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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Why are comparisons to TJ ridiculous?  Arguably, TJ is simply a competitor public school in the same Metro area, one with a very similar mission to BASIS' (launching first-rate STEM students to top colleges, including low-income minority students).

The fact that DC won't fund a test-in program with comparable facilities, and academic and extra-curricular offerings, to TJ's (albeit on a smaller scale), is regrettable, but surely not irrelevant.  After all, TJ applicants will be applying to the same sorts of colleges as BASIS DC applicants, from the very same Metro area.

Because that isn't Basis' mission. [b]It is NOT a STEM-school.[/b]

NP, I don't understand this comment. Why all the emphasis on math and science at BASIS if it's not a "STEM-school." To my knowledge, no other public MS in this city requires students to complete 30 math homework problems per night, or teaches algebra to 5th and 6th graders who're ready for it, or requires 7th and 8th graders to study chemistry and physics.

I just looked at TJ's web site and they are advertising robust looking humanities offerings, including AP language instruction in half a dozen languages.  So TJ isn't a STEM program either?

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If it were a STEM school, there would need to be a more fulsome "technology" emphasis, which there isn't. There is robotics and intro to computer science, but it's really a classic liberal education, as in broad based. The idea is to ground everyone in science and math, even if they go into the humanities. And conversely, to make sure that children interested in exploring science/technology and math after high school also have a grounding in other subjects.

That isn't to say that TJ doesn't do humanities or a child with an interest in science won't get a lot of opportunities at BASIS. But the "BASIS is designed for STEM-oriented kids" is an inaccurate moniker.

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