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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am not that smart and I didn't work that hard in high school.  I am very commited to showing up - I have always had good attendence.  My parents supported me. I passed 4 AP tests.  Why does Basis go on and on about kids having 4 hours of homework a day in order to pass a few AP tests????  [/quote]

Two points, PP.

First, BASIS upper school students must take a minimum of 8 AP courses and pass a minimum of 6 AP exams to graduate.  Many pass more than the minimum.

Second, BASIS claims to assign very little homework.  IIRC, BASIS students have regular homework only in math.  The philosophy seems to be that, since the kids focus on learning to the exclusion of all else during the 7 hours they are at school each day, there is little reason to load them up with homework. [/quote]

If this is true Basis is much more attractive to me.  Every parent I know who attended the info sessions (several of whom are very impressed and are going to send their kids there) talked about there being hours of homework a night.  If you look at the reviews on great schools, there is talk of hours of homework a night.  If homework is regularly assigned only in math, we will definitely look at Basis for my kid. I don't care about my kid going to the best school in America, I want him to have a childhood.

[/quote]

PP here.  My assertion that there is little regular homework assigned is based on my recollection of the discussion about homework during a BASIS Q&A a few months back.  I have no first-hand knowledge of the amount of time the typical (or gifted or struggling) BASIS student spends on homework.

I have to admit that my recollection is not what it used to be.  However, I was left with the impression that regular homework is assigned only in math and in other classes only sporadically.  The school sets aside blocks of time during the day for kids to complete their work at school, rather than at home.  The BASIS representatives offered various rationales for this approach:  teachers are available to help kids have trouble; it is burdensome to parents to assume the responsibility for teaching at home; grading is based on exams much more than homework; limiting homework frees the kids to pursue extra curricular activities in the evenings and on the weekend.  There might have been others.

That said, there are several posts on GreatSchools complaining about amount of homework assigned.  There are also several claiming that the amount of homework is quite reasonable.  I have no reason to believe one set of posts over these other.  Perhaps there a bit of truth to both.  One parent writes the following:

"If you just want your child to LEARN and you can let go of the high expectations of straight A's, there is nowhere near 3 hours of homework per night. My daughter is in 7th grade and all she has to do after school is math. Which takes about 1/2 hour because she utilizes the time the teachers actually give them DURING SCHOOL to do her work."

Another writes:

"I am so sorry your daughter had so much homework. That means she was wasting the time given in class to work on homework. I have two children at Basis and they rarely have homework. They use that time in class to complete the homework. What did your daughter do with that time? Teachers do this so if your child has a question about the homework they can ask the teacher for help. I wish you all the 
best."

So, perhaps it is the children with poor time-management skill and those with perfectionist tendencies that spend hours on homework.  Then again, perhaps most of the children spend hours on homework but under-report the time they spend on homework, thereby duping the teachers into believing that they are assigning a reasonable amount of work.   [/quote]

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