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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The inconvenient truth is that elite STEM high schools in this country don't compel their top students to take AB and BC as a sequence.  That's not the way things work at TJ in Fairfax, Bronx Science, Brooklyn Tech, Talented and Gifted Dallas, top privates like Andover and Exeter etc. BASIS isn't a franchise run by educators, which sometimes shows.  And they wonder why they don't get more than 1 or 2 grads to Ivies and elite tech programs like MIT and Cal Tech annually. [/quote]

BASIS is not an elite STEM high school like the list of schools you provided.  [b]A kid destined for the Ivies or MIT is not going to be stopped because they took the AB the BC calculus sequence at BASIS.[/b]

Come back and complain / criticize once BASIS becomes a top test in HS.  Till then, please stop criticizing it.  [/quote]

I'll criticize what I like; you do the same. The sequence is a waste of time for the most advanced math students who could readily learn AB content in BC calc.  That's how calc has generally been taught in the strongest high schools around the country for two generations.

We had students in the BASIS middle school, so we know how their admins preaches the gospel of the franchise running elite STEM programs, to its to try to entice the most capable students to stay for HS. We also know how BASIS favors one-size-fits-all academic options that have a way of bogging down their most advanced students in elite college admissions. BASIS could aim higher for a particularly math savvy subset of high school students, but doesn't bother.[/quote]
The most advanced BASIS kids, like mine, take Calc AB in 8th and Calc BC in 9th.  Yes, he could have easily learned all of the BC material in 8th.  We don't mind, though.  Very few other schools would have allowed that level of acceleration, even if the kid is entirely capable.

[b]To some extent, we accept that BASIS is a one-size-fits-all school with relatively little flexibility.  The school is too small to be anything else. [/b] If you want a lot of flexibility, course offerings, extracurriculars, etc., then a large public school would be a better fit.   [/quote]

I bought this line, until we switched to a strong DC parochial school with a high school that's even smaller.  Surprise. We've found far more flexibility, more robust course offerings and better extra curriculars at this school. The lack of flexibility is obviously more a function of weak, inexperienced admins running BASIS than size.  Funding is also an issue, but the BASIS doesn't permit PTAs to fundraise and allocate funds. They permit a booster club to hand money raised over to admins. Total BS.[/quote]
There's a catholic high school out there with < 70 kids per graduating class that still offers 1-2 post AP Calc BC classes as well as a full load of science APs?  [/quote]

I bet they're referring to St. Anselm's Benedictine abbey high school up in NE. If yes, they're right. That school's graduating class is only 45 or 50 and they teach every science AP BASIS teaches plus 1 or 2 more Physics APs. We applied, my kid was admitted, but we couldn't afford to send him. BASIS' issues w/flexibility obviously don't start and end with their small size, or resource base for that matter. Leadership matters. [/quote]

Who know what school they are referring to?

But, whatever, SAAS costs $50,000 a year and BASIS DC costs $0 a year.

I would rather spend $350,000 on something else but if you hate BASIS's administration so much that you want to pay that, be my guest.[/quote]
+1. It's absurd to blame leadership of a school when a lottery admissions public charter has lesser offerings than a very expensive, elite private.  The private is getting significantly more money per student, and they can handpick only exceptionally high performers in their admissions process.

FWIW, though SAAS only appears to offer math through calc BC.[/quote]

No, they offer math through whatever level your student can handle, though most will stop at multivariable. Also, nearly half the students receive financial aid and they've said the goal is to get to 100% free tuition free eventually like Regis in NY. It's worth having a talk with admissions even if cost is a concern.[/quote]

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