Anonymous wrote:The one thing to remember and keep reminding your child is that homework is not graded for perfection, just completion. So there is no reason to spend one additional minute on something that they don't get - just take a stab at it and have it explained in class or at teacher hours.

Anonymous wrote:

Have you reached out to the school to discuss? Are you staying for 7th?

Ummm... there's no reaching out to Basis to complain about their homework or their testing schedule. That's their M.O. That's their educational model. They believe their approach leads to successful kids (and according to US News ratings, it does). If your kid is unhappy or stressed or you don't like seeing your straight-A, hard-working kid get Cs, then you leave. The environment there also just BREEDS grade competition. We've tried all year to give her a variety of stress coping skills (not to mention some perspective on how much a grade in 6th grade matters) but there's something about the constant, weekly testing that just keeps the kids competing with each other. It's like an academic Olympic try-out. As explained in a number of parent/teacher events, the local franchise of Basis has definitely made changes to the way they run 5th grade here (as opposed to their other locations) because they now understand that there's a really big educational gap between DCPS elementary schools and where Basis wants the kids to be. So 5th grade is their transition year. And, like I said, my kid really enjoyed 5th grade. She liked the challenge and the increased responsibility and the classwork. But now, in 6th, the training wheels are off and Basis has a proven "winning" formula that they believe in. You either get on the bus and go for the ride or you get off.

Yes, if she somehow got into Latin she would definitely leave. But she's been trying since 5th to get in there and it's never happened for us. Other options explored but aren't good fits for other reasons. It's really too bad that there aren't more non-private options that are for hard-working, smart kids who like being challenged in our area. It seems to be that there's got to be a difference between THIS and .... an educational experience that is one step up from babysitting.

Have you reached out to the school to discuss? Are you staying for 7th?

Anonymous wrote:My girl is nearing the end of 6th grade. She's done 5th and 6th at Basis. It was a big leap from 4th to 5th since she went from a "practically no homework" situation to homework every night and lots of subjects and different teachers. My child seems pretty smart and engaged and can focus and she made the transition very well. Basis provides a lot of help in 5th grade for the transition and with organizational skills. Homework or "studying" Monday through Thursday, sometimes a little on Sunday, but from what I remember it was mostly 30 minutes to 60 at the most. My kid loved finally being a little challenged. Sixth grade, however, has been a big difference for us. She's an unhappy stress-ball. She does still do some kind of activity that is non school related most nights (baby sitting; sports; music or something; etc.) but she's so stressed out trying to balance a little bit of fun or activity vs. doing well in school. There's at least 60-90 min every night, but often more like 2 or 3 hours. And that's with her being diligent in doing homework during the day when they have the opportunity to do it during their version of "study hall" etc. Thursday nights are the hardest, where she is studying for multiple tests a night. She starts as soon as she gets home and I have to pry her away from it at 9:30 or so and she's crying with the stress. You don't do a homework and your grade drops a lot. One blown test and your grade drops a lot. It's a lot of pressure. A lot of stress. For us, at least, 5th was great but 6th sucks. 6th grade is also a tough time, esp. for girls. So many things about your body and mind that are changing. I would rip one of my own arms off to get her into Latin instead of another year of this.

Anonymous wrote:For my child, it changed over the year. There is homework most days of the week, especially in math, but only occasionally on the weekends. Also, as the year progressed, especially the last month or so, DC became much more efficient and learned to get more and more work done at school. So much so that DC has less than 30 minutes of work at home on average. My child is not the more focused child, highly distracted in fact; BASIS has helped DC become better at time management.