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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It's all about critical mass. Are there enough smart kids that can test into such a school year after year to make it worth it? I don't have a definitive answer to that. We could create a smaller, test in high school similar to Dallas' TAG high school (#1 usnews fwiw), but then how would that be different from Tech, or Banneker? Perhaps we should just raise the entry standards for them?[/quote]

Again, I am going to suggest BASIS.

The comprehensive exams in 6th, 7th and 8th may not be as high as the entry standards for Tech or Banneker, but they will weed out kids unwilling to work.  The LEAP program for math starts in 5th (where all kids are placed in math based on testing), and for other subjects like Science and also English, History etc it starts in 8th.  You need a rec from your 7th grade teacher, a certain GPA (not only in the class at issue but also overall), and if they see you flailing they will put you back in the regular classes.

It is a pyramid, with far fewer kids graduating than start out.  There are now 35 9th graders at BASIS DC.  In terms of skewing white, either #2 (Tucson) or #5 (Scottsdale) (TJ was #3) had a Hispanic population of 20% vs 40% state wide, but there are basically no low income kids.

So BASIS DC is the closest DC can get - although they do it by exmissions rather than admissions - it may eventually skew white, but I think it would take more parents pulling their kids out of private schools, and I hope the lack of sports and the fear of true diversity will scare them off... at least for a few more years, so that it still truly serves the community.[/quote]

I think you're giving yourself a little too much credit here. You can't speak triumphantly about a weeding-out process that leaves "far fewer kids graduating than starting out" while chastising some straw man private school parent for being scared of diversity. Apparently you'd prefer a high school with fewer than 100 kids total, which would be suffocatingly small, in pursuit of your "community-serving" ideals. What community are you serving, exactly? The 20 children in DC who will stick with BASIS through graduation?

And why would anyone WANT a ninth grade with just 35 children, destined to be whittled down to what--15? 20?--by 12th grade?

I completely understand parents desperate for options in this city, especially for middle school, but I don't at all understand the papering over of the core BASIS flaws, which are obvious to lots of people. On its current path, it is destined to become an entirely STEM-focused high school for a tiny group of high-performing children. Good for you if that works for your children, but don't kid yourself that it's a less exclusive option than Sidwell, WIS, St Alban's, or GDS. It's just a cheaper one, a smaller one, and one that offers an extremely limited arts and humanities curriculum and almost no broadening extracurricular activities.[/quote]

Your comments just show that you have not bothered to really investigate.  The two BASIS high schools that are have 9-12 right now (Tucson and Scottsdale) have about  500 students each, and that does not even take into account the fact that many of the advanced students leave after 11th grade.  They call the 8th grade the year of decision, meaning that if BASIS is not for you, you leave, no questions asked and no stigma attached - if you want to be a football player or auto mechanic, at least you have gotten a decent education.  The liberal arts curriculum is strong, and the extra currics are still starting and spurting depending on student interest.  I don't know how big my private school senior class was at (choose one of the above) Sidwell, STA, NCS, or GDS, but we all knew each other and our teachers knew all of this.  The top performing school had 240 kids.  BASIS is offering more spots, and while we may not have enough to be a TJ, we do have a liberal arts AP track, and more than anything BASIS supports student and parent choice.  Am I glad BASIS was not my high school? Yes.  But do I want my kids at SWW #266, Banneker #461, Duke Ellington #1772, or McKnley Tech # 1897.  No way.  [b]Do I want them at lily white moco schools?[/b]  Not if I have a choice, because they are not white.  Thanks anyway.  Bash the only viable option to come along for years because it is starting small.  Great job.[/quote]

I'm not going to bash BASIS because honestly what the kids are doing there is very impressive, but I do think your characterization of MoCo schools as being "Lilly white" is inaccurate.  The highest is 70% white, and the vast majority are between 25-55% white.[/quote]

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