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BASIS .ed VALUES:
- Every child deserves an opportunity to excel academically and our teachers have faith in students ability to do so.
- The BASIS Education rests on Three Pillars: A rigorous, accelerated curriculum, Student accountability; Knowledgeable, effective teachers.
- Classrooms are sacrosanct. We consider student-teacher interactions the essential BASIS quality, and prevent any interruptions or behavior that might stand in their way.
- There is no substitute for hard work and persistence.
BASIS schools are open admission. They operate on a shoestring budget; the Arizona schools operate on about two-thirds of the average funding for a child in a traditional public school. Classes are large: up to 30 students in middle school. Technology is "akin to cuneiform tablets," scottsdale's head of school, Hadley Ruggles. The Phoenix school building, like all other new BASIS schools, follows a template; it's a strikingly modern steel and glass structure that was fabricated in Texas, trucked to Arizona, and assembled in four months at a cost of about $8 million, including the land.
High scores on relatively low-bar state tests have served to assure middle-class parents that their traditional public schools are good and their real-estate investments are safe. That could change when Common core standards are introduced in 2014 and, with them, college readiness exams that have been affirmed by each state's universities, Andy Smarick, a Bellwether partner, told me. "The results will be jaw-dropping, especially in districts that are used to acing state tests, he predicted. The BASIS target audience has been middle-class and working-class kids because they have a stinky education, too, Michael block said. the network has few competitors in that demographic space and Block said he has seen little interest from other education entrepreneurs.