Craig Barrett, ex-CEO of Intel, is the most powerful person in Arizona education policy nobody’s ever heard of, or anyway, not nearly enough people have heard of. You can read some background on Gov. Brewer’s go-to, back-room adviser on education here.
Barrett is a huge supporter of education privatization, and he’s deeply involved in the charter school movement. He’s president and chairman of the board of BASIS charters, whose name is ever on the lips of the well funded, nationwide charter school cheerleading squad. (“Charter schools are great! Look at BASIS. And then of course there’s BASIS. Did I mention BASIS?”).
Barrett was interviewed recently and was asked about Common Core, which he supports, promotes and helped create. He’s chairman of the board of Achieve, the nonprofit organization largely responsible for developing Common Core. A very well connected guy. In the interview, he brought up BASIS to explain why high stakes tests, an important component of Common Core, don’t lead to “teaching to the test.”
“I’m a CEO of a charter school organization here in Arizona. We’ve got two of the top five high schools in the United States. Our teachers teach subject matter. They don’t teach to the tests. The kids can pass any test.”
Yes, BASIS kids can pass any test, because the charters use a three-pronged selection process to guarantee their schools are filled with the best, brightest and most motivated students in the area. I’ve taught kids like that. The question is whether they’ll simply pass the state test or score so high it’s scary.
Here’s what Mr. Barrett doesn’t mention. He’s also on the national board of K12 Inc., a for-profit, publicly traded company that runs a string of online charters including Arizona Virtual Academy. Those kids can’t “pass any test.” Far from it. The schools have racked up more negative press across the country than any schools I’ve read about, and they’ve earned every scathing word. You can read multiple stories about low achieving students, failing schools, the outsourcing of student essays to India to be graded, huge “churn rates” — about a third of the students leave every year — gigantic student-to-teacher ratios and stockholder suits as a result of the corporation lying about student achievement.
To my knowledge, Barrett has never talked publicly about his association with K12 Inc., let alone discussed its very real troubles. When Arizona Virtual Academy was on academic probation with the state, not a word from Barrett. But he’ll bring up BASIS every chance he gets.
I’m not normally given to begging, but I beg reporters in the mainstream media to do some research on K12 Inc. — I’ll be glad to help — ask Mr. Barrett why he thinks it has so many problems, then find out what he’s doing to help correct them (and why it’s taking so long). If the BASIS success formula is so superb and not just what you’d expect given the high achieving students who attend, why can’t he show Arizona Virtual Academy and other K12 Inc. schools how it’s done? I’d ask Barrett myself, but what are the chances he’d talk to me?
This article appears in Feb 27 – Mar 5, 2014.
“Yes, BASIS kids can pass any test, because the charters use a three-pronged selection process to guarantee their schools are filled with the best, brightest and most motivated students in the area. “
Citation please. My BASIS kid walked in – they had room for him – and he was in. The only “selection” was a diagnostic math test to decide where to start him.
Funny how I never see this kind of criticism of the inarguably test-in (public) University High.
Hurri, I understand you haven’t read my earlier posts about BASIS, but I say regularly that University High is very selective, and the schools have similar achievement results. Both schools are selective. It’s just that UHS admits it, and BASIS likes to call itself non-selective. To say Basis is selective isn’t a criticism, it’s an observation.
What happens if a child at Basis scores very low on the diagnostic math test or looks like he/she won’t perform well at current grade level? What happens when, at the end of the school year, a child looks like he/she doesn’t have what it takes to keep up with the expected work load or achievement level? What happens if a student can’t cut it taking an AP class in the 8th grade, or numerous AP classes in high school? Do those kids stay with their age group, or are they held back? Are they encouraged to leave, or do they see the writing on the wall and leave of their own volition?
The senior classes are about a third the size of the original 6th grade classes. The class of 2012 at Basis Tucson had 97 6th graders, and by the senior year, it only had 33 students. To see charts of attendance rates at Basis Tucson and Scottsdale, you can go to a post I wrote about a year ago on Blog for Arizona: http://www.blogforarizona.com/blog/2013/04…
All this sounds to me like a multi-pronged selection process that ensures the students can achieve at the expected level or they’re weeded out one way or another.
“What happens if a child at Basis scores very low on the diagnostic math test or looks like he/she won’t perform well at current grade level? What happens when, at the end of the school year, a child looks like he/she doesn’t have what it takes to keep up with the expected work load or achievement level? What happens if a student can’t cut it taking an AP class in the 8th grade, or numerous AP classes in high school? Do those kids stay with their age group, or are they held back? Are they encouraged to leave, or do they see the writing on the wall and leave of their own volition?””
That’s a lot of questions. Do you have any answers? Your paragraph quoted above just reads like lazy character assassination.
“The senior classes are about a third the size of the original 6th grade classes. The class of 2012 at Basis Tucson had 97 6th graders, and by the senior year, it only had 33 students.”
Again to bring up my own kid’s experience, when his eighth grade BASIS class took the University High exam, all of them passed, and all but one accepted placement at UHS. If his year was remotely typical, all you’ve documented is either (1) UHS’ ability to poach high-achieving students or (2) that participating in big-time sports or band is appealing to a lot of high-achieving kids.
Hurri, I asked questions because I wanted to tap into your experience since you have a child at Basis. My answer to the questions would be, students who don’t measure up are held back a grade, or they’re counseled out of the school, or the child or parent decides the school isn’t right for them.
As for UHS poaching students, if you look at the post I linked to earlier, you’ll see the Scottsdale stats are very similar.
David, Thanks for your informative article. I also appreciate how you have extended yourself to answer the reader above in a respectful way.
Thanks Anthony. If a serious question is being asked and there aren’t a dozen issues mixed together, I like to participate in the conversation.
The “hear no evil” purse-string holders up in Phoenix refuse to believe the overwhelming data that family income and education success are strongly correlated. It is more politically correct to blame teachers for student failure, though never applauding them for student success. That way, justification for 40-1 teacher-to-student ratio is provided, as well as massive pay cuts for educators. BASIS is just another cream-skimming AP charter school like University High. If TUSD “skimmed” special education students and warehoused them in once school, lawsuits would proliferate faster than a Justin Beiber arrest video. Oh wait, we already did that (Howenstine).