Anonymous
10/19/2025 07:53
Subject: Basis fills a gap that shouldn’t exist.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:DCI is taking around 25% of 6th grade applicants for French, 30% for Chinese and 0% for Spanish.
Meanwhile, BASIS takes around half of applicants for 5th grade. If you strike out at BASIS, or don't like BASIS and don't try, your odds of cracking DCI during the next lottery cycle simply aren't good.
Yes odds are lower but better than nothing.
If you get in Basis, take it and then do lottery for 6th. You don’t win if you don’t play.
OMG, don't do this unless your kid really wants to go to BASIS and knows what they are getting themselves into. And I say this as the parent of a happy BASIS student. When it's a bad fit, it's miserable. Save the spot for someone who will stay.
In our experience, BASIS isn't miserable for 5th graders. Very few of the kids mind 5th grade. Where it becomes miserable for some is 6th grade, and for even more in 7th. And even some of the "good fit" kids who really want to go (good at math, diligent, consistently prepared to work hard) wind up disliking or hating the program. No family has any sort of obligation to "save the spot" for somebody who will stay. Who knows who will stay. I really thought that my v. industrious and focused eldest would. No.
Seriously, no one owes Basis anything. Do what is best for your child. Use 5th as a springboard at Basis if you want to try it out and then move on to better options if needed.
Ok. I guess that will keep happening.
But I have known a handful of kids who I'm 100 percent sure should have been happy, excellent BASIS students (bc we are there, I have one, and know the kids who also actually appreciate being taught something real, held to high standards, and for whom it's not an overwhelming amount of work) who were shut out of the lottery, and I see kids who are struggling and will not last, and it's painful. When a very high aptitude kids get a bad lottery score and live EOTP, the options are grim.
This is unfortunate but it's not the fault of families. They don't have food choices. "Try DCI" isn't even. A choice for most families because if you aren't in a DCI feeder by 2nd grade, it is ridiculous to move to one (I'm sorry it is, the idea of moving to an immersion school in 3rd or later if you have not already been in immersion is silly and the fact that this is seem as a reasonable suggestion just to gain access to the DCI feed tells you everything you need to know about DC public schools). Going to DCI with no language background at all makes even less sense.
So if you don't think BASIS will be a good fit but your kid needs academic challenge and you know they would benefit from a strong peer group (without disruptive kids who have zero interest in academics) you're SOL. In which case, trying BASIS just in case it might work isn't the worst option. It may be the least bad if several bad options, who ch include: giving up, moving, or paying for a private school you may or may not be able to afford.
Anonymous
10/19/2025 07:39
Subject: Basis fills a gap that shouldn’t exist.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:DCI is taking around 25% of 6th grade applicants for French, 30% for Chinese and 0% for Spanish.
Meanwhile, BASIS takes around half of applicants for 5th grade. If you strike out at BASIS, or don't like BASIS and don't try, your odds of cracking DCI during the next lottery cycle simply aren't good.
Yes odds are lower but better than nothing.
If you get in Basis, take it and then do lottery for 6th. You don’t win if you don’t play.
OMG, don't do this unless your kid really wants to go to BASIS and knows what they are getting themselves into. And I say this as the parent of a happy BASIS student. When it's a bad fit, it's miserable. Save the spot for someone who will stay.
In our experience, BASIS isn't miserable for 5th graders. Very few of the kids mind 5th grade. Where it becomes miserable for some is 6th grade, and for even more in 7th. And even some of the "good fit" kids who really want to go (good at math, diligent, consistently prepared to work hard) wind up disliking or hating the program. No family has any sort of obligation to "save the spot" for somebody who will stay. Who knows who will stay. I really thought that my v. industrious and focused eldest would. No.
Seriously, no one owes Basis anything. Do what is best for your child. Use 5th as a springboard at Basis if you want to try it out and then move on to better options if needed.
Ok. I guess that will keep happening.
But I have known a handful of kids who I'm 100 percent sure should have been happy, excellent BASIS students (bc we are there, I have one, and know the kids who also actually appreciate being taught something real, held to high standards, and for whom it's not an overwhelming amount of work) who were shut out of the lottery, and I see kids who are struggling and will not last, and it's painful. When a very high aptitude kids get a bad lottery score and live EOTP, the options are grim.
Anonymous
10/18/2025 23:53
Subject: Basis fills a gap that shouldn’t exist.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Too many kids who make middle school unchallenging and moreover, borderline dangerous. That is the root of the MS problem in DC. The only way to protect kids who are ready to learn and behave is to create artificially challenging environments that naturally weed out the disruptive ones.
This is key. My child has experienced Basis as a massive environmental improvement over the our prior “accommodationist” HRCS, which was essentially a SPED, neurodivergent, trauma-comforting support center.
It takes a village.
Anonymous
10/18/2025 22:38
Subject: Basis fills a gap that shouldn’t exist.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:DCI is taking around 25% of 6th grade applicants for French, 30% for Chinese and 0% for Spanish.
Meanwhile, BASIS takes around half of applicants for 5th grade. If you strike out at BASIS, or don't like BASIS and don't try, your odds of cracking DCI during the next lottery cycle simply aren't good.
Yes odds are lower but better than nothing.
If you get in Basis, take it and then do lottery for 6th. You don’t win if you don’t play.
OMG, don't do this unless your kid really wants to go to BASIS and knows what they are getting themselves into. And I say this as the parent of a happy BASIS student. When it's a bad fit, it's miserable. Save the spot for someone who will stay.
In our experience, BASIS isn't miserable for 5th graders. Very few of the kids mind 5th grade. Where it becomes miserable for some is 6th grade, and for even more in 7th. And even some of the "good fit" kids who really want to go (good at math, diligent, consistently prepared to work hard) wind up disliking or hating the program. No family has any sort of obligation to "save the spot" for somebody who will stay. Who knows who will stay. I really thought that my v. industrious and focused eldest would. No.
Seriously, no one owes Basis anything. Do what is best for your child. Use 5th as a springboard at Basis if you want to try it out and then move on to better options if needed.
Anonymous
10/18/2025 18:46
Subject: Basis fills a gap that shouldn’t exist.
Anonymous wrote:Too many kids who make middle school unchallenging and moreover, borderline dangerous. That is the root of the MS problem in DC. The only way to protect kids who are ready to learn and behave is to create artificially challenging environments that naturally weed out the disruptive ones.
This is key. My child has experienced Basis as a massive environmental improvement over the our prior “accommodationist” HRCS, which was essentially a SPED, neurodivergent, trauma-comforting support center.
Anonymous
10/18/2025 18:44
Subject: Basis fills a gap that shouldn’t exist.
Anonymous wrote:Too many kids who make middle school unchallenging and moreover, borderline dangerous. That is the root of the MS problem in DC. The only way to protect kids who are ready to learn and behave is to create artificially challenging environments that naturally weed out the disruptive ones.
One of the smartest statements I've seen written on DCUM. By middle school, it's about the other students as much as it is about the school and its curriculum, leadership, programming, etc. "Self-selection impact" is real — families with more resources and higher-performing students are concentrated in particular schools and this helps the school be "good". It works the other way too, unfortunately -- families with fewer resources and lower performing students concentrated in other schools and those schools deemed "bad".
Anonymous
10/18/2025 18:34
Subject: Basis fills a gap that shouldn’t exist.
We know families who bailed from BASIS after 5th grade for DMV privates, the burbs, Stuart Hobson in-boundary or schools outside the Metro area. Not an unusual choice to leave after 5th.
Anonymous
10/18/2025 16:23
Subject: Basis fills a gap that shouldn’t exist.
Try Basis if you get in. You simply can’t get it at higher grades. They are not open to taking new kids. It’s basically not an option after 6th.
Anonymous
10/18/2025 16:13
Subject: Basis fills a gap that shouldn’t exist.
Too many kids who make middle school unchallenging and moreover, borderline dangerous. That is the root of the MS problem in DC. The only way to protect kids who are ready to learn and behave is to create artificially challenging environments that naturally weed out the disruptive ones.
Anonymous
10/18/2025 16:06
Subject: Basis fills a gap that shouldn’t exist.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:DCI is taking around 25% of 6th grade applicants for French, 30% for Chinese and 0% for Spanish.
Meanwhile, BASIS takes around half of applicants for 5th grade. If you strike out at BASIS, or don't like BASIS and don't try, your odds of cracking DCI during the next lottery cycle simply aren't good.
Yes odds are lower but better than nothing.
If you get in Basis, take it and then do lottery for 6th. You don’t win if you don’t play.
OMG, don't do this unless your kid really wants to go to BASIS and knows what they are getting themselves into. And I say this as the parent of a happy BASIS student. When it's a bad fit, it's miserable. Save the spot for someone who will stay.
In our experience, BASIS isn't miserable for 5th graders. Very few of the kids mind 5th grade. Where it becomes miserable for some is 6th grade, and for even more in 7th. And even some of the "good fit" kids who really want to go (good at math, diligent, consistently prepared to work hard) wind up disliking or hating the program. No family has any sort of obligation to "save the spot" for somebody who will stay. Who knows who will stay. I really thought that my v. industrious and focused eldest would. No.
Anonymous
10/18/2025 15:50
Subject: Basis fills a gap that shouldn’t exist.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:DCI is taking around 25% of 6th grade applicants for French, 30% for Chinese and 0% for Spanish.
Meanwhile, BASIS takes around half of applicants for 5th grade. If you strike out at BASIS, or don't like BASIS and don't try, your odds of cracking DCI during the next lottery cycle simply aren't good.
Yes odds are lower but better than nothing.
If you get in Basis, take it and then do lottery for 6th. You don’t win if you don’t play.
OMG, don't do this unless your kid really wants to go to BASIS and knows what they are getting themselves into. And I say this as the parent of a happy BASIS student. When it's a bad fit, it's miserable. Save the spot for someone who will stay.
“It is pointless to resist.”
Anonymous
10/18/2025 15:03
Subject: Basis fills a gap that shouldn’t exist.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:DCI is taking around 25% of 6th grade applicants for French, 30% for Chinese and 0% for Spanish.
Meanwhile, BASIS takes around half of applicants for 5th grade. If you strike out at BASIS, or don't like BASIS and don't try, your odds of cracking DCI during the next lottery cycle simply aren't good.
Yes odds are lower but better than nothing.
If you get in Basis, take it and then do lottery for 6th. You don’t win if you don’t play.
OMG, don't do this unless your kid really wants to go to BASIS and knows what they are getting themselves into. And I say this as the parent of a happy BASIS student. When it's a bad fit, it's miserable. Save the spot for someone who will stay.
Anonymous
10/18/2025 14:44
Subject: Basis fills a gap that shouldn’t exist.
Anonymous wrote:DCI is taking around 25% of 6th grade applicants for French, 30% for Chinese and 0% for Spanish.
Meanwhile, BASIS takes around half of applicants for 5th grade. If you strike out at BASIS, or don't like BASIS and don't try, your odds of cracking DCI during the next lottery cycle simply aren't good.
Yes odds are lower but better than nothing.
If you get in Basis, take it and then do lottery for 6th. You don’t win if you don’t play.
Anonymous
10/18/2025 14:29
Subject: Basis fills a gap that shouldn’t exist.
DCI is taking around 25% of 6th grade applicants for French, 30% for Chinese and 0% for Spanish.
Meanwhile, BASIS takes around half of applicants for 5th grade. If you strike out at BASIS, or don't like BASIS and don't try, your odds of cracking DCI during the next lottery cycle simply aren't good.
Meanwhile, BASIS takes around half of applicants for 5th grade. If you strike out at BASIS, or don't like BASIS and don't try, your odds of cracking DCI during the next lottery cycle simply aren't good.
Anonymous
10/18/2025 14:27
Subject: Basis fills a gap that shouldn’t exist.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:BASIS parent who couldn’t agree more. We hate the building.
I mean, Jefferson, Eliot-Hine, and Sousa middle schools all have much better physical plants than Basis, and easier entry than Basis….so there’s that.
No, there isn't "that" for MS academics, unless maybe you're a longtime Maury family with children willing to do extra work outside school like crazy.
Jefferson attracts no more than a handful of UMC Brent grads these days. They were getting 15+ a year for 6th grade pre-Covid.
Yeah, I think that was the tongue-in-cheek point of the prior post…the merits of EH, etc. being limited to their superior physical plants vs BasisDC.