Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BASIS doesn't withhold language. If language is important to you then choose a school that prioritizes language or as other posters have said, supplement. No school can be all things to all people. If you want a school to teach your child languages in 5th then pick a school that teaches languages in 5th. If that's not BASIS then pick another school. If you absolutely want BASIS and want languages, then supplement languages. Why is this so hard.

I know why it is so hard, they went the study languages route rather than the rigorous academics when in school.

This is the regressive posture that keeps most Americans monolingual. To somebody from another part of the world, studying a language seriously from the upper elementary grades is as routine as studying math.
Educators around the world follow the science behind learning languages young, since it's much easier to teach a child to speak a language than an older teen or an adult. Viewing middle school language learning as a liability in college admissions wouldn't make sense elsewhere. What BASIS does is let the 5th grade immersion graduates' language skills slide, only to endeavor to teach them languages from scratch from 8th grade, without providing anything like appropriate challenge. The result is that 5s on AP language exams aren't nearly as common as they could be at BASIS DC.

What BASIS DC parents don't know is that some of the BASIS Arizona campuses allow modern languages to be learned in middle school, including at the advanced level, but on a voluntary basis. They also offer serious instrumental music programs. BASIS Scottsdale certainly does. BASIS DC is hardly the jewel in the BASIS crown, for several reasons. The building isn't among the worst and the franchise, admins and parents aren't raising money for enrichment as they do elsewhere, and the school's leadership has changed repeatedly (what is it now, 8 Heads of School in 10 years?). Parent contributions in DC go only to top up teachers' salaries.

If you want language immersion in DC, you should look elsewhere.

No kids at Basis but why not demand better with the school with languages especially since other sites offer it? Improve the overall curriculum instead the status quo

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BASIS doesn't withhold language. If language is important to you then choose a school that prioritizes language or as other posters have said, supplement. No school can be all things to all people. If you want a school to teach your child languages in 5th then pick a school that teaches languages in 5th. If that's not BASIS then pick another school. If you absolutely want BASIS and want languages, then supplement languages. Why is this so hard.

I know why it is so hard, they went the study languages route rather than the rigorous academics when in school.

This is the regressive posture that keeps most Americans monolingual. To somebody from another part of the world, studying a language seriously from the upper elementary grades is as routine as studying math.
Educators around the world follow the science behind learning languages young, since it's much easier to teach a child to speak a language than an older teen or an adult. Viewing middle school language learning as a liability in college admissions wouldn't make sense elsewhere. What BASIS does is let the 5th grade immersion graduates' language skills slide, only to endeavor to teach them languages from scratch from 8th grade, without providing anything like appropriate challenge. The result is that 5s on AP language exams aren't nearly as common as they could be at BASIS DC.

What BASIS DC parents don't know is that some of the BASIS Arizona campuses allow modern languages to be learned in middle school, including at the advanced level, but on a voluntary basis. They also offer serious instrumental music programs. BASIS Scottsdale certainly does. BASIS DC is hardly the jewel in the BASIS crown, for several reasons. The building isn't among the worst and the franchise, admins and parents aren't raising money for enrichment as they do elsewhere, and the school's leadership has changed repeatedly (what is it now, 8 Heads of School in 10 years?). Parent contributions in DC go only to top up teachers' salaries.

If you want language immersion in DC, you should look elsewhere.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BASIS doesn't withhold language. If language is important to you then choose a school that prioritizes language or as other posters have said, supplement. No school can be all things to all people. If you want a school to teach your child languages in 5th then pick a school that teaches languages in 5th. If that's not BASIS then pick another school. If you absolutely want BASIS and want languages, then supplement languages. Why is this so hard.

I know why it is so hard, they went the study languages route rather than the rigorous academics when in school.

This is the regressive posture that keeps most Americans monolingual. To somebody from another part of the world, studying a language seriously from the upper elementary grades is as routine as studying math.
Educators around the world follow the science behind learning languages young, since it's much easier to teach a child to speak a language than an older teen or an adult. Viewing middle school language learning as a liability in college admissions wouldn't make sense elsewhere. What BASIS does is let the 5th grade immersion graduates' language skills slide, only to endeavor to teach them languages from scratch from 8th grade, without providing anything like appropriate challenge. The result is that 5s on AP language exams aren't nearly as common as they could be at BASIS DC.

What BASIS DC parents don't know is that some of the BASIS Arizona campuses allow modern languages to be learned in middle school, including at the advanced level, but on a voluntary basis. They also offer serious instrumental music programs. BASIS Scottsdale certainly does. BASIS DC is hardly the jewel in the BASIS crown, for several reasons. The building isn't among the worst and the franchise, admins and parents aren't raising money for enrichment as they do elsewhere, and the school's leadership has changed repeatedly (what is it now, 8 Heads of School in 10 years?). Parent contributions in DC go only to top up teachers' salaries.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BASIS doesn't withhold language. If language is important to you then choose a school that prioritizes language or as other posters have said, supplement. No school can be all things to all people. If you want a school to teach your child languages in 5th then pick a school that teaches languages in 5th. If that's not BASIS then pick another school. If you absolutely want BASIS and want languages, then supplement languages. Why is this so hard.

I know why it is so hard, they went the study languages route rather than the rigorous academics when in school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends on your child, but in our experience, the challenge wasn't the academics in general, but the organizational skills - keeping track of assignments, etc. There's a summer program for incoming 5th graders that's helpful but not necessary.

Also, experiences vary a lot, depending on both the child's abilities and the child and parents' standards. I literally have never seen my sixth grader do a minute of homework; he does it all in school. His grades are all over the place but average out to a B+. Reasonably smart kid, low standards=not much work. Some kids and parents report spending large amounts of time on homework; they probably have higher standards and the academics might not come as naturally.

This is such an interesting comment. Do you have any sense why your child manages to get it all done in school? Do they have a study hall period that he uses, that the other kids don't use? My kid is pretty good at doing his homework but he HATES homework. He loves getting it done it school. But I was always led to believe that BASIS had so much homework, the kids were inevitably stuck with hours of it.

My child is in high school but also has always done their homework in school. Very rarely will they have something to do at home. They are efficient and use every minute of their time at school to get their work done.

Now I'm feeling mad I didn't try to lottery in to BASIS. Although with my horrible WL for Latin, probably didn't make a difference. So what leads to the impression that BASIS is so hard? Just that they really emphasize the testing?

Anonymous wrote:BASIS doesn't withhold language. If language is important to you then choose a school that prioritizes language or as other posters have said, supplement. No school can be all things to all people. If you want a school to teach your child languages in 5th then pick a school that teaches languages in 5th. If that's not BASIS then pick another school. If you absolutely want BASIS and want languages, then supplement languages. Why is this so hard.

Anonymous wrote:Supplementing language would be very important, but I am curious if there are any BASIS families on this thread who have been successful in this area to maintain continued language acquisition for their child.

Anonymous wrote:We are also making a hard choice between sticking around for DCI or departing for Basis. I’d be curious to hear your thought process if you don’t mind sharing, PP. Also, do you plan to maintain the foreign language outside of Basis? I don’t mean to derail this thread. I have concerns about potentially preparing for Basis coming out of an immersion school where most of the academic challenge derived from the foreign language component.

Anonymous wrote:Depends on your child, but in our experience, the challenge wasn't the academics in general, but the organizational skills - keeping track of assignments, etc. There's a summer program for incoming 5th graders that's helpful but not necessary.

Also, experiences vary a lot, depending on both the child's abilities and the child and parents' standards. I literally have never seen my sixth grader do a minute of homework; he does it all in school. His grades are all over the place but average out to a B+. Reasonably smart kid, low standards=not much work. Some kids and parents report spending large amounts of time on homework; they probably have higher standards and the academics might not come as naturally.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends on your child, but in our experience, the challenge wasn't the academics in general, but the organizational skills - keeping track of assignments, etc. There's a summer program for incoming 5th graders that's helpful but not necessary.

Also, experiences vary a lot, depending on both the child's abilities and the child and parents' standards. I literally have never seen my sixth grader do a minute of homework; he does it all in school. His grades are all over the place but average out to a B+. Reasonably smart kid, low standards=not much work. Some kids and parents report spending large amounts of time on homework; they probably have higher standards and the academics might not come as naturally.

This is such an interesting comment. Do you have any sense why your child manages to get it all done in school? Do they have a study hall period that he uses, that the other kids don't use? My kid is pretty good at doing his homework but he HATES homework. He loves getting it done it school. But I was always led to believe that BASIS had so much homework, the kids were inevitably stuck with hours of it.

My child is in high school but also has always done their homework in school. Very rarely will they have something to do at home. They are efficient and use every minute of their time at school to get their work done.

Now I'm feeling mad I didn't try to lottery in to BASIS. Although with my horrible WL for Latin, probably didn't make a difference. So what leads to the impression that BASIS is so hard? Just that they really emphasize the testing?

Anonymous wrote:I have two middle schoolers, both with averages ranging from 97 to 98.

One spends about 20 minutes per night on homework. The other spends none. They both get their homework done at school. And neither studies for tests.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends on your child, but in our experience, the challenge wasn't the academics in general, but the organizational skills - keeping track of assignments, etc. There's a summer program for incoming 5th graders that's helpful but not necessary.

Also, experiences vary a lot, depending on both the child's abilities and the child and parents' standards. I literally have never seen my sixth grader do a minute of homework; he does it all in school. His grades are all over the place but average out to a B+. Reasonably smart kid, low standards=not much work. Some kids and parents report spending large amounts of time on homework; they probably have higher standards and the academics might not come as naturally.

This is such an interesting comment. Do you have any sense why your child manages to get it all done in school? Do they have a study hall period that he uses, that the other kids don't use? My kid is pretty good at doing his homework but he HATES homework. He loves getting it done it school. But I was always led to believe that BASIS had so much homework, the kids were inevitably stuck with hours of it.

My child is in high school but also has always done their homework in school. Very rarely will they have something to do at home. They are efficient and use every minute of their time at school to get their work done.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends on your child, but in our experience, the challenge wasn't the academics in general, but the organizational skills - keeping track of assignments, etc. There's a summer program for incoming 5th graders that's helpful but not necessary.

Also, experiences vary a lot, depending on both the child's abilities and the child and parents' standards. I literally have never seen my sixth grader do a minute of homework; he does it all in school. His grades are all over the place but average out to a B+. Reasonably smart kid, low standards=not much work. Some kids and parents report spending large amounts of time on homework; they probably have higher standards and the academics might not come as naturally.

This is such an interesting comment. Do you have any sense why your child manages to get it all done in school? Do they have a study hall period that he uses, that the other kids don't use? My kid is pretty good at doing his homework but he HATES homework. He loves getting it done it school. But I was always led to believe that BASIS had so much homework, the kids were inevitably stuck with hours of it.