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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

So I am not surprised by the attrition - I don't know what the rates are in AZ but they are certainly out of the norm for charters.  [b]Attrition is good. [/b] I expect a graduating class of 50 or so, all motivated and mostly smart, and a peer group equivalent to a private school but these kids will have much more education under their belts, most will have much less money, and their faces will be shades of white, brown, black and Asian.  Size will end up being private school like, everyone will know each others name.[/quote]

Attrition would indeed be good if BASIS and DCPC had a plan to replace kids who can't and won't cope with kids who can and will.  We've decided to turn down our 5th grade spot.

Asian kids with Asian parents (like mine) in 12th grade?  Show me the money. You might have a few left adopted by whites, but Asian parents have shown almost no interest in any DC public HS to date.

Sadly, the weak facilities at BASIS will be a non-starter for many, perhaps most, other parents of the city's strongest students outside Upper NW (the only area with a fairly high-performing MS and HS).  When I visited, the lack of performance space and sports facilities turned me off.  I went to MIT and was only saved by super nerdom in HS by playing in the band and running track. My asphalt-ringed NYC MS and HS rented playing fields elsewhere, which BASIS seems to have no plan to do.
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The anticipation has always been and still will be that grades thin out, they primarily feed the school with large incoming classes in the lower grades, primarily 5th - attrition was always expected, and it happens at the BASIS AZ schools as well, and that approach of how to replace them has been working just fine there for years.  They won't be taking kids at the higher grades, as anyone incoming will be far behind.  The overwhelming majority of kids that drop out are the ones without strong academic skills, who drop out because they were struggling with the curriculum, weren't passing comps, the ones faced with having to receive extra tutoring or repeating grades if they are to keep up.  BASIS DC sets a high bar, and doesn't do social promotion.  There's no "oh here Johnny, it's OK, we'll pass you on to the next grade even though you goofed off, talked and were disruptive in every single class, didn't do your homework and failed every assignment and test, one after another" as there would be in every other DCPS and PCS in DC - including in those upper NW schools.

Currently, they have a very strong 5th grade cohort - currently over 50% of them are with a 90% or better average - that percentage in the 90s club went up as kids either got serious or dropped out - they got stronger.  And those were not "easy A's" as one finds in other schools - the kids had to work hard for them.

If you turned down your spot at BASIS, and you aren't IB at the NW schools, then where are you going?    And, good luck finding a school where your DC could have the opportunity to take Algebra I in 5th grade if your DC is indeed a strong performer.

And FYI, you are incorrect in suggesting Asian families won't seek BASIS out as there are Asian families at BASIS now (and not just adopted Asian kids).  And, I expect even more will seek it out once word of some of BASIS DC's major successes gets out, like winning the statewide Science Bowl and representing DC in the National Science Bowl.    [/quote]

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