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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]As a Basis parent, I will tell you as a matter of fact that curriculums are not that important.  The Basis DC high school has a reasonably good curriculum but the school falls down to mediocre in other areas:

1) Quality of teachers - typically inexperienced and prone to leave (underpaid, high cost city, often using teaching as a stopgap)
2) Quality of Students -- the high school has bright kids but there is quite a brain drain in 7th and 8th grades as kids and parents go to alternatives....good thing is few kids are troublemakers
3) Quality of Extracurriculars --- no funding
4) Quality of Facilities --- terrible
5) Quality of Administration --- few true educators on staff, lazy and arrogant admins
[b]
We stuck with it knowing some of these things but would do otherwise if had the choice again[/b]

[/quote]

What would you have done? Asking bc we are enrolled at BASIS for 5th next year, but will likely get a spot at Ross (to SWWFS) and Hyde Addison (to Hardy and MacArthur) and will have to make a decision.

The problem is that my son is really excited about it. He loves his shadow day, and the 5th grade dean, and what he has heard of the curriculum. [/quote]

I'm not the PP you're responding to, I'm the one above who worked at BASIS when the school was new and elected not to send my kid after researching the current state of the program. The post above assessing BASIS DC quality is worth considering because the poster really hits the nail on the head. What BASIS DC has got these days are deadweight, supercilious admins more interested in pushing families around than helping students embrace joy of learning as a springboard for elite college admissions. As far as I know, none of these admins is themselves a grad of a college admitting in the single digits. Get their names and look up their bios. I suggest that you educate yourself on how the franchise works while asking yourself what your own philosophy of education might be before making your enrollment decision. Fact is, the Blocks of Arizona, Olga and Michael, the BASIS founders, aren't educators either. Even so, they've spent 30 years developing a corporate formula for building successful applicants to blue chip colleges, which may or may not jive with your world view. I saw far too much at BASIS that ran contrary to best practices in liberal learning and management to want to stay on, although I admired some of what the franchise does, particularly inculcating strong executive function skills and a work ethic in middle school students. Same for DCPS options. After many years in a DCPS ES, we'd lost faith and couldn't take another year in the system, regardless of the school or program. I wouldn't let the 10 or 11-year-old call the shots here when they're too young to understand what your family would be getting into.[/quote]

Ok. It's not just that my 10 year old is "calling the shots," but that we are all looking forward to his 5th grade at BASIS and how much he will learn (both in content and in how to study and organize his time and to use a planner). The PP who I asked gave me good advice, which is to have a high school plan -- that's what we are doing. He's a very studious kid who enjoys a challenge and the middle school really does seem like a good fit. My husband and I would have loved it, as middle schoolers. High school is a much different situation, simply due to how small/limited the experience feels.

I'm not sure what "liberal education" goals are, but I understand that the Blocks created this school because they thought American schools were not challenging enough, and that the students were falling behind their peers in other countries. We are both the children of immigrants, and know that school is much harder in other countries, especially Asia and Eastern Europe. So the rigor makes sense to us.

I know there is a lot of poison in this board, but in the real world I've met enough happy BASIS students to know that it's worth it to some kids. And the families all seem pretty similar to us. [/quote]

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