Reply to Why are kids dropping out of BASIS DC starting in 7/8th grade?

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Reply to "Why are kids dropping out of BASIS DC starting in 7/8th grade?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OMG OP, we couldn't ALL get into Latin like your DC! And for whatever anyone says about the obnoxious BASIS booster and basher parents, I'm up.to.here with the smugness of the Latin families. Please, please write more about balancing the whole child.

Whether or not we stay at BASIS through high school, I cannot wait to compare where the first graduating seniors will be accepted in comparison to Latin. [/quote]

Latin has graduated three classes already, and some people on this board decried what they viewed as on the whole shoddy college admissions, completely failing to realize that many of those kids decided where to go based on financial aid packages or merit awards.  The first kids who graduate from BASIS DC will have started in 8th grade, so they hardly got the benefit of the BASIS middle school experience and their high school experience will be unlike subsequent graduating classes........... and economically many of them are in the same position as the Latin kids, so tread carefully.[/quote]

BASIS graduating class will be very small compared to Latin graduating class.
They started with 87 8th graders, were 46 at the end of the year, 30 9th graders, 25 10th graders and this year's 11th grade will probably be less than 20.
Latin does not get rid of students the way BASIS does.
[/quote]

I don't think after 9th grade (when kids take their first APs - which are factored into grades) any attrition is due to "weeding out."  The kids who started in 8th grade the first year (at least some of them) were too far behind to catch  up, since BASIS schools usually start in 5th grade.  Many who applied to BASIS did it because they were desperate to find their kids a decent MS.  BASIS DC accepted everyone that first year.  At that  a large number of parents and kids did not know what they were getting into.  Here, when people talk about a "rigorous  education" in a public school, especially one just starting up, most people laugh and figure that DC kids, parents, and the system will wear them down. No one really thought they would fail students.

I am not sure BASIS had any idea what they were getting into by starting a school here, and that was their fault.  But to their credit they did not change their standards for the kids who were starting in 5th grade. And it is a tough school. And DC kids are, in general, behind all states and many urban cities educationally.  So the first year a lot of kids left because of the work load, because they realized they could not pass the comps, or after failing the comps.  I think over 70 kids repeated the year and then were promoted the second year - that was what it took to compensate for DC's wonderful public schools.

BASIS DC did have to change their graduation standards for the first few classes, which they do in all start up schools, and if you cannot do one of the two things BASIS schools are famous for - leave after 11th grade and go  to college or do something else with a gap year, or in your senior year only have one graded Trimester and then do a pass fail senior project for the rest of the year, your kids aren't getting the BASIS reward so why stay?

But again, BASIS is not for everyone.  Especially continuing the same amount of work in high school when you know you don't have to, or risking graduating from a start up school with no rep except its national one.  Our DC CAS scores were doing pretty well there - another couple of years and we might even have beaten Deal.  But that is the DC CAS.  Not getting into college.  I really think it is going to take a long time for even the average number of students to stay.

Ironically 20 is not that far off for the average number for graduating seniors.  I just think people will continue to leave for high school if they get into Walls or are zoned for Wilson for a long time.  The average attrition between MS and HS at BASIS schools is 40%, and parents are very risk averse when it comes to high school.  I say all this and we are staying... at least for 9th grade.  But I think everyone is still taking it a year at a time....[/quote]

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