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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am the original poster of this question and threat. Thank you all for your posts and comments here. I welcome any more that may come. I still have a lot to think about and appreicate all the information I can get.

In particular, I appreciate the info on Deal. I have been a bit worried about whether it has too little homework, whether it will be too easy (because someone told me it would be). But I also think it might be a better fit and a child who is curious but learns better in discussion, projects, and experiences may do better there than at Basis where you have little of those things. Deal children do well going forward. It is hard to let go of the challenging curriculum, especially when your child is math/science oriented and he really does get the material, just has trouble with the volume of memorization and assignments. But hopefully we end up with a happier more confident child it we switch. Basis has killed his intellecutal self esteem - particularly dangerous for a boy at this age, moreso for a black boy at this age, given the country we live in.

I will say that the parent considering Basis should not consider 2 hours of homework to be set. It varies. In our case it was almost always 2 hours but to get 2 functional hours after 6 or 7 pm when we all got home, my son is usually up until 10 or 10:30. There were many times when the 30 math problems took 1.5 to 2 hours alone, due to fatigue (remember that is after being up since 6 am, and 7 hours of nonstop concentration time in school). In the morning he could often do 15 problems in less than 30 minutes so age, development, sleep and stamina are big factors here in my view. He has a friend who works much faster and he is in bed by 9 or 9:30 but that child also has a stay at home parent and a 5 minute commute so he is home by 4:30 every day. Aftercare at Basis has not proven to be conducive to homework. A little gets done there but not much in our experience.  One of the biggest challenges is that the assigned homework is not enough to do well on the quizzes and tests. It does not account for the need to make and review flash cards, rewrite your notes (re-reading is definitely insufficient at Basis in our experience), discuss your notes or materials with a parent, practice labeling all of the maps and anatomy diagrams etc.

On teachers, I do not think Basis teachers are necessarily better than others. Some are very good. Some do not seem good at adjusting their teaching style or the material to the age group they are teaching. Many lecture with power points and screens and the kids take notes (of course there are labs and in class work). I feel that my child is being taught some courses as you would teach at the high school or community college level, and the testing is at that level too. Most grading seems to be is one point off for every wrong answer on a scale of 100 - never half a point or anything and as most is multipule choice there is rarely partial credit. The result is that if your kid misses 4 questions on a quiz of 10, he gets a 60 for that assignment. Private schools in town would never grade that way. Our family has been through 4 of the top private schools in town and we've never seen this kind of testing or grading prior to high school. While the teachers have majored in their subjects, you can find that at many other schools in DC, at least the private ones and probably Deal though I don't know.

I think most Basis parents have to help their kids with homework regularly. At least at 5th and 6th grades. It may not be every night but we definitely need to provide much more support than we did in any of the private independent schools (including for this same child).

Thanks again and please do share more if any of this has spurred additional ideas for you.[/quote]

I know one kid who left for Deal who was, like most of the kids at Walls, placed in a lower math class and is now getting A's in that class.  He is getting A's in everything, but thinks it is "easy" and is sometimes bored but very prepared for Deal.  His self esteem, which was also being crushed at Basis, has risen considerably.  Happiness in MS and HS is really important, as is self esteem, so if you think Basis is crushing your kid's self esteem, I would switch.  OTOH as a fellow minority parent we want to avoid Wilson, we have seriously math and science oriented kids who do not require our help except for the kid in the lower grade sometimes, mostly with organization, and are doing well academically.  So we are in a different place, with a kid who just shadowed at Walls and did not hear any ringing endorsements from the former Basis students there and was stunned that kids were talking, eating and texting in class.....

Everyone seems very confident that Deal is a very good school.  I would be worried about a MS with that little homework as well.  But since you seem familiar with private schools, it is heartening for me to know that in high school my kids will not have to play sports to be "well rounded" and thus even if they have the same amount of homework (up to 4 hours by 11th grade) they will not come home tired at 7pm from being at practice to start it.  And we will not have to help them with it.  I think one of the reasons Basis teachers seem less easy to communicate with is Basis puts the responsibility on the kid from the get go.  Washington Latin also has a way to helicopter and monitor with "wikis."  But you do get a sense from the CJ if your child is in trouble academically, and the teachers are willing to try to help....[/quote]

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