Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm 6:54. I think they are building a school with a lot of strengths and which can support a wide range of student interests (I have a Basis high school student and a middle schooler).

The kids have to master a lot of science and math to graduate; they don't have to enter science fairs or take AP computer science or AP engineering classes but those classes are offered. That's what I mean by not 'STEM.'

But the PP who said no Basis students were interning at the Smithsonian, NASA etc is just wrong. They already are. And more will.

Can they do more? Yes. Should they have kids who are entering big national science fairs by now? Maybe - if that's what the kids want. The teachers are ready to support them when they do.

I've mentored several TJ students as a STEM professional, so I know that it's not an easy as "the teachers are ready to support them when they do."

For a group of elite STEM-oriented students at a HS to compete successfully in national science competitions, e.g. Siemens, Google and INTEL, admins must cultivate the supporting mentoring relationships needed to build students into strong competitors. This must be done relentlessly, year in and year out, by teachers and mentoring/competition/academic paper publishing coordinators who aren't carrying a full teaching load.

The school also needs to work the mentoring time into the schedule. BASIS DC admins could study how TJ approaches the exercise. TJ offers summer academics terms, to help kids dust off course requirements, freeing them up to focus on working with mentors during the spring and fall semesters, catering to the mentors' schedules. TJ also has parent leaders fundraise to support their mentoring program. You want every parent with any kind of connection to the Smithsonians, NASA, NAS etc. asked to help build the mentoring network every semester, as at TJ, and to kick in some dough to make it happen. None of this appears to be happening at BASIS DC, other than piecemeal for a few kids.

The working assumption of the last few BASIS heads seems to have been that because their Arizona campus graduates tend to do brilliantly in college admissions, so, too, will most of their DC seniors, at least once those who've had the full "BASIS treatment" from 5th grade reach the finish line. Problem is, the Metro area applicant pool is one of the several most competitive in the country. BASIS isn't in Arizona anymore.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm 6:54. I think they are building a school with a lot of strengths and which can support a wide range of student interests (I have a Basis high school student and a middle schooler).

The kids have to master a lot of science and math to graduate; they don't have to enter science fairs or take AP computer science or AP engineering classes but those classes are offered. That's what I mean by not 'STEM.'

But the PP who said no Basis students were interning at the Smithsonian, NASA etc is just wrong. They already are. And more will.

Can they do more? Yes. Should they have kids who are entering big national science fairs by now? Maybe - if that's what the kids want. The teachers are ready to support them when they do.

I've mentored several TJ students as a STEM professional, so I know that it's not an easy as "the teachers are ready to support them when they do."

For a group of elite STEM-oriented students at a HS to compete successfully in national science competitions, e.g. Siemens, Google and INTEL, admins must cultivate the supporting mentoring relationships needed to build students into strong competitors. This must be done relentlessly, year in and year out, by teachers and mentoring/competition/academic paper publishing coordinators who aren't carrying a full teaching load.

The school also needs to work the mentoring time into the schedule. BASIS DC admins could study how TJ approaches the exercise. TJ offers summer academics terms, to help kids dust off course requirements, freeing them up to focus on working with mentors during the spring and fall semesters, catering to the mentors' schedules. TJ also has parent leaders fundraise to support their mentoring program. You want every parent with any kind of connection to the Smithsonians, NASA, NAS etc. asked to help build the mentoring network every semester, as at TJ, and to kick in some dough to make it happen. None of this appears to be happening at BASIS DC, other than piecemeal for a few kids.

The working assumption of the last few BASIS heads seems to have been that because their Arizona campus graduates tend to do brilliantly in college admissions, so, too, will most of their DC seniors, at least once those who've had the full "BASIS treatment" from 5th grade reach the finish line. Problem is, the Metro area applicant pool is one of the several most competitive in the country. BASIS isn't in Arizona anymore.

Anonymous wrote:I'm 6:54. I think they are building a school with a lot of strengths and which can support a wide range of student interests (I have a Basis high school student and a middle schooler).

The kids have to master a lot of science and math to graduate; they don't have to enter science fairs or take AP computer science or AP engineering classes but those classes are offered. That's what I mean by not 'STEM.'

But the PP who said no Basis students were interning at the Smithsonian, NASA etc is just wrong. They already are. And more will.

Can they do more? Yes. Should they have kids who are entering big national science fairs by now? Maybe - if that's what the kids want. The teachers are ready to support them when they do.

Anonymous wrote:

BASIS treats its students so differently.
Given the exorbitant amount of homework and constant testing, most students will barely have time to sleep, let alone do any kind of after school activity.
But then, there are those students who get all kinds of preferential treatment, like taking the weekly tests many times until the desirable grade is reached. These asre the students whose precomprehensive and comprehensive grades are adjusted and curved. These students will have the opportunity to do any kind of after school activity since they know their grades will not suffer.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe. They don't seem to be promoting/arranging the STEM mentoring, lab research and publishing relationships that the top public math/science high school programs elsewhere use to help kids stand out when applying to the country's best programs, e.g. MIT, Princeton, Cornell Engineering, Cal Tech. Attend a TJ open house and you'll understand what I'm talking about. Where are the NASA, National Academy of Sciences and Smithsonian Air and Space internships for the BASIS DC crew? They attract the STEM professional parents who could help arrange the mentoring, but hardly use them to do it. They're wasting a hell of a resource.

It isn't a STEM school.

And in fact the graduates headed to Princeton and Barnard did their senior projects with two different Smithsonians (on ocean acidification and astronomy respectively) and are planning on pursuing those fields in college. One had been working with the museum scientists for the last 2 years.

I am not the PP and I hear this. The above is great. However, shouldn't it be sort of an 'everything' school given what it presents as an accelerated in every subject curriculum? As much as we loved Latin, we also saw weakness in STEM in the early years and they also could have tapped into parents and partnerships much more in the early years. I would not be complacent. Even if not a STEM school, it surely has STEM kids and the opportunities above are in this area for the plucking. Perhaps a parent committee if the school is strapped for bandwidth?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe. They don't seem to be promoting/arranging the STEM mentoring, lab research and publishing relationships that the top public math/science high school programs elsewhere use to help kids stand out when applying to the country's best programs, e.g. MIT, Princeton, Cornell Engineering, Cal Tech. Attend a TJ open house and you'll understand what I'm talking about. Where are the NASA, National Academy of Sciences and Smithsonian Air and Space internships for the BASIS DC crew? They attract the STEM professional parents who could help arrange the mentoring, but hardly use them to do it. They're wasting a hell of a resource.

It isn't a STEM school.

And in fact the graduates headed to Princeton and Barnard did their senior projects with two different Smithsonians (on ocean acidification and astronomy respectively) and are planning on pursuing those fields in college. One had been working with the museum scientists for the last 2 years.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe. They don't seem to be promoting/arranging the STEM mentoring, lab research and publishing relationships that the top public math/science high school programs elsewhere use to help kids stand out when applying to the country's best programs, e.g. MIT, Princeton, Cornell Engineering, Cal Tech. Attend a TJ open house and you'll understand what I'm talking about. Where are the NASA, National Academy of Sciences and Smithsonian Air and Space internships for the BASIS DC crew? They attract the STEM professional parents who could help arrange the mentoring, but hardly use them to do it. They're wasting a hell of a resource.

It isn't a STEM school.

And in fact the graduates headed to Princeton and Barnard did their senior projects with two different Smithsonians (on ocean acidification and astronomy respectively) and are planning on pursuing those fields in college. One had been working with the museum scientists for the last 2 years.

Anonymous wrote:Maybe. They don't seem to be promoting/arranging the STEM mentoring, lab research and publishing relationships that the top public math/science high school programs elsewhere use to help kids stand out when applying to the country's best programs, e.g. MIT, Princeton, Cornell Engineering, Cal Tech. Attend a TJ open house and you'll understand what I'm talking about. Where are the NASA, National Academy of Sciences and Smithsonian Air and Space internships for the BASIS DC crew? They attract the STEM professional parents who could help arrange the mentoring, but hardly use them to do it. They're wasting a hell of a resource.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard from a very reliable source that the average SAT of the graduating class was in the low 900's, lower than Latin, Wilson or Walls.
So what happened to all the fast track and AP classes?

The graduating class started with almost 90 students, and only the top 16 survived, took advanced classes and several AP's and scored no more than a regular DCPS school?

The class started with 49 kids, not 90.

https://osse.dc.gov/publication/fy13-lea-and-school-level-enrollment-audit-reports

NP here.
According to the 2012 school handbook, there were 3 8th grade classes (Br, Li, Cs) and 87 students in January 2013.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard from a very reliable source that the average SAT of the graduating class was in the low 900's, lower than Latin, Wilson or Walls.
So what happened to all the fast track and AP classes?

The graduating class started with almost 90 students, and only the top 16 survived, took advanced classes and several AP's and scored no more than a regular DCPS school?

The class started with 49 kids, not 90.

https://osse.dc.gov/publication/fy13-lea-and-school-level-enrollment-audit-reports

NP here.
According to the 2012 school handbook, there were 3 8th grade classes (Br, Li, Cs) and 87 students in January 2013.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard from a very reliable source that the average SAT of the graduating class was in the low 900's, lower than Latin, Wilson or Walls.
So what happened to all the fast track and AP classes?

The graduating class started with almost 90 students, and only the top 16 survived, took advanced classes and several AP's and scored no more than a regular DCPS school?

The class started with 49 kids, not 90.

https://osse.dc.gov/publication/fy13-lea-and-school-level-enrollment-audit-reports

Anonymous wrote:Well BASIS pattern is not that different from Washington Latin; Latin's first 2 graduating classes were 42 and 44 students (from initial classes of 90) and they accepted new students at 9th.

For years LAMB had huge attrition -- with only 18 students.

If the kids coming out of BASIS were failing wherever they go next, I might agree it's a problem. But they aren't -- in fact they are among some of the strongest students at Wilson, SWW and Banneker. They're getting a good middle school education, and exercising their right to change schools.