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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm surprised by the number of people who sent their kid to BASIS and seemingly had no idea what their kid was in for. The building is a prison with no fields. The crazy curriculum is openly shared. The lack of gym, etc., is obvious. Why would you have lotteried there in the first place? Were you dumb? Did you really not have a Plan B if you couldn't get into Latin? What kind of idiots are you people?[/quote]

They're not effective teachers and can't produce a happy well-balanced successful kid to save their lives, but as a for-profit they know how to market to rubes—and taxpayer pick up the bill![/quote]

Found the WTA rep.  Maybe move to North Korea--you would be happier there.

USNW&R ranks 11 BASIS schools in the top 100 in the United States out of nearly 25,000 schools, and a BASIS school is ranked #1 in the whole country (with TJ in Fairfax ranked #14).  So, yeah, I think that the people running BASIS know a lot more than you than running a school network.  But you certainly know how to run your mouth off.

[url]https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/national-rankings[/url]

[/quote]

DP. Couple things about BASIS in the rankings. [b]All other BASIS schools are test-in, so that already makes their situation much different than all other schools except other test ins.[/b] But more importantly, BASIS structures their policies to affect their ranking. For example, US News gives a lot of weight to how many seniors have taken and passed at least one AP. BASIS does not allow their students to advance to senior year if they have not met this metric, so they always have 100/100, because they don’t allow kids to get to senior year if they don’t meet this.

Also, from my perspective, the people running *BASIS DC* are the problem. BASIS DC has actually dropped in the rankings year over year. They plummeted another 200 down this year and their PARCC scores have gotten worse. BASIS’s reaction to this was to cancel all electives for two weeks so they could do extensive test prep. This is the kind of thing that people are talking about when they say BASIS cares more about BASIS looking good than they do about student happiness/mental health/well-being. [/quote]

The bolded is incorrect.  All of the other Basis schools are open lotteries, just like Basis DC.  The only difference is that the other Basis schools can administer a placement test when they are backfilling for grades 6+.  The placement test is not rigorous.  The kid only has to take the comprehensive exam for the previous grade for both math and English and earn a 60% on each exam.  If the kid fails, they will still be offered a placement in the previous grade.

I agree with some PPs that at the high school level, the Basis offerings are similar to any other reasonably affluent school that offers a lot of AP classes.  [b]The main difference is that kids at Basis can start taking them earlier and can take more of them. [/b] Some classes might be limited because there aren't enough students to support the class or they can't find a teacher.  Most Basis schools offer all of AP Physics 1, 2, and both C exams, but they need enough interested students.  [/quote]

Sorry, but this statement isn't factually correct. I worked at BASIS DC briefly and also taught in a MoCo HS test-in magnet program with a county-wide draw. Fact is, in this century, teenagers can take any AP exams they want any spring they want, including homeschooled students, through self-prep. Same with Cambridge exams, given in May and Nov. In MoCo, there are kids who take AP language and art exams in 8th and 9th graders and score 5s. That's clearly not happening at BASIS. I taught many MoCo students who took 8, 10 even 12 AP exams, scoring all 4s and 5s. Why anybody would do that wasn't clear to me, but they did, aiming high in college admissions from around 7th grade. In MoCo, you don't need enough interested students to take any of the four AP physics classes. They're taught at the magnets and bigger neighborhood high schools, like Bethesda Chevy-Chase, every year.    [/quote]

It depends on the school system.  In non-TJ FCPS high schools, AP classes are gatekept pretty strongly.  9th graders are quite restricted on which APs they're allowed to take.

Aside from that, I generally agreed that Basis does not have better offerings than any other school with a lot of AP courses.  It's one of the reasons attrition is so high after 8th grade.  There's no need to remain at Basis for advanced coursework.[/quote]

News flash:  If you live in DC, you can’t send your kid to school in MD or VA.

Not sure why MD and VA posters have hijacked this thread.[/quote]

You must be new here. This is what happens to EVERY BASIS thread. The posts and posters include:
1. People who sent their kids to BASIS, hated it, and spend inordinate amounts of time denigrating it and anyone who is happy there because if they aren't happy they feel strongly no one else should be.
2. People who never sent a kid to BASIS but don't let that get in the way of articulating strong opinions because they know a guy whose kid attended and/or they are "education experts" and so obviously they know more about the BASIS experience than people who attend.
3. People who want you to know that BASIS isn't as good as [insert name of VA/MD/NY school] and/or [insert nae of private school].
4. People (who will reply to this post) who reply to any post that defends BASIS with accusations of being "boosters" (weird one I never understood) or defensive or delusional or having "drunk the Kool-Aid". You have to respect the rhetorical genius of a position that says, "I get to sh*t all over you and the things you like, and any attempt to defend those things and offer counterpoints shall be summarily dismissed because you "drunk the Kool-Aid."  [/quote]

The posters also include people like you, who reflectively dismiss the posts of critics as spiteful BS, no matter how valid their experiences at BASIS may have been. Not sure what that makes you, maybe a booster, apologist for admins or just an ostrich, head buried in the sand. I used to think of observers who predicted that the BASIS high school experience wasn't going to improve as naysayers. But the upper school isn't improving as festering management/leadership issues are compacted. This thread makes the case pretty well. Some of us who've been rooting for BASIS for a long time are now seeking greener pastures. Sorry, but calling us names won't keep us around, or improve matters.[/quote]

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