Reply to BASIS proposal to expand to K-4--PCSB hearing today

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]DP.  I did review the documents and quickly saw that you are spreading false information.  Basis “ is primarily a commercial real estate investment firm”?  Shame on you.  You are clearly a troll.

Here is the latest reporting from the Arizon Republic (which, BTW, doesn’t cover charter schools in DC):

[b]This Arizona high school landed the top spot in national U.S. News ranking[/b]

A charter school in Peoria landed the top spot in a new ranking of the best public high schools across the nation.

BASIS Peoria was ranked first in the nation on U.S. News & World Report's 2024 rankings of best public high schools, rising from 12th place in last year's ranking.

Twelve Arizona high schools in all were included in the top 100 spots of the ranking.

They included 10 schools in the BASIS charter school network — Peoria (first), Oro Valley (24th), Scottsdale (32nd), Tucson (33rd), Ahwatukee (34th), Phoenix (45th), Mesa (56th), Prescott (75th), Chandler (84th) and Flagstaff (94th) — and two district schools: University High School in the Tucson Unified School District (81st) and University High School in the Tolleson Union High School District (83rd).

BASIS Peoria and BASIS Oro Valley were among the top five charter schools in the country, and BASIS Peoria and BASIS Chandler were among the top five STEM high schools, according to the rankings.

The 2024 rankings, which were released Tuesday, evaluated nearly 18,000 public schools across the country.

U.S. News & World Report also ranked the top schools in the metro Phoenix area. The top ten included six BASIS schools and University High School in Tolleson, along with Arizona College Prep in the Chandler Unified School District, Gilbert Classical Academy in the Gilbert Unified School District and Phoenix Union Bioscience in the Phoenix Union High School District.[/quote]

Wait.

Of the 18,000 high schools in the United States, BASIS has 10 in the top 100 nationwide?

Seems like the BASIS network of public charter schools is doing fine.[/quote]

They game the rankings.

A big part of the US News formula is percentage of seniors who have passed an AP exam. US News uses that metric because at most high schools, that number reflects how well the kids learn the material.

But the BASIS system is, if you don’t pass an AP exam by junior year, you don’t become a senior. So the percent of seniors who have passed an AP exam is always 100%, at all BASIS schools. By definition. Doesn’t help any kids learn anything, and it’s not a model a true public school could ever adopt, but it sure makes the rankings look good![/quote]

No one is leaving in DC because they couldn't pass an AP exam. You can see the attrition from 11th to 12th grade at BASIS if you download the spreadsheet. It is basically nonexistent. There are three years of data where you can see the size of the 11th grade class and the subsequent 12th class. They lost three students in total over those three years, or an average of one student a year,.

https://edscape.dc.gov/page/student-enrollment-pathways

[/quote]

You can get a lot out of this data if you try. It does seem like there's not much attrition after the transition from 8th to 9th, but a lot before then. Retention from 5th into 6th isn't great-- most recently 116 out of 135 5th graders stayed for 6th. That's 86% of the class-- not so good. The prior year was 115.

It's possible to trace cohort progress over time by changing the year setting, although it's super easy to get confused. Just for example, in SY 19-20, 124 5th graders moved up to 6th grade at BASIS for SY 20-21. At the end of SY 20-21, 98 BASIS 6th graders moved up to become BASIS 7th graders for SY 21-22. At the end of SY 21-22, 85 BASIS 7th graders moved up to become BASIS 8th graders for SY 22-23. And then at the end of SY 22-23, 60 BASIS 8th graders moved up to become BASIS 9th graders for the year that just ended, SY 23-24. So a group of 135 5th graders became a group of 60 9th graders.

Doing the same thing for the current 12th grade cohort (63 students stayed from 11th to become 12th graders in SY 23-24), 63 stayed in 10th to become 11th for SY 22-23, 65 stayed from 9th to become 10th graders for SY 21-22, and 71 stayed from 8th to become 9th graders in SY 20-21. So a 9th grade class of 71 became a senior class of 63. 89%, not great but not terrible. The really small class recent of 42 seniors shrunk from 48 in 9th, again not great but consistent upper 80s.

Edscape also shows where students go from BASIS, but the N&lt;10 rule makes it hard to say much. Clearly a lot of people leave the DC public system entirely. Others go to what I assume are their IBs, and BASIS does send some 8th graders to selective high schools. I suspect that some kids truly can't handle it and don't want to struggle or repeat grades, others are academically capable but for any number of reasons they choose another school.

It's also worth noting that the Edscape data shows BASIS does, on occasion, add students after 5th grade. I'm not sure why, but clearly they're capable of doing it when they decide they want to.

Edscape data is year-to-year change, but you can also look at within-year change. On DC School Report Card, BASIS shows a loss of 1.8 percent of its population during the year displayed. https://schoolreportcard.dc.gov/lea/168/school/3068/report#measure-107

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