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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]^ Um, I wonder why people whose middle school aged kids would shamelessly destroy school bathrooms and school property would send their kids to a school that expects APs, high performance and college placement in the first place.  Chances are those kids destroying property are not going to make it to college, and likely won't last a year at the school.  :roll:[/quote]

but chances are that those who stay, will.  Wilson has a 75% graduation rate.  That means you are stuck with those students in your school, in your life, in your classes for your entire career.

BASIS calls 8th grade the "year of decision."  Do you want to take the 6 required mandatory APs plus AP electives and do a senior project or do you want/need to do sports to get into college or want a wider college experience.  We have no problems with the ones who leave.  We also have no problems with the ones who stay.

PS some are planning to leave and go private in 11th? grade to get an IB diploma.  I think their parents are pretty confident that BASIS will have provided them with all the education they need until that point to be fine (they are already in AP Calculus AB in 9th grade).  But then they are multilingual native speakers of more than two languages, and are counting on their AP scores to matter in the IB process.  Since neither of their parents graduated from an American University, and they are fairly responsible and educated people, I would be surprised if they are making dramatic mistakes by staying at BASIS (and taking 4 APs in 9th grade) rather than going to WIS or DCI now.  Very surprised.  Their kids are also in CTY so they supplemented for the really dismal education all our kids have gotten in the upper grades at our Ward 3 Elementary School.  Never occurred to me.  And since they already had the in, they were able to supplement when our English broke down.  And I do wish I had done that.

But the reality remains that for academically advanced kids who want to be academically and intellectually challenged, BASIS is the place.  No bullying for being smart, only admiration.  Both my kids did peer tutoring last year and it was really rewarding and educational for them. No pressure to do sports.  And the only charter I know of where they can say "you fail any class but math, you get a retake, and if you fail that, you get a choice - repeat the grade or leave the school.  In our early years, something like 80 kids repeated the year because DCPS just had not prepared them adequately.  But I think that shows they were willing and ready to learn.  And so did our DC CAS scores - our last DC CAS, only our second time at the rodeo, we scored second only to the almighty Deal.

But because there are so few decent middle schools, many kids come to BASIS expecting to go to Wilson or Walls or whatever.  And I don't think BASIS has done a really good job on selling the high school here - I think maybe until this year they did not realize they had to. In fact, the most ringing endorsements I have heard are from parents who had their kids accepted into private school in 9th.   But to know you are going to Walls or Wilson, will have to do AP World History again - even if you got a 5, has got to be frustrating as hell.  And from what I hear, Walls has just as much homework, as do DC privates in high school - the HUGE difference is we don't have to waste our time on sports.  And it sure saves money for college - most of the top colleges will just allow you to place out of classes rather than get credits towards early graduation, but from what I hear, taking Calculus in college is no fun (but also not required).  But let's hope for our STEM kids who don't want to pursue math that they get 5's on AP Calc BC, because it will make a world of difference, whether they take it in the 9th-11th grade, or never take it at all.  My brother would have loved this school.[/quote]

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