Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BASIS DC only has 47 in the graduating class but here is a selection of colleges to which kids were admitted (some were admitted to more than one of these).

Per capita, no other public school in DC comes close to these results.

Bryn Mawr
Carnegie Mellon
Cornell
Dartmouth
Duke
Edinburgh
Elon
Emory
Georgetown
GW
Harvard
NYU
Northeastern
Northwestern
Oxford
Pomona
Smith
St. Andrews
Tufts
UC Berkeley
UPenn
U Mich
UT-Austin
UVA
Wesleyan
Wisconsin-Madison
Yale

If you kicked out all of the kids who aren’t in AP classes at the other high schools they’d have similar numbers.

BASIS does a good job on those 47, but the real advantage is shaking off the ones who aren’t top tier students.

It’s such a simple sleight of hand trick, it’s amazing that a school so famous for its math slips it by so many people.

You keep saying that. But here are a few questions for you:

Can you acknowledge that the curriculum at BASIS differs from DCPS? (Requires you to just take a cursory look at the required classes to know this is true, but if you saw the syllabus, as parents do, you would know it's dramatically different and BASIS teaches much more content).

Do you acknowledge that it's possible that the kids who survive BASIS might be learning more than they would have through DCPS?

Can you acknowledge that many of the kids who make it through 8th and then decide to leave for Walls or Private (about half the kids who start) were actually pretty well served by the middle school curriculum?

And now these 50 kids who make it all the way through to graduate -- yes, I agree that these 50 probably would have been successful anywhere. But maybe, just maybe, they actually like the curriculum at BASIS. Maybe they had opportunities there they wouldnt have had at a different school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Loooong post above says little more than the v. short post above it.

BASIS is decent for 5th grade for almost everybody. But the higher you go, the more complicated it gets. We left after middle school not because the work, rigor and testing were stressful.

We were out the door because the curriculum is narrow, the facilities and enrichment weak, the best teachers tend to leave, admins are OT pushy and parents are absurdly disempowered.

On top of all that, the campus (and franchise?) is ridiculously indebted and cash strapped.

They've been running a surplus for years. It's actually something that pisses me off since I'd rather see the money reinvested. The only debt they have is the building. All charter schools have mortgage service. But by all means don't let facts get in the way of your narrative.

P.S. This is "Exhibit A" for why it is useless to try and get info about BASIS on DCUM.

No. The nonprofit runs the school and the for profit, which is heavily leveraged, owns the property, the curriculum etc

Just pull the real estate records if you don’t believe me.

BASIS DC is not a for profit school. BASIS DC is a non-profit. By your logic a charter school school that rents space from a corporation as landlord is essentially a corporation? You are digging deep if the best you can do is faux concern that [GASP] a piece of real estate is leveraged. Also can't help but notice you just pretended you didn't get their finances totally backwards. The financials are public. BASIS DC has run a surplus for several years. We call these "facts".

No, that’s not my logic.

It’s a for profit corporation that controls the curriculum, the brand and the real estate and they set up a local non profit to handle the contract with the school district.

If for profit basis doesn’t get paid, or if nonprofit basis doesn’t abide by the for profits system, there is no nonprofit. It’s different from your scenario because if it’s purely a landlord tenant relationship, the school, its curriculum and teaching material isn’t ties to the landlord.

So, yes, the local is a nonprofit - but the basis system is a for profit operation and all of the nonprofits (they link both for profit and nonprofit schools around the country) rely on the for profit arm.

This isn’t a secret - they pioneered the system starting out of Arizona and facing pushback about having education be a totally for profit system, they incorporated some of the branches as nonprofits, which does provide some insulation between kids and investors.

But whether the local operation is a for or nonprofit, independently operated or run by the parent, it’s essentially a franchise of a successful for profit company (albeit one that has recently become over leveraged).

Look, in some places it’s been a successful system (depending on your chosen metrics) and it’s not totally insane to understand…

There are other charter networks that are purely nonprofit (parent and local) although if you’d like to argue about whether they are really nonprofit I’m happy to do that to.

None of this affects the debate over whether basis’ test scores are reality or whatever else everyone is banging on about, but you should understand the scenario.

Given that BASIS is the top charter network in the United States, with 11 of the top 100 high schools in the country, it sounds like other charter networks should be following its model.

There are some things where it doesn’t really matter how you get the result… education is one of those things where it does matter.

The most profitable way is not necessarily the best way, even if it sometimes deliver good standardized test scores.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BASIS DC only has 47 in the graduating class but here is a selection of colleges to which kids were admitted (some were admitted to more than one of these).

Per capita, no other public school in DC comes close to these results.

Bryn Mawr
Carnegie Mellon
Cornell
Dartmouth
Duke
Edinburgh
Elon
Emory
Georgetown
GW
Harvard
NYU
Northeastern
Northwestern
Oxford
Pomona
Smith
St. Andrews
Tufts
UC Berkeley
UPenn
U Mich
UT-Austin
UVA
Wesleyan
Wisconsin-Madison
Yale

If you kicked out all of the kids who aren’t in AP classes at the other high schools they’d have similar numbers.

BASIS does a good job on those 47, but the real advantage is shaking off the ones who aren’t top tier students.

It’s such a simple sleight of hand trick, it’s amazing that a school so famous for its math slips it by so many people.

You keep saying that. But here are a few questions for you:

Can you acknowledge that the curriculum at BASIS differs from DCPS? (Requires you to just take a cursory look at the required classes to know this is true, but if you saw the syllabus, as parents do, you would know it's dramatically different and BASIS teaches much more content).

Do you acknowledge that it's possible that the kids who survive BASIS might be learning more than they would have through DCPS?

Can you acknowledge that many of the kids who make it through 8th and then decide to leave for Walls or Private (about half the kids who start) were actually pretty well served by the middle school curriculum?

And now these 50 kids who make it all the way through to graduate -- yes, I agree that these 50 probably would have been successful anywhere. But maybe, just maybe, they actually like the curriculum at BASIS. Maybe they had opportunities there they wouldnt have had at a different school.

Anonymous wrote:Our child was matched with Basis as a rising 5th grader. Since I have heard mixed reviews from parents, with some who love the school and the academic challenge, while others say that despite their child being in the 90th percentile they were failing, I wanted to get more insight on other people's experiences. I have heard that some parents have had to hire tutors and their child dropped extracurricular activities in order to spend more time studying, I am curious if this is typical.

For those that have a child at Basis I want to know if they had a good experience in 5th grade. Were the teachers competent and capable? Was the school administration pro-active and did they keep parents informed? Would you keep your child here through 12th? Or do you see this as more of a middle school option?

Unfortunately, the school is not offering any more shadow days, but they are doing an "open house" on April 26th. This will be our only chance to see the school before we need to make a decision.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BASIS DC only has 47 in the graduating class but here is a selection of colleges to which kids were admitted (some were admitted to more than one of these).

Per capita, no other public school in DC comes close to these results.

Bryn Mawr
Carnegie Mellon
Cornell
Dartmouth
Duke
Edinburgh
Elon
Emory
Georgetown
GW
Harvard
NYU
Northeastern
Northwestern
Oxford
Pomona
Smith
St. Andrews
Tufts
UC Berkeley
UPenn
U Mich
UT-Austin
UVA
Wesleyan
Wisconsin-Madison
Yale

If you kicked out all of the kids who aren’t in AP classes at the other high schools they’d have similar numbers.

BASIS does a good job on those 47, but the real advantage is shaking off the ones who aren’t top tier students.

It’s such a simple sleight of hand trick, it’s amazing that a school so famous for its math slips it by so many people.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Loooong post above says little more than the v. short post above it.

BASIS is decent for 5th grade for almost everybody. But the higher you go, the more complicated it gets. We left after middle school not because the work, rigor and testing were stressful.

We were out the door because the curriculum is narrow, the facilities and enrichment weak, the best teachers tend to leave, admins are OT pushy and parents are absurdly disempowered.

On top of all that, the campus (and franchise?) is ridiculously indebted and cash strapped.

They've been running a surplus for years. It's actually something that pisses me off since I'd rather see the money reinvested. The only debt they have is the building. All charter schools have mortgage service. But by all means don't let facts get in the way of your narrative.

P.S. This is "Exhibit A" for why it is useless to try and get info about BASIS on DCUM.

No. The nonprofit runs the school and the for profit, which is heavily leveraged, owns the property, the curriculum etc

Just pull the real estate records if you don’t believe me.

BASIS DC is not a for profit school. BASIS DC is a non-profit. By your logic a charter school school that rents space from a corporation as landlord is essentially a corporation? You are digging deep if the best you can do is faux concern that [GASP] a piece of real estate is leveraged. Also can't help but notice you just pretended you didn't get their finances totally backwards. The financials are public. BASIS DC has run a surplus for several years. We call these "facts".

No, that’s not my logic.

It’s a for profit corporation that controls the curriculum, the brand and the real estate and they set up a local non profit to handle the contract with the school district.

If for profit basis doesn’t get paid, or if nonprofit basis doesn’t abide by the for profits system, there is no nonprofit. It’s different from your scenario because if it’s purely a landlord tenant relationship, the school, its curriculum and teaching material isn’t ties to the landlord.

So, yes, the local is a nonprofit - but the basis system is a for profit operation and all of the nonprofits (they link both for profit and nonprofit schools around the country) rely on the for profit arm.

This isn’t a secret - they pioneered the system starting out of Arizona and facing pushback about having education be a totally for profit system, they incorporated some of the branches as nonprofits, which does provide some insulation between kids and investors.

But whether the local operation is a for or nonprofit, independently operated or run by the parent, it’s essentially a franchise of a successful for profit company (albeit one that has recently become over leveraged).

Look, in some places it’s been a successful system (depending on your chosen metrics) and it’s not totally insane to understand…

There are other charter networks that are purely nonprofit (parent and local) although if you’d like to argue about whether they are really nonprofit I’m happy to do that to.

None of this affects the debate over whether basis’ test scores are reality or whatever else everyone is banging on about, but you should understand the scenario.

Given that BASIS is the top charter network in the United States, with 11 of the top 100 high schools in the country, it sounds like other charter networks should be following its model.

Anonymous wrote:BASIS DC only has 47 in the graduating class but here is a selection of colleges to which kids were admitted (some were admitted to more than one of these).

Per capita, no other public school in DC comes close to these results.

Bryn Mawr
Carnegie Mellon
Cornell
Dartmouth
Duke
Edinburgh
Elon
Emory
Georgetown
GW
Harvard
NYU
Northeastern
Northwestern
Oxford
Pomona
Smith
St. Andrews
Tufts
UC Berkeley
UPenn
U Mich
UT-Austin
UVA
Wesleyan
Wisconsin-Madison
Yale

Anonymous wrote:BASIS DC only has 47 in the graduating class but here is a selection of colleges to which kids were admitted (some were admitted to more than one of these).

Per capita, no other public school in DC comes close to these results.

Bryn Mawr
Carnegie Mellon
Cornell
Dartmouth
Duke
Edinburgh
Elon
Emory
Georgetown
GW
Harvard
NYU
Northeastern
Northwestern
Oxford
Pomona
Smith
St. Andrews
Tufts
UC Berkeley
UPenn
U Mich
UT-Austin
UVA
Wesleyan
Wisconsin-Madison
Yale

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Loooong post above says little more than the v. short post above it.

BASIS is decent for 5th grade for almost everybody. But the higher you go, the more complicated it gets. We left after middle school not because the work, rigor and testing were stressful.

We were out the door because the curriculum is narrow, the facilities and enrichment weak, the best teachers tend to leave, admins are OT pushy and parents are absurdly disempowered.

On top of all that, the campus (and franchise?) is ridiculously indebted and cash strapped.

They've been running a surplus for years. It's actually something that pisses me off since I'd rather see the money reinvested. The only debt they have is the building. All charter schools have mortgage service. But by all means don't let facts get in the way of your narrative.

P.S. This is "Exhibit A" for why it is useless to try and get info about BASIS on DCUM.

No. The nonprofit runs the school and the for profit, which is heavily leveraged, owns the property, the curriculum etc

Just pull the real estate records if you don’t believe me.

BASIS DC is not a for profit school. BASIS DC is a non-profit. By your logic a charter school school that rents space from a corporation as landlord is essentially a corporation? You are digging deep if the best you can do is faux concern that [GASP] a piece of real estate is leveraged. Also can't help but notice you just pretended you didn't get their finances totally backwards. The financials are public. BASIS DC has run a surplus for several years. We call these "facts".

No, that’s not my logic.

It’s a for profit corporation that controls the curriculum, the brand and the real estate and they set up a local non profit to handle the contract with the school district.

If for profit basis doesn’t get paid, or if nonprofit basis doesn’t abide by the for profits system, there is no nonprofit. It’s different from your scenario because if it’s purely a landlord tenant relationship, the school, its curriculum and teaching material isn’t ties to the landlord.

So, yes, the local is a nonprofit - but the basis system is a for profit operation and all of the nonprofits (they link both for profit and nonprofit schools around the country) rely on the for profit arm.

This isn’t a secret - they pioneered the system starting out of Arizona and facing pushback about having education be a totally for profit system, they incorporated some of the branches as nonprofits, which does provide some insulation between kids and investors.

But whether the local operation is a for or nonprofit, independently operated or run by the parent, it’s essentially a franchise of a successful for profit company (albeit one that has recently become over leveraged).

Look, in some places it’s been a successful system (depending on your chosen metrics) and it’s not totally insane to understand…

There are other charter networks that are purely nonprofit (parent and local) although if you’d like to argue about whether they are really nonprofit I’m happy to do that to.

None of this affects the debate over whether basis’ test scores are reality or whatever else everyone is banging on about, but you should understand the scenario.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What public school in DC has a kiln and teaches pottery?

I don't think this is that outlandish. I am an elementary school teacher and our art classroom has a small kiln.

Eastern, Dunbar and Roosevelt have lovely buildings. Of course they are filled with kids who can't score at grade level on CAPE. But by all means let's focus on what matters.

Nearly all high-performing middle and high schools in the DMV also have lovely buildings. With kilns. And gyms and athletic fields and windows in the cafeteria. Good facilities don’t cause bad test scores.

Basis facilities are subpar. That fact is outweighed for some by other considerations, but don’t get it twisted. Bad facilities are still bad.

lol.

Lots of terrible low-performing public middle and high schools in DC have lovely buildings, kilns, and much else.

DC spent over $128 million renovating Dunbar and almost all the kids there are below grade level in reading and math.

Are you actually trying to argue that good facilities cause bad test scores?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What public school in DC has a kiln and teaches pottery?

I don't think this is that outlandish. I am an elementary school teacher and our art classroom has a small kiln.

Eastern, Dunbar and Roosevelt have lovely buildings. Of course they are filled with kids who can't score at grade level on CAPE. But by all means let's focus on what matters.

Nearly all high-performing middle and high schools in the DMV also have lovely buildings. With kilns. And gyms and athletic fields and windows in the cafeteria. Good facilities don’t cause bad test scores.

Basis facilities are subpar. That fact is outweighed for some by other considerations, but don’t get it twisted. Bad facilities are still bad.

lol.

Lots of terrible low-performing public middle and high schools in DC have lovely buildings, kilns, and much else.

DC spent over $128 million renovating Dunbar and almost all the kids there are below grade level in reading and math.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What public school in DC has a kiln and teaches pottery?

I don't think this is that outlandish. I am an elementary school teacher and our art classroom has a small kiln.

Eastern, Dunbar and Roosevelt have lovely buildings. Of course they are filled with kids who can't score at grade level on CAPE. But by all means let's focus on what matters.

Nearly all high-performing middle and high schools in the DMV also have lovely buildings. With kilns. And gyms and athletic fields and windows in the cafeteria. Good facilities don’t cause bad test scores.

Basis facilities are subpar. That fact is outweighed for some by other considerations, but don’t get it twisted. Bad facilities are still bad.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What public school in DC has a kiln and teaches pottery?

I don't think this is that outlandish. I am an elementary school teacher and our art classroom has a small kiln.

Eastern, Dunbar and Roosevelt have lovely buildings. Of course they are filled with kids who can't score at grade level on CAPE. But by all means let's focus on what matters.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Loooong post above says little more than the v. short post above it.

BASIS is decent for 5th grade for almost everybody. But the higher you go, the more complicated it gets. We left after middle school not because the work, rigor and testing were stressful.

We were out the door because the curriculum is narrow, the facilities and enrichment weak, the best teachers tend to leave, admins are OT pushy and parents are absurdly disempowered.

On top of all that, the campus (and franchise?) is ridiculously indebted and cash strapped.

They've been running a surplus for years. It's actually something that pisses me off since I'd rather see the money reinvested. The only debt they have is the building. All charter schools have mortgage service. But by all means don't let facts get in the way of your narrative.

P.S. This is "Exhibit A" for why it is useless to try and get info about BASIS on DCUM.

No. The nonprofit runs the school and the for profit, which is heavily leveraged, owns the property, the curriculum etc

Just pull the real estate records if you don’t believe me.

BASIS DC is not a for profit school. BASIS DC is a non-profit. By your logic a charter school school that rents space from a corporation as landlord is essentially a corporation? You are digging deep if the best you can do is faux concern that [GASP] a piece of real estate is leveraged. Also can't help but notice you just pretended you didn't get their finances totally backwards. The financials are public. BASIS DC has run a surplus for several years. We call these "facts".