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 "F" 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]

Actually, the school does.  BASIS.ed is a business.  It's goal is to maximize profits.  Since revenue is capped, unlike the case with private schools, the BASIS.ed approach is to reduce expenses.  Kids who do well without additional support are welcome to stay.  Kids who do poorly are pushed out.  They require remediation.  Kids who do well but have specially needs are also pushed out, but not as quickly as kids who do poorly.  The require additional services.  A small number are allowed to stay to so that the special ed staff has something to do and so that the PCSB doesn't yank their charter.

Take a look at the PCSB's reports on BASIS.  Note the special ed rates of less than 5% and the re-enrollment rates of 80 - 85%.  Compare those numbers to Latin's, where the special ed rates are 8.7 and 10.5%, and the re-enrollment rates are  100 and 96.4%:

[url]http://www.dcpcsb.org/sites/default/files/report/2016-10-11%20PMF%20Score%20Card%20SY15-16_BASIS%20DC%20PCS%20%28Middle%20School%29_EC_K-8_2016.pdf[/url]
[url]http://www.dcpcsb.org/sites/default/files/BASIS_DC_PCS_High_School_HS_2014-15.pdf[/url]

[url]http://www.dcpcsb.org/sites/default/files/Washington%20Latin%20PCS%20%E2%80%93%20Middle%20School_EC_K-8_2016.pdf[/url]
[url]http://www.dcpcsb.org/sites/default/files/Washington_Latin_PCS_Upper_School_HS_2014-15.pdf[/url]

The vast majority of families that enroll in BASIS come to the conclusion that it is not the right school for their kids.  Some come to this realization quickly.  For others, it takes years.
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