After I wrote the post, BASIS and University High Are Top U.S. High Schools, Which Means . . .?, Julia Toews, Head of BASIS Tucson North, contacted me, and we met and talked. We decided that, rather than my trying to explain her position, I would give her the opportunity to write a guest post on The Range. You can read it below.
As a proud Tucson resident who supports full access to the best education possible for all of Tucson’s children, I am glad to have the opportunity to clear up a few misconceptions about BASIS. In doing so, I hope to refocus the dialogue about education in Tucson, emphasizing pedagogical practices over selectivity.
First, I would point out that it is a myth that we serve only middle and upper income students. A full 30% of our students come from zip codes in which the median household annual income is less than $30,000. Moreover, one-third of the graduating class of 2013 qualified for SAT fee waivers (eligibility determined by federal poverty guidelines).
A second myth is that we are selective about who we admit. The truth is that we are an open-enrollment, tuition-free public charter school that is forbidden by Arizona law to be selective in our admissions. When there are more applicants than spaces available, we hold a random, blind lottery, as the law requires.
In the past, there has been confusion on this point, partly because of the readiness test we administer to incoming 5th graders. The reality is that this test has absolutely no bearing on a student’s enrollment status. In fact, our use of this test should be seen as demonstrating our commitment to serving students no matter what ability level they bring to the school. We use the data from this test precisely to provide individualized help to incoming students and their parents to help them succeed.
In order to make this challenging curriculum accessible to all students, we have a full time employee devoted to meeting with students individually to help teach them study skills, time management, and organizational skills. In addition, teachers provide at least an extra 60 minutes per week of individualized help for students, and administrators meet with any students that the Academic Support Coordinator does not have time to see. We have anywhere from 100-300 students individually meeting with staff on a weekly basis for this purpose.
This is not a school where students get “lost” in the shuffle; nor is it a school that any child finds easy, no matter in which zip code he or she lives. The mission of BASIS is to provide a world-class education to all children, and I witness my faculty and staff working from dawn till dusk every day to make this a reality.
We do not promote students from grade to grade unless they meet our promotion criteria: they must pass every class with an average of 60% or higher, and they must also pass comprehensive exams to prove mastery of the subjects taught. But it would be unethical for BASIS to maintain such a policy if we didn’t provide the support necessary for children to reach these goals. I can say with absolute confidence that we provide that support.
I disagree with articles like that of Mr. Safier’s because they do not take the time and energy to actually look at what we are doing to be successful (and Mr. Safier himself admits that he did not try to contact me before publishing his critique), but summarily attribute our success to a selectivity that simply isn’t there. Excessive focus on the issue of choice detracts from more important questions of pedagogy and best practices.
While I recognize that we cannot currently serve every child in Tucson, I do hope that what we are doing at BASIS can be shared with other schools and districts. I welcome visitors from surrounding districts to come and share best practices, so that the legacy of having an internationally acclaimed school in Tucson is not one of antagonism and elitism, but of generosity, innovation, and community.
Above all, we want to continue to be an active partner in our amazing city.
Please do not hesitate to contact me for more information and dialogue about education in Tucson.
This article appears in May 1-7, 2014.
Bullshit! BASIS’s method is a de facto qualifiying exam.
Wow! 30% of your students come from families making $30K, or less.
70% of TUSD’s students are on Free/Reduced lunch, but close enough, right?
Bullshit!
No, I would have loved to offer an education BASIS style for all my children. I never made enough money and neither did my ex-husband. My two older children were in SUSD and TUSD. Sunnyside still better but neither could handle a gifted or special needs child properly.
My youngest pushes herself each day to be exceptional; and she is! I was surprised to learn about the number of kids she pointed out were held back. If you set your expectations higher that is what you get. My baby was bored in gifted program in regular school.
My only dislike is driving 45 minutes each day to get her to school. BASIS get a group of interested parents on the south side of town and I would recommend you to everyone. I still do
Walking in the door may not a selective process, sure. What happens thereafter is another matter. The selectivity tactics used at BASIS are so devisive and kept under the table one couldn’t possibly ask enough pointed questions to get a clear picture of what’s really going on. Let’s take another angle by having a look at the staff retention at BASIS. Similar to the student atrition rate, I wonder?
I am glad you published this. I know there are many particularly in the education industry that fear schools like basis. But, we must realize we (U.S.A.) has new competition from around the world including emerging countries like China and India. We can no longer sit back on our laurels in this competitive environment. We must also realize that in these countries they sacrifice a social life for an education because they are desperate for success. Our culture is more about “having fun”. So schools like Basis raise the bar and will raise the standards of all public schools.
Sounds like a bunch of folks above have an axe to grind. We know the Weekly does with respect to charter schools.
I’m glad there are some schools available that really challenge students to excel.
As for the first comment, are you really saying that 70% of kids are born to parents that make less than $30,000? Median income is $35,000 so if that’s the case, so I’d guess 40% of people make less than 30K. If that’s the case, the poorest 40% of the people are having 70% of the kids which means we need a serious birth control program before we can ever improve our education system. Sadly these numbers probably aren’t far off.
In response to the comment above by Doug Martin, I want to say that I do not understand the genesis of the idea that raising the bar raises the achievement, I really don’t. While it may be true that raising the aspirations of the kids themselves raises their achievement, thats not the same as raising the bar. When that results in kids being shed at every single grade level, and a pretty small graduating class compared to the entry level classes, it doesn’t seem to me to signify a real advance. It would be interesting to know where those kids go after they are shed–I assume it is to public schools, which are increasingly underfunded while charters receive more benefits and less oversight. Its not about having an axe to grind, its about countering the myth out there that a charter school education is better than a public education.
Good idea, David Safier, to invite Julia Toews to write this column. I was impressed by her focus on pedagogy and best practices. Also, the individual attention her school provides in order to ensure students do not get lost in the woodwork is commendable. It is clear that this school cares about its students and wants them to succeed.
I would be interested in knowing all of the sources of revenue for this school, its budget, and what that equates to regarding per pupil spending. I also would like to know what the Arizona Legislature’s plan is for incorporating these best practices into all public schools; after all, that was the purported purpose of starting charter schools.
Raising the bar and demanding that we learn was standard when I went to school. Very few children were kept over because we all knew we had to study or there would be horror and shame. Almost all of us were poor, but that was no excuse. I can still name the very few students who were kept back: Richard in first grade, and Wendy in fourth. Ken dropped out in eighth grade after multiple attempts. The rest of us succeeded. Tough on those three, but way better than letting the rest of skate and graduate with seat time but no knowledge. Yes, they scared us, and it worked.
Things I would like to know about Basis: What is the certified teacher/student ratio in actual classrooms, absent special assistants? What is the preferred methodology: full class lecture, ability grouping, centers, special interest groups, etc. Total # of students in the school compared to 100-300 students per week with special assistance. In other words, what %age of the enrollment requires this help? What type of help is it? What are the homework expectations, including both type of homework assignment and hours per day? Length of regular school day? Is the special assistance provided before/after hours and is it one on one or in ability groups? How much of staff assistance is provided by non-certified paraprofessionals? Is the 60% passing standard based on completion of work, homework + tests, tests only, and is it based on rubric driven assignments or on multiple choice exams? What subjects are taught as separate studies and which are taught in interdisciplinary methods? These questions address pedagogical standards. The answers to these questions will provide much more meaningful information and understanding of the Basis (or indeed, any charter program) educational effort.
Putnam Hildago asked where the kids go when they leave Basis, or are encouraged to seek another option. Back to the public schools, and most of them happily. This year, our public school, that lost students to Basis a year earlier, had some of the same students return. One ran up to me, arms opened for a hug, and said, “I’m so glad to be back.” Others who left in grade 4, entering Basis at grade 5 so they could get into the Basis middle school program, are (don’t gasp out loud) returning to TUSD for middle school. My own niece is a Basis high school student whose parents shared that she has no social life. All she does is homework. That might help her get into an Ivy League college, but will she have the life and social skills to survive the college experience? And is it worth it? Lots of public schools are doing a tremendous job with wonderful, rich programs for students under harsh conditions. Every dollar that ends up in a charter school or, thanks to the Arizona legislature, a private, even religious, school, is another slap against democracy.
Many things are surprising about this column. Probably the most surprising, from my perspective, is that a representative of Basis is willing to state in a public forum that she believes other schools can benefit from observing the good pedagogy Basis provides and that they are welcome to come and observe. I think it would be fantastic if a representative sampling of Tucson’s professional educators would accept the invitation, do some extended observations, and provide some helpful commentary for the general public. It’s my impression that Basis “works” for a very narrow range of students and that much damage can potentially be done when families whose students don’t fit the profile enroll their children there, believing that all it takes to succeed in this “internationally acclaimed school” is hard work and persistence.
I observed at the original Basis Tucson campus six years ago, before making a decision about where to enroll one of my children for middle school. What I saw in two of the three classrooms where I sat through entire classes was a brand of “teaching” that definitely would not have met the full range of needs in the selective private middle school classrooms where I had formerly taught (as a certified teacher with degrees both in the subject area I was teaching and in education). When I talked with the Basis “principal” who was in place at that point – a young woman in her early twenties with no degree in education and no experience teaching – I was not impressed by her level of knowledge of pedagogy and educational best practices.
I don’t know if Basis has changed the requirements for its teachers and administrators since I observed. At the time, if I recall correctly, they did not require teachers to have certification or any amount of documented coursework in education, child development, or subject-area pedagogy. It could be that Basis was just “having a bad day” when I was there, but I left the school with the distinct impression that the only students who would thrive in that environment would be those who were able to teach themselves from their textbooks without much assistance from faculty. Moreover, I had the impression that even those students would probably end up with some significant holes in the knowledge base they were able to develop in this setting, where “teaching to the test,” not thorough exploration of subject matter, seemed to be the order of the day. This impression has been repeatedly reinforced in recent years by what I hear from parents who have had children enrolled in the Basis schools. (With two children enrolled in UHS, I hear plenty from former Basis middle school parents who opted to enroll their children in UHS rather than Basis for high school.)
Back to the point that David made in his original column: Basis wants to be considered non-selective, but it is in fact selective. My guess, both from my original classroom observations and from what I have heard since then from people who have had children enrolled in the Basis schools, is that David is 100% correct.
After reading some of these comments regarding unsatisfied parents and “teaching to the test,” I wanted to share my very different experience.
My daughter is finishing up her first year at BASIS, having previously been in the TUSD GATE program, and I have to say that I could not be more pleased with the education she is receiving at BASIS. While she enjoyed her teachers and friends at TUSD, it did not challenge her and she was more or less indifferent to her schoolwork. The limited homework she received was tedious, unchallenging and usually required parental help.
Now that she is at BASIS she loves learning. Almost every day after school she is excited to tell me about something she learned in one of her classes. The learning that goes on in the classes, moreover, is not at all about “teaching to the test.” She has classes in multiple subjects, including Classics, Latin, Music and Geography, from teachers that have advanced degrees in their subject areas. The knowledge she is gaining from these teachers is rich and expansive.
She also has an active social life and has made many close friends at the school. She participates in afterschool clubs and plays club soccer. She has a couple of hours of homework every day, but she gets through it and has plenty of time for relaxing and having fun.
The most impressive thing to me about BASIS is the way they have helped my daughter to be more independent and self-motivated. In the summer before school started she attended a brief orientation summer camp put on by the school that taught her organization, study skills, and time-management skills. She has been encouraged by the school to take responsibility for her education, and she has taken up the challenge. Teacher expectations are presented clearly, and she works to meet them. If she is struggling in a class or performs poorly on a test, she goes to student hours to get additional help.
I’m sure there are some parents that are unhappy with their experience with BASIS. It goes without saying that you can’t please everyone. I was not satisfied with TUSD, for example – that doesn’t prove a thing. There are lots of reasons why a parent or child might not like a particular school, and with school choice as the norm people are going to move their kids to a place they like better.
I think that some parents are dissatisfied with BASIS because they have trouble changing their expectations. For example, they are shocked when their children are suddenly not getting all A’s because BASIS does not inflate grades. Or they freak out when their child fails an exam. They look at failure as a disaster instead of a learning experience and a chance to improve.
As mentioned in the initial post, BASIS provides resources to students who are struggling in order to help them improve. When my daughter came home with a D on an exam, I admit I was taken aback, but she went to the class student hours the next day to get help and on her next exam she did much better.
I think that some parents are used to pushing their kids, and don’t recognize that the school is already pushing them hard and that extra pressure is counterproductive; some are used to being hyper-involved and don’t get used to the idea that BASIS is teaching students to be more independent.
I know that what my daughter is getting from BASIS – her love of learning, depth of knowledge and ability to take responsibility for her own education, is going to serve her well when she heads to college.
I don’t think anyone has argued that there aren’t some students for whom Basis is a good fit. The question is whether the school is selective, and whether its methods can reasonably be held up as an example (as Ms. Toews suggests) to public schools that are not selective — and to the credentialed professional educators who teach in these schools.
The answer to the question of whether Basis is selective is, in my opinion, “Yes,” and there are two components to the selectivity:
A) Parents who elect to enroll their children here self-select, to some degree — willingness and ability to support the unusually high homework loads, ability to provide transportation, etc.
B) Once students enroll, selection occurs through unusually steep attrition rates — i.e. through the institution’s inability or unwillingness to meet the full range of needs in the population they enroll.
The answer to the question of whether Basis’s methods can reasonably be held up as an example of good pedagogy to educators in other settings is, in my opinion, an emphatic “No, they cannot.” The public schools have to deal with a much broader range of needs and abilities, and what works at Basis is entirely irrelevant to them.
It would be more humane and more honest if schools like Basis were allowed to develop a standard-issue admissions process — rather than the attrition process they use to cull their population, so that when they arrive at the portion of their program where the students’ AP test scores determine the national rankings, they have the type of student body they want.
There are many questions that can and should be asked of our state legislators about the lack of regulation, oversight, humane policies, and professional standards in the private and charter systems into which they insist on funneling our tax dollars. A couple of them: Why don’t private schools, that receive tax dollars through voucher programs, have the same testing requirements as public schools? Why don’t private and charter schools have Site Councils that are governed by Open Meeting Laws, so their policy and budget allocations are transparent to their constituents?
I hope that Arizona residents will wake up and start asking these questions and others that are relevant to the quality of education our children receive — and hence to the quality of community we will be creating for ourselves in this state in the decades to come.
I’m a 10th grade student at Basis Tucson North, and I couldn’t be happier with the education I get there. While it is true that we do have a significant amount of homework, all of us do still have social lives, in reference to one of the comments above. I think our classes are small, many of my classes having less than 20 people, except for one or two. While it is true that many students leave throughout the years, they choose to do so, and they are in no way forced to do so. The rigorous academic environment is why these kids leave– and it’s not Basis’ fault. Some kids learn differently from others, and Basis cannot be blamed for the fact that they cannot keep up, and especially can’t be blamed if they are simply not motivated or willing to put in the necessary work. The people who remain are driven, hardworking students, and I think this process of a natural selection has a positive influence on our environment. In response to one of the comments above, no, many of the teachers do not have teaching degrees- but they are all very knowledgeable and passionate about their subjects, and I couldn’t ask for better teachers. No one falls through the cracks at Basis, like Ms. Toews said. The teachers and administration are all very helpful, and we feel like we can approach them with any problem that we have. These teachers give up a lot of their free time to help us- they always have their doors open and they always are willing to meet outside of class to discuss anything that is giving us problems. The help that students receive is oftentimes one on one, and everyone at this school really does care that we succeed and achieve our dreams. It does take a lot of hard work to be at Basis, but I think it’s worth every minute that I spend on it.
First off, let me preface this by saying: yes, some kids just can’t hack it. BASIS provides a challenging curriculum, that, for many students, is daunting in its numbers and percentages required to stay on top. This rigorous curriculum, however, seeks only to pick the cream of the crop- those most willing to keep up with the work and put in the effort to stay on top. Those who do not wish to or are unable to keep up are culled from the classes before graduation.
BASIS lower school (5th and 6th grade) class sizes are so large because all parents want to see their child(ren) succeed in the world. But as a child moves from a large class with generalized attention to a variety of classes with individualized attention, many students (and parents) crack under the pressure. It’s easier for parents to say, “Oh, well, since Jimmy’s failing that class, it must be because his teacher isn’t helping him individually every day.”
Attendance falls in the upper grades because children are unsure of themselves and unwilling to make a change. If a B- is sufficient to pass a class, what’s to say a C+ is any different? And as parents see their child falling behind, they are often tempted to side with the child and say that he/she has done nothing wrong, and blame BASIS’ advanced curriculum for his/her troubles in school. This does not motivate children. It proves to children that the education they are receiving is unnecessarily difficult and that it they can earn B’s at BASIS, they can just as easily (or probably even more easily) earn B’s at CatFoot or Tucson High. But what many fail to understand is the significance of the B’s in context, especially when applying to colleges. Think: which student sounds more likely to be accepted into more universities? A BASIS student who can say, “I have B’s and a 3.5 average, but I took 9 APs as an AP Scholar, and also completed several Capstone classes, as well as completing a Senior Research Project that is totally individualized to fit me and what I want to be when I graduate.”, or a student who says “I have B’s and a 3.5 average, but I took 3 APs and graduated with honors.”. A B at one school is not the same as a B at another school, especially if the student can show something other than just grades for all of his hard work.
What many students and parents fail to realize is that BASIS does not just offer a super-hard curriculum and a million tests, but it offers opportunities that few other schools have, including finance options for the many APs students often take, and some funding for SAT tests and other processing fees. The number of courses offered each year is astronomical, and there are new classes added each year as interest is shown in the student body. In addition, Senior Research Projects (SRPs) and Project Week, as well as the multitude of student-run clubs, means that every student has an opportunity to find something he/she enjoys that will ultimately impact his/her view on what he/she wants to do in college. The fact that each BASIS school is able to provide a glimmer of individuality for each of its 900+ students at each of its locations is almost unheard of- options like this often do not come until a student is well into college.
As parents, it’s easy to say that our children are the smartest children ever and that they can do no wrong. It’s much harder to admit that yes, maybe Sally needs to visit Student Hours given by teachers each week or that she might not earn all A’s every grading period. It’s much harder to admit that our children may not be the little angels/geniuses we want them to be. But it’s the focus on helping them become geniuses that needs to happen- rather than blame the teacher/school for Jimmy’s grades, instead focus on Jimmy. Does he have a clean, consistent space to do his homework every night? Does he ask questions in class when he doesn’t understand? Is he putting in the effort required to stay on task and perform well? And if yes, then Jimmy will continue on into the upper grades being proud of himself for succeeding and independent enough to know that he can ask for help when he needs it. And when he graduates with honors, AP Scholar recognition, and scholarships aplenty, he’ll never forget that a little bit of work now means a lot of opportunity in the future.
Let’s go back to the question of our education system’s effect on the quality of the community we are creating for ourselves in the decades to come. Here is a quote from a 10th grade Basis student who commented in the stream above. It illustrates very well the type of mentality a program like Basis creates:
“The rigorous academic environment is why these kids leave– and it’s not Basis’ fault. Some kids learn differently from others…Basis cannot be blamed for the fact that they cannot keep up….The people who remain are driven, hardworking students, and I think this process of a natural selection has a positive influence on our environment.”
Part of that last sentence bears repeating: “…I think this process of a natural selection has a positive influence on our environment.” Personally, I find it very disturbing that a 10th grader can say such a thing about her school community, apparently having no awareness of how a comment like that sounds to people who don’t think school communities should be based on a process of natural selection, but on a process of nurture, creating a humane community, and meeting the diverse needs of students in a compassionate way.
There are many ways to support academic excellence and to create accelerated learning opportunities that don’t result in the sort of casualties (and “survival of the fittest” mentalities) that schools like Basis produce. One of the most important keys to achieving excellence without doing damage is hiring credentialed professional educators who know enough about pedagogy and child development to meet the needs of the diverse populations their schools enroll. Another key is, if you run gifted programs, having an admissions process that ensures that the students you admit are capable of handling the curriculum you provide. TUSD does both in its gifted education programs.
ERW,
I find it disturbing that you, a credentialed education professional, would pull one sentence from a 10th grade student’s post to make it sound like she is saying the opposite of what she is. The main point of her post is that BASIS does provide a nurturing educational environment that offers its students all kinds of support. You are passing judgment on the mentality of a child and an entire community based on one sentence.
I think this gets to the crux of the issue. Many critics of BASIS seem eager to believe that the school has developed some nefarious “attrition process” that they use to “cull” their student body in order to cover themselves in accolades. You also use words like “cruel” and “inhumane” to suggest that the school is uncaring to their students. This is simply not the case. BASIS employees are education professionals, whether or not they are credentialed, who are as devoted to the success and well-being of their students as any other educators. As has been pointed out by administrators, parents and students in this discussion, they do not turn anyone away, and every student that walks through the doors is given support that goes well beyond what is offered at most schools. At TUSD, for example, teachers do not hold regular student hours, and I don’t recall there being a dedicated academic support coordinator to meet individually with students that are struggling.
Some students do choose to leave BASIS, in other words, but nobody is trying to force them out. Quite the opposite.
You interpret the line from the student post that you respond to as suggesting that BASIS fosters a competitive, cutthroat atmosphere among the students. From what I have seen, this is not the case. Students strive to succeed, but they support each other in this endeavor. There is strong sense of teamwork and comradery among the students. An indication of this is that at every honors assembly, the biggest cheer goes up for the students on the most improved list.
As to your previous reply to me, I would just point out that while you offer some strong opinions regarding the applicability of the BASIS curriculum to other schools, you offer zero evidence to support those opinions. I think that THIS is the point of Ms. Toews’s post – that lots of credentialed professional educators have opinions about BASIS, without actually bothering to find out what BASIS does.
I would also point out that in the post that I was responding to, you did not limit yourself to the issue of selectivity, but also suggested, based on your visit to the campus 6 years ago, that the teachers are incompetent and “teach to the test,” and would not have cut the mustard at the selective private school at which you previously taught. In fact, you put “teaching” in scare quotes as if you believed what BASIS does doesn’t even deserve to be called education.
It was this denigration of the teaching at BASIS that I was responding to in my post. If the teaching is so bad, then how do the students achieve these high scores on AP exams? As a professional educator, you should know that AP exams are some of the best tests out there because they demand a real understanding of the material, as well as critical thinking and writing skills. This is why many colleges and universities accept them for course credit and value them so highly in making admissions decisions.
I don’t mean to come off as if I think that BASIS is perfect or can be the savior of the educational system. What bothers me is that critics of BASIS always seem to feel the need to go beyond pointing out that BASIS may not be for everyone to demeaning the staff and students of the school and suggesting that they are the enemy.
In the end, I have to chuckle a bit at these kind of articles and posts attacking BASIS for selectivity as if the world of education before charter schools and school choice were some utopia of equality and justice. We all know that is not the case. Before school choice, students received different treatment and funding based on where their school was located. Families who could afford it would move to an expensive neighborhood to get access to a good school, or put their children in private schools, while those who couldn’t were stuck with whatever school they got.
I’m not here to argue that school choice and charters can solve this problem. But let’s just be honest for a minute and admit they didn’t cause it. The proximate cause of the problem is that schools are differentially funded and systematically underfunded. The deeper cause is that we expect schools on their own to be able to overcome the effects of entrenched poverty and growing inequality in our country.
The problems charters can try to address are ones having to do with how schools are run. They have the ability to try things out that go against the educational establishment and stasis that plagues large school districts. They can do things like hire teachers who are passionate experts in their subject field even if they aren’t certified, shift resources to create a more robust support system for struggling students, and raise standards to encourage achievement. They can also work like magnet schools, offering different approaches for different students.
Maybe some of these techniques can be applied more broadly and maybe some of them can’t. Those who simply attack BASIS as being selective, however, demonstrate no interest in finding this out. I believe that this is a wasted opportunity.
The hostility directed at BASIS is misdirected and unjustified. It is also counterproductive to the cause of improving public education in Arizona. I am aware that historically many advocates for charter schools have been hostile to public education and that they would like to use the success of school like BASIS as a weapon to further diminish public education in Arizona. That does not imply, however, that all of the families and teachers that choose BASIS agree with this agenda. I, and many other parents, as well as staff and students at BASIS, are strong supporters of public education and wish the state of Arizona would do more to fund high quality education for everyone.
BASIS has been a success story that has helped many children – including mine – to get an education that would not have been available to them otherwise. It is not going away. By attacking it at every turn, I fear that critics are not advancing the cause of public education, but alienating possible allies, while making themselves look defensive and insecure.
So, I would say to David Safier: by all means expose charter schools that are corrupt and underperforming; by all means fight against vouchers that use tax dollars to subsidize the private educations of the well-off; and by all means, fight for better and more equitable funding for public schools. Just please stop using BASIS as a scapegoat for the failures of public education in Tucson.
Thanks for listening.
Get over it people. You just wish your kid went there and. YOU weren’t smart enough to enroll your child there. So it’s your fault as a parent that your child is stuck with the terrible Tucson public education system.
The school provides mandatory academic support for each and every student who is failing a class. The student sits down, one on one, with a counselor to discuss the necessary path to improving in the subject, and the the student is required to attend these meetings until he/she improves his/her performance.
Never once have I heard of counselor encouraging a student to leave BASIS. I would argue, at least for the Tucson campus, that this is simply not true. In fact, when students have discussed intentions to leave BASIS for other schools, administration will talk to them individually to discuss what the school can do in order to keep the student at BASIS and improve his/her experience there.
The school isn’t perfect. But please, refrain from making false and unhelpful accusations and instead provide some real propositions for improvement.
ERW said, “Another key is, if you run gifted programs, having an admissions process that ensures that the students you admit are capable of handling the curriculum you provide. TUSD does both in its gifted education programs.” Isn’t that exactly the definition of selectivity though? You argue against selectivity, but you say that schools should admit only those that “are capable of handling the curriculum you provide.” So, to be selective or not to be selective– the difference between the “selectivity” of Basis versus the selectivity of UHS, for example: the difference is that Basis gives students the chance to work hard and succeed instead of UHS- who won’t even admit those who do not meet their standards. ERW also says, “people who don’t think school communities should be based on a process of natural selection, but on a process of nurture, creating a humane community, and meeting the diverse needs of students in a compassionate way.” Basis does provide nurture for their students, did you miss that whole point in my previous comment? Why do you argue so vehemently against Basis, when it provides students with an education that can compete with students around the world? One of the MANY problems with the American education system is that American schools are not willing to push their kids- when they can achieve much, much more than they are in their underfunded public schools. Why are you focusing on Basis rather than schools in Tucson and in Arizona in general that are C schools, D schools? Why are you attacking the one school that excels and exceeds expectations, versus the American schools that propagate the old system of not pushing their students? The American schools are falling behind international standards- why are you not focusing on that? Why is a school that is excelling more important to argue against than those that are seriously falling behind? If all the people that argued against Basis instead turned their efforts towards improving American education at large, the world would a different, smarter, happier place.
Additionally, ERW, what I meant by saying that I feel that the natural selection creates a positive environment is that all of us are driven, hardworking students that love to learn. A community in which students hate school and can’t wait to graduate creates a negative environment: you’re weird if you like to learn, basically. The environment that Basis has is very supportive: if you need help, you can go to your friends or your teachers, who will be more than happy to help because they, like all of the students and staff at Basis, pursue knowledge and help those that need help.
Our son is at Basis. Basis has no selectivity. Basis is the purest form of treating children like capable human beings that I have seen in this city. Basis offers a world class curriculum available to every single child in the school. Through the years, we have had kids in the foothills as well as private schools.
Do you really want to discuss selectivity and humane treatment of children?
I’ll have to say, from experience in the foothills, that talk of selectivity and humane treatment of children is no greater a fail then at Cat Foothills and TUSD. Natural Selectivity and Humane treatment of students you say?
How about the Cat Foothills GIFTED program? Seriously, lets separate the kids in to two groups.
You are gifted and You are not. You will get worksheets ahead of the pack in math and english and we shall call you gifted. You are gifted and will set with this group. You are not gifted so you will set over there. Does not matter if you can do more or not. You did not score as high on our intelligence test so you are stupid and you will not be label gifted.
That my friends is the most ugly example of selectivity and sets the stage for horrific bullying as we have seen at OGMS in the news. Many times, that type of system produces nasty, egotistical kids who have the illusion of intelligent grandeur while those around them don’t quite stack up.
This type of selectivity is the purest form of cruelty against children.
Basis is a world away…….and we are thankful there is now a choice.
Thanks. This was a very informative article.
Toews ultimately seems to concede the primary argument to Safier without saying as much. Safier in his article simply demanded “basic truth in advertising about what BASIS schools are and what they accomplish. Stop comparing the highly selective charters to non-selective district schools. Stop saying you’ve cracked the education code, that you know how to turn ordinary students into world beaters. It’s simply not true.” Toews correctly notes that BASIS is not selective in admissions (other than self-selecting by a certain type of parent), but doesn’t address the issue of attrition at all (including the emotional toll on those who can’t hack it for whatever reason) and, although at one point claims that BASIS “make[s] this challenging curriculum accessible to all students” ultimately (and correctly) concedes that BASIS “cannot currently serve every child in Tucson.” UHS already utilizes BASIS’s “best practices” with a similar student population with similar results. Neither school sheds much light on what to do with students who don’t want or can’t handle an accelerated standardized test-based curriculum.
It is disturbing that a 10th grade student would parrot Social Darwinism as if it was an acceptable worldview for public schools. If the notion that the BASIS student body has self-selected through a process of natural selection is true then it completely supports David Safier’s argument that BASIS cannot be a model for neighborhood public schools which are simply not permitted by law to operate only for the benefit of highly motivated students.
You guys get disturbed easily. They make pills for that.
“What to do with students who don’t want or can’t handle an accelerated standardized test-based curriculum.” hmmm…isn’t the real question, “what to do with students and parents who feel entitled just for participating?”
The discussions around accessability, pegagogy, selective process, etc…are all very interesting, really. The real problem with BASIS not being a one size fits all (as public schools are forced to imply they are) is culture.
The culture at BASIS is to prepare students for the real world, teaching life skills that will help them in real life. For example, students are responisble for tracking assignments and completing on time. If work isn’t completed on time it doesn’t earn homework credit. If my job requires me to complete a project in a timely manner, I am held accountable. There is no make-up or extra credit for failure. ACCOUNTABILITY is the culture.
It sounds to me that many of the opponents of this education prefer to live life with a victim mentallity. The ‘cant’s’ and the ‘wont’s’ never cease. Reasons are excuses, plain and simple. The tools and resources are available for those who CHOOSE to take advantage. The rest CHOOSE the option that gives a warm and fuzzy feeling when little Johnny fails, a culture of ACCOMMODATION.
What is really disturbing is that our Public School system is overburdened with a population of students just coasting through. They have no choice but to accomodate this crowd, discipline and accountability are dirty words at TUSD because parents demand it. “My child was late to class, how dare the teacher not let them in to disrupt the lesson and everyone elses learning!” “My child did not follow the dress code, how dare you have a policy in place that I don’t agree with” “My child is failing because the teacher doesn’t like them, they need to change teachers NOW!”
I would venture to guess that most parents who choose BASIS initially and then choose to leave thought that showing up would make their child successful. Sadly that is not the case. There is a process of learning and developing skills that takes time and energy that not everyone is willing to invest. That’s not an elimination process, it’s reality. In the real world we have innovators and entreprenuers as well as data entry persons. There is no one size fits all when the drive isn’t there.
It is a shame that charter regulations force Ms. Toews to maintain the pretense of non-selectivity. The grade promotion policy alone that she fully describes is a major selection tool. If a student fails a single course or is simply not a good high-pressure test taker and fails a single comprehensive exam, the student must repeat the entire grade. That eliminates the least capable students who experience multiple failures and realize that they will never succeed at Basis and probably eliminates the whole bottom half of the class when you consider that the tests are repeated every year and most “average” kids will bomb a test at some point, and who would want to repeat an entire year of classes you passed just because you failed on of the comprehensives.
Having classes that start with 150 kids and whittle down to 40 over a number of years is not in anyone’s interest. Kids that leave experience social disruption and loss of self-confidence that might affect their long term belief in the capabilities. Parents may experience moving or extra transportation costs, Kids who were more capable may have received less attention at school as the school devoted more resources to help those struggling. It would be better for society as a whole to simply allow Basis to use selective admissions.
It is also a shame that Basis’s critics won’t acknowledge that Basis is doing a lot right. In a city of half a million that already has an elite high school (University) that skims 250 top students out of every class, for Basis to find 40 more and get them performing at some of the highest levels in the country is very admirable. Consider that, by a number of measures, Basis outperforms the elite selective high schools of New York City where in each grade, there are roughly 100,000 students that these elite high schools can choose from and among those selected, and there are many parents who contribute handsomely to enhance the school budgets. I have visited Basis elementary and middle school classrooms and was impressed with how far above grade level kids were working and with the deep thinking skills they were demonstrating. I was also impressed with the enthusiasm the teachers bring to the classroom and the way the children are engaged in the classes. I would have loved to have been able to attend a school like Basis when I was growing up. For kids that are insatiable learners and for those that will only engage when they are actually challenged Basis would be a great school. For others who have the ability and motivation to make As and Bs when working at grade level but who struggle when asked to work well above grade level, this school is not for them. They should be in a place where they realize that what they can do is quite good and can lead them to a good college and satisfying and rewarding career. They should not be struggling at Basis for two years until they get weeded out.
Sheesh. I can’t be the only one who has noticed over the years that that AZ consistently ranks 49th or 50th in the US in education. And we as a society should stick to or guns with the system that has produced that ranking? My thought would be we need more options to not continue ending up in last place, not less.
Thanks basis.
I read through the entire controversy, articles and comments and such, and was impressed by how few parents want to take responsibility for their kids’ education and cultural upbringing other than sticking them in this school or that. Oh sure, they’re helicoptering around, justifying their laxness — but that’s not creating the home environment or the out-of-doors adventures a family takes to widen a student’s perspectives. The issue isn’t BASIS per se, but how people use it to excuse themselves from the most important class of all: how to educate their kids to have a good life in a changing, challenging world. That’s what gets the shortest shrift.
When is David, the author, actually going to visit the BASIS schools?
He loves throwing around the founders old salary and treating them like villains, when will he interview them, or at least meet them?
Do you know why? I can only surmise that the reality of those encounters will cause David’s own carefully crafted demonization machine to malfunction.
I challenge him to be a journalist and leave the office and actually investigate.
Okay, here is my five cents worth. Simply put, my 10 year old was in what is considered one of the best school districts in Tucson/Pima County. He sat in class and read books all day because there was no challenge for him in the classwork. He was in the gifted program which was fine, but it was only a small part of time spent at school. I was involved with trying to get the school to make it more challenging for him. All for naught. The kids there didn’t like him because he was bright. His life was, frankly, a nightmare.
I enrolled him in BASIS. He LOVES going to school there. He is around children he can relate to and who he enjoys being around. He now has friends. He now has a social life. He is not held back because other kids don’t want to learn and slow down the whole class. BASIS is for any child who wants to learn and is willing to work to do so. He doesn’t love ALL his teachers, but he does respect them. He is learning everyday and loving every minute of it.
I’m sure this won’t be popular, but parents these days allow their children to be as mediocre as possible. They expect nothing from their children and that is exactly what they get. I see so many children that are so catered to and hovered over they just have no chance to mature and become responsible. BASIS is a great school and they do open their doors to all children. It is no different than any other school in that it is not for every child. Just as the school my child previously attended was not for him.
It seems to me that those complaining the loudest are those who embrace mediocrity on every level. Everyone must be equal at everything. That is simply not reality. To the educators putting BASIS down, I can only say, shame on you. It is glaringly obvious that your real objection to BASIS is that parents of children in the schools where you teach might actually expect you to be as committed as the staff and teachers at BASIS.