BASIS--opinions please

[Anonymous]

While parents are trying to maneuver the legal channels, rules and regulations to insure BASIS follows FAPE, IDEA to serve students with 504's and IEP's, they are missing a crucial point. This school operates on a completely different premise. Do not waste your time or money or sanity if the school is mistreating you and your child. I mean your kid can be a genius and still fail at BASIS. Everything is hush hush with no transparency. All these years they kept on boasting about their results and how they are providing a world class education. Let's forget about college acceptances. Being number crunchers, I am wondering why they are being so secretive about their SAT/ACT results. We heard that several students scored below 1000 in the SAT from students who were taking the ACT, not offered at the school. Also, you would think that a senior with a 4.4 GPA with raving recommendations from the school, "4"s and "5"s on 10 AP exams should score fairly high on any standardized test. However it the aforementioned student scores in the lowest 25%, in math, you can't help but wonder about where the truth lies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: While parents are trying to maneuver the legal channels, rules and regulations to insure BASIS follows FAPE, IDEA to serve students with 504's and IEP's, they are missing a crucial point. This school operates on a completely different premise. Do not waste your time or money or sanity if the school is mistreating you and your child. I mean your kid can be a genius and still fail at BASIS. Everything is hush hush with no transparency. All these years they kept on boasting about their results and how they are providing a world class education. Let's forget about college acceptances. Being number crunchers, I am wondering why they are being so secretive about their SAT/ACT results. We heard that several students scored below 1000 in the SAT from students who were taking the ACT, not offered at the school. Also, you would think that a senior with a 4.4 GPA with raving recommendations from the school, "4"s and "5"s on 10 AP exams should score fairly high on any standardized test. However it the aforementioned student scores in the lowest 25%, in math, you can't help but wonder about where the truth lies.

How is that possible? Aren't the AP's graded by outsiders? (No affiliation with with school, no reason to collude.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: While parents are trying to maneuver the legal channels, rules and regulations to insure BASIS follows FAPE, IDEA to serve students with 504's and IEP's, they are missing a crucial point. This school operates on a completely different premise. Do not waste your time or money or sanity if the school is mistreating you and your child. I mean your kid can be a genius and still fail at BASIS. Everything is hush hush with no transparency. All these years they kept on boasting about their results and how they are providing a world class education. Let's forget about college acceptances. Being number crunchers, I am wondering why they are being so secretive about their SAT/ACT results. We heard that several students scored below 1000 in the SAT from students who were taking the ACT, not offered at the school. Also, you would think that a senior with a 4.4 GPA with raving recommendations from the school, "4"s and "5"s on 10 AP exams should score fairly high on any standardized test. However it the aforementioned student scores in the lowest 25%, in math, you can't help but wonder about where the truth lies.

How is that possible? Aren't the AP's graded by outsiders? (No affiliation with with school, no reason to collude.)

Yes, the AP tests are graded by teams of teachers recruited nationally by the College Board.

Off the top of my head, I can imagine that a BASIS student who takes an AP class for a year, and learns that content well (hence a 4 or 5 and high class grade) could perform poorly on the SAT. Especially if that student didnt prepare for it, or is a minority, since that test is notoriously biased. You see the same thing at Banneker -- kids with high GPAs and strong AP exam results, but relatively low SAT scores.

BASIS does report that many of its students at all of its schools score better on the ACT than the SAT. The SAT is given at school because that's what the City of DC pays for all students to take. BASIS did offer the newly released pre-ACT test to its students at school this year, in addition to the PSAT, to help students determine whether they should concentrate on one exam over the other.

[Anonymous]

Yes, the AP tests are graded by teams of teachers recruited nationally by the College Board.
And these teachers who grade in teams are the same ones who write the exams and are full time HS teachers

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, the AP tests are graded by teams of teachers recruited nationally by the College Board.
And these teachers who grade in teams are the same ones who write the exams and are full time HS teachers

And teachers don't grade their own students tests. No way for BASIS to manipulate the scores. At all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, the AP tests are graded by teams of teachers recruited nationally by the College Board.
And these teachers who grade in teams are the same ones who write the exams and are full time HS teachers

And teachers don't grade their own students tests. No way for BASIS to manipulate the scores. At all.

Is it possible that the kids are cheating on the APs? While at BASIS, my DC reported that some kids would take cell phones to the bathroom to look up information. Are the cell phones taken away during APs?

[Anonymous]

Yes, phones are confiscated as are books, water and papers. Only pencils allowed in the room. Booklets sealed per the College Board protocols.

My Basis kid got 5s on some APs and a 2 on another. No cheating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, phones are confiscated as are books, water and papers. Only pencils allowed in the room. Booklets sealed per the College Board protocols.

My Basis kid got 5s on some APs and a 2 on another. No cheating.

well maybe your kid did not cheat but how can you speak for everyone. BASIS is the only school which requires a password to enter their website. This school has had so much controversy and is being so secretive that you just can't hep but wonder what is going on/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, phones are confiscated as are books, water and papers. Only pencils allowed in the room. Booklets sealed per the College Board protocols.

My Basis kid got 5s on some APs and a 2 on another. No cheating.

well maybe your kid did not cheat but how can you speak for everyone. BASIS is the only school which requires a password to enter their website. This school has had so much controversy and is being so secretive that you just can't hep but wonder what is going on/

Because my kid attends and I know many of the high school students there. My kid has also taken SAT subject tests and the ACT at other locations, and everyone uses the same procedures. My DC happens to have some LDs and gets some testing accommodations from the College Board and ACT, so by necessity I'm a little more plugged into the details testing procedures and protocols than most parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, phones are confiscated as are books, water and papers. Only pencils allowed in the room. Booklets sealed per the College Board protocols.

My Basis kid got 5s on some APs and a 2 on another. No cheating.

My kid had to get "approval" just to wear a digital watch with alarms during regular quizzes and even then is supposed to take it aging is porrible everywhere, but no more likely at Basis than at any school.

[Anonymous]

So where are BASIS kids going to college? Why have the very vocal boasting boosters been very quiet about the SAT results and where students have been admitted except for the three students (Barnard, Dallas and Princeton)?

[Anonymous]

I don't think I've posted on this thread yet, but I've posted on others during the last several years. My family is very happy at the school and we think our kids are getting a excellent education from some really great teachers. Our kids are staying through high school. I'm happy to answer questions about BASIS from anyone who asks, and most of my comments are really positive because my kids and I have sincerely been happy with the school. Would the PP consider me a "booster" in the pejorative sense they are using that term? Maybe. That being said, I have no clue where members of the senior class is going to college because I don't know them and their families. I do trust the college counselor, who is soon to be the new head of school, to have steered those kids to the best, most appropriate school for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So where are BASIS kids going to college? Why have the very vocal boasting boosters been very quiet about the SAT results and where students have been admitted except for the three students (Barnard, Dallas and Princeton)?

In addition to the above I've know of BASIS seniors who were admitted to William and Mary, Boston College, Georgetown and Duke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is mastery defense?

It's the process that BASIS' math department uses to allow students to demonstrate mastery of questions/standards they miss on a test. It enables them to show that they have mastered the content, be tested on new questions on that topic, and if they get it right the second time, earn credit back.

A student that is diligent about attending the after or before school sessions can ultimately earn back nearly all the points they miss on a unit test. There is no mastery defense available for the mid-year pre-comprehensive exams or the end of year comprehensive exams.

It's a scam that allows BASIS to keep MS kids who can't handle the math from flunking out before 9th grade, when most will leave anyway.

Here's how it works: Your DC is diligent about math homework and studies for the weekly or bi-weekly math tests. The material is hard, so he/she misses say 20% questions on a typical test. Many of your DC's classmates race through their math homework and take their math tests cold. However, they listen in class some of the time and, since some of the questions are multiple choice, they guess correctly some of the time. They miss only say 50% of the questions on a typical test.

If the tests were curved, your DC would get an A on tests and the classmates would get Cs or Ds. However, those classmates can attend "Mastery Defense" sessions every week. They don't have to retake entire tests at these sessions. They only have to retake questions addressing the standards they missed. Furthermore, at each session they can pick which standards to retake. So, if the classmate missed the "applying the formula for the area of a circle" standard, he/she can retake just that standard and continue to do so until he/she gets it right or until the end of the grading period. The question given during "Mastery Defense" will be very similar to the one given on the test, except that the radius of the circle will be, say, 3 m instead of 2 m.

The net result is that your DC's classmates will raise their test averages to 90% or higher over the course of the grading period, and your DC will end up with a B- math test average even though your DC is one of the few who could demonstrate mastery of the material in one testing session. So much for preparing kids for high-stakes testing such as the SAT or the AP.

Your DC, then, has no choice but buy into the "Mastery Defense" scam and must retake all of the questions answered incorrectly on math tests. This means that he/she will have to stay after school at least one day a week. Furthermore, to ensure that you and your DC do not complain about this obvious subversion of the testing process, the math teachers will not give your DC partial credit on any math questions. So, if your DC correctly applies the formula for the area of a circle but write m instead of m^2 for the units, he/she will get 0 out of 5 points and you will both be happy that there is "Mastery Defense."

You sound nuts. & way too intense.