Reply to Basis is sucking the energy out of my child

Forum Index » DC Public and Public Charter Schools

Reply to "Basis is sucking the energy out of my child "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]While it’s far from perfect, there is a good amount of self-selection that already occurs at Basis.  The incoming 5th grade definitely reflects a higher-performing group of kids than most schools.  And at my high-performing Capitol Hill elementary school, a number of parents opted against Basis because they assessed it wouldn’t be a good match for their kids.  (But a small number of kids with academic challenges still enrolled at Basis.)

While threads like this, which overall reflect badly on the school, tend to make me defensive, they do serve a purpose in warning parents to think hard about whether their kids are a good match.
 
Signed,
Very happy parent of a thriving Basis kid, with a younger kid who will not be enrolling at Basis, as she’s a poor match[/quote]

Yes, and a good amount of self-selection occurs at BASIS on the part of families where kids can work fast enough to burn through homework, but leave before HS anyway.  My kid was a "good match" student, but we left for a parochial school anyway because it's a dreary school with weak facilities.  He wanted to perform, play on a serious sports team, play in an orchestra, get fresh air and exercise during the day, attend a school with its own TV station, with a language lab, computer lab, library/media center, decent art and music rooms etc.[/quote]

I don't think that's a flaw with BASIS, though.  It's a very small school, so of course the sports, orchestra, drama, and other "larger school" activities will be limited.  There will always be some number of kids who decide that they want the larger school experience and leave the smaller schools like BASIS.   What I've noticed is that the kids who stay are the ones in the fringe sports that normally wouldn't have high school teams anyway, and the ones who play non-band/orchestra instruments, like piano or guitar, or play in local youth orchestras.

They can't make the self selection perfect.  [/quote]

Our not very religious parochial school has smaller grade cohorts than BASIS.  It has a small but strong band and orchestra, a lively school newspaper, a good choir, nicely done school play (with parents directing as volunteers).  We pay just 11K per year.  What's most different is the psychology and spirit of the place.  They believe in character and ethnics training and offering a well-rounded education, vs. a focus on prepping kids to ace high school standardized tests.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics