Reply to BASIS DCPCSB to open two PK3-5 campuses

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Reply to "BASIS DCPCSB to open two PK3-5 campuses"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Different poster than the one telling the story.  BASIS makes no secret about weeding more than half of the middle schoolers out, including very hard workers performing at or above grade level, which IMHO is cruel and unnecessary.  They enroll more than 100 5th graders with the goal of retaining two or three dozen fairly docile elite-college bound 12th graders - that's their model.  They've been doing this in Arizona for 25 years.  To thrive at BASIS, a kid needs to have a great memory (the focus is on learning facts, not reflection) and strong work ethic.  But the sad truth is that a student can get by without strong analytical skills, writing skills or indeed a strong love of learning.  It's a narrow education with a lot of shady salesmanship in the mix, but some families really like it and many parents stay in the city for it.

You can suck it up at Hardy or Hobson and hire your tutors, pray for lottery luck at Latin, embrace language instruction and tablet high jinks at DCI, move to the burbs, fork out for privates, or take the plunge at BASIS hoping your kids has the stamina, thick skin and memory to cope.  We pick our poison in this city outside the Deal District. [/quote]

But again, this rationale would still only support weeding out kids who did badly on comps or were otherwise problematic. Like, at most, it would mean grading comps so that scores clustered at A/B or F (so that Cs and Ds got pushed to the F range), so they could force out &quot;F&quot; kids with As and Bs throughout the year. It wouldn't explain the PP's claim that her kid got As and Bs and then got Fs on the comps despite doing well on them. The school has literally no motivation to take A/B kids with A/B comp grades and force them out. None.[/quote]

They do not force out kids who get As/Bs/Cs and pass the comps. They can't and don't.

But there are kids who get As/Bs/Cs in their classes who fail one or more comps 9&lt;60%). It comes as a huge shock to the families and the students given the fact that they think they've done well all year and the lottery is over and they may not have any good options. The students can retake the exams at the end of the summer and if they get a 60% go on to the next grade. I was told by a BASIS DC administrator that most don't bother to sit for the retake, although some do and pass the second time around.

There are plenty of other students who leave simply because they have other options and choose to exercise them.

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