David Safier is a great blogger in Arizona who has his hands full trying to keep up with the myth-making of the charter industry in his state.
In this column, he dissects the legend of the BASIS charters. Their backers spin the story that high standards produces miraculous results that every school could match if it copied the BASIS mdl, but the reality is something else.
As Safier writes, “An obscenely well funded coalition of organizations exists to sing the praises of schools like BASIS as part of their continuing efforts to push their privatization agenda.
BASIS schools begin with a reasonably high achieving group of 6th grade students (recently they added a 5th grade). Of those 11 and 12 year olds, only one out of three will make it to their senior year. The other two-thirds withdraw, mainly because the expectations and pressure are so great, they know they won’t be able to succeed. The biggest student dropoff is from the 8th to the 9th grade. Any middle schooler who’s struggling to keep up knows the pressure and expectations will be far greater in high school as the coursework becomes increasingly more demanding and they’re required to take a number of AP courses. However, even among the ninth graders who make the cut, between 30% and 50% don’t last to their senior year.”
The promoters won’t talk about the selection process or the attrition rate.
This is a recurring theme, unfortunately, in every “miracle” school story. Education is hard daily work. Children are not transformed overnight.
Honesty and transparency should be starting points, not rare commodities.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Attrition isn’t really a problem, just ask Patrick Wolfe
Who’s Patrick Wolfe? References please.
Duane, Patrick Wolf is the independent evaluator of Milwaukee and DC voucher schools. He holds a funded chair in School Choice in the “Department of Education Reform” att he University of Arkansas.
Duane, I recently exchanged blog posts with Patrick Wolf because of his claim that vouchers were working in Milwaukee. He urged his home state of Minnesota to adopt more school choice. remember, this is the independent evaluator. He cited a higher graduation rate for voucher students but neglected to point out that most voucher students drop out and return to Milwaukee Public Schools.
Thanks for the refresher. Had forgotten who he was.
Do you remember when Shyster or someone wrote the article with a big growling wolf? Kind of funny.
How is it that after all the times I have put the information on the DOE OIG audit of the total lack of accountability of charter schools in Florida, Arizona and California that no one even mentions it in any conversation on charter schools. This is a piece on Arizona. What state is included in this audit? Well Arizona. The audit is DOE-OIG/A02L0002. When are you all going to wake up or are you all really with them? Do you have real intellectual curiousity? Do you want to stop charter schools or is it really a sham? If you do and are serious why not use the best information there is and that is the Stanford Credo study you all refer to and now why not the DOE OIG audit? I really wonder sometimes about whether people are serious or not. We are, are you? One thing for sure we are not waiting for all of you to wake up. There is not that much time.
Why don’t you leave it to the parents to decide? Really, believe it or not, we are capable of that. I’ve done my homework. I’ve analyzed the curriculum and the Basis philosophy. I’ve studied the tests they use to point to their success. I’ve spoken with other parents and I’ve looked at online reviews. I not only don’t care if there is a high attrition rate at Basis – I am glad for it. If my kids can’t hack it, they shouldn’t be there. For goodness sake, can’t you leave some public educational institution dedicated to excellence?
If you take away my choice in charter schools…I will just home school. We have to do something to force the public schools to wake up and make meaningful changes.
You are creating the have/have not gap. If we get rid of charter schools, you force everyone who cannot afford private school tuition (or to stay at home to home school) back into at best mediocre and at worst failing public schools. My kids’ public school is AT LEAST 2 years behind the one I attended on the East Coast in their math curriculum and Common Core is making it worse. I live in a relatively affluent area. Arizona public schools are TERRIBLE. No Child Left Behind = No Child Gets Ahead.
You want to hold charter schools accountable? We can discuss that…just don’t dare to strap them with the nonsense we have in our public schools. Parents need choices. Last I checked, this was still a free country after all.
This guy does write great articles. The article on this charter tells every gimmick of the high performing charter. They just aren’t honest about what happens to their students over time. No miracles in those schools. The kids that graduated would have done well anywhere.
I live near Basis North & worked in a nearby school district. I remember how devastated our gifted Ed. teacher was by the loss of so many gifted 6th graders to Basis. I always thought: “Our school does a great job because we prepared those kids for the rigors of Basis” Two traditional public high schools near Basis North just expanded their AP program. The area is an upper middle class community. And Dave did not mention something that really burned me up. Charter schools in AZ do not have to use bids when buying supplies and services, like traditional public schools do. So, while it’s called a non-profit, most of the money for Basis goes to businesses run by the owner’s family.
RetAZLib–Have you been following the UNO Charter School story from Chicago? Perhaps something can be done through conflict of interest/state funding in AZ.
Alrighty. So yes, the BASIS Tucson North school is currently located in an upper middle class community. But you’re forgetting that it moved there only two years ago. Up until then the location of the high school was at Broadway and Alvernon, across the street from El Con and the middle school was (and a portion of it still is) located at Alvernon and Speedway. So every graduating class up until 2016 would have started at BASIS, at the latest, in the eighth grade before the school moved to the Foothills. So let’s not attribute the current location of the school to the performance of the graduating classes of previous years, okay? I’m not denying that the location is going to affect later graduating classes. But the school’s performance up until this point isn’t because it’s in the Foothills.
BASIS Tucson is a school that has tight ties to the very conservative Goldwater Institute. It pays “merit bonuses” to teachers for “learning gains,” and it pushes the College Board’s Advanced Placement (AP) courses and tests. IN essence, it’s corporate-style “reform” on steroids.
The Goldwater Institute advocates all the kinds of economic policies that piled up deficits and debt and broke the economy. Incredibly, its directors make the claim that it “is staffed by the brightest minds.” (snort, wink, eye roll)
Its ideas for education “reform” are more charter schools, merit pay, more testing, and vouchers. Goldwater Institute “leaders” want to privatize public education.
The research on AP –– despite the nonsense consistently dispensed by The Washington Post’s Jay Mathews –- is quite clear. It is grossly overhyped.
A 2002 National Research Council study of AP courses and tests found them to be a “mile wide and an inch deep” and inconsistent with research-based principles of learning.
A 2004 study found that “the best predictor of both first- and second-year college grades” is unweighted high school grade point average, and a high school grade point average “weighted with a full bonus point for AP…is invariably the worst predictor of college performance.”
A 2005 study found AP students “…generally no more likely than non-AP students to return to school for a second year or to have higher first semester grades.” Moreover, the authors wrote that “close inspection of the [College Board] studies cited reveals that the existing evidence regarding the benefits of AP experience is questionable,” and “AP courses are not a necessary component of a rigorous curriculum.”
A 2006 MIT faculty report noted ““there is ‘a growing body of research’ that students who earn top AP scores and place out of institute introductory courses end up having ‘difficulty’ when taking the next course.”
The 2010 book “AP: A Critical Examination” noted that “Students see AP courses on their transcripts as the ticket ensuring entry into the college of their choice,” yet, “there is a shortage of evidence about the efficacy, cost, and value of these programs.” And this: AP has become “the juggernaut of American high school education,” but “ the research evidence on its value is minimal.”
BASIS may be ranked highly in the US News list (Jay Mathews ranked it highly too). But that doesn’t mean that what it stands for is good policy, or what it does makes sound educational sense.
Nor does it mean it’s worth replicating.
I wanted to clarify my earlier comments about AP programs. I was trying to say that nearby public schools had just expanded their AP programs because the local population has enough bright, motivated students that do well in them. My son recently graduated a semester early from the University of Arizona because of the headstart (17 college credits) he got through the excellent honors and AP program at his traditional high school. The difference is that those high schools provide great educational opportunities for kids at all levels with all kinds of needs. The elementary school I retired from prepared students for the rigors of Basis AND also had a program for the Emotionally Disabled. You wouldn’t find something like that an “accelerated curriculum” charter school like Basis. Students enrolling at Basis were told to expect at least 3 hours of homework a night. Parents also knew they would have to provide transportation. Things like that mean that the students at a school like Basis are Not comparable to a traditional public school.
And, here’s an article about the AZ charter schools and spending.
http://www.tucsonweekly.com/tucson/danehy/Content?oid=3592858
Has anyone considered that maybe the attrition rate has something to do with a school that has no sports, no band and no club organizations
Read on friends….BASIS schools are a scam. I just ran into this article…Did you know BASIS DC was denied expansion….at last someone is not drinking this coolaid.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/04/15/why-d-c-charter-school-is-denied-enrollment-increase-in-9-tweets/
They were denied because they were a 1st year charter in DC. The other 1st year charter was also denied.
I am sending my kids to Basis next year specifically because my local public school is less and less concerned with enabling excellence and more and more committed to the mediocre. I don’t think that the Basis model should be applied across all schools. It shouldn’t be sold as such. Instead, I think it should be protected as an opportunity for motivated, capable kids to reach their potential. I do not see attrition as an issue. If a child is unable to keep up, they should return to an environment more suited to their learning pace and leave the coveted Basis seats for other kids. Our traditional public schools are already structured for a slower pace.
Unfortunately, Basis administrators have to walk a fine political line in how they sell their model. Because they are publicly funded – which allows students of all socio-economic backgrounds to take advantage of this education – they have to play up that they accept all comers. They do accept them but it doesn’t mean that Basis is the right place for them. And it would be unfair for Basis to slow the pace for struggling learners at the expense of opportunities for other students who do not require such accommodations. We have enough of that in our traditional public schools – at least the one my kids were in through this year.
For the educators that pat themselves on the back for prepping their kids for Basis, if the public school was doing such a stellar job, why are they leaving? While I hope your school is better than the one I experienced – entry into Basis is a random selection from all interested parties and staying there is more a comment on the kid’s aptitude/ commitment than the preparation they received. Speaking for my kids – their success at Basis will be in spite of their early years in a traditional public school and definitely not because of it.
I’m speaking from the experience of having had my children in two different Deer Valley School district public schools from K-4, and then seeing the difference in focus on excellence at BASIS Peoria after two years, 5th and 6th grade.
I don’t see the high attrition rate, and I frequently speak with parents of high school students at BASIS as well. There have only been on average a few students in each of my son’s 5th and 6th grade class that move to another school.
From what I have gathered so far, the model of hiring teachers (and paying higher salaries) who are experts in their subject areas, most who have Graduate degrees in their field, rather than teachers with Ed. degrees (and often union influence), yields teachers who impart an excitement and level of capability that I just have not typically seen in the public schools.
All of the BASIS parents that I have talked with know that for the sacrifices being made in selecting a BASIS school, such as carpooling kids everyday, no cafeteria, minimal sports and athletic facilities, the rewards of high expectations and high delivery are already being seen in their children eager for school every day and with a sense of pride that they are part of something special.
Unfortunately the truth is that in our society a BASIS type institution is often not the right choice for every family. There are some families that don’t have a combination of the means nor the interest in putting their children in more academically rigorous schools. But I am saddened and frustrated to hear people speak of high achieving charter schools as if they are somehow taking away resources from public schools. Charter schools receive about 3/4 of the state and federal funding per pupil that public schools do, so there is a lot of fund raising that is going on through out the year. And charter schools don’t the advantages of large lunch subsidies and special education programs like public schools.
Reading many of the posts here and hearing others in various forums, there seems to be a certain amount of fear and envy that is fueling a lot of the charter school bashing. Certainly charter schools should have the same level of financial and academic results accountability and transparency as public schools. But for parents who are willing to make the sacrifices that high end charter schools like BASIS demand, why try to take that opportunity away and bring all of the school experience down to a lowest common denominator mentality that we usually get with public schools?
I hope a parent of an average intelligence child doesn’t read your post. Or heaven forbid a parent of a special education child.
Haley: Which post are you referring to?
It is every parents’ responsibility to do their homework, research the public, private or charter school they are considering and realistically decide whether it is a good fit for their child. An average intelligence child can do well at BASIS with hard work. For a special education child – their success at BASIS would likely depend on the nature of their special need.
If a parent chooses to enroll their child at BASIS and it turns out to be a poor fit, they should simply find a better option for their child. Some parents are delusional and while I appreciate their optimistic determination not to acknowledge their child’s limitations, there is a level of reality they should accept. Why should they take a precious resource better suited for another child? Why should they have any more right to dictate the pace of learning (i.e. force BASIS to slow down for them)? Why should above average children always have to slow down for everyone else? That’s wasted potential.
I’m so tired of people defining “educational equity” as everyone gets taught the same thing as opposed to everyone has the same opportunities. Yes, everyone has the same opportunity to get into BASIS, but not everyone is a good fit there. We need to think of “educational equity” as every child gets the support they need to reach their full potential and excellence is nurtured where it is found regardless of race, religion, culture, gender, socio-economic status and so on. This means some kids will be enabled to go faster and farther. People need to stop whining that that is not fair. The gene pool is not an equal opportunity gifter – life’s not fair.
If it also means all above average students end up in schools like BASIS and public schools focus on below average to average paced learners, so be it. If the parents of the below average to average paced learners feel their kids are missing out, they should band together to influence their public school to adopt whatever BASIS approach they feel would add value. Allow me to recommend that they start with Saxon math. It’s been a miracle for my kids who couldn’t consistently multiply and divide after 5 years in public school. They are now easily doing pre-Algebra after just two months in 5th grade at BASIS. 🙂
I am flabbergasted that so many who tout the virtues of school choice also support the standardization of schools with the Common Core. It makes no sense. Why choose your school if every school is following the same script?
@Dianerav: not sure what Common Core has to do with my comment, but…Common Core is a standard not a curriculum. It establishes what a child must have mastered at each grade not how that content is taught. It sets a floor not a ceiling. Judging by what I’ve seen in AZ public schools, this was DESPERATELY needed. Common Core focuses requirements and forces time spent in deeper level mastery.
BASIS standards are far above Common Core standards. Not only does school choice allow me to select such academic rigor, it also allows me to select a school whose curriculum and faculty make-up I feel is most effective. This is EXTREMELY important. At this point BASIS administrators basically see Common Core as a minor glitch because their curriculum and teachers will have their students so far ahead of the standard requirement. They may have some minor gaps to fill when assessments are released, but I don’t suspect it worries them much.
My experience is that Common Core itself is not the problem but rather the problem is that we have the same math illiterates implementing it that implemented previously failed standards. There is a lot in the standard that makes sense. The problem is when poorly designed curriculum (with “algebraic concepts”) is taught by teachers who haven’t even taken Algebra 1 let alone Geometry or even Algebra 2 which drives full comprehension. Last year, when my twins were first being introduced to Common Core math standards in their public school, it was very much like the blind leading the blind.
It is very very important to distinguish between the impact of the standard versus the curriculum selected versus the readiness of the teacher. If Common Core fails, I predict the root cause will lie in poorly designed curriculum and ill-prepared teachers but the academic establishment will insist that it was actually the standard at fault.
BTW: Craig Barrett, former CEO of Intel, is heavily involved in the organization that defined the Common Core standards. He is also the President and Chairman of the Board for BASIS. Do you honestly think he would push an effort that would degrade BASIS to the point where it had to follow the same script as all the other schools? Given that the Common Core standards are so much below BASIS standards, I can tell you he certainly would not. What he really is pushing with the Common Core, though, is the level of charter school accountability so many in mainstream academia seem so intent upon establishing while still allowing very meaningful school choice.
@Dianerav: if your comment about “following the same script” was targeted at my complaint that “educational equity” proponents insist on having all students taught the same thing, my statement was referring to the movement away from in-class ability groupings in the late 80’s/early 90’s. I support a baseline standard that every child has to meet. The Common Core standards aren’t really that high of a bar and can serve this function.
Although many elementary schools have returned to the ability grouping practice (~63% in 2006 according to Education.com), my kids’ former public school had not. They continued to espouse that ability groupings were harmful to self esteem and became a self-fulfilling prophesy. They were committed to meeting each child’s needs individually.
Bologna. It is not possible for one teacher to fully meet the individual needs of 27-30 students. Many schools returned to ability groupings for this reason: the above average get bored and the below average get lost. Ability groupings, done well, work. A responsible, effective, competent teacher can use ability groupings to enable all kids to achieve and that is what really builds self-esteem – achievement and self-efficacy.
I grew increasingly concerned with my kids’ school from kindergarten through second grade. I had always scored very high on standard tests but my girls were only just above average. I tried to tell myself not to expect them to be just like me. I started noticing, though, that they never spoke about their math and reading groups – like the ones I had in public school.
In third grade, I asked the teacher if the kids were assigned ability groups – she lied to me and said, yes. I continued monitoring it that year and discovered her lie. My daughters were being used to help other kids in groups of mixed ability. When the standard annual test came around again, it struck me, my daughters’ scores were not reflective of their ability but of what the teachers were choosing to teach them. They were not getting any challenge or being enabled to move ahead faster. They were just part of the herd and once they reached “good enough” they were ignored or used as free labor.
Since my kids’ school didn’t have ability groupings, I made my own. I put them in BASIS…no more boredom and I’m predicting their performance on the annual standard test will look much different this year.
It’s easy as a future Basis parent to be psyched, I was. The reality of Basis is that they discriminate early on and segregate the children who do not respond immediately to the expectations. We came from a public school in which my child was performing well. We made the decision to move our child due to violence and the school’s ranking. Basis sold the idea that they were aware of and could help incoming children make the necessary adjustments. They asked us as parents to be patient. Basis does not abide by they own handbook in regards to discipline actions. They qualify normal middle school behavior as discipline issues. My child’s confidence was defeated and I now have a much larger issue on my hands concerning her well being. Teachers are highly qualified in their field, however their social skills with the children are highly questionable. One told my child’s group that they were the reason that she did not want to teach anymore and another told them that they would not succeed. They reported to me in a 30 minute firing squad type of meeting that my child was not participating. While I was disappointed in my child’s efforts, it became very clear why my child’s spirit had left us. If I was alone in feeling the way that I did, I would have been open minded to the premise that this was just not the fit for us…but knowing that a sleep specialist/Neurologist pulled his kids for lack of healthy sleep, that a principal on another sided of town saw 30ish of his kids leave to Basis and has 8 return…so far, and 5-7 families in my child’s element alone who’s parents have pulled their children and report feeling the same…I feel that anyone who excels at Basis would excel anywhere. To read that one Head of Schools refers to their school as a school for workaholics, just made it that much easier for us to walk away realizing that we did not fail Basis that Basis fails us. My child will continue to thrive in academics, thier viola, their athletics and triathlons, in their spirituality and in their social life. They will be well rounded…far more successful in my book than a workaholic.
I am now a current BASIS parent and continue to be satisfied with the school. I did not expect it to be an easy transition – it wasn’t but it also wasn’t insurmountable. At our school, the teachers are wonderful and happy to help. They go above and beyond. I know that there have been unsatisfactory teachers in the past and the school got rid of them.
My kids are making A’s and B’s with a C here and there. They feel challenged and rewarded. They love their teachers and they are starting to see why I was so committed to get them out of their public school which simply wasn’t going to help them reach their full potential.
My kids are learning organizational, time management and study skills and they are learning perseverance. We strive daily to build their confidence and tell them that just because they can’t do something right now doesn’t mean they can’t learn it.
They have 2-3 hours of homework a night 4 nights a week. They have time for Girl Scouts, music lessons, theater, student council, volleyball and friends. We set reasonable goals for them and reinforce that they are not to even try to compete with the top 15% of the class because a well rounded education will matter more when they are adults than scoring 100% on every test. The school administrators and teachers back us up in this approach.
I am sorry that you did not have the same experience at BASIS. A child does not have to be a workaholic to succeed there but they do indeed have to work. They also have to get over their pride and possibly redefine what success looks like. There are lots of smart kids at BASIS and to achieve top of the class status requires far more effort than it is worth. They need to embrace love of learning and reasonable goals that allow them to thrive in all aspects of life.
That was pretty easy for my kids because, from my professional experience, I could reassure them that the top of the class students at BASIS who were working late into the night to stay there without having a full life would eventually report to my kids as adults. My girls are getting solid grades AND learning creativity, innovation, management, leadership and much more from the varied aspects of their life. This IS possible while going to school at BASIS, you just have to guide it as a parent and you have to stick with it and make adjustments along the way.
As a basis student, this was hilarious. What a joke.
So what is your take?