Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If 4.0 BASIS kids aren’t even being considered for Walls, I’m not sure Walls is as great of a school as people make it seem. It’s a flawed admissions process when it doesn’t account for what it takes to get all As at BASIS, including in class subjects other middle schoolers haven’t even yet taken. It wouldn’t surprise me if the BASIS students who end up at Walls for high school are some of the most prepared students that school has.

As a parent of a former BASIS kid who switched to Walls (mainly for social reasons) I just want to tell any disappointed BASIS parents that IMO academics are much stronger at BASIS than they are at Walls (so far). My guess is that because BASIS has a relatively uniform curriculum that must be taught across the network, this keeps the academics/material learned at a high level. Many (not all!) Walls/DCPS teachers just seem to phone it in/do whatever they want (in some cases not much!) with no oversight. (I am still generally happy with switch given kid's overall happiness, but do lament the loss of rigor - which is somewhat made up for by the fact that the Walls cohort is almost uniformly diligent and high performing)

This has long been the case. And probably has not been helped with the removal of the Walls test.

The teaching ability/curriculum (or lack thereof) at Walls has nothing to do with the removal of the Walls test. And as far as I can tell, the cohort admitted post-test seems very motivated/high performing.

Really because I heard almost 1/3rd of the kids are not even getting 4 on PARCC

Anonymous wrote:Are there any former BASIS kids who made the switch to Walls and came to regret it?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If 4.0 BASIS kids aren’t even being considered for Walls, I’m not sure Walls is as great of a school as people make it seem. It’s a flawed admissions process when it doesn’t account for what it takes to get all As at BASIS, including in class subjects other middle schoolers haven’t even yet taken. It wouldn’t surprise me if the BASIS students who end up at Walls for high school are some of the most prepared students that school has.

As a parent of a former BASIS kid who switched to Walls (mainly for social reasons) I just want to tell any disappointed BASIS parents that IMO academics are much stronger at BASIS than they are at Walls (so far). My guess is that because BASIS has a relatively uniform curriculum that must be taught across the network, this keeps the academics/material learned at a high level. Many (not all!) Walls/DCPS teachers just seem to phone it in/do whatever they want (in some cases not much!) with no oversight. (I am still generally happy with switch given kid's overall happiness, but do lament the loss of rigor - which is somewhat made up for by the fact that the Walls cohort is almost uniformly diligent and high performing)

This has long been the case. And probably has not been helped with the removal of the Walls test.

The teaching ability/curriculum (or lack thereof) at Walls has nothing to do with the removal of the Walls test. And as far as I can tell, the cohort admitted post-test seems very motivated/high performing.

Really because I heard almost 1/3rd of the kids are not even getting 4 on PARCC

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If 4.0 BASIS kids aren’t even being considered for Walls, I’m not sure Walls is as great of a school as people make it seem. It’s a flawed admissions process when it doesn’t account for what it takes to get all As at BASIS, including in class subjects other middle schoolers haven’t even yet taken. It wouldn’t surprise me if the BASIS students who end up at Walls for high school are some of the most prepared students that school has.

As a parent of a former BASIS kid who switched to Walls (mainly for social reasons) I just want to tell any disappointed BASIS parents that IMO academics are much stronger at BASIS than they are at Walls (so far). My guess is that because BASIS has a relatively uniform curriculum that must be taught across the network, this keeps the academics/material learned at a high level. Many (not all!) Walls/DCPS teachers just seem to phone it in/do whatever they want (in some cases not much!) with no oversight. (I am still generally happy with switch given kid's overall happiness, but do lament the loss of rigor - which is somewhat made up for by the fact that the Walls cohort is almost uniformly diligent and high performing)

This has long been the case. And probably has not been helped with the removal of the Walls test.

The teaching ability/curriculum (or lack thereof) at Walls has nothing to do with the removal of the Walls test. And as far as I can tell, the cohort admitted post-test seems very motivated/high performing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It would not surprise me if BASIS tanks the Walls application process on purpose.

Charter school such as basis get paid per kid from DC and thus Do not want to lose the kid to Walls.

Without question, the teachers at basis were told to to delay giving recommendations as well as not to go overboard with the positive recommendations.

The focus of the basis administration is dollars and cents every single day

Nice try— Any kid BASIS looses to Walls (or any other HS) are replaced with 5th graders. They are very transparent about that. They also acknowledge that kids may want a different HS experience. They are not going to write bad recs just to keep kids at BASIS.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It would not surprise me if BASIS tanks the Walls application process on purpose.

Charter school such as basis get paid per kid from DC and thus Do not want to lose the kid to Walls.

Without question, the teachers at basis were told to to delay giving recommendations as well as not to go overboard with the positive recommendations.

The focus of the basis administration is dollars and cents every single day

Anonymous wrote:It would not surprise me if BASIS tanks the Walls application process on purpose.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are there any former BASIS kids who made the switch to Walls and came to regret it?

I don't know any who regretted it. But to a person, they all said BASIS was more rigorous.

Anonymous wrote:Are there any former BASIS kids who made the switch to Walls and came to regret it?

Anonymous wrote:The Walls application process is a lawsuit waiting to happen. A public school should have an open and transparent admission process.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If 4.0 BASIS kids aren’t even being considered for Walls, I’m not sure Walls is as great of a school as people make it seem. It’s a flawed admissions process when it doesn’t account for what it takes to get all As at BASIS, including in class subjects other middle schoolers haven’t even yet taken. It wouldn’t surprise me if the BASIS students who end up at Walls for high school are some of the most prepared students that school has.

As a parent of a former BASIS kid who switched to Walls (mainly for social reasons) I just want to tell any disappointed BASIS parents that IMO academics are much stronger at BASIS than they are at Walls (so far). My guess is that because BASIS has a relatively uniform curriculum that must be taught across the network, this keeps the academics/material learned at a high level. Many (not all!) Walls/DCPS teachers just seem to phone it in/do whatever they want (in some cases not much!) with no oversight. (I am still generally happy with switch given kid's overall happiness, but do lament the loss of rigor - which is somewhat made up for by the fact that the Walls cohort is almost uniformly diligent and high performing)

This has long been the case. And probably has not been helped with the removal of the Walls test.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If 4.0 BASIS kids aren’t even being considered for Walls, I’m not sure Walls is as great of a school as people make it seem. It’s a flawed admissions process when it doesn’t account for what it takes to get all As at BASIS, including in class subjects other middle schoolers haven’t even yet taken. It wouldn’t surprise me if the BASIS students who end up at Walls for high school are some of the most prepared students that school has.

As a parent of a former BASIS kid who switched to Walls (mainly for social reasons) I just want to tell any disappointed BASIS parents that IMO academics are much stronger at BASIS than they are at Walls (so far). My guess is that because BASIS has a relatively uniform curriculum that must be taught across the network, this keeps the academics/material learned at a high level. Many (not all!) Walls/DCPS teachers just seem to phone it in/do whatever they want (in some cases not much!) with no oversight. (I am still generally happy with switch given kid's overall happiness, but do lament the loss of rigor - which is somewhat made up for by the fact that the Walls cohort is almost uniformly diligent and high performing)