Reply to Capitol Hill families - If you moved to NW or burbs for school, do you have any regrets?

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Reply to "Capitol Hill families - If you moved to NW or burbs for school, do you have any regrets?"

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[quote=Anonymous]Let’s see. You teach at a suburban middle school yet you are somehow an expert on Basis. In fact, your “analysis” is way off.

-The curriculum at Basis is advanced across the board, not just in math. Just take a course catalogue.

-There is plenty of flexibility in taking courses (even though Basis is a lot smaller than many suburban schools), especially starting in high school. Some students take Calc BC in 10th grade; some never take it at all. Some students take an AP class in 8th grade; some don’t. All students start taking AP classes in 9th grade; some end up taking 6 AP classes but others take 10-15. After the first few years, there is effectively tracking at Basis.

-Lots of parents at Big 3 private schools supplement with tutors and camps. Just read the posts on the private school board. That says nothing about the curriculum.

-Basis is a great option for a lot of families, including those on the Hill, who didn’t want to flee to the suburbs. If you don’t want your kid to be challenged, don’t send him or her to Basis.

*NP. We're on the Hill. We left BASIS for Gonzaga last year and couldn't disagree more with the post 2 posts above. The curriculum at BASIS is "advanced" across the board as compared to which? That of DCPS?

My kid needed remedial writing work the summer before 9th grade after studying English with a series of weak, just-out-of-grad-school teachers with weak classroom management skills at BASIS. One of the teachers used to cry in front of the class when the kids got very rowdy. Gonzaga insisted on the writing work.

My kid arrived at high school with two years of iffy middle school Spanish instruction (BASIS now teaches languages from only from 8th grade and only at the beginning level), while most of his classmates started studying Spanish in the Upper ES grades at suburban and private schools. He was placed in Spanish 2 while classmates started in Spanish, 3, 4 or 5 (out of 6 levels).

My kid needed to repeat both geometry and algebra II at Gonzaga after having failed to master too many concepts, despite having earned As in math throughout his BASIS years. He came in a couple years ahead in science, I'll give BASIS that. He was also behind on standard extra-curriculars, sports, music, debate. In our experience, outside science instruction, BASIS is meh.[/quote]

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