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Anonymous wrote:The problem with BASIS is that it's not "really simple" as somebody claimed on the last page, not at all. Many 5th graders seem like a good fit for BASIS, so they are sent by their well-meaning parents. From what I've observed, few of these kids "wash out;" no mistake was made in sending them.

What happens is that the teaching proves to be so uneven, the leadership so prone to gaslighting families who encounter difficulties, the facility so lousy, the curriculum so rigid and narrowly focused on test taking, that most BASIS families get turned off the experience over time and leave.

Sure, you can always pull out, but it might be better to face the reality that BASIS is risky business compared to most DMV schools offering consistent rigor from the get-go. BASIS just not a very welcoming program offering a rich or happy educational experience to young people. There are a lot of sharp elbows at BASIS and not much of a community feel. When we left for a private, we were glad to feel included but dismayed to discover that our BASIS MS grad wasn't as well prepared as we'd hoped, other than for chemistry and biology.

Heading to BASIS is to roll the dice in a somewhat risky game of chance. Best to see it that way to hedge your bets, to avoid getting hurt. If you can afford a stronger program/school pyramid that's a better bet for both MS & HS or are willing to move for one, do it.

We are dealing with people that stayed the course in DC until late elementary whereas a good deal of truly risk averse types would have never even consider it or decamped to the burbs or private early on. They’ve already rolled the dice so to speak.

If Basis bought a few free years before going private, any minor adjustment/catch-up seems immaterial, or at least a bet that paid off.

And I sort of trust private school admissions committees to assess whether a kid (coming from Basis or wherever) will be a good fit for their school.

This is precisely how we are using Basis - a way station before private — admittedly a bit easier for us because a sibling is already in that pipeline and we are quite confident that our Basis student will be more than fine upon the eventual transition — and we’ll be about $80K less out of pocket.

Assuming 2 kids at a Big 3 you are still paying around $400,000 more than the parents whose kids stay the course at Basis.

Given that Basis HS is definitely better than MS (better teachers, better classes, fewer students), someone might question that financial decision.

If the HS was so great,Basis would not lose 1/2 the kids after 8th. The retention rate is not very good.

To clarify, I think the HS class is a little more than 1/2 the size of the 5th grade class. A large majority of 8th graders return to 9th. I think maybe about 10-15 out of 80 or 90 have been leaving. That's a mix of moving to private and application schools, and moving out of DC.

You're trying to whitewash the attrition. What happens is that more than half of the intake class of 135-140 is gone by the first day of 9th grade. Moreover, by the start of 12th grade, the classes is down to 45-55 students, not more. We were surprised by how many students left after every high school grade, half a dozen each time. There's high and unrelenting attrition at BASIS DC, however you slice it. Claiming otherwise won't change that.

Other schools have attrition but also socially promote and backfill.

BASIS DC does not.

You are comparing apples to oranges.

Why doesn’t BASIS backfill? It’s a public school. How do they avoid taking new students when there are so many who are initially shut out and would do just fine entering in late MS and for HS.

Other BASIS schools backfill -- the incoming kids take a placement exam and are then placed in an appropriate grade level (which might be lower than they were before, if they were coming from an easy school).

The DC Charter Board does not allow BASIS to do that. So, that's why BASIS DC doesn't backfill. It's not a huge conspiracy.

Can’t they use other standardized test results? Surely there are the rare superspecial unicorn children who could join without dragging down the whole school and ruining the experience for everyone.

BASIS would absolutely do it if they were allowed to (as evidenced by the fact that other schools in the network do.) of course there are kids who are capable of fitting in.

Again, the DC Charter Board is who is stopping this. They don't want placement exams, and they don't want kids placed below their year bc DC is very pro social promotion.

Take it up with the charter board if you want this changed.

But there are schools that do track?

Yes, there are schools that track. There are also schools that have put kids in the right grade. This is just false information that keeps getting repeated. The charter board has no such rule. There are schools that do it (though it counts against some of the report card measures the charter board does have - like 9th grade on track or on time graduation). There's no charter board rule against it.

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Anonymous wrote:The problem with BASIS is that it's not "really simple" as somebody claimed on the last page, not at all. Many 5th graders seem like a good fit for BASIS, so they are sent by their well-meaning parents. From what I've observed, few of these kids "wash out;" no mistake was made in sending them.

What happens is that the teaching proves to be so uneven, the leadership so prone to gaslighting families who encounter difficulties, the facility so lousy, the curriculum so rigid and narrowly focused on test taking, that most BASIS families get turned off the experience over time and leave.

Sure, you can always pull out, but it might be better to face the reality that BASIS is risky business compared to most DMV schools offering consistent rigor from the get-go. BASIS just not a very welcoming program offering a rich or happy educational experience to young people. There are a lot of sharp elbows at BASIS and not much of a community feel. When we left for a private, we were glad to feel included but dismayed to discover that our BASIS MS grad wasn't as well prepared as we'd hoped, other than for chemistry and biology.

Heading to BASIS is to roll the dice in a somewhat risky game of chance. Best to see it that way to hedge your bets, to avoid getting hurt. If you can afford a stronger program/school pyramid that's a better bet for both MS & HS or are willing to move for one, do it.

We are dealing with people that stayed the course in DC until late elementary whereas a good deal of truly risk averse types would have never even consider it or decamped to the burbs or private early on. They’ve already rolled the dice so to speak.

If Basis bought a few free years before going private, any minor adjustment/catch-up seems immaterial, or at least a bet that paid off.

And I sort of trust private school admissions committees to assess whether a kid (coming from Basis or wherever) will be a good fit for their school.

This is precisely how we are using Basis - a way station before private — admittedly a bit easier for us because a sibling is already in that pipeline and we are quite confident that our Basis student will be more than fine upon the eventual transition — and we’ll be about $80K less out of pocket.

Assuming 2 kids at a Big 3 you are still paying around $400,000 more than the parents whose kids stay the course at Basis.

Given that Basis HS is definitely better than MS (better teachers, better classes, fewer students), someone might question that financial decision.

If the HS was so great,Basis would not lose 1/2 the kids after 8th. The retention rate is not very good.

To clarify, I think the HS class is a little more than 1/2 the size of the 5th grade class. A large majority of 8th graders return to 9th. I think maybe about 10-15 out of 80 or 90 have been leaving. That's a mix of moving to private and application schools, and moving out of DC.

You're trying to whitewash the attrition. What happens is that more than half of the intake class of 135-140 is gone by the first day of 9th grade. Moreover, by the start of 12th grade, the classes is down to 45-55 students, not more. We were surprised by how many students left after every high school grade, half a dozen each time. There's high and unrelenting attrition at BASIS DC, however you slice it. Claiming otherwise won't change that.

Other schools have attrition but also socially promote and backfill.

BASIS DC does not.

You are comparing apples to oranges.

Why doesn’t BASIS backfill? It’s a public school. How do they avoid taking new students when there are so many who are initially shut out and would do just fine entering in late MS and for HS.

Other BASIS schools backfill -- the incoming kids take a placement exam and are then placed in an appropriate grade level (which might be lower than they were before, if they were coming from an easy school).

The DC Charter Board does not allow BASIS to do that. So, that's why BASIS DC doesn't backfill. It's not a huge conspiracy.

Can’t they use other standardized test results? Surely there are the rare superspecial unicorn children who could join without dragging down the whole school and ruining the experience for everyone.

BASIS would absolutely do it if they were allowed to (as evidenced by the fact that other schools in the network do.) of course there are kids who are capable of fitting in.

Again, the DC Charter Board is who is stopping this. They don't want placement exams, and they don't want kids placed below their year bc DC is very pro social promotion.

Take it up with the charter board if you want this changed.

But there are schools that do track?

Anonymous wrote:Basis doesn’t just get the UMC kids whose parents want an intense academic experience. It also gets the UMC kids whose parents look at their weak feeder middle and say no way, seek charters, and don’t get into Latin. They end up with Basis and send their kid there because they have no other choice (except to move or go private and maybe they can’t). So you end up with less strong students there. There’s way too much demand for “middle schools other than our feeder” and not enough spots. Would be great if the feeder middles could step up of course!

This is absolutely true. But it does actually seem like the Capitol Hill DCPS middle schools are getting more popular with UMC families, and this is a great thing for the whole ecosystem of public middle schools. BASIS can attract kids who are genuinely interested in their very specific curriculum.

As another current Basis parent (new poster), I am mystified by the posters who freely admit that they have no children at Basis but loudly claim that Basis does little to support its students.

In my experience, Basis provides a lot of academic and non-academic support to students. Basis has a dedicated team to support students who are struggling academically and falling behind, and to support students with IEPs and 504 plans. When a student's academic average dips below a certain percentage for any reason, Basis automatically and proactively puts together a team to support that student academically and monitors progress. In my children's classes, there has also often been a second teacher in the classroom who is dedicated to supporting students who are falling behind in math and ELA.

Basis provides additional, free academic support to every student who wants it. Every teacher in every subject has weekly student hours, and there are daily math student hours. (In addition to each math teacher's weekly student hours, there is another math teacher on duty each day who can support students in any math class.) Students also have weekly "math lab" math support during lunch. There is peer-to-peer tutoring of younger students by high school students who are excelling academically, and Georgetown students provide additional weekly tutoring in all subject areas. In the House system, older students also mentor younger students within their House.

Every two weeks, every student gets a detailed report on every test result they have received in every class. Therefore, students, parents, and the school have an accurate, up-to-date sense of how each student is doing academically and can catch academic issues early.

Basis has a psychologist and a social worker who meet with students individually to provide non-academic support. They also do presentations for students and parents on a variety of subjects geared towards supporting students' mental health.

In addition, every grade has a dedicated dean who is the triage person when a student is struggling, whether academically or non-academically, and connects the student and parents with the appropriate support. And if a student misses more than three days of school, the dean contacts all of the student's teachers and puts together a catch-up plan for the student. In my experience, teachers and administrators have been exceptionally kind and flexible in helping my kids catch up.

Furthermore, every Basis teacher has weekly virtual parent hours, and all deans and administrators are available to meet virtually with parents weekly and by appointment. Basis has a scheduling system that allows parents to set up all of these appointments online. It's been so much easier for us to quickly meet with teachers, deans, and administrators at Basis than at any other school we've attended.

It's also important to keep in mind that an extremely small percentage of Basis students are told that they will need to repeat the academic year -- maybe 1-3%? A very small percentage of students fail the Comp (the comprehensive exam that students take at the end of the year), and then every student who fails the Comp is given the opportunity to study over the summer and retake it and pass. The Comp is designed to test the most central principles in each class -- the ones that teachers have emphasized over and over -- so in my children's experience, they have been easier than the usual assessments and have actually brought their GPA up.

Based on my experience as a Basis parent, if a student is willing to put in the time and effort, Basis tries hard to help the student succeed. If you are considering Basis for your child, don't rely on the uninformed opinions on this forum of people who don't have children at Basis. Instead, please talk to the school, talk to current parents, ask detailed and tough questions about the support system that Basis offers, and try to determine whether Basis would be a good fit for your family.

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Anonymous wrote:The problem with BASIS is that it's not "really simple" as somebody claimed on the last page, not at all. Many 5th graders seem like a good fit for BASIS, so they are sent by their well-meaning parents. From what I've observed, few of these kids "wash out;" no mistake was made in sending them.

What happens is that the teaching proves to be so uneven, the leadership so prone to gaslighting families who encounter difficulties, the facility so lousy, the curriculum so rigid and narrowly focused on test taking, that most BASIS families get turned off the experience over time and leave.

Sure, you can always pull out, but it might be better to face the reality that BASIS is risky business compared to most DMV schools offering consistent rigor from the get-go. BASIS just not a very welcoming program offering a rich or happy educational experience to young people. There are a lot of sharp elbows at BASIS and not much of a community feel. When we left for a private, we were glad to feel included but dismayed to discover that our BASIS MS grad wasn't as well prepared as we'd hoped, other than for chemistry and biology.

Heading to BASIS is to roll the dice in a somewhat risky game of chance. Best to see it that way to hedge your bets, to avoid getting hurt. If you can afford a stronger program/school pyramid that's a better bet for both MS & HS or are willing to move for one, do it.

We are dealing with people that stayed the course in DC until late elementary whereas a good deal of truly risk averse types would have never even consider it or decamped to the burbs or private early on. They’ve already rolled the dice so to speak.

If Basis bought a few free years before going private, any minor adjustment/catch-up seems immaterial, or at least a bet that paid off.

And I sort of trust private school admissions committees to assess whether a kid (coming from Basis or wherever) will be a good fit for their school.

This is precisely how we are using Basis - a way station before private — admittedly a bit easier for us because a sibling is already in that pipeline and we are quite confident that our Basis student will be more than fine upon the eventual transition — and we’ll be about $80K less out of pocket.

Assuming 2 kids at a Big 3 you are still paying around $400,000 more than the parents whose kids stay the course at Basis.

Given that Basis HS is definitely better than MS (better teachers, better classes, fewer students), someone might question that financial decision.

If the HS was so great,Basis would not lose 1/2 the kids after 8th. The retention rate is not very good.

To clarify, I think the HS class is a little more than 1/2 the size of the 5th grade class. A large majority of 8th graders return to 9th. I think maybe about 10-15 out of 80 or 90 have been leaving. That's a mix of moving to private and application schools, and moving out of DC.

You're trying to whitewash the attrition. What happens is that more than half of the intake class of 135-140 is gone by the first day of 9th grade. Moreover, by the start of 12th grade, the classes is down to 45-55 students, not more. We were surprised by how many students left after every high school grade, half a dozen each time. There's high and unrelenting attrition at BASIS DC, however you slice it. Claiming otherwise won't change that.

Other schools have attrition but also socially promote and backfill.

BASIS DC does not.

You are comparing apples to oranges.

Why doesn’t BASIS backfill? It’s a public school. How do they avoid taking new students when there are so many who are initially shut out and would do just fine entering in late MS and for HS.

Isn’t it obvious? Because they can’t choose and pick who they get and are unwilling to do the work all other schools do to help integrate and support new kids.

It is very easy to have better numbers when you weed out low performers and refuse to roll the dice in taking new students. Basis is doing nothing special and no really heavy lifting at all.

There’s no real debate at this point: BASIS doesn’t backfill. But what’s often missed in these discussions is just how structurally dependent the school’s academic model is on that fact. If BASIS did backfill, it likely couldn’t deliver the program it’s known for—or at least not in the way families currently experience it.

Backfilling is manageable at most schools because it doesn’t fundamentally alter what those schools are offering in the first place. The academic pace and expectations are often modest, and the gaps between entering and existing students, while real, don’t dramatically shift classroom dynamics or outcomes. In some cases, schools aren’t doing much to bring backfilled students up to speed, but because the bar is already low or inconsistent, the disruption is minimal.

At BASIS, it’s different. The curriculum is aggressive, the pace is rapid, and the cohort model is central. Students who enter in later grades without prior exposure to the system are far more likely to struggle—not because they lack ability, but because they’re uninitiated. The burden on teachers to differentiate skyrockets. The pressure on classroom cohesion intensifies. And the students who’ve been there all along suddenly find their academic environment altered in ways that feel material. If BASIS were required to backfill meaningfully and regularly, it simply wouldn’t be BASIS anymore—at least not in the form that draws families to it.

And that, really, is the underlying policy dilemma. The question isn’t just should BASIS be forced to backfill? The more fundamental question is: should schools like BASIS be allowed to exist at all within public systems, on the public dime (?). Because demanding full backfilling from BASIS is effectively asking it to become a different kind of school—more comprehensive, more catch-all, less specialized.

There are reasonable people on both sides of that debate. But it’s important to be clear-eyed about what the tradeoffs actually are. The stakes aren’t limited to one admissions policy—they go to the heart of what kind of public education ecosystem a city like D.C. wants to have.

I would argue that the underlying problem is that Basis doesn’t offer a comprehensive, flexible curriculum or the support.

They could take kids and support and integrate them. If kids are unable to do the work, they get held back like they do when they take new 5th graders and all thru middle school.

It’s not hard.

Actually, they do do that.

Typical DCUM pontificating by people that know nothing about that school.

They seriously have dedicated office hours that students can sign up for — and many students avail themselves of it, especially in math. What other “supports” or “flexibility” do folks want?

Really? You think having office hours which is standard in middle and up enough and adequate support?

No it is not what most people call support. Support is push in or pull out for kids who need it. Support is offering extra support classes for kids who need it. Support is having a sped team dedicated to providing in house services to kids who qualify. Support is having social worker or someone to that effect help students with non-academic issues (psych/mental, family, housing, etc..)

I could go on but office hours is not what most people call support services in schools.

It’s not the place for kids with learning disabilities. And that’s ok. It’s also not a social worker. Also fine.

Children needing pull outs for their learning disability have a home school option. Same for emotional disorders

More fundamentally, the idea that every school must serve the entire universe of student needs — from intensive emotional and behavioral support to trauma recovery to accelerated academic instruction — is simply mistaken. Not every school needs to be everything to everyone.

There are already many DCPS and charter schools with open seats that reflect the model the previous poster is seeking: strong on wraparound services, focused on supporting the median student, and rightly prioritizing students with significant challenges. My child attended one of those schools for elementary. It was a warm environment in many ways, and it served its purpose — but it was also clear that his particular needs weren’t truly being prioritized, or even taken seriously, especially academically.

No one said Basis needs to be everything to everyone. The discussion is that Basis offers absolutely no support services and no flexibility[b]. None. In addition, they don’t backfill.

They don’t need to do any of the heavy lifting. It can’t get any easier than that. It is not as if the staff and school is doing anything amazing at all.

BTW, one of the PP above made the statement that support services is only for SPED is absolutely wrong. Lots of high performing kids are miserable, and I bet there are a number at Basis who could use support services. In addition, a number who could use support services in subjects like math. But hey, there are office hours and that should fix the problem right, even if you have one of the highest attrition rate in the city in middle/high school.

Do you have kids there? Because I do, and the bolded is really strange to read, because actually they do have a lot of free support options for the kids -- every single teacher stays after school once a week and is available to work with kids who need help 1:1. Lots of kids do this -- both those who are struggling and also those who are aiming for 100s. That's the "office hours" it out are disparaging, they actually work. And the school has a relationship with Georgetown and Georgetown student come several times a week to offer free 1:1 tutoring.

Very weird to speak so authoritatively about a school you've never been inside.

What you are describing is exactly office hours. My kids school, teachers provide office hours during lunch in addition to after school. That is not support services.

So school has a few students from georgetown volunteer to help a few kids. That is not adequate support services at all and requires nothing of the school.

So what support services is the school itself exactly investing in with their money?

Heaven knows they nickel and dime families with asking for money for any event or activity in addition to donations.

No, I don’t have kids at Basis but it is not like people don’t know families there who talk.

It’s actually quite clarifying to learn that the person making these broad, confident claims about BASIS’s “lack” of support services… doesn’t have a child at the school and is relying entirely on secondhand accounts from “families who talk.”

That, to me, is the core issue. You’re filtering your entire critique through a subset of families who — by definition — have gripes or dissatisfaction. And look, those voices matter. But maybe balance them out by speaking to families currently enrolled whose kids are thriving — or at least well-served — under the existing model.

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer here. But when families who are actually in the building — including some of us on this board — are saying that office hours, lunch tutoring, and other supports are working for their kids, it undercuts the idea that BASIS is somehow categorically failing on this front. Maybe it doesn’t meet your personal definition of support, which is fair. But declaring the school as wholly deficient when you’ve never set foot in it is a little much.

A school can have limitations and tradeoffs — every one does — without being mischaracterized as negligent or uncaring. Especially by folks who’ve never enrolled.

Yes, thank you. I think that's why I feel compelled to keep chiming in, as the parent of a happy BASIS kid. When he was in 4th grade I was desperate to find out if anyone could actually thrive there. BASIS seemed like a huge opportunity, but how true were all the critiques?

So I'm here to say it's possible -- my kid loves his teachers, gets straight As, is happy and smiling, enjoys his clubs, and has learned so, so much. The HOS seems like a warm person who is mainly concerned with administration, but all the higher touch admins (like academic directors and teaching and learning directors) are wonderful people.

Do we know people who are miserable? Yes, and it's hard to witness. But it is absolutely possible for a certain kind of kid to thrive.

Yes - this mirrors our own experience and is quite common from my interactions with other Basis families. I don’t question others actual experiences or idealize the school, but it’s been a genuinely positive, low-key experience for us.

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Anonymous wrote:The problem with BASIS is that it's not "really simple" as somebody claimed on the last page, not at all. Many 5th graders seem like a good fit for BASIS, so they are sent by their well-meaning parents. From what I've observed, few of these kids "wash out;" no mistake was made in sending them.

What happens is that the teaching proves to be so uneven, the leadership so prone to gaslighting families who encounter difficulties, the facility so lousy, the curriculum so rigid and narrowly focused on test taking, that most BASIS families get turned off the experience over time and leave.

Sure, you can always pull out, but it might be better to face the reality that BASIS is risky business compared to most DMV schools offering consistent rigor from the get-go. BASIS just not a very welcoming program offering a rich or happy educational experience to young people. There are a lot of sharp elbows at BASIS and not much of a community feel. When we left for a private, we were glad to feel included but dismayed to discover that our BASIS MS grad wasn't as well prepared as we'd hoped, other than for chemistry and biology.

Heading to BASIS is to roll the dice in a somewhat risky game of chance. Best to see it that way to hedge your bets, to avoid getting hurt. If you can afford a stronger program/school pyramid that's a better bet for both MS & HS or are willing to move for one, do it.

We are dealing with people that stayed the course in DC until late elementary whereas a good deal of truly risk averse types would have never even consider it or decamped to the burbs or private early on. They’ve already rolled the dice so to speak.

If Basis bought a few free years before going private, any minor adjustment/catch-up seems immaterial, or at least a bet that paid off.

And I sort of trust private school admissions committees to assess whether a kid (coming from Basis or wherever) will be a good fit for their school.

This is precisely how we are using Basis - a way station before private — admittedly a bit easier for us because a sibling is already in that pipeline and we are quite confident that our Basis student will be more than fine upon the eventual transition — and we’ll be about $80K less out of pocket.

Assuming 2 kids at a Big 3 you are still paying around $400,000 more than the parents whose kids stay the course at Basis.

Given that Basis HS is definitely better than MS (better teachers, better classes, fewer students), someone might question that financial decision.

If the HS was so great,Basis would not lose 1/2 the kids after 8th. The retention rate is not very good.

To clarify, I think the HS class is a little more than 1/2 the size of the 5th grade class. A large majority of 8th graders return to 9th. I think maybe about 10-15 out of 80 or 90 have been leaving. That's a mix of moving to private and application schools, and moving out of DC.

You're trying to whitewash the attrition. What happens is that more than half of the intake class of 135-140 is gone by the first day of 9th grade. Moreover, by the start of 12th grade, the classes is down to 45-55 students, not more. We were surprised by how many students left after every high school grade, half a dozen each time. There's high and unrelenting attrition at BASIS DC, however you slice it. Claiming otherwise won't change that.

Other schools have attrition but also socially promote and backfill.

BASIS DC does not.

You are comparing apples to oranges.

Why doesn’t BASIS backfill? It’s a public school. How do they avoid taking new students when there are so many who are initially shut out and would do just fine entering in late MS and for HS.

Isn’t it obvious? Because they can’t choose and pick who they get and are unwilling to do the work all other schools do to help integrate and support new kids.

It is very easy to have better numbers when you weed out low performers and refuse to roll the dice in taking new students. Basis is doing nothing special and no really heavy lifting at all.

There’s no real debate at this point: BASIS doesn’t backfill. But what’s often missed in these discussions is just how structurally dependent the school’s academic model is on that fact. If BASIS did backfill, it likely couldn’t deliver the program it’s known for—or at least not in the way families currently experience it.

Backfilling is manageable at most schools because it doesn’t fundamentally alter what those schools are offering in the first place. The academic pace and expectations are often modest, and the gaps between entering and existing students, while real, don’t dramatically shift classroom dynamics or outcomes. In some cases, schools aren’t doing much to bring backfilled students up to speed, but because the bar is already low or inconsistent, the disruption is minimal.

At BASIS, it’s different. The curriculum is aggressive, the pace is rapid, and the cohort model is central. Students who enter in later grades without prior exposure to the system are far more likely to struggle—not because they lack ability, but because they’re uninitiated. The burden on teachers to differentiate skyrockets. The pressure on classroom cohesion intensifies. And the students who’ve been there all along suddenly find their academic environment altered in ways that feel material. If BASIS were required to backfill meaningfully and regularly, it simply wouldn’t be BASIS anymore—at least not in the form that draws families to it.

And that, really, is the underlying policy dilemma. The question isn’t just should BASIS be forced to backfill? The more fundamental question is: should schools like BASIS be allowed to exist at all within public systems, on the public dime (?). Because demanding full backfilling from BASIS is effectively asking it to become a different kind of school—more comprehensive, more catch-all, less specialized.

There are reasonable people on both sides of that debate. But it’s important to be clear-eyed about what the tradeoffs actually are. The stakes aren’t limited to one admissions policy—they go to the heart of what kind of public education ecosystem a city like D.C. wants to have.

I would argue that the underlying problem is that Basis doesn’t offer a comprehensive, flexible curriculum or the support.

They could take kids and support and integrate them. If kids are unable to do the work, they get held back like they do when they take new 5th graders and all thru middle school.

It’s not hard.

Actually, they do do that.

Typical DCUM pontificating by people that know nothing about that school.

They seriously have dedicated office hours that students can sign up for — and many students avail themselves of it, especially in math. What other “supports” or “flexibility” do folks want?

Really? You think having office hours which is standard in middle and up enough and adequate support?

No it is not what most people call support. Support is push in or pull out for kids who need it. Support is offering extra support classes for kids who need it. Support is having a sped team dedicated to providing in house services to kids who qualify. Support is having social worker or someone to that effect help students with non-academic issues (psych/mental, family, housing, etc..)

I could go on but office hours is not what most people call support services in schools.

It’s not the place for kids with learning disabilities. And that’s ok. It’s also not a social worker. Also fine.

Children needing pull outs for their learning disability have a home school option. Same for emotional disorders

More fundamentally, the idea that every school must serve the entire universe of student needs — from intensive emotional and behavioral support to trauma recovery to accelerated academic instruction — is simply mistaken. Not every school needs to be everything to everyone.

There are already many DCPS and charter schools with open seats that reflect the model the previous poster is seeking: strong on wraparound services, focused on supporting the median student, and rightly prioritizing students with significant challenges. My child attended one of those schools for elementary. It was a warm environment in many ways, and it served its purpose — but it was also clear that his particular needs weren’t truly being prioritized, or even taken seriously, especially academically.

No one said Basis needs to be everything to everyone. The discussion is that Basis offers absolutely no support services and no flexibility[b]. None. In addition, they don’t backfill.

They don’t need to do any of the heavy lifting. It can’t get any easier than that. It is not as if the staff and school is doing anything amazing at all.

BTW, one of the PP above made the statement that support services is only for SPED is absolutely wrong. Lots of high performing kids are miserable, and I bet there are a number at Basis who could use support services. In addition, a number who could use support services in subjects like math. But hey, there are office hours and that should fix the problem right, even if you have one of the highest attrition rate in the city in middle/high school.

Do you have kids there? Because I do, and the bolded is really strange to read, because actually they do have a lot of free support options for the kids -- every single teacher stays after school once a week and is available to work with kids who need help 1:1. Lots of kids do this -- both those who are struggling and also those who are aiming for 100s. That's the "office hours" it out are disparaging, they actually work. And the school has a relationship with Georgetown and Georgetown student come several times a week to offer free 1:1 tutoring.

Very weird to speak so authoritatively about a school you've never been inside.

What you are describing is exactly office hours. My kids school, teachers provide office hours during lunch in addition to after school. That is not support services.

So school has a few students from georgetown volunteer to help a few kids. That is not adequate support services at all and requires nothing of the school.

So what support services is the school itself exactly investing in with their money?

Heaven knows they nickel and dime families with asking for money for any event or activity in addition to donations.

No, I don’t have kids at Basis but it is not like people don’t know families there who talk.

It’s actually quite clarifying to learn that the person making these broad, confident claims about BASIS’s “lack” of support services… doesn’t have a child at the school and is relying entirely on secondhand accounts from “families who talk.”

That, to me, is the core issue. You’re filtering your entire critique through a subset of families who — by definition — have gripes or dissatisfaction. And look, those voices matter. But maybe balance them out by speaking to families currently enrolled whose kids are thriving — or at least well-served — under the existing model.

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer here. But when families who are actually in the building — including some of us on this board — are saying that office hours, lunch tutoring, and other supports are working for their kids, it undercuts the idea that BASIS is somehow categorically failing on this front. Maybe it doesn’t meet your personal definition of support, which is fair. But declaring the school as wholly deficient when you’ve never set foot in it is a little much.

A school can have limitations and tradeoffs — every one does — without being mischaracterized as negligent or uncaring. Especially by folks who’ve never enrolled.

Yes, thank you. I think that's why I feel compelled to keep chiming in, as the parent of a happy BASIS kid. When he was in 4th grade I was desperate to find out if anyone could actually thrive there. BASIS seemed like a huge opportunity, but how true were all the critiques?

So I'm here to say it's possible -- my kid loves his teachers, gets straight As, is happy and smiling, enjoys his clubs, and has learned so, so much. The HOS seems like a warm person who is mainly concerned with administration, but all the higher touch admins (like academic directors and teaching and learning directors) are wonderful people.

Do we know people who are miserable? Yes, and it's hard to witness. But it is absolutely possible for a certain kind of kid to thrive.

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Anonymous wrote:The problem with BASIS is that it's not "really simple" as somebody claimed on the last page, not at all. Many 5th graders seem like a good fit for BASIS, so they are sent by their well-meaning parents. From what I've observed, few of these kids "wash out;" no mistake was made in sending them.

What happens is that the teaching proves to be so uneven, the leadership so prone to gaslighting families who encounter difficulties, the facility so lousy, the curriculum so rigid and narrowly focused on test taking, that most BASIS families get turned off the experience over time and leave.

Sure, you can always pull out, but it might be better to face the reality that BASIS is risky business compared to most DMV schools offering consistent rigor from the get-go. BASIS just not a very welcoming program offering a rich or happy educational experience to young people. There are a lot of sharp elbows at BASIS and not much of a community feel. When we left for a private, we were glad to feel included but dismayed to discover that our BASIS MS grad wasn't as well prepared as we'd hoped, other than for chemistry and biology.

Heading to BASIS is to roll the dice in a somewhat risky game of chance. Best to see it that way to hedge your bets, to avoid getting hurt. If you can afford a stronger program/school pyramid that's a better bet for both MS & HS or are willing to move for one, do it.

We are dealing with people that stayed the course in DC until late elementary whereas a good deal of truly risk averse types would have never even consider it or decamped to the burbs or private early on. They’ve already rolled the dice so to speak.

If Basis bought a few free years before going private, any minor adjustment/catch-up seems immaterial, or at least a bet that paid off.

And I sort of trust private school admissions committees to assess whether a kid (coming from Basis or wherever) will be a good fit for their school.

This is precisely how we are using Basis - a way station before private — admittedly a bit easier for us because a sibling is already in that pipeline and we are quite confident that our Basis student will be more than fine upon the eventual transition — and we’ll be about $80K less out of pocket.

Assuming 2 kids at a Big 3 you are still paying around $400,000 more than the parents whose kids stay the course at Basis.

Given that Basis HS is definitely better than MS (better teachers, better classes, fewer students), someone might question that financial decision.

If the HS was so great,Basis would not lose 1/2 the kids after 8th. The retention rate is not very good.

To clarify, I think the HS class is a little more than 1/2 the size of the 5th grade class. A large majority of 8th graders return to 9th. I think maybe about 10-15 out of 80 or 90 have been leaving. That's a mix of moving to private and application schools, and moving out of DC.

You're trying to whitewash the attrition. What happens is that more than half of the intake class of 135-140 is gone by the first day of 9th grade. Moreover, by the start of 12th grade, the classes is down to 45-55 students, not more. We were surprised by how many students left after every high school grade, half a dozen each time. There's high and unrelenting attrition at BASIS DC, however you slice it. Claiming otherwise won't change that.

Other schools have attrition but also socially promote and backfill.

BASIS DC does not.

You are comparing apples to oranges.

Why doesn’t BASIS backfill? It’s a public school. How do they avoid taking new students when there are so many who are initially shut out and would do just fine entering in late MS and for HS.

Isn’t it obvious? Because they can’t choose and pick who they get and are unwilling to do the work all other schools do to help integrate and support new kids.

It is very easy to have better numbers when you weed out low performers and refuse to roll the dice in taking new students. Basis is doing nothing special and no really heavy lifting at all.

There’s no real debate at this point: BASIS doesn’t backfill. But what’s often missed in these discussions is just how structurally dependent the school’s academic model is on that fact. If BASIS did backfill, it likely couldn’t deliver the program it’s known for—or at least not in the way families currently experience it.

Backfilling is manageable at most schools because it doesn’t fundamentally alter what those schools are offering in the first place. The academic pace and expectations are often modest, and the gaps between entering and existing students, while real, don’t dramatically shift classroom dynamics or outcomes. In some cases, schools aren’t doing much to bring backfilled students up to speed, but because the bar is already low or inconsistent, the disruption is minimal.

At BASIS, it’s different. The curriculum is aggressive, the pace is rapid, and the cohort model is central. Students who enter in later grades without prior exposure to the system are far more likely to struggle—not because they lack ability, but because they’re uninitiated. The burden on teachers to differentiate skyrockets. The pressure on classroom cohesion intensifies. And the students who’ve been there all along suddenly find their academic environment altered in ways that feel material. If BASIS were required to backfill meaningfully and regularly, it simply wouldn’t be BASIS anymore—at least not in the form that draws families to it.

And that, really, is the underlying policy dilemma. The question isn’t just should BASIS be forced to backfill? The more fundamental question is: should schools like BASIS be allowed to exist at all within public systems, on the public dime (?). Because demanding full backfilling from BASIS is effectively asking it to become a different kind of school—more comprehensive, more catch-all, less specialized.

There are reasonable people on both sides of that debate. But it’s important to be clear-eyed about what the tradeoffs actually are. The stakes aren’t limited to one admissions policy—they go to the heart of what kind of public education ecosystem a city like D.C. wants to have.

I would argue that the underlying problem is that Basis doesn’t offer a comprehensive, flexible curriculum or the support.

They could take kids and support and integrate them. If kids are unable to do the work, they get held back like they do when they take new 5th graders and all thru middle school.

It’s not hard.

Actually, they do do that.

Typical DCUM pontificating by people that know nothing about that school.

They seriously have dedicated office hours that students can sign up for — and many students avail themselves of it, especially in math. What other “supports” or “flexibility” do folks want?

Really? You think having office hours which is standard in middle and up enough and adequate support?

No it is not what most people call support. Support is push in or pull out for kids who need it. Support is offering extra support classes for kids who need it. Support is having a sped team dedicated to providing in house services to kids who qualify. Support is having social worker or someone to that effect help students with non-academic issues (psych/mental, family, housing, etc..)

I could go on but office hours is not what most people call support services in schools.

It’s not the place for kids with learning disabilities. And that’s ok. It’s also not a social worker. Also fine.

Children needing pull outs for their learning disability have a home school option. Same for emotional disorders

More fundamentally, the idea that every school must serve the entire universe of student needs — from intensive emotional and behavioral support to trauma recovery to accelerated academic instruction — is simply mistaken. Not every school needs to be everything to everyone.

There are already many DCPS and charter schools with open seats that reflect the model the previous poster is seeking: strong on wraparound services, focused on supporting the median student, and rightly prioritizing students with significant challenges. My child attended one of those schools for elementary. It was a warm environment in many ways, and it served its purpose — but it was also clear that his particular needs weren’t truly being prioritized, or even taken seriously, especially academically.

No one said Basis needs to be everything to everyone. The discussion is that Basis offers absolutely no support services and no flexibility[b]. None. In addition, they don’t backfill.

They don’t need to do any of the heavy lifting. It can’t get any easier than that. It is not as if the staff and school is doing anything amazing at all.

BTW, one of the PP above made the statement that support services is only for SPED is absolutely wrong. Lots of high performing kids are miserable, and I bet there are a number at Basis who could use support services. In addition, a number who could use support services in subjects like math. But hey, there are office hours and that should fix the problem right, even if you have one of the highest attrition rate in the city in middle/high school.

Do you have kids there? Because I do, and the bolded is really strange to read, because actually they do have a lot of free support options for the kids -- every single teacher stays after school once a week and is available to work with kids who need help 1:1. Lots of kids do this -- both those who are struggling and also those who are aiming for 100s. That's the "office hours" it out are disparaging, they actually work. And the school has a relationship with Georgetown and Georgetown student come several times a week to offer free 1:1 tutoring.

Very weird to speak so authoritatively about a school you've never been inside.

What you are describing is exactly office hours. My kids school, teachers provide office hours during lunch in addition to after school. That is not support services.

So school has a few students from georgetown volunteer to help a few kids. That is not adequate support services at all and requires nothing of the school.

So what support services is the school itself exactly investing in with their money?

Heaven knows they nickel and dime families with asking for money for any event or activity in addition to donations.

No, I don’t have kids at Basis but it is not like people don’t know families there who talk.

It’s actually quite clarifying to learn that the person making these broad, confident claims about BASIS’s “lack” of support services… doesn’t have a child at the school and is relying entirely on secondhand accounts from “families who talk.”

That, to me, is the core issue. You’re filtering your entire critique through a subset of families who — by definition — have gripes or dissatisfaction. And look, those voices matter. But maybe balance them out by speaking to families currently enrolled whose kids are thriving — or at least well-served — under the existing model.

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer here. But when families who are actually in the building — including some of us on this board — are saying that office hours, lunch tutoring, and other supports are working for their kids, it undercuts the idea that BASIS is somehow categorically failing on this front. Maybe it doesn’t meet your personal definition of support, which is fair. But declaring the school as wholly deficient when you’ve never set foot in it is a little much.

A school can have limitations and tradeoffs — every one does — without being mischaracterized as negligent or uncaring. Especially by folks who’ve never enrolled.

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Anonymous wrote:The problem with BASIS is that it's not "really simple" as somebody claimed on the last page, not at all. Many 5th graders seem like a good fit for BASIS, so they are sent by their well-meaning parents. From what I've observed, few of these kids "wash out;" no mistake was made in sending them.

What happens is that the teaching proves to be so uneven, the leadership so prone to gaslighting families who encounter difficulties, the facility so lousy, the curriculum so rigid and narrowly focused on test taking, that most BASIS families get turned off the experience over time and leave.

Sure, you can always pull out, but it might be better to face the reality that BASIS is risky business compared to most DMV schools offering consistent rigor from the get-go. BASIS just not a very welcoming program offering a rich or happy educational experience to young people. There are a lot of sharp elbows at BASIS and not much of a community feel. When we left for a private, we were glad to feel included but dismayed to discover that our BASIS MS grad wasn't as well prepared as we'd hoped, other than for chemistry and biology.

Heading to BASIS is to roll the dice in a somewhat risky game of chance. Best to see it that way to hedge your bets, to avoid getting hurt. If you can afford a stronger program/school pyramid that's a better bet for both MS & HS or are willing to move for one, do it.

We are dealing with people that stayed the course in DC until late elementary whereas a good deal of truly risk averse types would have never even consider it or decamped to the burbs or private early on. They’ve already rolled the dice so to speak.

If Basis bought a few free years before going private, any minor adjustment/catch-up seems immaterial, or at least a bet that paid off.

And I sort of trust private school admissions committees to assess whether a kid (coming from Basis or wherever) will be a good fit for their school.

This is precisely how we are using Basis - a way station before private — admittedly a bit easier for us because a sibling is already in that pipeline and we are quite confident that our Basis student will be more than fine upon the eventual transition — and we’ll be about $80K less out of pocket.

Assuming 2 kids at a Big 3 you are still paying around $400,000 more than the parents whose kids stay the course at Basis.

Given that Basis HS is definitely better than MS (better teachers, better classes, fewer students), someone might question that financial decision.

If the HS was so great,Basis would not lose 1/2 the kids after 8th. The retention rate is not very good.

To clarify, I think the HS class is a little more than 1/2 the size of the 5th grade class. A large majority of 8th graders return to 9th. I think maybe about 10-15 out of 80 or 90 have been leaving. That's a mix of moving to private and application schools, and moving out of DC.

You're trying to whitewash the attrition. What happens is that more than half of the intake class of 135-140 is gone by the first day of 9th grade. Moreover, by the start of 12th grade, the classes is down to 45-55 students, not more. We were surprised by how many students left after every high school grade, half a dozen each time. There's high and unrelenting attrition at BASIS DC, however you slice it. Claiming otherwise won't change that.

Other schools have attrition but also socially promote and backfill.

BASIS DC does not.

You are comparing apples to oranges.

Why doesn’t BASIS backfill? It’s a public school. How do they avoid taking new students when there are so many who are initially shut out and would do just fine entering in late MS and for HS.

Isn’t it obvious? Because they can’t choose and pick who they get and are unwilling to do the work all other schools do to help integrate and support new kids.

It is very easy to have better numbers when you weed out low performers and refuse to roll the dice in taking new students. Basis is doing nothing special and no really heavy lifting at all.

There’s no real debate at this point: BASIS doesn’t backfill. But what’s often missed in these discussions is just how structurally dependent the school’s academic model is on that fact. If BASIS did backfill, it likely couldn’t deliver the program it’s known for—or at least not in the way families currently experience it.

Backfilling is manageable at most schools because it doesn’t fundamentally alter what those schools are offering in the first place. The academic pace and expectations are often modest, and the gaps between entering and existing students, while real, don’t dramatically shift classroom dynamics or outcomes. In some cases, schools aren’t doing much to bring backfilled students up to speed, but because the bar is already low or inconsistent, the disruption is minimal.

At BASIS, it’s different. The curriculum is aggressive, the pace is rapid, and the cohort model is central. Students who enter in later grades without prior exposure to the system are far more likely to struggle—not because they lack ability, but because they’re uninitiated. The burden on teachers to differentiate skyrockets. The pressure on classroom cohesion intensifies. And the students who’ve been there all along suddenly find their academic environment altered in ways that feel material. If BASIS were required to backfill meaningfully and regularly, it simply wouldn’t be BASIS anymore—at least not in the form that draws families to it.

And that, really, is the underlying policy dilemma. The question isn’t just should BASIS be forced to backfill? The more fundamental question is: should schools like BASIS be allowed to exist at all within public systems, on the public dime (?). Because demanding full backfilling from BASIS is effectively asking it to become a different kind of school—more comprehensive, more catch-all, less specialized.

There are reasonable people on both sides of that debate. But it’s important to be clear-eyed about what the tradeoffs actually are. The stakes aren’t limited to one admissions policy—they go to the heart of what kind of public education ecosystem a city like D.C. wants to have.

I would argue that the underlying problem is that Basis doesn’t offer a comprehensive, flexible curriculum or the support.

They could take kids and support and integrate them. If kids are unable to do the work, they get held back like they do when they take new 5th graders and all thru middle school.

It’s not hard.

Actually, they do do that.

Typical DCUM pontificating by people that know nothing about that school.

They seriously have dedicated office hours that students can sign up for — and many students avail themselves of it, especially in math. What other “supports” or “flexibility” do folks want?

Really? You think having office hours which is standard in middle and up enough and adequate support?

No it is not what most people call support. Support is push in or pull out for kids who need it. Support is offering extra support classes for kids who need it. Support is having a sped team dedicated to providing in house services to kids who qualify. Support is having social worker or someone to that effect help students with non-academic issues (psych/mental, family, housing, etc..)

I could go on but office hours is not what most people call support services in schools.

It’s not the place for kids with learning disabilities. And that’s ok. It’s also not a social worker. Also fine.

Children needing pull outs for their learning disability have a home school option. Same for emotional disorders

More fundamentally, the idea that every school must serve the entire universe of student needs — from intensive emotional and behavioral support to trauma recovery to accelerated academic instruction — is simply mistaken. Not every school needs to be everything to everyone.

There are already many DCPS and charter schools with open seats that reflect the model the previous poster is seeking: strong on wraparound services, focused on supporting the median student, and rightly prioritizing students with significant challenges. My child attended one of those schools for elementary. It was a warm environment in many ways, and it served its purpose — but it was also clear that his particular needs weren’t truly being prioritized, or even taken seriously, especially academically.

No one said Basis needs to be everything to everyone. The discussion is that Basis offers absolutely no support services and no flexibility[b]. None. In addition, they don’t backfill.

They don’t need to do any of the heavy lifting. It can’t get any easier than that. It is not as if the staff and school is doing anything amazing at all.

BTW, one of the PP above made the statement that support services is only for SPED is absolutely wrong. Lots of high performing kids are miserable, and I bet there are a number at Basis who could use support services. In addition, a number who could use support services in subjects like math. But hey, there are office hours and that should fix the problem right, even if you have one of the highest attrition rate in the city in middle/high school.

Do you have kids there? Because I do, and the bolded is really strange to read, because actually they do have a lot of free support options for the kids -- every single teacher stays after school once a week and is available to work with kids who need help 1:1. Lots of kids do this -- both those who are struggling and also those who are aiming for 100s. That's the "office hours" it out are disparaging, they actually work. And the school has a relationship with Georgetown and Georgetown student come several times a week to offer free 1:1 tutoring.

Very weird to speak so authoritatively about a school you've never been inside.

Yes - I also find the description odd based on our experience. I guess one can always ask for more robust supports, but it’s not fair to suggest that Basis is somehow deficient here.

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Anonymous wrote:The problem with BASIS is that it's not "really simple" as somebody claimed on the last page, not at all. Many 5th graders seem like a good fit for BASIS, so they are sent by their well-meaning parents. From what I've observed, few of these kids "wash out;" no mistake was made in sending them.

What happens is that the teaching proves to be so uneven, the leadership so prone to gaslighting families who encounter difficulties, the facility so lousy, the curriculum so rigid and narrowly focused on test taking, that most BASIS families get turned off the experience over time and leave.

Sure, you can always pull out, but it might be better to face the reality that BASIS is risky business compared to most DMV schools offering consistent rigor from the get-go. BASIS just not a very welcoming program offering a rich or happy educational experience to young people. There are a lot of sharp elbows at BASIS and not much of a community feel. When we left for a private, we were glad to feel included but dismayed to discover that our BASIS MS grad wasn't as well prepared as we'd hoped, other than for chemistry and biology.

Heading to BASIS is to roll the dice in a somewhat risky game of chance. Best to see it that way to hedge your bets, to avoid getting hurt. If you can afford a stronger program/school pyramid that's a better bet for both MS & HS or are willing to move for one, do it.

We are dealing with people that stayed the course in DC until late elementary whereas a good deal of truly risk averse types would have never even consider it or decamped to the burbs or private early on. They’ve already rolled the dice so to speak.

If Basis bought a few free years before going private, any minor adjustment/catch-up seems immaterial, or at least a bet that paid off.

And I sort of trust private school admissions committees to assess whether a kid (coming from Basis or wherever) will be a good fit for their school.

This is precisely how we are using Basis - a way station before private — admittedly a bit easier for us because a sibling is already in that pipeline and we are quite confident that our Basis student will be more than fine upon the eventual transition — and we’ll be about $80K less out of pocket.

Assuming 2 kids at a Big 3 you are still paying around $400,000 more than the parents whose kids stay the course at Basis.

Given that Basis HS is definitely better than MS (better teachers, better classes, fewer students), someone might question that financial decision.

If the HS was so great,Basis would not lose 1/2 the kids after 8th. The retention rate is not very good.

To clarify, I think the HS class is a little more than 1/2 the size of the 5th grade class. A large majority of 8th graders return to 9th. I think maybe about 10-15 out of 80 or 90 have been leaving. That's a mix of moving to private and application schools, and moving out of DC.

You're trying to whitewash the attrition. What happens is that more than half of the intake class of 135-140 is gone by the first day of 9th grade. Moreover, by the start of 12th grade, the classes is down to 45-55 students, not more. We were surprised by how many students left after every high school grade, half a dozen each time. There's high and unrelenting attrition at BASIS DC, however you slice it. Claiming otherwise won't change that.

Other schools have attrition but also socially promote and backfill.

BASIS DC does not.

You are comparing apples to oranges.

Why doesn’t BASIS backfill? It’s a public school. How do they avoid taking new students when there are so many who are initially shut out and would do just fine entering in late MS and for HS.

Isn’t it obvious? Because they can’t choose and pick who they get and are unwilling to do the work all other schools do to help integrate and support new kids.

It is very easy to have better numbers when you weed out low performers and refuse to roll the dice in taking new students. Basis is doing nothing special and no really heavy lifting at all.

There’s no real debate at this point: BASIS doesn’t backfill. But what’s often missed in these discussions is just how structurally dependent the school’s academic model is on that fact. If BASIS did backfill, it likely couldn’t deliver the program it’s known for—or at least not in the way families currently experience it.

Backfilling is manageable at most schools because it doesn’t fundamentally alter what those schools are offering in the first place. The academic pace and expectations are often modest, and the gaps between entering and existing students, while real, don’t dramatically shift classroom dynamics or outcomes. In some cases, schools aren’t doing much to bring backfilled students up to speed, but because the bar is already low or inconsistent, the disruption is minimal.

At BASIS, it’s different. The curriculum is aggressive, the pace is rapid, and the cohort model is central. Students who enter in later grades without prior exposure to the system are far more likely to struggle—not because they lack ability, but because they’re uninitiated. The burden on teachers to differentiate skyrockets. The pressure on classroom cohesion intensifies. And the students who’ve been there all along suddenly find their academic environment altered in ways that feel material. If BASIS were required to backfill meaningfully and regularly, it simply wouldn’t be BASIS anymore—at least not in the form that draws families to it.

And that, really, is the underlying policy dilemma. The question isn’t just should BASIS be forced to backfill? The more fundamental question is: should schools like BASIS be allowed to exist at all within public systems, on the public dime (?). Because demanding full backfilling from BASIS is effectively asking it to become a different kind of school—more comprehensive, more catch-all, less specialized.

There are reasonable people on both sides of that debate. But it’s important to be clear-eyed about what the tradeoffs actually are. The stakes aren’t limited to one admissions policy—they go to the heart of what kind of public education ecosystem a city like D.C. wants to have.

I would argue that the underlying problem is that Basis doesn’t offer a comprehensive, flexible curriculum or the support.

They could take kids and support and integrate them. If kids are unable to do the work, they get held back like they do when they take new 5th graders and all thru middle school.

It’s not hard.

Actually, they do do that.

Typical DCUM pontificating by people that know nothing about that school.

They seriously have dedicated office hours that students can sign up for — and many students avail themselves of it, especially in math. What other “supports” or “flexibility” do folks want?

Really? You think having office hours which is standard in middle and up enough and adequate support?

No it is not what most people call support. Support is push in or pull out for kids who need it. Support is offering extra support classes for kids who need it. Support is having a sped team dedicated to providing in house services to kids who qualify. Support is having social worker or someone to that effect help students with non-academic issues (psych/mental, family, housing, etc..)

I could go on but office hours is not what most people call support services in schools.

It’s not the place for kids with learning disabilities. And that’s ok. It’s also not a social worker. Also fine.

Children needing pull outs for their learning disability have a home school option. Same for emotional disorders

More fundamentally, the idea that every school must serve the entire universe of student needs — from intensive emotional and behavioral support to trauma recovery to accelerated academic instruction — is simply mistaken. Not every school needs to be everything to everyone.

There are already many DCPS and charter schools with open seats that reflect the model the previous poster is seeking: strong on wraparound services, focused on supporting the median student, and rightly prioritizing students with significant challenges. My child attended one of those schools for elementary. It was a warm environment in many ways, and it served its purpose — but it was also clear that his particular needs weren’t truly being prioritized, or even taken seriously, especially academically.

No one said Basis needs to be everything to everyone. The discussion is that Basis offers absolutely no support services and no flexibility[b]. None. In addition, they don’t backfill.

They don’t need to do any of the heavy lifting. It can’t get any easier than that. It is not as if the staff and school is doing anything amazing at all.

BTW, one of the PP above made the statement that support services is only for SPED is absolutely wrong. Lots of high performing kids are miserable, and I bet there are a number at Basis who could use support services. In addition, a number who could use support services in subjects like math. But hey, there are office hours and that should fix the problem right, even if you have one of the highest attrition rate in the city in middle/high school.

Do you have kids there? Because I do, and the bolded is really strange to read, because actually they do have a lot of free support options for the kids -- every single teacher stays after school once a week and is available to work with kids who need help 1:1. Lots of kids do this -- both those who are struggling and also those who are aiming for 100s. That's the "office hours" it out are disparaging, they actually work. And the school has a relationship with Georgetown and Georgetown student come several times a week to offer free 1:1 tutoring.

Very weird to speak so authoritatively about a school you've never been inside.

What you are describing is exactly office hours. My kids school, teachers provide office hours during lunch in addition to after school. That is not support services.

So school has a few students from georgetown volunteer to help a few kids. That is not adequate support services at all and requires nothing of the school.

So what support services is the school itself exactly investing in with their money?

Heaven knows they nickel and dime families with asking for money for any event or activity in addition to donations.

No, I don’t have kids at Basis but it is not like people don’t know families there who talk.

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Anonymous wrote:The problem with BASIS is that it's not "really simple" as somebody claimed on the last page, not at all. Many 5th graders seem like a good fit for BASIS, so they are sent by their well-meaning parents. From what I've observed, few of these kids "wash out;" no mistake was made in sending them.

What happens is that the teaching proves to be so uneven, the leadership so prone to gaslighting families who encounter difficulties, the facility so lousy, the curriculum so rigid and narrowly focused on test taking, that most BASIS families get turned off the experience over time and leave.

Sure, you can always pull out, but it might be better to face the reality that BASIS is risky business compared to most DMV schools offering consistent rigor from the get-go. BASIS just not a very welcoming program offering a rich or happy educational experience to young people. There are a lot of sharp elbows at BASIS and not much of a community feel. When we left for a private, we were glad to feel included but dismayed to discover that our BASIS MS grad wasn't as well prepared as we'd hoped, other than for chemistry and biology.

Heading to BASIS is to roll the dice in a somewhat risky game of chance. Best to see it that way to hedge your bets, to avoid getting hurt. If you can afford a stronger program/school pyramid that's a better bet for both MS & HS or are willing to move for one, do it.

We are dealing with people that stayed the course in DC until late elementary whereas a good deal of truly risk averse types would have never even consider it or decamped to the burbs or private early on. They’ve already rolled the dice so to speak.

If Basis bought a few free years before going private, any minor adjustment/catch-up seems immaterial, or at least a bet that paid off.

And I sort of trust private school admissions committees to assess whether a kid (coming from Basis or wherever) will be a good fit for their school.

This is precisely how we are using Basis - a way station before private — admittedly a bit easier for us because a sibling is already in that pipeline and we are quite confident that our Basis student will be more than fine upon the eventual transition — and we’ll be about $80K less out of pocket.

Assuming 2 kids at a Big 3 you are still paying around $400,000 more than the parents whose kids stay the course at Basis.

Given that Basis HS is definitely better than MS (better teachers, better classes, fewer students), someone might question that financial decision.

If the HS was so great,Basis would not lose 1/2 the kids after 8th. The retention rate is not very good.

To clarify, I think the HS class is a little more than 1/2 the size of the 5th grade class. A large majority of 8th graders return to 9th. I think maybe about 10-15 out of 80 or 90 have been leaving. That's a mix of moving to private and application schools, and moving out of DC.

You're trying to whitewash the attrition. What happens is that more than half of the intake class of 135-140 is gone by the first day of 9th grade. Moreover, by the start of 12th grade, the classes is down to 45-55 students, not more. We were surprised by how many students left after every high school grade, half a dozen each time. There's high and unrelenting attrition at BASIS DC, however you slice it. Claiming otherwise won't change that.

Other schools have attrition but also socially promote and backfill.

BASIS DC does not.

You are comparing apples to oranges.

Why doesn’t BASIS backfill? It’s a public school. How do they avoid taking new students when there are so many who are initially shut out and would do just fine entering in late MS and for HS.

Isn’t it obvious? Because they can’t choose and pick who they get and are unwilling to do the work all other schools do to help integrate and support new kids.

It is very easy to have better numbers when you weed out low performers and refuse to roll the dice in taking new students. Basis is doing nothing special and no really heavy lifting at all.

There’s no real debate at this point: BASIS doesn’t backfill. But what’s often missed in these discussions is just how structurally dependent the school’s academic model is on that fact. If BASIS did backfill, it likely couldn’t deliver the program it’s known for—or at least not in the way families currently experience it.

Backfilling is manageable at most schools because it doesn’t fundamentally alter what those schools are offering in the first place. The academic pace and expectations are often modest, and the gaps between entering and existing students, while real, don’t dramatically shift classroom dynamics or outcomes. In some cases, schools aren’t doing much to bring backfilled students up to speed, but because the bar is already low or inconsistent, the disruption is minimal.

At BASIS, it’s different. The curriculum is aggressive, the pace is rapid, and the cohort model is central. Students who enter in later grades without prior exposure to the system are far more likely to struggle—not because they lack ability, but because they’re uninitiated. The burden on teachers to differentiate skyrockets. The pressure on classroom cohesion intensifies. And the students who’ve been there all along suddenly find their academic environment altered in ways that feel material. If BASIS were required to backfill meaningfully and regularly, it simply wouldn’t be BASIS anymore—at least not in the form that draws families to it.

And that, really, is the underlying policy dilemma. The question isn’t just should BASIS be forced to backfill? The more fundamental question is: should schools like BASIS be allowed to exist at all within public systems, on the public dime (?). Because demanding full backfilling from BASIS is effectively asking it to become a different kind of school—more comprehensive, more catch-all, less specialized.

There are reasonable people on both sides of that debate. But it’s important to be clear-eyed about what the tradeoffs actually are. The stakes aren’t limited to one admissions policy—they go to the heart of what kind of public education ecosystem a city like D.C. wants to have.

I would argue that the underlying problem is that Basis doesn’t offer a comprehensive, flexible curriculum or the support.

They could take kids and support and integrate them. If kids are unable to do the work, they get held back like they do when they take new 5th graders and all thru middle school.

It’s not hard.

Actually, they do do that.

Typical DCUM pontificating by people that know nothing about that school.

They seriously have dedicated office hours that students can sign up for — and many students avail themselves of it, especially in math. What other “supports” or “flexibility” do folks want?

Really? You think having office hours which is standard in middle and up enough and adequate support?

No it is not what most people call support. Support is push in or pull out for kids who need it. Support is offering extra support classes for kids who need it. Support is having a sped team dedicated to providing in house services to kids who qualify. Support is having social worker or someone to that effect help students with non-academic issues (psych/mental, family, housing, etc..)

I could go on but office hours is not what most people call support services in schools.

It’s not the place for kids with learning disabilities. And that’s ok. It’s also not a social worker. Also fine.

Children needing pull outs for their learning disability have a home school option. Same for emotional disorders

More fundamentally, the idea that every school must serve the entire universe of student needs — from intensive emotional and behavioral support to trauma recovery to accelerated academic instruction — is simply mistaken. Not every school needs to be everything to everyone.

There are already many DCPS and charter schools with open seats that reflect the model the previous poster is seeking: strong on wraparound services, focused on supporting the median student, and rightly prioritizing students with significant challenges. My child attended one of those schools for elementary. It was a warm environment in many ways, and it served its purpose — but it was also clear that his particular needs weren’t truly being prioritized, or even taken seriously, especially academically.

No one said Basis needs to be everything to everyone. The discussion is that Basis offers absolutely no support services and no flexibility[b]. None. In addition, they don’t backfill.

They don’t need to do any of the heavy lifting. It can’t get any easier than that. It is not as if the staff and school is doing anything amazing at all.

BTW, one of the PP above made the statement that support services is only for SPED is absolutely wrong. Lots of high performing kids are miserable, and I bet there are a number at Basis who could use support services. In addition, a number who could use support services in subjects like math. But hey, there are office hours and that should fix the problem right, even if you have one of the highest attrition rate in the city in middle/high school.

Do you have kids there? Because I do, and the bolded is really strange to read, because actually they do have a lot of free support options for the kids -- every single teacher stays after school once a week and is available to work with kids who need help 1:1. Lots of kids do this -- both those who are struggling and also those who are aiming for 100s. That's the "office hours" it out are disparaging, they actually work. And the school has a relationship with Georgetown and Georgetown student come several times a week to offer free 1:1 tutoring.

Very weird to speak so authoritatively about a school you've never been inside.

Anonymous wrote:Basis doesn’t just get the UMC kids whose parents want an intense academic experience. It also gets the UMC kids whose parents look at their weak feeder middle and say no way, seek charters, and don’t get into Latin. They end up with Basis and send their kid there because they have no other choice (except to move or go private and maybe they can’t). So you end up with less strong students there. There’s way too much demand for “middle schools other than our feeder” and not enough spots. Would be great if the feeder middles could step up of course!

Yes - the real problem is lack of UMC-friendly middle school optionality. But that isn’t a problem Basis can solve on its own and certainly no reason for a change in its model.

Of course, a UMC-friendly middle school would be one where, at minimum, UMC families are close to or a decided majority of the student body. That’s a sobering wrinkle to all of this…

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Anonymous wrote:The problem with BASIS is that it's not "really simple" as somebody claimed on the last page, not at all. Many 5th graders seem like a good fit for BASIS, so they are sent by their well-meaning parents. From what I've observed, few of these kids "wash out;" no mistake was made in sending them.

What happens is that the teaching proves to be so uneven, the leadership so prone to gaslighting families who encounter difficulties, the facility so lousy, the curriculum so rigid and narrowly focused on test taking, that most BASIS families get turned off the experience over time and leave.

Sure, you can always pull out, but it might be better to face the reality that BASIS is risky business compared to most DMV schools offering consistent rigor from the get-go. BASIS just not a very welcoming program offering a rich or happy educational experience to young people. There are a lot of sharp elbows at BASIS and not much of a community feel. When we left for a private, we were glad to feel included but dismayed to discover that our BASIS MS grad wasn't as well prepared as we'd hoped, other than for chemistry and biology.

Heading to BASIS is to roll the dice in a somewhat risky game of chance. Best to see it that way to hedge your bets, to avoid getting hurt. If you can afford a stronger program/school pyramid that's a better bet for both MS & HS or are willing to move for one, do it.

We are dealing with people that stayed the course in DC until late elementary whereas a good deal of truly risk averse types would have never even consider it or decamped to the burbs or private early on. They’ve already rolled the dice so to speak.

If Basis bought a few free years before going private, any minor adjustment/catch-up seems immaterial, or at least a bet that paid off.

And I sort of trust private school admissions committees to assess whether a kid (coming from Basis or wherever) will be a good fit for their school.

This is precisely how we are using Basis - a way station before private — admittedly a bit easier for us because a sibling is already in that pipeline and we are quite confident that our Basis student will be more than fine upon the eventual transition — and we’ll be about $80K less out of pocket.

Assuming 2 kids at a Big 3 you are still paying around $400,000 more than the parents whose kids stay the course at Basis.

Given that Basis HS is definitely better than MS (better teachers, better classes, fewer students), someone might question that financial decision.

If the HS was so great,Basis would not lose 1/2 the kids after 8th. The retention rate is not very good.

To clarify, I think the HS class is a little more than 1/2 the size of the 5th grade class. A large majority of 8th graders return to 9th. I think maybe about 10-15 out of 80 or 90 have been leaving. That's a mix of moving to private and application schools, and moving out of DC.

You're trying to whitewash the attrition. What happens is that more than half of the intake class of 135-140 is gone by the first day of 9th grade. Moreover, by the start of 12th grade, the classes is down to 45-55 students, not more. We were surprised by how many students left after every high school grade, half a dozen each time. There's high and unrelenting attrition at BASIS DC, however you slice it. Claiming otherwise won't change that.

Other schools have attrition but also socially promote and backfill.

BASIS DC does not.

You are comparing apples to oranges.

Why doesn’t BASIS backfill? It’s a public school. How do they avoid taking new students when there are so many who are initially shut out and would do just fine entering in late MS and for HS.

Isn’t it obvious? Because they can’t choose and pick who they get and are unwilling to do the work all other schools do to help integrate and support new kids.

It is very easy to have better numbers when you weed out low performers and refuse to roll the dice in taking new students. Basis is doing nothing special and no really heavy lifting at all.

There’s no real debate at this point: BASIS doesn’t backfill. But what’s often missed in these discussions is just how structurally dependent the school’s academic model is on that fact. If BASIS did backfill, it likely couldn’t deliver the program it’s known for—or at least not in the way families currently experience it.

Backfilling is manageable at most schools because it doesn’t fundamentally alter what those schools are offering in the first place. The academic pace and expectations are often modest, and the gaps between entering and existing students, while real, don’t dramatically shift classroom dynamics or outcomes. In some cases, schools aren’t doing much to bring backfilled students up to speed, but because the bar is already low or inconsistent, the disruption is minimal.

At BASIS, it’s different. The curriculum is aggressive, the pace is rapid, and the cohort model is central. Students who enter in later grades without prior exposure to the system are far more likely to struggle—not because they lack ability, but because they’re uninitiated. The burden on teachers to differentiate skyrockets. The pressure on classroom cohesion intensifies. And the students who’ve been there all along suddenly find their academic environment altered in ways that feel material. If BASIS were required to backfill meaningfully and regularly, it simply wouldn’t be BASIS anymore—at least not in the form that draws families to it.

And that, really, is the underlying policy dilemma. The question isn’t just should BASIS be forced to backfill? The more fundamental question is: should schools like BASIS be allowed to exist at all within public systems, on the public dime (?). Because demanding full backfilling from BASIS is effectively asking it to become a different kind of school—more comprehensive, more catch-all, less specialized.

There are reasonable people on both sides of that debate. But it’s important to be clear-eyed about what the tradeoffs actually are. The stakes aren’t limited to one admissions policy—they go to the heart of what kind of public education ecosystem a city like D.C. wants to have.

I would argue that the underlying problem is that Basis doesn’t offer a comprehensive, flexible curriculum or the support.

They could take kids and support and integrate them. If kids are unable to do the work, they get held back like they do when they take new 5th graders and all thru middle school.

It’s not hard.

Actually, they do do that.

Typical DCUM pontificating by people that know nothing about that school.

They seriously have dedicated office hours that students can sign up for — and many students avail themselves of it, especially in math. What other “supports” or “flexibility” do folks want?

Really? You think having office hours which is standard in middle and up enough and adequate support?

No it is not what most people call support. Support is push in or pull out for kids who need it. Support is offering extra support classes for kids who need it. Support is having a sped team dedicated to providing in house services to kids who qualify. Support is having social worker or someone to that effect help students with non-academic issues (psych/mental, family, housing, etc..)

I could go on but office hours is not what most people call support services in schools.

It’s not the place for kids with learning disabilities. And that’s ok. It’s also not a social worker. Also fine.

Children needing pull outs for their learning disability have a home school option. Same for emotional disorders

More fundamentally, the idea that every school must serve the entire universe of student needs — from intensive emotional and behavioral support to trauma recovery to accelerated academic instruction — is simply mistaken. Not every school needs to be everything to everyone.

There are already many DCPS and charter schools with open seats that reflect the model the previous poster is seeking: strong on wraparound services, focused on supporting the median student, and rightly prioritizing students with significant challenges. My child attended one of those schools for elementary. It was a warm environment in many ways, and it served its purpose — but it was also clear that his particular needs weren’t truly being prioritized, or even taken seriously, especially academically.

No one said Basis needs to be everything to everyone. The discussion is that Basis offers absolutely no support services and no flexibility. None. In addition, they don’t backfill.

They don’t need to do any of the heavy lifting. It can’t get any easier than that. It is not as if the staff and school is doing anything amazing at all.

BTW, one of the PP above made the statement that support services is only for SPED is absolutely wrong. Lots of high performing kids are miserable, and I bet there are a number at Basis who could use support services. In addition, a number who could use support services in subjects like math. But hey, there are office hours and that should fix the problem right, even if you have one of the highest attrition rate in the city in middle/high school.

And has been discussed many times that it is not only the lower performing kids who leave Basis. Lots of high performing kids leave, so much that there was resistance from school in providing needed recommendations for applications to other schools. Ask some families about that.

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Anonymous wrote:The problem with BASIS is that it's not "really simple" as somebody claimed on the last page, not at all. Many 5th graders seem like a good fit for BASIS, so they are sent by their well-meaning parents. From what I've observed, few of these kids "wash out;" no mistake was made in sending them.

What happens is that the teaching proves to be so uneven, the leadership so prone to gaslighting families who encounter difficulties, the facility so lousy, the curriculum so rigid and narrowly focused on test taking, that most BASIS families get turned off the experience over time and leave.

Sure, you can always pull out, but it might be better to face the reality that BASIS is risky business compared to most DMV schools offering consistent rigor from the get-go. BASIS just not a very welcoming program offering a rich or happy educational experience to young people. There are a lot of sharp elbows at BASIS and not much of a community feel. When we left for a private, we were glad to feel included but dismayed to discover that our BASIS MS grad wasn't as well prepared as we'd hoped, other than for chemistry and biology.

Heading to BASIS is to roll the dice in a somewhat risky game of chance. Best to see it that way to hedge your bets, to avoid getting hurt. If you can afford a stronger program/school pyramid that's a better bet for both MS & HS or are willing to move for one, do it.

We are dealing with people that stayed the course in DC until late elementary whereas a good deal of truly risk averse types would have never even consider it or decamped to the burbs or private early on. They’ve already rolled the dice so to speak.

If Basis bought a few free years before going private, any minor adjustment/catch-up seems immaterial, or at least a bet that paid off.

And I sort of trust private school admissions committees to assess whether a kid (coming from Basis or wherever) will be a good fit for their school.

This is precisely how we are using Basis - a way station before private — admittedly a bit easier for us because a sibling is already in that pipeline and we are quite confident that our Basis student will be more than fine upon the eventual transition — and we’ll be about $80K less out of pocket.

Assuming 2 kids at a Big 3 you are still paying around $400,000 more than the parents whose kids stay the course at Basis.

Given that Basis HS is definitely better than MS (better teachers, better classes, fewer students), someone might question that financial decision.

If the HS was so great,Basis would not lose 1/2 the kids after 8th. The retention rate is not very good.

To clarify, I think the HS class is a little more than 1/2 the size of the 5th grade class. A large majority of 8th graders return to 9th. I think maybe about 10-15 out of 80 or 90 have been leaving. That's a mix of moving to private and application schools, and moving out of DC.

You're trying to whitewash the attrition. What happens is that more than half of the intake class of 135-140 is gone by the first day of 9th grade. Moreover, by the start of 12th grade, the classes is down to 45-55 students, not more. We were surprised by how many students left after every high school grade, half a dozen each time. There's high and unrelenting attrition at BASIS DC, however you slice it. Claiming otherwise won't change that.

Other schools have attrition but also socially promote and backfill.

BASIS DC does not.

You are comparing apples to oranges.

Why doesn’t BASIS backfill? It’s a public school. How do they avoid taking new students when there are so many who are initially shut out and would do just fine entering in late MS and for HS.

Isn’t it obvious? Because they can’t choose and pick who they get and are unwilling to do the work all other schools do to help integrate and support new kids.

It is very easy to have better numbers when you weed out low performers and refuse to roll the dice in taking new students. Basis is doing nothing special and no really heavy lifting at all.

There’s no real debate at this point: BASIS doesn’t backfill. But what’s often missed in these discussions is just how structurally dependent the school’s academic model is on that fact. If BASIS did backfill, it likely couldn’t deliver the program it’s known for—or at least not in the way families currently experience it.

Backfilling is manageable at most schools because it doesn’t fundamentally alter what those schools are offering in the first place. The academic pace and expectations are often modest, and the gaps between entering and existing students, while real, don’t dramatically shift classroom dynamics or outcomes. In some cases, schools aren’t doing much to bring backfilled students up to speed, but because the bar is already low or inconsistent, the disruption is minimal.

At BASIS, it’s different. The curriculum is aggressive, the pace is rapid, and the cohort model is central. Students who enter in later grades without prior exposure to the system are far more likely to struggle—not because they lack ability, but because they’re uninitiated. The burden on teachers to differentiate skyrockets. The pressure on classroom cohesion intensifies. And the students who’ve been there all along suddenly find their academic environment altered in ways that feel material. If BASIS were required to backfill meaningfully and regularly, it simply wouldn’t be BASIS anymore—at least not in the form that draws families to it.

And that, really, is the underlying policy dilemma. The question isn’t just should BASIS be forced to backfill? The more fundamental question is: should schools like BASIS be allowed to exist at all within public systems, on the public dime (?). Because demanding full backfilling from BASIS is effectively asking it to become a different kind of school—more comprehensive, more catch-all, less specialized.

There are reasonable people on both sides of that debate. But it’s important to be clear-eyed about what the tradeoffs actually are. The stakes aren’t limited to one admissions policy—they go to the heart of what kind of public education ecosystem a city like D.C. wants to have.

I would argue that the underlying problem is that Basis doesn’t offer a comprehensive, flexible curriculum or the support.

They could take kids and support and integrate them. If kids are unable to do the work, they get held back like they do when they take new 5th graders and all thru middle school.

It’s not hard.

Actually, they do do that.

Typical DCUM pontificating by people that know nothing about that school.

They seriously have dedicated office hours that students can sign up for — and many students avail themselves of it, especially in math. What other “supports” or “flexibility” do folks want?

Really? You think having office hours which is standard in middle and up enough and adequate support?

No it is not what most people call support. Support is push in or pull out for kids who need it. Support is offering extra support classes for kids who need it. Support is having a sped team dedicated to providing in house services to kids who qualify. Support is having social worker or someone to that effect help students with non-academic issues (psych/mental, family, housing, etc..)

I could go on but office hours is not what most people call support services in schools.

It’s not the place for kids with learning disabilities. And that’s ok. It’s also not a social worker. Also fine.

Children needing pull outs for their learning disability have a home school option. Same for emotional disorders

More fundamentally, the idea that every school must serve the entire universe of student needs — from intensive emotional and behavioral support to trauma recovery to accelerated academic instruction — is simply mistaken. Not every school needs to be everything to everyone.

There are already many DCPS and charter schools with open seats that reflect the model the previous poster is seeking: strong on wraparound services, focused on supporting the median student, and rightly prioritizing students with significant challenges. My child attended one of those schools for elementary. It was a warm environment in many ways, and it served its purpose — but it was also clear that his particular needs weren’t truly being prioritized, or even taken seriously, especially academically.

No one said Basis needs to be everything to everyone. The discussion is that Basis offers absolutely no support services and no flexibility. None. In addition, they don’t backfill.

They don’t need to do any of the heavy lifting. It can’t get any easier than that. It is not as if the staff and school is doing anything amazing at all.

BTW, one of the PP above made the statement that support services is only for SPED is absolutely wrong. Lots of high performing kids are miserable, and I bet there are a number at Basis who could use support services. In addition, a number who could use support services in subjects like math. But hey, there are office hours and that should fix the problem right, even if you have one of the highest attrition rate in the city in middle/high school.

Basis doesn’t just get the UMC kids whose parents want an intense academic experience. It also gets the UMC kids whose parents look at their weak feeder middle and say no way, seek charters, and don’t get into Latin. They end up with Basis and send their kid there because they have no other choice (except to move or go private and maybe they can’t). So you end up with less strong students there. There’s way too much demand for “middle schools other than our feeder” and not enough spots. Would be great if the feeder middles could step up of course!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem with BASIS is that it's not "really simple" as somebody claimed on the last page, not at all. Many 5th graders seem like a good fit for BASIS, so they are sent by their well-meaning parents. From what I've observed, few of these kids "wash out;" no mistake was made in sending them.

What happens is that the teaching proves to be so uneven, the leadership so prone to gaslighting families who encounter difficulties, the facility so lousy, the curriculum so rigid and narrowly focused on test taking, that most BASIS families get turned off the experience over time and leave.

Sure, you can always pull out, but it might be better to face the reality that BASIS is risky business compared to most DMV schools offering consistent rigor from the get-go. BASIS just not a very welcoming program offering a rich or happy educational experience to young people. There are a lot of sharp elbows at BASIS and not much of a community feel. When we left for a private, we were glad to feel included but dismayed to discover that our BASIS MS grad wasn't as well prepared as we'd hoped, other than for chemistry and biology.

Heading to BASIS is to roll the dice in a somewhat risky game of chance. Best to see it that way to hedge your bets, to avoid getting hurt. If you can afford a stronger program/school pyramid that's a better bet for both MS & HS or are willing to move for one, do it.

We are dealing with people that stayed the course in DC until late elementary whereas a good deal of truly risk averse types would have never even consider it or decamped to the burbs or private early on. They’ve already rolled the dice so to speak.

If Basis bought a few free years before going private, any minor adjustment/catch-up seems immaterial, or at least a bet that paid off.

And I sort of trust private school admissions committees to assess whether a kid (coming from Basis or wherever) will be a good fit for their school.

This is precisely how we are using Basis - a way station before private — admittedly a bit easier for us because a sibling is already in that pipeline and we are quite confident that our Basis student will be more than fine upon the eventual transition — and we’ll be about $80K less out of pocket.

Assuming 2 kids at a Big 3 you are still paying around $400,000 more than the parents whose kids stay the course at Basis.

Given that Basis HS is definitely better than MS (better teachers, better classes, fewer students), someone might question that financial decision.

If the HS was so great,Basis would not lose 1/2 the kids after 8th. The retention rate is not very good.

To clarify, I think the HS class is a little more than 1/2 the size of the 5th grade class. A large majority of 8th graders return to 9th. I think maybe about 10-15 out of 80 or 90 have been leaving. That's a mix of moving to private and application schools, and moving out of DC.

You're trying to whitewash the attrition. What happens is that more than half of the intake class of 135-140 is gone by the first day of 9th grade. Moreover, by the start of 12th grade, the classes is down to 45-55 students, not more. We were surprised by how many students left after every high school grade, half a dozen each time. There's high and unrelenting attrition at BASIS DC, however you slice it. Claiming otherwise won't change that.

Other schools have attrition but also socially promote and backfill.

BASIS DC does not.

You are comparing apples to oranges.

Why doesn’t BASIS backfill? It’s a public school. How do they avoid taking new students when there are so many who are initially shut out and would do just fine entering in late MS and for HS.

Isn’t it obvious? Because they can’t choose and pick who they get and are unwilling to do the work all other schools do to help integrate and support new kids.

It is very easy to have better numbers when you weed out low performers and refuse to roll the dice in taking new students. Basis is doing nothing special and no really heavy lifting at all.

There’s no real debate at this point: BASIS doesn’t backfill. But what’s often missed in these discussions is just how structurally dependent the school’s academic model is on that fact. If BASIS did backfill, it likely couldn’t deliver the program it’s known for—or at least not in the way families currently experience it.

Backfilling is manageable at most schools because it doesn’t fundamentally alter what those schools are offering in the first place. The academic pace and expectations are often modest, and the gaps between entering and existing students, while real, don’t dramatically shift classroom dynamics or outcomes. In some cases, schools aren’t doing much to bring backfilled students up to speed, but because the bar is already low or inconsistent, the disruption is minimal.

At BASIS, it’s different. The curriculum is aggressive, the pace is rapid, and the cohort model is central. Students who enter in later grades without prior exposure to the system are far more likely to struggle—not because they lack ability, but because they’re uninitiated. The burden on teachers to differentiate skyrockets. The pressure on classroom cohesion intensifies. And the students who’ve been there all along suddenly find their academic environment altered in ways that feel material. If BASIS were required to backfill meaningfully and regularly, it simply wouldn’t be BASIS anymore—at least not in the form that draws families to it.

And that, really, is the underlying policy dilemma. The question isn’t just should BASIS be forced to backfill? The more fundamental question is: should schools like BASIS be allowed to exist at all within public systems, on the public dime (?). Because demanding full backfilling from BASIS is effectively asking it to become a different kind of school—more comprehensive, more catch-all, less specialized.

There are reasonable people on both sides of that debate. But it’s important to be clear-eyed about what the tradeoffs actually are. The stakes aren’t limited to one admissions policy—they go to the heart of what kind of public education ecosystem a city like D.C. wants to have.

I would argue that the underlying problem is that Basis doesn’t offer a comprehensive, flexible curriculum or the support.

They could take kids and support and integrate them. If kids are unable to do the work, they get held back like they do when they take new 5th graders and all thru middle school.

It’s not hard.

Actually, they do do that.

Typical DCUM pontificating by people that know nothing about that school.

They seriously have dedicated office hours that students can sign up for — and many students avail themselves of it, especially in math. What other “supports” or “flexibility” do folks want?

Really? You think having office hours which is standard in middle and up enough and adequate support?

No it is not what most people call support. Support is push in or pull out for kids who need it. Support is offering extra support classes for kids who need it. Support is having a sped team dedicated to providing in house services to kids who qualify. Support is having social worker or someone to that effect help students with non-academic issues (psych/mental, family, housing, etc..)

I could go on but office hours is not what most people call support services in schools.

It’s not the place for kids with learning disabilities. And that’s ok. It’s also not a social worker. Also fine.

Children needing pull outs for their learning disability have a home school option. Same for emotional disorders

More fundamentally, the idea that every school must serve the entire universe of student needs — from intensive emotional and behavioral support to trauma recovery to accelerated academic instruction — is simply mistaken. Not every school needs to be everything to everyone.

There are already many DCPS and charter schools with open seats that reflect the model the previous poster is seeking: strong on wraparound services, focused on supporting the median student, and rightly prioritizing students with significant challenges. My child attended one of those schools for elementary. It was a warm environment in many ways, and it served its purpose — but it was also clear that his particular needs weren’t truly being prioritized, or even taken seriously, especially academically.