Reply to BASIS--opinions please

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My take is that if you have a kid that's organized or easy to get organized, he/she will do well at Basis. As a PP said, it is intense and I'm still amazed at the level of materials they cover in 6th grade. I don't remember doing balancing of chemical equations in 6th grade. However, if your child is super disorganized, it will be a struggle as it has been for us since 5th grade. [b]There is also a huge amount of home work which takes up most of my child's evening with no room for other extracurricular activities. We're seriously considering another school for 7th grade for my kid's and my peace of mind. I have to stay up most nights to make sure every homework is completed and it becomes tiring after a while.[/b] The school expects a high level of independence from the students. There are no parent teacher conferences though there are parent hours which are scheduled through the front office. You can email the teachers but some of them are not good at responding. I've had to send several before getting one response. But, it hasn't been all bad. My kid has become better organized, learnt a lot and in spite of all the challenges, loves the school. Good luck deciding. [/quote]

Consider your other options carefully before choosing BASIS.[/quote]

In the early years, BASIS type kids are very excited to be learning so much.  But instruction is spotty, 7th and 8th grade are repetitive in Physics and Chemistry due to the "spiral model" and the fact that in order to learn more, you have to have the math.  The building is depressing, and when you see your friends from Deal and Wilson being able to do other things with their lives, especially in MS, smart kids start to wonder why 
1) they have to do 15 out of 30 math problems each night that are "review" 
2) why there are crappy teachers and so little reading that they start handing out vocab lists in 9th grade 
3) why the misbehaved kids are still with them (hint: it is all about the money before high school, so they keep the kids til 8th - that is why mastery defense exists as well, which puts well performing kids in a dilemma about whether the grades are worth the extra time - but especially if they want to leave it matters),
4) why LEAP no longer works (this is what kept my daughter there for 8th, but the next year it was made impossible - they wanted the kids to take TWO chemistry classes, and the LEAP Chem attrition from her year (not only in terms of kids who left, but those who stayed was horrible),  
5) and why so many of the kids who stay for high school are so miserable (they finally start teaching English so it is a steep learning curve).

If you want to actually learn AP Computer science from a teacher, don't count on it.  But by all means stay for 9th because at Wilson you cannot take APs

If you want to learn Spanish or Chinese at a reasonable speed instead of a crawl, don't count on it.

If you want to take AP World History it is now much more tough because you have to review what you learned in 6th (not 7th) grade

And if you want a HOS who stays for more than a year - and the last two were terrible - don't count on it.

The demographics of the students are changing rapidly...

But the method of teaching (guided note-taking, extremely passive) and the quiz/test ratios are not either, and mastery defense is designed mostly to keep their pyramid scheme going until 8th grade.

And the building is grim which would be fine if it were full of happy children....

But if you suffer through and do extremely well you might get into Princeton EA.[/quote]

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