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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][/quote]

Yes but BasisEd sure put their two feet in the wrong place, because now Sean is just across the river preparing to run a private school when I would wager had they offered to pay him more to stay in DC he would not have taken the promotion that burned him out and would still be with us and so would a lot more kids, and those that weren't might be getting credit - but both at Walls and Wilson you have to take Geometry.  But taking AP World History over again if you got a 5 on the AP?  Insanity.

And losing over half of LEAP last year plus tons of others, [b]having many who remained from LEAP not taking AP Chem[/b] (teacher sent out a desperate email before the start of the year), and no LEAP section at all this year, would not have happened if Sean had stayed.  Basis usually does know how to prepare kids for AP exams - even in DC we are doing pretty darn well as Sean (who, again, gave the talk last year about our local AP performance) explained.

My one complaint is that the AP CS course, while full of kids who can teach themselves, is full of kids who will have to teach themselves.  NOT a good choice of a teacher.  Oh well.  These kids are smart and they will get it.  And the required APs are really not fair to those who aren't well rounded.  But that has to do with the high school curriculum at BASIS in all its schools, not BASIS DC in particular.  But it is something parents should consider before they continue on to the high school.

I think Eyerman was a good choice, but he is no Sean Aiken.  Doesn't have the charisma, the positive energy, etc....[/quote]
This was largely due to scheduling more than anything else. As for the LEAP section not being present, there were too few kids left over to have that section.[/quote]

No dear the question is why there is no LEAP section in the 8th grade not the 9th grade (agreed too many of them left after 8th grade - is that typical of BASIS schools?), and why you would make kids who had been in LEAP Chem in 8th then have to show up at 7:45 to take AP Chem.  These are the real questions.

Once we really start departing from the BASIS model you have to keep your eyes wide open, especially if you are (as we were) impressed by 5th and 6th grade.

And if you have a kid who is basically pure STEM or pure liberal arts you have to remember that in high school they are required to take six APs not of their choosing - unlike Wilson, unlike Latin, unlike any other school I know of, 3 in math/science and 3 in English/US Gov't/foreign language?  NOT a good fit for anyone except for a well rounded kid.

[b]And most kids who are really good at one thing are not well rounded. [/b]

No skin in the game, no kids there anymore, over and out.

Just warning those of you with unhappy unchallenged 9th graders and those counting on the lower school as paying your dues with high school as the great reward to seriously reevaluate whether it is worth an unhappy teenager taking APs that they know will be factored into their grade that are either required or poorly taught.

Middle school OTOH offers the best education available in my experience.[/quote]

[quote]But there are plenty of those kids.  The 75th percentile who gets into Harvard have 2490 SATs and 35 ACT scores.

Wonder what scores the top 24% got?[/quote]h

I think I probably scored in the top 24% back in the day.  SATs were 790 verbal and 760 math.  Did that mean I was well rounded?  Hell no.  Did I [b]ever[/b] take a math or science AP?  Hell no.

So I have one kid on the other side who just does not feel they can get through the 9th grade AP US Gov't and 10th grade AP English class BASIS is demanding so soon (especially thanks to bottom of the barrel English instruction 6th-8th grade - on the last DC CAS this kid was my only one ever to score proficient rather than advanced in anything, and it was English).

I guess the point is that as an alumnae interviewer for an Ivy we look somewhat askance at 4s, and 3s are an anathema.  So my judgament may be a bit skewed but BASIS DC has also not prepared these kid for the language AP.  So I feel like we should quit while we are still ahead.

The SATs only measure up to Algebra II.  The vocab etc may measure a lot more.  My child needs to learn how to write a 5 paragraph essay all over again.  I am not going to leave it to BASIS to teach them that, or give them the down time to be a sufficient bookworm to improve their vocabulary - because there is no down time at BASIS.

BASIS hands out vocabulary words.  I never in my life did that because reading was my passion. But then again we read 6-8 books at my private school starting in 6th or 7th grade and wrote constantly by contrast in 7th and 8th my poor child read two books each and had to write basically three essays.  Disgraceful.

So while I do not expect said child to ever take an English AP, I remain hopeful about foreign language, and that perhaps CTY courses will help us get over this hump because I feel completely inadequate.

Now I have another child who seems completely well rounded at BASIS and up for any AP you want to throw their way.  But it is hard to guess what is going to happen when your child is only in 5th grade, and you want them to be able to pursue their interests as far as possible - and for our lopsided one, that means Wilson and a specific academy after 9th.  In the interim, knocking off 3 or 4 APs is not a bad way to start your high school career.[/quote]

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