Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Too bad that Latin never negotiated a charter with DCPCSB that permits them to hold students who don't work at grade level back, forcing them to repeat a year to stay in the program. The BASIS franchise did that before opening back in 2015. It is what is is.

I would think with Latin’s small class sizes and it’s emphasis on individualized instruction, there’s no need to hold any students back, because students would all be at least on grade level.

And yet …. they’re decidedly not.

Yep, not even close.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Too bad that Latin never negotiated a charter with DCPCSB that permits them to hold students who don't work at grade level back, forcing them to repeat a year to stay in the program. The BASIS franchise did that before opening back in 2015. It is what is is.

I would think with Latin’s small class sizes and it’s emphasis on individualized instruction, there’s no need to hold any students back, because students would all be at least on grade level.

And yet …. they’re decidedly not.

Anonymous wrote:Too bad that Latin never negotiated a charter with DCPCSB that permits them to hold students who don't work at grade level back, forcing them to repeat a year to stay in the program. The BASIS franchise did that before opening back in 2015. It is what is is.

I would think with Latin’s small class sizes and it’s emphasis on individualized instruction, there’s no need to hold any students back, because students would all be at least on grade level.

Anonymous wrote:Graduation rates are also weak in DC.

For DCPS, about 69% of kids graduate from high school, 77% for charters.

If you look at specific schools, Wilson has a 83% graduation rate, Latin has an 89% graduation rate, and BASIS DC has a 100% graduation rate.

I would also add a degree from many DCPS high schools is basically worthless because of social promotion and the city wanting to tout their graduation rates. They graduate everybody including kids who are reading at middle school level and kids who have incredibly high truancy rates. The schools find ways to tweak this or make up for this with some summer BS.

Graduation rates are also weak in DC.

For DCPS, about 69% of kids graduate from high school, 77% for charters.

If you look at specific schools, Wilson has a 83% graduation rate, Latin has an 89% graduation rate, and BASIS DC has a 100% graduation rate.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Too bad that Latin never negotiated a charter with DCPCSB that permits them to hold students who don't work at grade level back, forcing them to repeat a year to stay in the program. The BASIS franchise did that before opening back in 2015. It is what is is.

All charters can hold back kids who don't meet the their grade level standards.

In theory, but this very seldom happens. In its first few years of operation, BASIS DC would hold back around 10-15% of its middle school students.

I attended one of the Charter Board hearings about the BASIS "grade retention" proposal deal a decade ago, before BASIS' charter was approved. I remember that it was a tense, heated affair. Several of the Charter Board members were openly hostile to the franchise's insistence that kids who failed a comp in just one subject in 6th, 7th or 8th grades could be held back a grade. They expressed concern that poor minority kid would be singled out for grade retention. What BASIS was proposing was pretty clearly new in DC, where near universal social promotion before high school had been the norm in DCPS since the 1970s.

Anonymous wrote:Too bad that Latin never negotiated a charter with DCPCSB that permits them to hold students who don't work at grade level back, forcing them to repeat a year to stay in the program. The BASIS franchise did that before opening back in 2015. It is what is is.

All charters can hold back kids who don't meet the their grade level standards.

Anonymous wrote:Too bad that Latin never negotiated a charter with DCPCSB that permits them to hold students who don't work at grade level back, forcing them to repeat a year to stay in the program. The BASIS franchise did that before opening back in 2015. It is what is is.

Right, except Basis DC opened in 2012.

Too bad that Latin never negotiated a charter with DCPCSB that permits them to hold students who don't work at grade level back, forcing them to repeat a year to stay in the program. The BASIS franchise did that before opening back in 2015. It is what is is.

Anonymous wrote:Diversity is less than problem than the absence of academic tracking and/or high standards for MS students. Latin freely socially promotes and the kids know it - everybody gets to advance a grade after every school year, regardless of academic performance. What this means is that, by 8th grade at Latin, your kid winds up in English, science and social studies classes with kids who work one, two, even several grades behind grade level. BASIS won't let kids advance without passing end-of-year subject exams graded by external examiners. Latin will.

Good point.

Diversity is less than problem than the absence of academic tracking and/or high standards for MS students. Latin freely socially promotes and the kids know it - everybody gets to advance a grade after every school year, regardless of academic performance. What this means is that, by 8th grade at Latin, your kid winds up in English, science and social studies classes with kids who work one, two, even several grades behind grade level. BASIS won't let kids advance without passing end-of-year subject exams graded by external examiners. Latin will.

This is sad, because you can easily imagine a school that appropriately serves kids at all levels, with perhaps a required, but pass/fail "social issues" class that can serve as a talking shop for students across the spectrum. Maybe the kids aren't on the same level academically, by they could still engage a variety of topics in a robust fashion I think. You can have your in-class diversity without the hit to academics.

Other than private school, there really is no escape if you don't live in an area that is almost exclusively upper income, highly educated.

In DC, "advanced" simply means on grade level. You need an "accelerated" track just to keep from being held back by MUCH slower (if diligent, hardworking) peers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If Latin actually knocked it out of the park in prioritizing intellectual development, they wouldn't toss 5th-8th graders who work one, two, even three of four grade levels behind many of their peers in all subjects into the very same EL, social studies and science classes as the most advanced students. It's very easy to proclaim that intellectual development is their strong suit. The reality is more complicated, particularly for the strongest MS humanities and science students and their families.

I have a very strong 7th grader and have reached the end of my patience with Latin. Is there any recourse for advanced kids there? Just hold on til 9th grade (oooh, in 8th you get to take a foreign language! That is .....fine, but doesn't help the A+ average in English, and Science, and Math, and every other subject)?

I feel badly for parents of advanced kids who are going to try to lottery into the second campus. It's a bait and switch - we're great! but really we're mediocre for advanced kids.

+1000. Lack of academic tracking at Latin MS for advanced humanities and foreign language students is a real problem. We didn't go with BASIS because the building seemed inhumane (come on, no library, green space, gym, stage), and we didn't like the kill and drill test prep culture, or the many inexperienced teachers. If I could go back to 5th grade we'd probably have moved to Fairfax to try to test into MS GT. Parents get fed up with paying for humanities and language challenge through Johns Hopkins CTY, Concordia language camps etc.

Do you have to have a Fairfax address for GT test in middle school?

Ah, yes, Fairfax County where public school enrollment has dipped 5.4% in the last 2 years and parents are trying to ban school library books on gender and sexuality. Plus, you need to drive everywhere and spend hours commuting to and from work.