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[quote=Anonymous][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]

These sort of posts are so dumb.

You worked at Basis more than a decade ago.  The school is very different today than it was.  Why did you leave?  Who knows?  Maybe you were a bad teacher/admin and were pushed out.  You obviously have a chip on your shoulder about the school.

You “researched” the current state of the program and concluded that “deadweight, supercilious admins more interested in pushing families around than helping students embrace joy of learning as a springboard for elite college admissions.”  Really?  Exactly what research did you do?  You interviewed all the admins and concluded that they were deadweight and supercilious and just wanted to push families around rather than send them to elite colleges?  Please enlighten us on your “research” and provide specific evidence for your conclusions.

You whine that the Basis admins themselves did not go to elite colleges.  What school did you choose for your kids so we can examine the bios of the admins there?  You really think that HYPSM grads are running public schools in DC?  And since when does the alma mater of an admin of a school determine where kids end up?  Basis sends plenty of kids to top colleges every year.

You complain about the Blocks but the fact is that the Basis charter network is the most successful in the whole country.  They have 11 public high schools in the top 100 USN&WR rankings--way above any other charter network--including the #1 public high school in the whole country.  Basis DC is the #1 public ranked middle school in DC, #1 charter school, and #1 non-selective high school--and the school is only a dozen years old.  That is a sold record of success and achievement.

You sound like you left for the suburbs.  Feel free to let us know where you sent your kids so we can understand why you think it is so much better.  [/quote]

+100.  Of course, the PP won't respond.[/quote]

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