids who would benefit from that acceleration to be guaranteed a way of accessing it in DC.

Well, the kids that drop out of BASIS DC are probably not the best sample….lol

NP but drop out is a weird way to phrase it. They leave after middle school. Lots of kids do that- I wouldn’t say a Deal kid who goes to Walls instead of JR ‘dropped out’ of Deal. And many leave for reasons that have nothing to do with academics.

Still a poor sample and, if you are a math teacher at some random school in DC, a small one as well.

I’m curious what you would consider an acceptable or strong sample size.

PP asked you how many ex-BASIS students you taught. You never answered the question. Stop trying to evade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because BASIS is offers far more serious HS academics than any other DC public school other than the fast track at J-R and Walls for humanities subjects. I don't care for their AP cram school approach and didn't take the 5th grade spot we got, but there's no denying that their math and science middle and high school prep is head and shoulders above that offered at any other DC public school. There's also no denying that some of the black families EotP who would have gone with Banneker or a DCPS middle school like Stuart Hobson in the past now head to BASIS. Banneker doesn't seem to be getting any students into MIT, Cal Tech, Princeton engineering. BASIS does.
Banneker's mediocre STEM prep has lost its sheen with BASIS in town.

Umm..Banneker is a Humanities school just like Walls so I don't know where STEM prep comes in. I majored in math and Basis is not it. It's just kill and drill with no depth. I was very disappointed when we toured and didn't even bother. Sure it may be better than other DCPS MS in Math but nothing to write home about. Just go with a math tutor for the win.The majority of the kids that have gone to the good eng schools have followed that model.

Oh, you went to an open house and are now an expert on the math program at BASIS?

We actually have kids taking math at BASIS. What they are doing is far more advanced than what we were doing at the same age. No question in our mind that it offers the most advanced math curriculum among DC publics.

I’d argue many of those kids have a surface understanding of the math but not a deep conceptual understanding. I’ve taught many kids who left Basis after middle school. Some are great at math, some are okay and most were accelerated too quickly and the gaps really showed. Flame away but I have a relatively large sample size for my observations.

It seems very likely that both of these are true -- that a lot of kids who leave after middle school were accelerated too fast and that some kids, particularly kids who it works for and who stay, are legitimately getting taught much more advanced math than they would get elsewhere. It's too bad that there isn't a way for kids who would benefit from that acceleration to be guaranteed a way of accessing it in DC.

OK, where do you teach, what grade, and how many ex-Basis kids have you had?

This is all public. BASIS's slower math track starts kids on high school math in 7th grade. Last year, there were 49 sixth graders, or about 40% of the class, who scored below-proficient in sixth grade math. Those who stuck around got accelerated multiple years ahead of what they were ready for because that's BASIS's model. Many of those kids will wind up leaving. The charter school model doesn't allow schools to practice selective admissions or even tell parents "your kid will not succeed here", but it does allow them to have a curriculum that is developmentally inappropriate for most kids in DC and a good chunk of their students. It's very weird.

Not really.

Basis doesn’t socially promote or backfill, and teaches at a more advanced level than other public schools in DC. No surprise that kids leave.

And since Basis is 100% lottery there is also no surprise that not every kid in 5th and 6th grade is a math star. However, if you look at high school PARCC scores and average math SAT scores, after kids have been at Basis for a while, Basis is top in DC.

If you don’t think your kid can handle a rigorous curriculum, you don’t send them to Basis.

Also, they do math tracking so advanced kids can move ahead starting in 6th grade and slower kids can do less advanced work starting in 8th grade. So, contrary to your suggestion, not everyone is in lockstep.

Different but hardly “weird.”

Where this started was you were arguing that BASIS wasn't accelerating kids in math before they were ready. That's what this was about. And the "less advanced" work in 8th grade is the second year of high school math. You can think it's just fine that they do this, but of course they are pushing kids faster in math than many of them are ready for. The excellent test scores are partly a function of the entirely-predictable attrition of kids who weren't ready for the coursework.

Bolded is where the DC mentality pisses me off. A school that kids affirmatively choose to attend "pushes them too fast" but somehow the fact that the entirety of DCPS not pushing kids at all and refusing to track is no problem at all. Race to the bottom with a bunch of well meaning educatiotn "academics" ruining what's left of DC's public education.