Reply to What's with all the Basis hate?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My thought, as a long-time white District resident, is that much of the hate stems from the unapologetic fact that BASIS challenges the status quo of the "soft bigotry of low expectations."

SOME posters (and therefore DC residents) believe that all schools accepting taxpayer funds should be for all students.   That all schools have to take what they get on opening day and tailor their curriculum accordingly --- because they're accepting taxpayer funding, of course.

This is bullshit, of course.   Nobody would urge Roots PCS to amend its curriculum to begin studying WASPy Mayflower immigrants because a lot of pale, blonde New Englanders decided to apply next year and get in.   St. Coletta's is not expected to offer a new track for highly gifted kids who are 2 grades ahead, just because several kids of that description get in since it was more convenient to their address.

Yet -- say the haters -- BASIS is supposed to offer curriculum and academic concessions (called "accommodations" to carry legal heft) to kids who cannot keep it with the clearly stated curriculum expectations.  Since, in their words, "that's what charters are required to do under the law, educate ALL students."   With the exception of all the other specialty charters mentioned above and many more. [/quote]

There is a big difference between kids who can thrive with some accommodations and kids who are given IEPs because they cannot read in 7th grade. DC does this because it is only allowed to make kids repeat certain grades and only a couple of times - social promotion is mandated by DCPS.  So of course a kid who cannot read in 7th grade needs accommodations - an education maybe? but that does not mean that in other jurisdictions he would be defined as special needs and be given an IEP or a 504.  DC does this. BASIS cannot accommodate those kids and in my opinion, should not have to.

A lot of the furor was set off because they started with 5th thru 8th grade, having NO idea how unprepared DC students were for the kind of education they were offering, or the comprehensive exams BASIS requires them to pass in those grades to advance to high school.  This is their first inner city school.  They said they would water down their standards for the first few graduating classes, but they COULD NOT water them down to the extent that would have been required to meet all students where they were, especially where the IEPs/504s were created because no one taught these kids to read or do basic math. It would no longer be a BASIS school.

I agree that last year they screwed even kids who could thrive with IEPs and 504s, but that has changed with the new staff who handle kids with special needs, and most teachers are starting to understand that the accommodations create a level playing field, not an unfair advantage, and not a way for unqualified kids to remain at BASIS.  A lot of the teachers who left were idealists who came from Arizona and thought that 7th graders who needed to be read science questions (because they were illiterate) could be saved somehow by BASIS.  I have heard the same disillusionment from former Teach for America volunteers from my private school, where apparently Wendy Kopp has endorsed Michelle Rhee (shame on her).  And Head Start teachers who had promising kids kicked out because their parents could not bother to show up. But there is a reason BASIS usually starts in 5th grade (and should start earlier and earlier).

Honestly, I think that the parents most threatened by BASIS (the HATERS) are some of the ones who have white high SES kids at Deal/Wilson, but also many who have kids in private schools in DC.  We will all be competing for college admissions, and BASIS raises the bar in a way that no new private school has since GDS was founded in 1953.  I think it is understandable that BASIS has caused parents to question whether paying $40k a year is really going to be worth it in the end, if the goal is college admissions.  If the goal is to keep your child in a WASPy bubble, and money is unlimited, those parents do not even care / may not even have heard about BASIS.  I would also think that SWW and Banneker (perhaps more Banneker) realize that they may lose some of their best students to BASIS.  And I hope for the sake of BASIS, where all of my kids  are going, that this will be true.

I feel incredibly lucky to have found a place where intellectual achievements and hard work are prized above all else, and where the kids receiving these accolades are mostly kids of color, like mine.  We are high SES. But it is very interesting to me that the so called "white apologists" who people accuse of ruining their kids' future by sending them to crappy DCPS schools (see crazy thread) would probably call BASIS elitist.  It may well be, intellectually, but there are a surprising number of smart kids from Anacostia and other FARMS kids who are meeting and exceeding the challenges presented by BASIS.  There are also kids who were pulled out of private school (mostly those whose parents are used to a European education model) who are doing very well and also being challenged.

And I think that is the rub for the private school parents.  If you have a kid who is a genius, BASIS really is the only place to be (or you graduate early from a private having been labeled a genius with all the baggage that entails).  My brother was bored by St. Alban's, and bullied because he was not a jock.  And he is probably a genius (I am not). But if you just have a kid who is relatively smart and willing to work hard, like many of us do, BASIS will let your kids go as far and as fast as they can.  I do not usually post on BASIS threads, but I have to say as a product of private schools in DC who had too many kids to put them in private, and married someone of color who came from nothing, I felt very ambivalent about the idea of putting my kids in private schools (which is what gave my spouse the leg up they needed, and a free ride). I think BASIS is the best thing to happen in DC for a long time and it came just in time for my kids.  I think the majority of the hate is coming from white liberals who should put their kids in there if they want a real education, and Wilson and private school parents who realize that our kids may beat them out of the limited slots for kids from DC for the top colleges.[/quote]

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