Reply to BASIS to Banneker

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Because BASIS is offers far more serious HS academics than any other DC public school other than the fast track at J-R and Walls for humanities subjects.  I don't care for their AP cram school approach and didn't take the 5th grade spot we got, but there's no denying that their math and science middle and high school prep is head and shoulders above that offered at any other DC public school.  There's also no denying that some of the black families EotP who would have gone with Banneker or a DCPS middle school like Stuart Hobson in the past now head to BASIS. Banneker doesn't seem to be getting any students into MIT, Cal Tech, Princeton engineering.  BASIS does.
[b]Banneker's mediocre STEM prep has lost its sheen with BASIS in town.[/b][/quote]

Umm..Banneker is a Humanities school just like Walls so I don't know where STEM prep comes in. I majored in math and Basis is not it. It's just kill and drill with no depth. I was very disappointed when we toured and didn't even bother. Sure it may be better than other DCPS MS in Math but nothing to write home about. Just go with a math tutor for the win.The majority of the kids that have gone to the good eng schools have followed that model. [/quote]

Oh, you went to an open house and are now an expert on the math program at BASIS?

We actually have kids taking math at BASIS.  What they are doing is far more advanced than what we were doing at the same age.  No question in our mind that it offers the most advanced math curriculum among DC publics.[/quote]

I’d argue many of those kids have a surface understanding of the math but not a deep conceptual understanding.  I’ve taught many kids who left Basis after middle school.  Some are great at math, some are okay and most were accelerated too quickly and the gaps really showed.  Flame away but I have a relatively large sample size for my observations.[/quote]

It seems very likely that both of these are true -- that a lot of kids who leave after middle school were accelerated too fast and that some kids, particularly kids who it works for and who stay, are legitimately getting taught much more advanced math than they would get elsewhere. It's too bad that there isn't a way for kids who would benefit from that acceleration to be guaranteed a way of accessing it in DC. [/quote]

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