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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I can see how this thread about ultimate waitlist results for this year shifted to BASIS.  It is one of the few (maybe the only?) school which became much harder to get into.  This is really significant and is perhaps the reason nobody else is actually chiming in on this thread with other notable waitlist observations. Indeed, many “HRCS” which used to have long waitlists and few people taken off the waitlist now have much shorter waitlists or no waitlists at all.  So many reasons for this, including, of course, the way the schools handled the pandemic.  What’s interesting though is that post-pandemic people are not as thrilled about these schools because of the lack of rigor and/or classroom management that has perhaps been that way all along but is now more pronounced.  BASIS offers the organization and rigor often missing elsewhere around the city and thus the school should have no trouble continuing to attract more students and keeping an ever-growing waitlist.

I think this thread has illuminated some of the important reasons why BASIS attracts students/families initially and why it has trouble keeping them, which has seemingly always been an issue at BASIS.  The school, including the HOS (which I personally find extremely responsive and informative, especially compared to our prior school experiences) wants to work with parents to fix retention and improve school morale in whatever ways are feasible.  This will take time and effort from both the admins and the parents.  [b]To me, it seems that people who might otherwise move or go private might not do so at the same rates in the near future due to the rising costs of both of those options and that may have the consequence of families feeling more invested in the BASIS high school program and hopefully creating the change that they feel would improve the school. [/b] [/quote]

This line could easily have been posted a year ago, or five, or ten. Fact is, 9th grade enrollment continues to fluctuate widely. One year, four dozen 8th graders will re-enroll, the next year 80 will. The state of admissions to Walls seems more relevant than "families feeling more invested in the BASIS HS" in determining how many 8th graders return for 9th grade than what goes on at BASIS.

From what I gather, almost all of my kid's friends will leave for Walls if they get a spot. Pre Covid, these kids would've had a better chance of cracking Walls, with testing dropped from the application during the pandemic, a permanent seeming change.

There's only so much that can be done to convince somewhere between a third and half of the BASIS 8th graders to return to a program with weak facilities, a cramped building jammed with MS students, a v. limited choice of serious extra-curriculars, and an increasingly unstable faculty. BASIS isn't just competing with Walls, it's competing with GW Univ, where Walls students can take college classes. At BASIS, other than for math, no subjects are taught past the AP level. We will leave BASIS for another reason: we don't like how the program crams almost all HS classes into just three years, with senior year devoted to independent research and applying to colleges.

We don't think that this HoS is capable of improving morale. He might retain more 8th graders, [b]given the tough Walls admissions situation[/b], but we doubt that he'll retain more of his best HS teachers going forward.[/quote]

He won't succeed, as measured by 9th grade enrollments. But if enrollments do increase it won't have anything to do with him. Hmmm.

I find it strange that people like PP who were at BASIS for 4 years in MS, whose kids excelled and are able to test into and gain admission to HS so easily complain about BASIS without any acknowledgement of what came before. [/quote]

Is lack of acknowledgement what's strangest, or the fact that [b]most of the families still leave after middle school most years[/b]?

BASIS obviously does a great job of turning 4th grade families EotP onto the program. Just look at the length of that 5th grade wait list here in the late fall!  But the fact remains that the BASIS romance has soured for [b]more than half the families as recently as SY 2021-2022[/b].

Blame parents if you want, and cheer for the HoS, but your arguments aren't as convincing as the numbers.[/quote]

Some day someone is going to explain to me what causes people like you to just make up facts. They have never lost half of the 8th grade class. The published data tell us that with respect to rising 9th graders, BASIS lost 15% last year (92 to 78), 25% in 21-22 (71 to 53) and 10% the year prior (79 to 71). They also lose very few students from 9th grade through 12th. DC has choice. The application HS offerings in DC are much better than at any other level. It does no surprise that kids apply to and enroll in application HS. For many families the only reason they are still here to apply for HS is that BASIS gave them a viable option for MS.

You remind me of MAGA uncles who say things with great conviction and think that because they and their friends repeat them they become facts. [/quote]

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