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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]More like trying to disguise their demographics. BASIS enrolls few poor minority  kids by design. Few can handle the curriculum and those who enroll aren’t given the structure or support (e.g intensive remediation and Saturday school like at KIPP) for that to change.[/quote]

No kids at Basis here but the blame that few poor minority kids can handle the curriculum lays on DCPS shoulders not Basis.

DCPS doesn’t offer G and T in elementary and tracking in all subjects in middle school for the poor minority kids with potential to do well.  They also socially promote everyone so impossible for a teacher to do any teaching at high level. So they stay in the low expectation culture of DCPS and by the time high school rolls around, it’s too late.

That’s fine if Basis wants to help support struggling students but let’s not kid yourself that if someone who is performing way below grade level from a poorly performing school is going to catch up and succeed at Basis.  [/quote]

We were at BASIS for a couple years. The PP who points out that BASIS [b]doesn't support low SES kids [/b]who arrive behind academically isn't all wrong. When a kid struggles academically, despite a family's best efforts to keep the kid on track, the response from BASIS admins and teachers can be pretty darn cold. The family is told that the kid isn't trying hard enough, isn't putting nose to the grindstone. If the kid continues to struggle, the message that admins give the family is that the kid [b]isn't cut out for the curriculum[/b], so it's time to leave. In most of these cases, the kid could probably succeed at BASIS, even thrive, with more encouragement, a happier environment, and, frankly, better teaching and less busy work at home. BASIS hires too many young, inexperienced teachers with poor classroom management and instructional skills to serve kids who struggle--both high SES and low SES--well.[/quote]

I was struck by the bolded. BASIS provides no more and no less support to low SES than to anyone else. UMC kids don't get more access to teachers and support than low SES. That was not the case at my old HRCS where teachers effectively created advanced plans and support for parents who knew how to ask for them.

This oft repeated narrative that BASIS leaves kids out on their own doesn't track with reality. Every BASIS teacher is required to hold no less than 90 minutes of student office hours every week. Kids can walk in and ask for help with anything; no advanced scheduling required and no after school fee. Teachers are also required to hold parent office hours for 90 minutes once per week. Those are separate from student hours. Those meetings are now over zoom so people needn't leave work and park at school mid-day.

I was also struck by the second bolded section. It is true that some kids are not cut out for the BASIS curriculum. That's true for low SES and UMC families alike. BASIS is up front about what it is and how it operates. They test kids all the time. They throw tons of material at them and they don't slow down for one or two kids. They don't allow test retakes (an "F" is an "F" - do better next time). Late assignments don't count; urn it in on time next time. I know we live in a world where every kid gets a trophy, but that's not reality. BASIS is a bad fit for some kids. That's ok. It isn't a neighborhood school. Some kids would fail at Duke Ellington. That's ok too. The mentality that we need to water down all education to meet the needs of the bottom of the class is why public education in DC suffers.

Where are these poor classroom management skills? Seems like you conflate an unwillingness to cater a class to kids struggling with poor classroom management. In my experience, poor classroom management manifests as kids who speak out in class, don't do the work, don't respect teachers and make it impossible for kids at or above grade level to learn and excel. You say that the teachers don't have "instructional skills to serve kids who struggle", but what you mean is they don't cater classroom work and time to those kids. It is true. They don't. That is not because of the oft repeated and lazy take of "young teachers", rather, by design. [/quote]

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