Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I don't think it was necessarily for incoming students to be "advanced", but there is definitely an expectation of rigor, an expectation that the curriculum will be accelerated and will push hard on subjects like math and science, that there will not be social promotion, and accordingly that kids and parents will need to be committed, motivated and hard-working. It's not a school for slackers. If it was anyone's notion that they could just coast through BASIS as with a DCPS school, that was their own mistake.


It's a pretty big assumption that the students leaving are slackers. If it's true that parents are pulling their kids from BASIS, then BASIS is not delivering on its promise to educate the underserved students of DC, which is clearly in their marketing materials as their mission.


Whoa. How do you make that wild leap that BASIS isn't educating and is underserving? And particularly, how do you make the wild leap that students (and, as far as I know it's maybe as many as I can count on my fingers) even left for that reason? I know one family left because of an overseas assignment, and I know of at least one other case that had nothing to do with academics (it was about friends at the other school).

Underserving? Maybe your fifth-grader was ready for Calculus but BASIS would only go up to Algebra? Come on, now. "Under" is totally the wrong word here in every way. If anything, what they have been delivering goes well above and beyond what one could expect from most DC schools.

Dial back your drama and acquaint yourself with a dictionary. There is a difference between a school that serves an underserved population, and a school that is under serving its population.

I'll speak slowly for you.

The population of students in DC are underserved. The public school system has not met their education needs. BASIS is supposed to provide to high quality education to all students. Students in poverty. Students who are underserved.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I don't think it was necessarily for incoming students to be "advanced", but there is definitely an expectation of rigor, an expectation that the curriculum will be accelerated and will push hard on subjects like math and science, that there will not be social promotion, and accordingly that kids and parents will need to be committed, motivated and hard-working. It's not a school for slackers. If it was anyone's notion that they could just coast through BASIS as with a DCPS school, that was their own mistake.


It's a pretty big assumption that the students leaving are slackers. If it's true that parents are pulling their kids from BASIS, then BASIS is not delivering on its promise to educate the underserved students of DC, which is clearly in their marketing materials as their mission.


Whoa. How do you make that wild leap that BASIS isn't educating and is underserving? And particularly, how do you make the wild leap that students (and, as far as I know it's maybe as many as I can count on my fingers) even left for that reason? I know one family left because of an overseas assignment, and I know of at least one other case that had nothing to do with academics (it was about friends at the other school).

Underserving? Maybe your fifth-grader was ready for Calculus but BASIS would only go up to Algebra? Come on, now. "Under" is totally the wrong word here in every way. If anything, what they have been delivering goes well above and beyond what one could expect from most DC schools.

Dial back your drama and acquaint yourself with a dictionary. There is a difference between a school that serves an underserved population, and a school that is under serving its population.

I'll speak slowly for you.

The population of students in DC are underserved. The public school system has not met their education needs. BASIS is supposed to provide to high quality education to all students. Students in poverty. Students who are underserved.

Anonymous wrote:
I don't think it was necessarily for incoming students to be "advanced", but there is definitely an expectation of rigor, an expectation that the curriculum will be accelerated and will push hard on subjects like math and science, that there will not be social promotion, and accordingly that kids and parents will need to be committed, motivated and hard-working. It's not a school for slackers. If it was anyone's notion that they could just coast through BASIS as with a DCPS school, that was their own mistake.


It's a pretty big assumption that the students leaving are slackers. If it's true that parents are pulling their kids from BASIS, then BASIS is not delivering on its promise to educate the underserved students of DC, which is clearly in their marketing materials as their mission.


Whoa. How do you make that wild leap that BASIS isn't educating and is underserving? And particularly, how do you make the wild leap that students (and, as far as I know it's maybe as many as I can count on my fingers) even left for that reason? I know one family left because of an overseas assignment, and I know of at least one other case that had nothing to do with academics (it was about friends at the other school).

Underserving? Maybe your fifth-grader was ready for Calculus but BASIS would only go up to Algebra? Come on, now. "Under" is totally the wrong word here in every way. If anything, what they have been delivering goes well above and beyond what one could expect from most DC schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're in 5th, not pulling out but quietly applying to privates for 6th. Our Hill ES didn't work for 5th because none of our kid's pals were staying. We're concerned that most of the high SES families will go sooner or later, as at Latin (although we keep this to ourselves). I get the feeling that a good many high SES parents are biding their time while saving for privates. We're fine with what's happening now, but skeptical about the HS situation, so seems best to go before we open the door to a socially turbulent situation for our child. Another family will surely appreciate our spot next year; good luck to them.

Can other BASIS 5th and 6th grade parents confirm this? Are many BASIS families really preparing to pull their children out after a year or two (but keeping it to themselves)?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think it was necessarily for incoming students to be "advanced", but there is definitely an expectation of rigor, an expectation that the curriculum will be accelerated and will push hard on subjects like math and science, that there will not be social promotion, and accordingly that kids and parents will need to be committed, motivated and hard-working. It's not a school for slackers. If it was anyone's notion that they could just coast through BASIS as with a DCPS school, that was their own mistake.

Do you really not hear how obnoxious that sounds? Do you really believe that parents of students who are struggling are supposed to give up and have low expectations for their children?

I am not a Basis parent, I don't have a dog in this fight. What I find amazing about these sorts of assertions, is the underlying assumption that families with children "less special" than your snowflake, are supposed to back-off, bow out, and/or give up, so that you can direct all the resources to your child. It's all their fault, for not agreeing with your worldview that your snowflake deserves extra-special treatment, at tax-payer expense.

No but many parents believe just putting their child in a rigorous school will suddenly make their child smarter/attentive/eager to learn and it doesn't work like that. If the basics are lacking, they will never get anywhere.

Then it's the responsibility of the school to allocate resources and use research based methods (hint: this doesn't mean retention which has been shown time and time again to not work) to address the lack of basics in the students they are serving.

DC law does not allow schools to refuse to serve kids because they are missing the basics. Basis knew that when they chose to come here. It also does not allow schools to fail to educate the kids sitting in their classrooms.

I seriously do not appreciate the repeated use of the term "snowflake" on this forum, it has distinctly racist undertones, as though we are talking about some supposedly special and unique little WHITE child.

Anonymous wrote:

I don't think it was necessarily for incoming students to be "advanced", but there is definitely an expectation of rigor, an expectation that the curriculum will be accelerated and will push hard on subjects like math and science, that there will not be social promotion, and accordingly that kids and parents will need to be committed, motivated and hard-working. It's not a school for slackers. If it was anyone's notion that they could just coast through BASIS as with a DCPS school, that was their own mistake.

It's a pretty big assumption that the students leaving are slackers. If it's true that parents are pulling their kids from BASIS, then BASIS is not delivering on its promise to educate the underserved students of DC, which is clearly in their marketing materials as their mission.

I don't think it was necessarily for incoming students to be "advanced", but there is definitely an expectation of rigor, an expectation that the curriculum will be accelerated and will push hard on subjects like math and science, that there will not be social promotion, and accordingly that kids and parents will need to be committed, motivated and hard-working. It's not a school for slackers. If it was anyone's notion that they could just coast through BASIS as with a DCPS school, that was their own mistake.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think it was necessarily for incoming students to be "advanced", but there is definitely an expectation of rigor, an expectation that the curriculum will be accelerated and will push hard on subjects like math and science, that there will not be social promotion, and accordingly that kids and parents will need to be committed, motivated and hard-working. It's not a school for slackers. If it was anyone's notion that they could just coast through BASIS as with a DCPS school, that was their own mistake.

Do you really not hear how obnoxious that sounds? Do you really believe that parents of students who are struggling are supposed to give up and have low expectations for their children?

I am not a Basis parent, I don't have a dog in this fight. What I find amazing about these sorts of assertions, is the underlying assumption that families with children "less special" than your snowflake, are supposed to back-off, bow out, and/or give up, so that you can direct all the resources to your child. It's all their fault, for not agreeing with your worldview that your snowflake deserves extra-special treatment, at tax-payer expense.

No but many parents believe just putting their child in a rigorous school will suddenly make their child smarter/attentive/eager to learn and it doesn't work like that. If the basics are lacking, they will never get anywhere.

Then it's the responsibility of the school to allocate resources and use research based methods (hint: this doesn't mean retention which has been shown time and time again to not work) to address the lack of basics in the students they are serving.

DC law does not allow schools to refuse to serve kids because they are missing the basics. Basis knew that when they chose to come here. It also does not allow schools to fail to educate the kids sitting in their classrooms.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're in 5th, not pulling out but quietly applying to privates for 6th. Our Hill ES didn't work for 5th because none of our kid's pals were staying. We're concerned that most of the high SES families will go sooner or later, as at Latin (although we keep this to ourselves). I get the feeling that a good many high SES parents are biding their time while saving for privates. We're fine with what's happening now, but skeptical about the HS situation, so seems best to go before we open the door to a socially turbulent situation for our child. Another family will surely appreciate our spot next year; good luck to them.

Can other BASIS 5th and 6th grade parents confirm this? Are many BASIS families really preparing to pull their children out after a year or two (but keeping it to themselves)?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're in 5th, not pulling out but quietly applying to privates for 6th. Our Hill ES didn't work for 5th because none of our kid's pals were staying. We're concerned that most of the high SES families will go sooner or later, as at Latin (although we keep this to ourselves). I get the feeling that a good many high SES parents are biding their time while saving for privates. We're fine with what's happening now, but skeptical about the HS situation, so seems best to go before we open the door to a socially turbulent situation for our child. Another family will surely appreciate our spot next year; good luck to them.

Can other BASIS 5th and 6th grade parents confirm this? Are many BASIS families really preparing to pull their children out after a year or two (but keeping it to themselves)?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think it was necessarily for incoming students to be "advanced", but there is definitely an expectation of rigor, an expectation that the curriculum will be accelerated and will push hard on subjects like math and science, that there will not be social promotion, and accordingly that kids and parents will need to be committed, motivated and hard-working. It's not a school for slackers. If it was anyone's notion that they could just coast through BASIS as with a DCPS school, that was their own mistake.

Do you really not hear how obnoxious that sounds? Do you really believe that parents of students who are struggling are supposed to give up and have low expectations for their children?

I am not a Basis parent, I don't have a dog in this fight. What I find amazing about these sorts of assertions, is the underlying assumption that families with children "less special" than your snowflake, are supposed to back-off, bow out, and/or give up, so that you can direct all the resources to your child. It's all their fault, for not agreeing with your worldview that your snowflake deserves extra-special treatment, at tax-payer expense.

No but many parents believe just putting their child in a rigorous school will suddenly make their child smarter/attentive/eager to learn and it doesn't work like that. If the basics are lacking, they will never get anywhere.

Then it's the responsibility of the school to allocate resources and use research based methods (hint: this doesn't mean retention which has been shown time and time again to not work) to address the lack of basics in the students they are serving.

DC law does not allow schools to refuse to serve kids because they are missing the basics. Basis knew that when they chose to come here. It also does not allow schools to fail to educate the kids sitting in their classrooms.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're in 5th, not pulling out but quietly applying to privates for 6th. Our Hill ES didn't work for 5th because none of our kid's pals were staying. We're concerned that most of the high SES families will go sooner or later, as at Latin (although we keep this to ourselves). I get the feeling that a good many high SES parents are biding their time while saving for privates. We're fine with what's happening now, but skeptical about the HS situation, so seems best to go before we open the door to a socially turbulent situation for our child. Another family will surely appreciate our spot next year; good luck to them.

Can other BASIS 5th and 6th grade parents confirm this? Are many BASIS families really preparing to pull their children out after a year or two (but keeping it to themselves)?

Anonymous wrote:We're in 5th, not pulling out but quietly applying to privates for 6th. Our Hill ES didn't work for 5th because none of our kid's pals were staying. We're concerned that most of the high SES families will go sooner or later, as at Latin (although we keep this to ourselves). I get the feeling that a good many high SES parents are biding their time while saving for privates. We're fine with what's happening now, but skeptical about the HS situation, so seems best to go before we open the door to a socially turbulent situation for our child. Another family will surely appreciate our spot next year; good luck to them.

Anonymous wrote:17:59 and 18:11, you forget that there is no predictable "best" here and that there are "opportunity costs" to these machinations. In any of those cases, an average preteen loses out in two transfers, both academically and socially. PP who claimed being fed up with DCPS mediocrity - to the extent there is - you'd want to weigh avoiding those against the pitfalls of moving your preteen around like a commodity. There are many who'll do just fine with that, but also unfortunately a great many for whom this is a difficult time as it is, and who you've now just burned more than if you made reasonable and feasible options work for you. In playing lottery with my child's life, I prefer a measured approach, is what I'm trying to say.