Reply to Does anyone know the status of the Proposed BASIS Expansion

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We have had a good experience at basis. Much of the loss is just people moving, as they focus on new starts in grade 5. They don’t generally add new students in later years. I am very thankful for the school.[/quote]

They lose a lot after 8th.[/quote]

About half that leave attend Walls, Banneker, or go elite private. That’s a great result overall. And the core that stays seems to do fantastic in terms of college admissions. From a parent perspective, these are the metrics that matter in the main, especially when compared to other DC middle schools (which are  oddly off the hook). [/quote]

It's just not a great result overall.  No secret that many of the BASIS 8th graders leave in search of halfway decent school facilities, extra-curriculars and electives, much better. BASIS also loses students after 9th, 10th and even 11th grades to greener pastures, and not just because families move. Clued-in BASIS parents know that college admissions don't always go well for students with weak extra-curriculars, particularly if they're white and UMC students, no matter how many AP exams they may have aced.  [/quote]

It’s a great result if those who leave indeed find greener pastures (which most do) and those who stay get great college admissions (which they do). What’s the complaint?

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The complaint is that BASIS is not in fact all that green a pasture. And the kids who stick it out and get into good colleges are not necessarily getting in because of anything about BASIS. They'd probably be fine at any number of schools. [/quote]

Bingo!

Basis boots the kids who don’t get high scores and keeps the strong students and markets themselves as a place to turn your kid into a great student… but it’s not. Statistically, your kid won’t make it through - most kids leave - and if they’re one of the minority who is going to do well, they could do it anywhere and possibly be better off not going to a school run for profit and the benefit of shareholders in Phoenix. It’s a place for great students to do what they can do elsewhere, at a much lower cost to dc taxpayers. [/quote]

I think a lot of the criticism here is based on a completely different conceptual framework than the one many families bring to BASIS—especially those who are being well-served by it.

Yes, not every student thrives at BASIS. And yes, it’s not designed to mold every child into a “top scorer.” But for families with students who are ready for and seeking true academic rigor, BASIS offers something that very few DC middle schools provide: a serious, structured, and accelerated curriculum—not perfect, but not interchangeable with what’s available elsewhere either.

This isn’t about test scores or college branding for many of us. It’s about whether the school provides an environment where kids who are hungry for challenge can actually get it. And frankly, those kids often are underserved at schools with broader, slower-paced models.

No one’s pretending BASIS is ideal for everyone, and many of us are fine with that. The right question isn’t “Does BASIS serve all kids equally well?”—because no school does. It’s “Does it serve a critical mass of students well [b]who otherwise wouldn’t find what they need in this system[/b]?” And the answer to that is clearly yes.

The fact that some students leave doesn’t invalidate the value for those who stay and thrive. In DC, where middle school options are thin, BASIS fills a vital role for families who are not asking to co-author the school’s pedagogy, but rather seeking a coherent and serious academic experience, even if imperfect in some dimensions.

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What you're saying here is that BASIS students find what they need in this system because the system is lousy overall (fine by you).

Do they really find what they need in the crappy building with many inexperienced teachers and a gratingly top-down management structure? My BASIS middle school students found what they needed, and much of what they wanted, mainly because I provided so many of their academic and extra-curricular inputs. We ran around town after school accessing basic sports, enrichment and performance opportunities. I practically taught them entire subjects when their right-out-of-grad school-teachers couldn't or didn't. The coherent and serious academic experience you describe just isn't what it's cracked up to be. Imperfect is too tame a word for teaching a BASIS student who's practically fluent in Spanish being forced to take beginning Spanish for several years, for what amounts to weak English instruction, and for parents being compelled, egads, to top up teachers' inadequate pay every year they have children in the program.

What we don't have in DC are great public schools. Not at Walls, not at BASIS, not at J-R, not at DCI, not at Banneker. We settle for BASIS for as long as we can stand it because it beats moving to MoCo, Fairfax or Arlington. Nothing more.  [/quote]

What’s this about paying the teachers?[/quote]

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