Reply to BASIS charter expansion is up for public comment

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm still trying to get my head around the idea that anyone is okay with these people taking $2 million a year off the DC taxpayer in exchange for washing out 60 percent of the class. WTF[/quote]

I'm a lot more concerned about the DCPS schools passing students through despite truancy and being years behind grade level. [/quote]

Why? Some dude in Arizona isn't getting the fancy Audi off of that... I mean, if we're going to miseducate our kids, let's keep the money for Audis here in the district.

Also, to be slightly serious, what you're describing is failure of the system, and what I'm talking about is people seeing how close they can get the system to failure in the name of getting the fancy Audi. Profit should never be part of any conversation about education. [/quote]

BASIS DC is nonprofit, dummy.

Think of the millions that DCPS is spending on failing schools where most of the kids are illiterate and innumerate.

Let’s create another dozen BASIS schools in DC and stop pouring money into schools that don’t work.

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No. It's a for-profit charter. We've gone over this.

DC contracts with a non-profit organization which then turns around and pays the for-profit for administration and curriculum. The for-profit is the decision-making power in terms of what happens at the school. It's really gross. [/quote]

If DCPS put them out of business by offering a test-in, accelerated STEM school, I wouldn't be sad for a moment. But right now, this is who is interested in providing real math and science to my non-JR zoned kids. [/quote]

Yeah, I mean, if it gets it done for your kids, you should do it. But so many people going in look at those washout numbers and think “oh that won’t be my kid” but statistically, it will be. And it’s infuriating that BADIS administrators bring kids in and know that they can’t educate 60 percent of them, but don’t try to change their method or discourage the kids who aren’t going to make it.

They’re looking to get paid so they have to take kids in they have no intention or ability to get through to graduation and they convince a whole lot of parents that they’re going to help their kids when they won’t. It’s messed up. [/quote]

DP. Your post makes absolutely no sense. What are the "washout" numbers you keep referring to? Where are you getting that 60% of the kids aren't being educated? I have to assume you're referring to the attrition numbers which--to be clear--does not represent the number of kids who failed. The number of kids who don't pass the year-end comps is actually pretty small. But kids choose to leave for a number of reasons.

You also argue that the school isn't doing anything to "discourage" the kids who aren't going to make it...soooo, what would you have them do? Maybe require the students to take a year-end test that they have to pass in order to get promoted to the next grade? Oh wait...

What's actually messed up is the fact that DC has so many failing schools---schools that are allowed to remain open and take tax dollars yet less than 5% of the kids are at grade level! THAT's what you should be upset about. Those are the kids who aren't being educated. The stats suggest that the kids at BASIS are, in fact, getting an education.

I'm not suggesting that BASIS is perfect, and it sounds like it didn't work out for your child, but whatever ax you have to grind is getting in the way of facts.  [/quote]

Sixty percent of the kids who go in, don't graduate. That's not success. The fact that 40 percent are successful is dismal. It's good for those 40 percent, but it's an indictment of the school overall.

If it was a public school you'd call that a failing school. If it was a private school and only 40 percent of the kids who start make it to graduation people wouldn't send their kids.

In theory, I guess, the curriculum isn't a terrible idea, but if they want to cater to that minority of students who it fits well, they should have a smaller—not larger—student body, and they should focus on those kids. Whether they're flunking or quitting, it's clearly not working for most people who go there.

And what's troubling is that as a for-profit, they have no incentive to change that. They keep pulling in kids who they can't educate—either because the kids can't cut it, or because they aren't providing an environment where most kids (who are already a self-selecting bunch of over-achievers looking for a better education) can thrive. Now they want to suck more kids into this system. All for the sake of making shareholders wealthier.

BASIS might be a fine curriculum—I'm skeptical, because even the people I know whose kids graduated felt they over-cooked, over-load-them mentality was, at the end of the day less productive—but if you want a school that caters to a small group of over-achieving students who can handle a super-accelerated curriculum that does not include art, music, physical education or extra-curriculars, you should send them to a private school that does that. You shouldn't take tax dollars for a system that the majority of students won't get the education they deserve.

You won't get any argument from me that DCPS sucks, but you won't convince me that a for-profit charter is the solution. With bad public schools or sketchy non-profit charters, it's a story of educational failure and it's not acceptable, but at least you know someone isn't getting rich off the failure. 
[/quote]

Oh my. Ok, so you don't have a kid at the school yet you're convinced it must not be working if so many kids leave (and you make no distinction between those who choose to leave v. fail), all the kids you know who did graduate were less productive because they were burned out, and you believe the man behind the curtain is profiting somehow. Oh, and you claim there's no art, music, PE or ECs. Got it.[/quote]

Sooo... we all agree it's a for-profit "school" that spins its failure as some perverse sign of success, all to enrich shareholders in Arizona? Cool. [/quote]

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