Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP, I don't see how they've strayed from that ideal. They have raised academic standards, they do foster a culture of learning, they do utilize objective benchmarks, and they do hire passionate and talented teachers. How do you see it as having changed - and particularly, how is it that you are presuming to diagnose BASIS DC from afar, never having seen it for yourself?

Regarding what's "unhealthy" - what may be an "unhealthily high" bar for one student may be perfectly fine for the next. Certainly there are kids who won't be able to meet the demands. Consider that there are kids in DC for whom even the watered-down DCPS curriculum is an unattainable bar to meet which already causes them stress and backlash in life. And then you've got the BASIS honor roll and 90s club. There's no one-size fits all solution, and BASIS isn't trying to serve the many thousands of students in the entire DC system.

But again, as someone asked, what's your proposal? What is your better solution? I was also raised to question authority, but even with that background, I learned that it's easy to question and poke fingers at things, but proposing solutions is the far harder thing to do.

I am not diagnosing BASIS DC at all and have said as much several times. I am voicing my thoughts about the BASIS model pros and cons, offering the perspective of a veteran BASIS Tucson teacher, for whatever that is worth. I am also reacting to what I see to be a common series of pro-BASIS talking points (about the system, not the DC experience) that I feel are problematic at best.

As for the core ideal I mentioned, yes it is still there, but it is being strained (metastasized?) day by day. We began offering our first AP in 9th grade two years ago. Now there are 3. AP Calculus is now moved down into 9th grade. Class sizes are increasing at the same time, rendering assistance to students more difficult. The focus on APs has increased steadily, to where some juniors are now taking 8 or 9, and AP World History is now an 8th grade requirement.

I am a strong support of charter schools precisely because it does address the one-size-does-not-fit-all problem of public school system. What is "healthy" or "optimal" for one student may not be for another. My concern (here as a parent even more than a teacher) is that the BASIS model is becoming unhealthy (or at least suboptimal) not just for those who don't make it but for all but a handful of the students that make it through the program. On this point I echo the less than tactful comments made earlier by the Ivy interviewer and its why it irritates me to hear of all the schools BASIS students get into each year when I know it is due to the superhuman efforts of the very top students in the program.

My purpose here is to primarily to poke fingers, largely to dispel the notion that there is anything magical about the "#1 ranked BASIS European-style system" that leads to offers flooding in from MIT and Stanford. MIT doesn't particularly want kids who have done upteeen APs or even that can do diff eq. MIT wants dynamic and multi-faceted additions to the MIT community, and I feel that BASIS as it evolves and grows is losing sight of that essential truth. IMO we need to analyze the experience of the middle of the pack at BASIS to really judge the wisdom of the program.

As for solutions, part of my frustration is that BASIS is so close to what I would want a school to be. I would take the students and teachers at BASIS, cut ties from the corporate HQ, ease up slightly on the academic pressure, listening to the advice of veteran teachers, reduce the importance placed on AP standardized tests (some APs are great, but we have some juniors taking up for 8 or 9 this year!) and redirect some of this energy on "enrichment" activities such as field trips, non-lecture based seminars, debates, etc. Maybe DC has a charter like this. I am trying to learn more about the other "hot" charters in DC like Latin. Tucson unfortunately does not have this luxury of choice.

Anonymous wrote:PP, I don't see how they've strayed from that ideal. They have raised academic standards, they do foster a culture of learning, they do utilize objective benchmarks, and they do hire passionate and talented teachers. How do you see it as having changed - and particularly, how is it that you are presuming to diagnose BASIS DC from afar, never having seen it for yourself?

Regarding what's "unhealthy" - what may be an "unhealthily high" bar for one student may be perfectly fine for the next. Certainly there are kids who won't be able to meet the demands. Consider that there are kids in DC for whom even the watered-down DCPS curriculum is an unattainable bar to meet which already causes them stress and backlash in life. And then you've got the BASIS honor roll and 90s club. There's no one-size fits all solution, and BASIS isn't trying to serve the many thousands of students in the entire DC system.

But again, as someone asked, what's your proposal? What is your better solution? I was also raised to question authority, but even with that background, I learned that it's easy to question and poke fingers at things, but proposing solutions is the far harder thing to do.

Anonymous wrote:Just an observation regarding "attrition"... Even if only 85% of students who start in the BASIS upper school don't end up finishing at BASIS, it's still a far cry better than the average DCPS high school where only 61% of the incoming class will finish (due to dropping out, a far worse attrition problem than dropping back to a less-demanding school but still graduating).

Anonymous wrote:^^ who cares?!? They are HELPING children by providing good schools. Is there some conspiracy to make our children smarter? How dare they learn in a non-private setting!

Anonymous wrote:PP here - wow this site really could benefit with username system!
Just to clarify I teach at the BASIS high school campus in Tucson. I follow BASIS DC threads out of interest to see how this charter is faring as it expands at a rapid clip across the nation. Certainly it is a love it or hate it kind of school (at least among frequenters of charter school online chat forums!) Personally I preferred it when BASIS was a niche school for a few extremely gifted and/or hardworking kids, and the academic program was much less accelerated and AP-focused than it is now. The corporatization of BASIS and increase in size and academic acceleration has negatively impacted the culture and strength of the program here IMO, both for teachers and students. BASIS DC has the potential to be a unique organic learning community (like we were back in the day) if it is allowed to do its own thing. I worry that the corporate model will prevent this from happening. I like charter schools but I see no good coming from this "educational management corporation" model. Charter operators I think should be limited to one or two locations, all within one state. The BASIS owners I think have profit, not educational excellence, foremost in their minds as they engage in this expansion. Real educators know that a successful school community in comprised of a 1000 intangible elements, forged in a cultural crucible over many years. There is no magical "BASIS" recipe for educational success, though desperate parents might like to think otherwise.

Anonymous wrote:https://www.basisschools.org/phocadownload/profile_dani_tu.pdf

Anonymous wrote:

I agree, PP. The annual attrition rate is an important statistic, and it does seem like some BASIS AZ schools have annual attrition rates in the low teens. However, that rate should be compared to the attrition rates of comparable schools.

For example, Latin has an attrition rate almost 10% in the middle school and almost 8% in the upper school, according to the following report: http://dcpubliccharter.com/data/files/2013_Applications/2011-2012_Annual_Report_GW4WashinLatin.pdf

So, let's take 9% as the "background attrition rate" for a certain type of DC MS-HS charter . That is, let's take this as the rate of attrition that results from factors such as moving, not fitting in, preferring the IB HS but not the IB MS, etc.

We don't yet know what the attrition rate at BASIS DC is going to be, but let's assume it ends up being 15%, which is probably on the high side. Then, we might infer that rigorous curriculum and comprehensive exams only increase the attrition rate by about 6%. So, every year about 6% of the BASIS DC kids might leave for no reason other than the fact that they can't keep up with the curriculum.

Is 6% such a terrible statistic? How low would the bar have to be set so that not a single child in the 6% is hurt? Given that many of the 6% will be in a position switch to less accelerated but still decent programs at Latin, SWW, etc., how much hurt is there really?

Would you prefer a test-in model for BASIS that eliminates the 6% from the outset? Would that hurt them less?

Consider the best local test-in STEM public school, TJ. Of the 3,423 students that applied to the class of 2016, only 480 were accepted (http://www.fcps.edu/cco/pr/tj/tjadmissions0412.pdf ). So, 86% of the applicants were eliminated at the outset. Isn't it better to be given the chance to succeed and fail than not to be given the chance at all?

Anonymous wrote:Absolutely BASIS AZ schools have a 100% college acceptance rate, which is to be celebrated, but of course only for all students left in the program by senior year. Attrition is typically about 5-15% per grade per year. Attrition is another important statistic IMO not because it suggests BASIS is not right for every student - I support creating charter schools to serve different population segments - attrition these days in Tucson worries me because many students who leave (and many who stay despite serious misgivings and issues) are being negatively impacted psychologically and intellectually by the BASIS program. This may or may not be the case in DC as it gets up and running. I don't think any amount of accolades can outweigh hurting a single child. Again, I have seen this first hand in Tucson and believe it is a direct result of the BASIS model as applied here. This may or may not be the case (yet or ever) in DC.

But, coming back to my original point, this isn't about ferraris or moving goal posts, its about intelligently and fairly evaluating the pros and cons of a charter school model. On both sides of this debate there are useful facts and statistics, but listing the most prestigious college acceptances in any given year (which I see a lot on this forum in support of BASIS) is not as powerful as it might at first seem to be, because the acceptances to elite schools are usually due to the successes of a very few of the graduating students.

Boy do I wish we had an AZurbanmoms site. I do enjoy hanging out with you all! Still can't believe this is all anonymous though. Makes for very confusing discussion to refer to people by the time of posting!