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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]So from reading these trends, one can assume that the advantage of BASIS  over other middle schools is the fact that  there is accelerated math for most/all and that AP's  start in middle school.
 I am also reading that these same students with 3 or 4 years of accelerated math are not necessarily doing well in placement tests. Those students who have already taken the AP history test in middle school are getting upset because their AP is not being recognized by DCPS schools. If a student wants to go to Wall for a totally different experience, I do not understand why retaking a class is causing such a huge problem.  Shouldn't they just cruise through the course if they received "5"s on the exam?[/quote]

AP World is the only AP content which all BASIS 8th grade students take; about 25% take the actual AP exam in May. Those students who take the exam are generally the "strongest" history students in their class, and they get a range of scores, but most pass. [My DC got a 5 and was [i]ready to move on to other subjects[/i]; didn't want an easy A, but wanted to learn something new] World History goes for 2 years at BASIS middle school; so doing it again at SWW is a lot of time on the same content, especially for a kid who got it the first time.

There are 4 different math options for kids in all middle school grades. Some are very accelerated (5th graders in Alg 1), others aren't. My 11th grader is in Calculus AB; most of DC"s classmates are 1-2 years younger than he is. My younger DC is in Alg 2/Geometry in 8th grade. Most of DC2's classmates are in 7th. The students DC1 knew who went to SWW for HS did not have to repeat any math, although they were grumpy about having to take 7-8 separate placement tests over a 6 week period in the spring/summer. Clearly, they got over it, as did the ones who took World History a second time.

After 5 years of operations, everyone coming out of BASIS knows that other DC high schools may not recognize some or all their middle school work as satisfying DCPS high school requirements -- although they may still bitch and complain about it. The school informs everyone during prospective student info sessions and it is repeated frequently. For some kids it's a factor in their high school decisions, for others it's not.

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