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

Forum Index » DC Public and Public Charter Schools

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

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Give us a break, it's the rare BASIS junior who's taken a dozen AP courses and exams. Few BASIS seniors bother with more APs.

PP above obviously meant anywhere where many AP or IB Diploma classes are taught to a high standard to a high-achieving cohort.  [/quote]

Parent of graduating BASIS senior here. I’m loathe to enter this fray because the BASIS detractors are so emotional, but this statement just isn’t true. My kid took 12 AP exams (I guess one was a submission for 2D Art as a freshman) by the end of junior year. Several of their academic peers took 12+ AP exams by the end of junior year. No BASIS seniors take APs unless they failed to satisfy one of the AP graduation requirements for a BASIS diploma. BASIS students technically satisfy DC high school grad requirements by the end of junior year, so that is a feature, not a bug. Senior year is reserved for post AP capstone courses the first two trimesters, and an optional senior project consisting of an internship, research, and presentation. Detractors can feel free to harp on the charter management, lack of space, perceived weaknesses in curriculum, etc. but the college results this speak for themselves. BASIS is not for every kid, but if it does work for your family, the outcomes
will be there when it is time to apply to colleges. [/quote]

Don't buy this take, folks. PP is whitewashing structural problems with their BS loathe to enter the fray. I say this as the parent of a student who left after 10th grade for a private where extra curriculars, community and liberal learning are celebrated as much as exam and college results. Senior year at BASIS is a largely wasted. The focus isn't on learning or enjoying the year, it's on pushy, time-wasting forced college counseling. The AP capstone courses mentioned are poorly thought through, taught and resourced and the optional senior project is lonely, supported minimally and dramatically under-funded. No, the college results don't speak for themselves, not across the board. Fewer BASIS DC grads crack blue chip colleges than you might think. More would if they could bring serious extra-curricular accomplishments and, frankly, more time to absorb subject content, to the table. They neither have the time nor support for them in a curriculum where four years of high school is needlessly jammed into three, enrichment is paltry, parents are marginalized, respect for individual backgrounds, learning styles and interests is weak, and intellectuality is seldom promoted.

If you can afford to leave for greener pastures, you do that. Hint: The BASIS wasn't founded by, and isn't run by, educators. [/quote]

Yawn.  Bitter much?

Your kid washed out years ago and now you bash the school?

Per capita, Basis DC has the best college admissions results of any public school in DC.

You really can’t do better for an academically motivated kid in DC unless you want to pay $60,000/year at one of the Big 3 privates. [/quote]

I really hate the way Basis boosters seem to feel the need to sneer at absolutely everyone else.[/quote]

Seriously. BASIS is a mid school and if you like it, fine. But there's no need for the nastiness, defensiveness, and constant obsession with the ratings that BASIS openly games. BASIS boosters are annoying and that's why people get like this about it.[/quote]

How does BASIS “game the ratings?” Do you mean that kids who can’t keep up with the work are counseled out or leave of their own accord? How is that different than the private schools that BASIS detractors seem to think are the reasonable alternative for all. Does SWW game the ratings by requiring testing for applicants? As a
Long time BASIS parent, I have plenty of criticisms of the school. To the extent that I get “boosterish” is when recalcitrant former families or people with a strong anti-BASIS network bias attack the school as wholly unworthy. Like it shouldn’t exist or families only stay there if they literally have no other options. And that’s obviously just not a reasonable take, so parents lash out. You say BASIS is mid, compared to what? Sidwell? SWW, Banneker, & JR all have their warts too. They’re just not charters. [/quote]

Mid compared to the claims of its boosters. And mid compared to how it would score if it has to take by-right enrollment like J-R does.

Gaming the ratings does include retention and counseling out, but also things like what CAPE test they have the kids take.

SWW and Banneker are explicitly selective schools. BASIS is functionally running a lottery 5th grade and then a selective 7-12 by not letting kids matriculate upwards if they are below grade level, while pretending it is lottery and nothing but lottery. Jeff will probably delete this post as misleading but I don't know how much clearer I can be. [/quote]

It seems like you’re fixated on the question of how much institutional credit BASIS deserves, especially in comparison to schools like JR, Reed, or others that serve by-right populations. And sure, from a school-rating or policy-analysis perspective, that’s a fair question. But from the vantage point of a family evaluating what’s best for their child, it’s largely irrelevant.

If a family believes their child can thrive in BASIS’s rigorous environment—whether entering at 5th grade or later—then the fact that BASIS ends up with a more curated, academically oriented student body is actually a point in its favor, not a strike against it. The peer environment matters. So if the selectivity or attrition that happens along the way results in a cohort that’s better aligned for certain kinds of academic engagement, many parents will see that as a plus.

Now, I totally get that some people object to BASIS’s model on policy grounds—particularly the publicly funded nature of the school, the attrition rates, and the lack of backfilling. That’s a legitimate debate to have at the systems level. But those very features that raise red flags for some are seen as benefits by many families trying to navigate a landscape where middle school options in D.C. are often limited or uneven. In other words, what’s framed as a systemic flaw from one angle can be a practical advantage from another.

So yes, it’s true that BASIS benefits in some ways from the fact that not everyone stays, and that it doesn’t face the same structural burdens as some DCPS schools. But the real-world question for most families isn’t whether BASIS is getting “too much credit”—it’s whether their own child would benefit from being there. And for plenty of families, the answer is yes.

[/quote]

Well, for me those things are connected. It's not just policy grounds, it's what it says about BASIS and the quality of the experience there. BASIS loves to tout their stats and ratings, but if I believe those things are the result of attrition and class curation and external factors that don't benefit my kid, rather than the result of quality teaching, that's unappealing. And personally I think the small senior class is a con rather than a pro, but not everyone thinks that I guess. [/quote]

Disagree.

1. You must think SWW and Bannker are mid because they cherry pick all their students.  By your definition, those schools "curate" 100% of their class.  So, by your logic, their ratings are nothing to tout.

2. Basis has a rigorous curriculum and doesn't backfill, that is why the classes get smaller over time.  The fact that Basis can't backfill by offering a test in DC to allow qualified students to enter later grades is not their fault (no way a random lottery student could handle the curriculum by entering in, say, 8th or 9th grade).  Rather, Basis is barred from doing that by their charter.

3. The teaching is generally pretty good, as evidenced by Basis' top scores on AP exams, high SAT average, and top college admissions.

4. Agree that it is too bad the senior class is so small.  However, that is a result of the fact that Basis has to admit 100% of students by lottery, some kids who shouldn't go there are enrolled by parents who are desperate to avoid their in-bounds option and the kids later drop out, and Basis can't backfill under their charter by admitting qualified students for upper grades through an entrance exam.

5.  The hope is that, over time, parents will do better research at the beginning and only send academically motivated kids to Basis for 5th grade.  That will reduce attrition, increase class sizes over time, and lead to a better school for everyone.[/quote]

1) I don't think SWW and Banneker are particularly great for application schools. But at least they're not trying to pretend they are lottery schools when really they aren't. It's the transparent BS of BASIS and its boosters that irritates people.

2) BASIS could admit students and is just choosing not to. The BASIS parent organization could decide to allow it. They just don't want to. Stop pretending it's impossible when it's just a policy choice. Again with the transparent BS.

3) You are imputing a causal relationship far stronger than actually exists. Those kids would likely be fine at any well performing school.

4) Again, they can, they just don't want to. Other schools do.

5) Is that the hope? BASIS is hoping students with disabilities don't enroll? I think you said the quiet part loud. You're not supposed to admit that because it could get BASIS in legal trouble. [/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