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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Regardless of what Mary did/didn't do at Ross, I would have felt better about BASIS in DC if I knew she would stick it out for at least the first year. Leadership turnover or loss of founders can sometimes torpedo a startup. BASIS experience in AZ aside, the DC school is still a startup. Bringing in too many leaders who know BASIS, but don't know DC and the competitive school market could be a problem. BASIS as a charter management organization is not like KIPP. Their model has yet to be replicated in an inner-city setting. DC is the guinea pig.

Sigh. Didn't mean to vent so much, but Mary put so much into recruiting, it feels like kind of a letdown to those of us who were sold on BASIS in DC to see her jump into a national role. Yes, just like Michelle Rhee cut and ran to national level. Not that I'm bitter or anything? ;)

Separate question. Why does BASIS think Mary's experience with opening one charter in the EASIEST place to do it would be relevant to expansion into charter-hostile territory in the rest of the country?

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Original Tucson parent here. Another insight on BASIS corporation... First, to know BASIS you really need to know Olga Block. She is not an educator. She is a ball-breaker and will say as much to your face. Perhaps on the face of this planet perhaps only Carolyn McGarvey (certainly not Michael) could ever directly confront her and survive. She is BASIS, for better and for worse. She is a dynamo and a creator but not an educator. I don't think she knows how to educate kids but she has built a good model with help from talented educators on the ground. This and lack of public alternatives in Tucson support enrollment at her schools and so she can convince herself that she has a good model and need not respond to criticisms. Now, should she be imprisoned by the demands of teachers and parents? No. Should she perhaps be willing to listen? I'd say yes.

But the other observation I would make about the BASIS corporation in the last 2 years is how much it has changed. Originally the plan was simple... put the best teachers with the kids and impose high standards. Now the plan is to create a standardized "BASIS-in-a-box" model that can by spread nationwide. The focus, I believe, is at this point on profiting on the BASIS "success pheremones." One negative result of this expansion has been (a) the hiring of idiots in positions of central power who mess with the curriculum or structure of the school and then get fired but only after the damage has been done and (b) removing quality educators and on-site administrators (like Mary it seems) to positions within the higher bureaucracy, removed from students and, frankly, reality.

Again, I offer this only as an aside and from distant shores. Ultimately, as one poster said, charters are free enterprises. Parents will choose the least worst alternative, and perhaps in many markets BASIS is it. That is our choice right now (and ultimately we believe a strong family is the single-most important factor in student achievement in any case).  But many parents and teachers here in Tucson believe that BASIS could be so much more ("BASIS for humans" is our motto) and we plan to use our purchasing power to encourage our campus to respond to our concerns! (Can you imagine the look on Olga's face if the parents organized a school-wide boycott for a day to take the kids on a field trip???) [/quote]

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