Anonymous wrote:The question above is a no-brainer. BASIS DC and Arizona HQ aren't standing in the way way of new students enrolling after 6th grade (generally half a dozen spots for younger sibs).

In Arizona, new BASIS students can enter in any grade, but aren't necessarily allowed to advance to the grade above the one they just completed at a different school on arrival. No, they're given placement tests in each core subject and only permitted to enter at the grade level they've tested into per the BASIS curriculum. New BASIS students in AZ are commonly required to repeat one, or even two or three grades under this entry system. I know this because I have a nephew who had to repeat 7th grade when he started at a BASIS AZ school.

DC politicians are the problem. For more than a decade now, DC pols, particularly the ed czar/mayor haven't been willing to countenance what amounts to a BASIS test-in system.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wasn't alone. I was part of two different groups of parents asking admins for a little funding for extra curriculars parents were financing to the tune of hundreds, even thousands of dollars. The kids involved were representing BASIS at competitions out of state. We weren't given the time of day. Current school is a private.

FWIW this was true at my NYC public magnet as well. (One that one poster frequently mentions as a school BASIS can’t hope to live up to!) Fabulous academic extracurricular options which the school did not contribute to the cost of other than providing a room & allowing them to count towards a teacher’s clubs/extracurricular supervision quota. We fundraised some and applied for grants some and got some fee waivers for individual FARMS-eligible students, but primarily, our parents paid a ton. With limited public school budgets, I don’t think that is that unusual.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wasn't alone. I was part of two different groups of parents asking admins for a little funding for extra curriculars parents were financing to the tune of hundreds, even thousands of dollars. The kids involved were representing BASIS at competitions out of state. We weren't given the time of day. Current school is a private.

FWIW this was true at my NYC public magnet as well. (One that one poster frequently mentions as a school BASIS can’t hope to live up to!) Fabulous academic extracurricular options which the school did not contribute to the cost of other than providing a room & allowing them to count towards a teacher’s clubs/extracurricular supervision quota. We fundraised some and applied for grants some and got some fee waivers for individual FARMS-eligible students, but primarily, our parents paid a ton. With limited public school budgets, I don’t think that is that unusual.

Anonymous wrote:I wasn't alone. I was part of two different groups of parents asking admins for a little funding for extra curriculars parents were financing to the tune of hundreds, even thousands of dollars. The kids involved were representing BASIS at competitions out of state. We weren't given the time of day. Current school is a private.

Anonymous wrote:My understanding is that they have a % that leave and they do not back fill...or actually is that how they determine the 5th grade seat #?

Anonymous wrote:Will BASIS ever consider allowing kids to attend that didn't start in 5th? Wouldn't they get more funding by increased head count and possibly help this financial issue a bit?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Latin isn't a school with a strong controlling streak. Families can breathe free there.

Latin's HS offers far more flexibility in its curriculum than BASIS and their course work is spread out over four years, not three. BASIS academics are undoubtedly better, but constant test pressure in 9th, 10th and 11th grades, a narrow focus on AP prep, and aloof leadership can become a real drag even for the strongest students.

We have longtime neighbors/close friends whose kid was admitted to any Ivy from Latin after applying Early Decision in Oct of a gap year. She went into college application season with as many high AP exam scores (mostly in humanities subjects) as the highest-performing BASIS Ivy and MIT-bound seniors. To each his, her or their own.

Lol. More conclusions based on anecdote.

Based on test scores and other data, Latin doesn’t even come close to BASIS.

Anonymous wrote:If BASIS wants to improve retention, the franchise needs to ensure that the DC program is better led and funded. We left after the difficult current head shut us down over a minor request for this or that one too many times. We got tired of being told that there was no funding for certain extra curriculars. We had to pay for activities ourselves to represent BASIS outside of DC, to the tune of thousands of dollars, mainly in travel costs.

I have a sibling whose kids have attended one of the original Arizona campuses for the past 6 or 7 years. It sounds to us like the difference between the way the Arizona campus is run and the DC campus is run is night and day. My siblings children have been permitted to study modern languages at school since 5th grade, including at the advanced level in middle school and the college level in high school. They've been given instrumental music lessons during the school day for years, and play in a school orchestra that competes at the local, state and regional levels. Their program offers far more high quality electives and low cost extra curriculars than BASIS DC, and classes don't end in 11th grade.

Sounds to us like the DC campus gets the short end of the stick in a big way in many respects. I don't know the political ins and outs.

Anonymous wrote:Latin isn't a school with a strong controlling streak. Families can breathe free there.

Latin's HS offers far more flexibility in its curriculum than BASIS and their course work is spread out over four years, not three. BASIS academics are undoubtedly better, but constant test pressure in 9th, 10th and 11th grades, a narrow focus on AP prep, and aloof leadership can become a real drag even for the strongest students.

We have longtime neighbors/close friends whose kid was admitted to any Ivy from Latin after applying Early Decision in Oct of a gap year. She went into college application season with as many high AP exam scores (mostly in humanities subjects) as the highest-performing BASIS Ivy and MIT-bound seniors. To each his, her or their own.