Reply to Why is Washington Latin MS now a Tier 2 school?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Basis opened in 2012 and attracted many high performing kids who would have otherwise gone to Latin. Could this account for some of the decline observed at Latin?[/quote]

To be honest, I don't think so - 
a) because the timing doesn't line up in terms of Latin's starting to fail its advanced kids in 2011, although there were about 10 who switched from Latin to Basis when it started  - the first year Latin fell was 2010 t0 2011
our first and second (and only) DC CAS scores were 2013 and 2014 - so Latin started to decline 3? years earlier?

b) because for parents who were informed Basis attracted a completely different type of kid
meaning kids who wanted a math acceleration possibility and a heavy science emphasis
and 
c) many at Basis ended up their initially because they could not get in anywhere else and Basis took everyone who applied that first year, which was why our attrition rate was so high - we took 5th-8th, and our first two years we were close to Title I 
(2014 officially Title I - over 40% FARMS - and with that population we scored 2nd on the DC CAS)
pretty far from the Washington Latin population, who scored 3rd that year (Deal, as always, took 1st)

now their has been a huge shift - we are only 27% Farms and almost 30% white this year
but I will say as the parent of kids of color, I love the fact that my kids are in with a mix of kids from everywhere who work hard and do well - positive role models

I don't really think Latin and Basis would be in competition at all were there more decent middle schools -

IMO, no matter what it says on the tag, they are designed for completely different kinds of kids.

We have kids who would go bonkers at Latin because of the paucity of science in the early years and the inability to accelerate in math, I believe there are kids from Latin who would go equally bonkers at Basis.  While parents have claimed you can enjoy Basis without loving math and science, and I believe that, I don't think you could be at Basis if you hated math and science - like I did as a kid......... And I don't think you could be at Latin if you wanted to go fast in math.  Most kids don't, many can't, there is no pressure at Basis, but for the kids who can and want to it is a wonder.

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