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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][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The problem with BASIS is that it's not "really simple" as somebody claimed on the last page, not at all. Many 5th graders seem like a good fit for BASIS, so they are sent by their well-meaning parents. From what I've observed, few of these kids "wash out;" no mistake was made in sending them.

What happens is that the teaching proves to be so uneven, the leadership so prone to gaslighting families who encounter difficulties, the facility so lousy, the curriculum so rigid and narrowly focused on test taking, that most BASIS families get turned off the experience over time and leave.

Sure, you can always pull out, but it might be better to face the reality that BASIS is risky business compared to most DMV schools offering consistent rigor from the get-go. BASIS just not a very welcoming program offering a rich or happy educational experience to young people. There are a lot of sharp elbows at BASIS and not much of a community feel. When we left for a private, we were glad to feel included but dismayed to discover that our BASIS MS grad wasn't as well prepared as we'd hoped, other than for chemistry and biology.

Heading to BASIS is to roll the dice in a somewhat risky game of chance. Best to see it that way to hedge your bets, to avoid getting hurt. If you can afford a stronger program/school pyramid that's a better bet for both MS & HS or are willing to move for one, do it. [/quote]

We are dealing with people that stayed the course in DC until late elementary whereas a good deal of truly risk averse types would have never even consider it or decamped to the burbs or private early on. They’ve already rolled the dice so to speak.

If Basis bought a few free years before going private, any minor adjustment/catch-up seems immaterial, or at least a bet that paid off.

And I sort of trust private school admissions committees to assess whether a kid (coming from Basis or wherever) will be a good fit for their school.

This is precisely how we are using Basis - a way station before private — admittedly a bit easier for us because a sibling is already in that pipeline and we are quite confident that our Basis student will be more than fine upon the eventual transition — and we’ll be about $80K less out of pocket. [/quote]

Assuming 2 kids at a Big 3 you are still paying around $400,000 more than the parents whose kids stay the course at Basis.

Given that Basis HS is definitely better than MS (better teachers, better classes, fewer students), someone might question that financial decision.[/quote]

If the HS was so great,Basis would not lose 1/2 the kids after 8th.  The retention rate is not very good.[/quote]

To clarify, I think the HS class is a little more than 1/2 the size of the 5th grade class. A large majority of 8th graders return to 9th. I think maybe about 10-15 out of 80 or 90 have been leaving. That's a mix of moving to private and application schools, and moving out of DC. [/quote]

You're trying to whitewash the attrition. What happens is that more than half of the intake class of 135-140 is gone by the first day of 9th grade. Moreover, by the start of 12th grade, the classes is down to 45-55 students, not more.  We were surprised by how many students left after every high school grade, half a dozen each time.  There's high and unrelenting attrition at BASIS DC, however you slice it. Claiming otherwise won't change that.[/quote]

Other schools have attrition but also socially promote and backfill.

BASIS DC does not.

You are comparing apples to oranges.[/quote]

Why doesn’t BASIS backfill? It’s a public school. How do they avoid taking new students when there are so many who are initially shut out and would do just fine entering in late MS and for HS. [/quote]

Isn’t it obvious?  Because they can’t choose and pick who they get and are unwilling to do the work all other schools do to help integrate and support new kids.

It is very easy to have better numbers when you weed out low performers and refuse to roll the dice in taking new students.  Basis is doing nothing special and no really heavy lifting at all.[/quote]

There’s no real debate at this point: BASIS doesn’t backfill. But what’s often missed in these discussions is just how structurally dependent the school’s academic model is on that fact. If BASIS did backfill, it likely couldn’t deliver the program it’s known for—or at least not in the way families currently experience it.

Backfilling is manageable at most schools because it doesn’t fundamentally alter what those schools are offering in the first place. The academic pace and expectations are often modest, and the gaps between entering and existing students, while real, don’t dramatically shift classroom dynamics or outcomes. In some cases, schools aren’t doing much to bring backfilled students up to speed, but because the bar is already low or inconsistent, the disruption is minimal.

At BASIS, it’s different. The curriculum is aggressive, the pace is rapid, and the cohort model is central. Students who enter in later grades without prior exposure to the system are far more likely to struggle—not because they lack ability, but because they’re uninitiated. The burden on teachers to differentiate skyrockets. The pressure on classroom cohesion intensifies. And the students who’ve been there all along suddenly find their academic environment altered in ways that feel material. If BASIS were required to backfill meaningfully and regularly, it simply wouldn’t be BASIS anymore—at least not in the form that draws families to it.

And that, really, is the underlying policy dilemma. The question isn’t just should BASIS be forced to backfill? The more fundamental question is: should schools like BASIS be allowed to exist at all within public systems, on the public dime (?). Because demanding full backfilling from BASIS is effectively asking it to become a different kind of school—more comprehensive, more catch-all, less specialized.

There are reasonable people on both sides of that debate. But it’s important to be clear-eyed about what the tradeoffs actually are. The stakes aren’t limited to one admissions policy—they go to the heart of what kind of public education ecosystem a city like D.C. wants to have.

[/quote]

I would argue that the underlying problem is that Basis doesn’t offer a comprehensive, flexible curriculum or the support.

They could take kids and support and integrate them.  If kids are unable to do the work, they get held back like they do when they take new 5th graders and all thru middle school.

It’s not hard.[/quote]

Actually, they do do that.

Typical DCUM pontificating by people that know nothing about that school.[/quote]

They seriously have dedicated office hours that students can sign up for — and many students avail themselves of it, especially in math. What other “supports”  or “flexibility” do folks want? [/quote]

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