BASIS head of school steps down

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But if you choose Stuart Hobson for MS inboundary what are you going to do for HS if you can't afford private school and your kid fails to test into SWW in 8th grade (a common enough outcome).

If your kid is white (generally no whites at Banneker) and not interested in the performing arts (for Duke Ellington), then what? There really aren't any UMC families at Eastern HS, a failing school by every measure.

BASIS sounds like torture in HS for all but a very small and super nerdy subset that doesn't mind the weak facilities (no library, real gym, stage/auditorium, outdoor space etc) and lack of emphasis on applied/hands-on learning.

The fact that they get a new head almost every school year does nothing to inspire confidence in this parent.

Send your kid to school with--gasp--kids of color? About 40% of kids at Eastern got a 3 or above on the ELA PARCC so there will be several hundred kids there who would be on the same academic level as a kid who fails the Walls test. Even in math, there are over 100 kids on this level so your kid will have a cohort of kids working at grade level. You could lottery/apply to lots of other schools, including Bard, Coolidge Early College, Haynes, Cap City, DCI (3 lottery slots right there), McKinley Tech, WLA. Eventually, Sojourner Truth will open too.

Or if that's too bold of an idea for you, I guess you'd have to move IB for Wilson or out of DC altogether. The DC government doesn't owe you a school with the right number of white kids for your own personal preference. And they don't owe you a special school that's for kids too mediocre for Walls but not quite as bad as you're afraid of having in your kid's class.

Are you kidding me about Eastern? You realize that a 4 for PARCC scores is grade level right? Last year only 18% students in ELA got a 4 and only 4% in Math. PARCC 3 is terrible and below grade level and even with that it’s only 38% in ELA and 15% in math. So the remaining difference from 100% is way below grade level, i.e the overwhelmingly majority of the school. It’s abysmal.

The only reason DCPS lists 3 and 4 as measures for PARCC is because many schools have no 5’s at all. Their criteria is very low because the students are so poor performing. The parameter really should be 4 (grade level) and 5 (exceeding grade level).

Stuart Hobson does better at PARCC 4 last year with 45% ELA and 22% math. But Basis blows both Eastern and SH away with 73% ELA and 65% math. I would also bet they have a good percentage at PARCC 5’’s but that data is not public.

[Anonymous]

If pp's kid can't get into sww, he probably isn't far off from a parcc 3 anyway. And he would likely not make it to 9tj grade at basis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But if you choose Stuart Hobson for MS inboundary what are you going to do for HS if you can't afford private school and your kid fails to test into SWW in 8th grade (a common enough outcome).

If your kid is white (generally no whites at Banneker) and not interested in the performing arts (for Duke Ellington), then what? There really aren't any UMC families at Eastern HS, a failing school by every measure.

BASIS sounds like torture in HS for all but a very small and super nerdy subset that doesn't mind the weak facilities (no library, real gym, stage/auditorium, outdoor space etc) and lack of emphasis on applied/hands-on learning.

The fact that they get a new head almost every school year does nothing to inspire confidence in this parent.

Send your kid to school with--gasp--kids of color? About 40% of kids at Eastern got a 3 or above on the ELA PARCC so there will be several hundred kids there who would be on the same academic level as a kid who fails the Walls test. Even in math, there are over 100 kids on this level so your kid will have a cohort of kids working at grade level. You could lottery/apply to lots of other schools, including Bard, Coolidge Early College, Haynes, Cap City, DCI (3 lottery slots right there), McKinley Tech, WLA. Eventually, Sojourner Truth will open too.

Or if that's too bold of an idea for you, I guess you'd have to move IB for Wilson or out of DC altogether. The DC government doesn't owe you a school with the right number of white kids for your own personal preference. And they don't owe you a special school that's for kids too mediocre for Walls but not quite as bad as you're afraid of having in your kid's class.

Are you kidding me about Eastern? You realize that a 4 for PARCC scores is grade level right? Last year only 18% students in ELA got a 4 and only 4% in Math. PARCC 3 is terrible and below grade level and even with that it’s only 38% in ELA and 15% in math. So the remaining difference from 100% is way below grade level, i.e the overwhelmingly majority of the school. It’s abysmal.

The only reason DCPS lists 3 and 4 as measures for PARCC is because many schools have no 5’s at all. Their criteria is very low because the students are so poor performing. The parameter really should be 4 (grade level) and 5 (exceeding grade level).

Stuart Hobson does better at PARCC 4 last year with 45% ELA and 22% math. But Basis blows both Eastern and SH away with 73% ELA and 65% math. I would also bet they have a good percentage at PARCC 5’’s but that data is not public.

SH has an honors track that 95% of those 4s are in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're a DCPS 4th grade family EotP. I don't know all that much about BASIS DC, other than that a big cohort from our school's 4th grade dashes there for 5th every year. I'm told that a lot more of our school's 4th graders land at BASIS than return to our school for 5th.

Before stumbling across this thread, I didn't know that BASIS DC has cycled through half a dozen principals in 7 or 8 years!! Big red flag whatever the story is with this head.

Call me crazy but it's an even bigger red flag that families will take on that level of instability for a BASIS education rather than stay in their EOTP school. What is it that families are getting at BASIS that makes them ok with such instaility? Or is what's happening in the classroom and in social interactions with peers so much more important than the impact of a constantly changing Head of School?

I've posted above. Kid graduated last year. Our IB is Coolidge, my DC had some disabilities that required accommodations that SWW wouldn't grant even on the entrance exam (red flag), and didn't want to go to Banneker which had a predominantly female student body.

The HOS mattered to me as a parent. BUT my kid didn't really notice the HOS that much. Their day to day job was to manage and hire and fire teachers, implement the budget, deal with OSSE/PCSB and Arizona. The classes of 2018 and 19 generally LOVED the most recent one because they knew her as their Chemistry teacher, then college counselor (obviously not senior year but there is college advising each year at Basis.

The college counseling program at Basis is, IMO, on par with a private school, and a big reason we stuck around. Two full-time counselors for a HS of about 200-225 students, and a caseload of just 20-30 seniors. Very personalized advice, help with finding a school that is affordable and meets your needs. Finishing all, or virtually all, APs by the end of junior year was a blessing because it left time for college apps and the senior year courses were really interesting and gave a flavor of what college would be like. My kid did the optional capstone senior project, had a good internship experience and did some really interesting individual research. All those things don't change with the HOS - they are baked into the model.

The last head's changes are great, but TBH mostly affected the MS because the HS teachers were already pretty strong, and MS is where they really needed more SEL and heart, for lack of a better word. That stuff came a bit late for my DC but was promising for those who are still there.

Thank you. This is important. People throw stones at BASIS but parents and kids are getting something that they value. Seems like more time should be spent examining how the schools they are leaving should improve rather than tearing down the schools where they are going.

Such melodramatic language. Give us a break, there is validity to most of the criticism of BASIS DC raised on this thread, and countless others, in the last 8 years. The program has slowly improved in response to criticism. Unfortunately, not much can be done to improve the weak facilities, or change Arizona HQ's one-size-fits all orientation to implementing the curriculum.

I don't agree none of the BASIS offerings change with the HOS. She was the first HOS who really moved to draw on parent resources and networks --e.g. parent contacts in the Smithsonian museums and science research organizations in the City--to improve and expand internship and research opportunities for upperclass students. Before the current HOS, BASIS DC generally ran as though it were in Arizona, without DC's vast scientific and cultural resources within reach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But if you choose Stuart Hobson for MS inboundary what are you going to do for HS if you can't afford private school and your kid fails to test into SWW in 8th grade (a common enough outcome).

If your kid is white (generally no whites at Banneker) and not interested in the performing arts (for Duke Ellington), then what? There really aren't any UMC families at Eastern HS, a failing school by every measure.

BASIS sounds like torture in HS for all but a very small and super nerdy subset that doesn't mind the weak facilities (no library, real gym, stage/auditorium, outdoor space etc) and lack of emphasis on applied/hands-on learning.

The fact that they get a new head almost every school year does nothing to inspire confidence in this parent.

Send your kid to school with--gasp--kids of color? About 40% of kids at Eastern got a 3 or above on the ELA PARCC so there will be several hundred kids there who would be on the same academic level as a kid who fails the Walls test. Even in math, there are over 100 kids on this level so your kid will have a cohort of kids working at grade level. You could lottery/apply to lots of other schools, including Bard, Coolidge Early College, Haynes, Cap City, DCI (3 lottery slots right there), McKinley Tech, WLA. Eventually, Sojourner Truth will open too.

Or if that's too bold of an idea for you, I guess you'd have to move IB for Wilson or out of DC altogether. The DC government doesn't owe you a school with the right number of white kids for your own personal preference. And they don't owe you a special school that's for kids too mediocre for Walls but not quite as bad as you're afraid of having in your kid's class.

Are you kidding me about Eastern? You realize that a 4 for PARCC scores is grade level right? Last year only 18% students in ELA got a 4 and only 4% in Math. PARCC 3 is terrible and below grade level and even with that it’s only 38% in ELA and 15% in math. So the remaining difference from 100% is way below grade level, i.e the overwhelmingly majority of the school. It’s abysmal.

The only reason DCPS lists 3 and 4 as measures for PARCC is because many schools have no 5’s at all. Their criteria is very low because the students are so poor performing. The parameter really should be 4 (grade level) and 5 (exceeding grade level).

Stuart Hobson does better at PARCC 4 last year with 45% ELA and 22% math. But Basis blows both Eastern and SH away with 73% ELA and 65% math. I would also bet they have a good percentage at PARCC 5’’s but that data is not public.

I wouldn't put much stock in high school PARCC scores. There's nothing in it for high school kids to score well, and they know it. Many don't try hard on the PARCC, or even turn up to take it. SAT and AP scores and school demographics are far more telling than PARCC scores at the HS level.

To those of you who cheer with UMC white DC parents aren't provided with the sort of middle and high school programs they're excited about, and leave the traditional public system as a result, you might want to consider that the exodus you celebrate only hurts poor kids, deprived of high-performing peers and school diversity. If you don't incentivize highly-educated parents to stay in your traditional public schools, charters, private schools and suburban programs (and realtors) win, not low SES minority students in traditional public schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But if you choose Stuart Hobson for MS inboundary what are you going to do for HS if you can't afford private school and your kid fails to test into SWW in 8th grade (a common enough outcome).

If your kid is white (generally no whites at Banneker) and not interested in the performing arts (for Duke Ellington), then what? There really aren't any UMC families at Eastern HS, a failing school by every measure.

BASIS sounds like torture in HS for all but a very small and super nerdy subset that doesn't mind the weak facilities (no library, real gym, stage/auditorium, outdoor space etc) and lack of emphasis on applied/hands-on learning.

The fact that they get a new head almost every school year does nothing to inspire confidence in this parent.

Send your kid to school with--gasp--kids of color? About 40% of kids at Eastern got a 3 or above on the ELA PARCC so there will be several hundred kids there who would be on the same academic level as a kid who fails the Walls test. Even in math, there are over 100 kids on this level so your kid will have a cohort of kids working at grade level. You could lottery/apply to lots of other schools, including Bard, Coolidge Early College, Haynes, Cap City, DCI (3 lottery slots right there), McKinley Tech, WLA. Eventually, Sojourner Truth will open too.

Or if that's too bold of an idea for you, I guess you'd have to move IB for Wilson or out of DC altogether. The DC government doesn't owe you a school with the right number of white kids for your own personal preference. And they don't owe you a special school that's for kids too mediocre for Walls but not quite as bad as you're afraid of having in your kid's class.

Are you kidding me about Eastern? You realize that a 4 for PARCC scores is grade level right? Last year only 18% students in ELA got a 4 and only 4% in Math. PARCC 3 is terrible and below grade level and even with that it’s only 38% in ELA and 15% in math. So the remaining difference from 100% is way below grade level, i.e the overwhelmingly majority of the school. It’s abysmal.

The only reason DCPS lists 3 and 4 as measures for PARCC is because many schools have no 5’s at all. Their criteria is very low because the students are so poor performing. The parameter really should be 4 (grade level) and 5 (exceeding grade level).

Stuart Hobson does better at PARCC 4 last year with 45% ELA and 22% math. But Basis blows both Eastern and SH away with 73% ELA and 65% math. I would also bet they have a good percentage at PARCC 5’’s but that data is not public.

I wouldn't put much stock in high school PARCC scores. There's nothing in it for high school kids to score well, and they know it. Many don't try hard on the PARCC, or even turn up to take it. SAT and AP scores and school demographics are far more telling than PARCC scores at the HS level.

To those of you who cheer with UMC white DC parents aren't provided with the sort of middle and high school programs they're excited about, and leave the traditional public system as a result, you might want to consider that the exodus you celebrate only hurts poor kids, deprived of high-performing peers and school diversity. If you don't incentivize highly-educated parents to stay in your traditional public schools, charters, private schools and suburban programs (and realtors) win, not low SES minority students in traditional public schools.

Of course PARRC scores or any standardized scores are not the be all and end all. It’s only 1 component, but it is an important component to compare across schools with different curriculums and different rigor of programs. It’s irrelevant that there is no incentive for high school kids to take it. I suspect those that don’t show up likely are the ones with high truancy and are the poor performing ones anyway.

You don’t think UMC parents want to be able to go to their IB middle and high school???
Of course we would love to but the reality is that DCPS doesn’t provide the adequate tracking for the higher performing students. They are anti-tracking, look at what they are doing to Wilson. All DCPS cares about is bringing up the bottom, closing the achievement gap, instead of meeting the need of ALL their students. If they had adequate tracking and rigor of curriculum, you can bet UMC would send their kids to their IB schools.

Just look at the elementary schools EOTP, outside of Capital Hill as an example. UMC families send their kids there but by 2nd or 3rd grade, they all bail. Why? Because it starts to become apparent that there kid is bored and not challenge.

Lastly, no UMC parent is going to send their kid to a poor performing school for the good of society or to help poor kids. You have got to be joking. They want what is best for their kid and being bored, cruising thru school because it’s too damn easy isn’t it.

[Anonymous]

Actually, my Wilson kid, an excellent student, refused to take the 10th grade PARCC in the spring. Some of his friends, among the strongest students, walked out in the middle of the test. These kids haven't been punished or penalized in any way.

PP, you didn't read the post above carefully - the poster is making the same points you are.

[Anonymous]

I thought this thread was about BASIS and its head of school situation. . .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought this thread was about BASIS and its head of school situation. . .

All threads about a MS have to inevitably lead to Capitol Hill.

[Anonymous]

Yes, because there are more Brent, SWS and possibly former Maury students at BASIS in 5th grade than in the 5th grades of those DCPS programs. Roughly one-third of BASIS students are Hill residents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But if you choose Stuart Hobson for MS inboundary what are you going to do for HS if you can't afford private school and your kid fails to test into SWW in 8th grade (a common enough outcome).

If your kid is white (generally no whites at Banneker) and not interested in the performing arts (for Duke Ellington), then what? There really aren't any UMC families at Eastern HS, a failing school by every measure.

BASIS sounds like torture in HS for all but a very small and super nerdy subset that doesn't mind the weak facilities (no library, real gym, stage/auditorium, outdoor space etc) and lack of emphasis on applied/hands-on learning.

The fact that they get a new head almost every school year does nothing to inspire confidence in this parent.

Send your kid to school with--gasp--kids of color? About 40% of kids at Eastern got a 3 or above on the ELA PARCC so there will be several hundred kids there who would be on the same academic level as a kid who fails the Walls test. Even in math, there are over 100 kids on this level so your kid will have a cohort of kids working at grade level. You could lottery/apply to lots of other schools, including Bard, Coolidge Early College, Haynes, Cap City, DCI (3 lottery slots right there), McKinley Tech, WLA. Eventually, Sojourner Truth will open too.

Or if that's too bold of an idea for you, I guess you'd have to move IB for Wilson or out of DC altogether. The DC government doesn't owe you a school with the right number of white kids for your own personal preference. And they don't owe you a special school that's for kids too mediocre for Walls but not quite as bad as you're afraid of having in your kid's class.

[Anonymous]

Great, uproot and move from DC because, yea, the politicians don't owe you, and thousands of fellow residents in your Ward, a by-right high school you find remotely acceptable for your tax dollars.

You should have sent your kid to BASIS when you had the chance, even if your family hated the place and its revolving door HOS situation.

So you move. Who wins? Poor minority kids? How? Enlighten us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But if you choose Stuart Hobson for MS inboundary what are you going to do for HS if you can't afford private school and your kid fails to test into SWW in 8th grade (a common enough outcome).

If your kid is white (generally no whites at Banneker) and not interested in the performing arts (for Duke Ellington), then what? There really aren't any UMC families at Eastern HS, a failing school by every measure.

BASIS sounds like torture in HS for all but a very small and super nerdy subset that doesn't mind the weak facilities (no library, real gym, stage/auditorium, outdoor space etc) and lack of emphasis on applied/hands-on learning.

The fact that they get a new head almost every school year does nothing to inspire confidence in this parent.

True answer: then you reap the rewards of being racist, boring, and lazy, if you can't stomach any of the available options. Bye bye, have fun in Virginia suburbs.

[Anonymous]

Wish we could FOIA the school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
From what I've observed, the rush to finish APs a year early puts downward pressure on learning, retention of knowledge and enjoyment for most students, adding to the pressure cooker environment too many high-powered high schools have become.

Personalized college advice is very nice, but you can hire a college coach, avail of on-line and free local college clinics, or even advise your own student if you wish (after doing the requisite admissions research), rather than jeopardizing the learning by jamming in APs like mad before senior year.

New poster. My DS attended Basis for 2 years then to private. I and DS really appreciated Basis but DH wanted him at private for HS. So I can tell you that private school college counseling service is far better than hiring somebody. The school has four years of experience with the kids and “package” them, in a way a by-the-your coach can’t. If Basis does that it’s a great thing. Sorry we didn’t get that for free!