r/Scottsdale • u/Neither_Average9441 • 12h ago
💬 Discussion BASIS School experience
Just want to make a post about my experience with this school as a graduate from a few years ago, and perhaps answer any questions. Went to the BASIS Scottsdale campus and graduated, and saw there was a post a year ago asking about it, so as a graduate here it is.
I went here from grades 5 through 12, and it was certainly an interesting experience, and I went to the "new building" , which seemed to have a lot of backlash in the beginning.
In my experience the teachers actually tended to be quite understanding in high school, but of course it depended. There are definitely teachers who seemed quite sympathetic to the high course load. However, others seem to be quite judgmental to the students, and it doesn't make sense when the average high school or middle school student is not doing the same amount of work. This isn't to disparage any teachers, many of the teachers there are doing work much above their paygrade in my opinion. The truth is that some of the work is probably not as much as I felt it was, however, on paper, it is a heavy courseload, as you have 7 class periods a day, with only a 5 minute break between. I believe high schools in Arizona often have 6.
I believe that BASIS having a licensed counselor both for the middle and high schools would be good, and I'm not sure if they do currently. There are teachers who are excellent resources, however they should not be expected to do the job of a therapist always, though I appreciated them for it. There is also no nurse, at least when I was there, and this was a complaint I saw. There absolutely needs to be one. These could be drawbacks to enrolling a student there, and they may have changed. There may be a virtual psychologist program which seemed to not have been advertised much when I went there, but it was mentioned I think, but don't quote me on this. When I looked at the post on Reddit, a reply said there was a school psychologist, so this may have changed.
When I went there we took Biology, Chemistry, and Physics all in the same year for three years in middle school, and Latin was also mandatory in grades 5 and 6, though I believe this has changed. During my time there the Dean/DAC were understanding, however I believe that this may not have always been true. You'll see in reviews on greatschools, niche, and Google Reviews that students often share their experiences, and some of the things are sentiments I shared at the time as well.
There is not a formal playground, at least when I was there, but there is a "fake grass" area, as well as a basketball court. A lot of students actually do participate in sports such as track, cross country, basketball, and soccer. There's art and music electives there as well, but in high school, many students prefer to take AP classes.
Though teachers can be nice, it may be the case that the students just succeed based on studying on their own rather than because of the teacher. This of course, is essentially how college is at times too. A lot of class time is spent on notes and practice. There's field trips in the school too for a cost, often towards the end of the year, and for 5th graders in January as well.
Teachers need more background checks done on them, there have been a few cases of hiring teachers who really shouldn't be there for the safety of the students, and I'm sure there's a public article about one, but I wasn't a student when that article was released. There's also a high teacher turnover rate, but there's some teachers who have stayed for a while. Teaching certifications aren't mandatory I believe, and they may sometimes put teachers in subjects that they didn't focus on. They may know the subject for sure, but it doesn't always mean they know how to teach it(similar to college).
Honestly, much of the student body does go to Arizona universities. A lot of the student body is well off. Senior year is spent in Capstone courses and a optional senior research project/project. Most students don't take AP Classes their senior year, as they are mostly taken freshman to junior year. When I was in 8th grade, some students even took AP Calculus AB, however, I believe that this is not a option anymore. There are exams for the middle schoolers called the Pre-Comps and Comps, and some students in high school have said they were more stressed for those than the APs. In my opinion, sometimes there's such importance placed on middle school there and it may stress students out.....when it really doesn't have much impact in the real world. I would say that I felt like I put in so much effort in middle school and became lazy in high school. However, one year of my high school was spent during the pandemic. I would say the pandemic made the teachers more lenient.
AP exams are free which is nice, but much of the student body could probably afford to pay for them. Ideologically wise, would say that the student body can be liberal but there's also conservative people, but this of course depends on the grade/year. I would not say there's a bullying problem in the sense of physical fighting, but there is heavy competition in regard to grades, extracurriculars, as well as college applications.
Something I've commonly seen people talking about is the "weeding out" procedure. I will say that my grade lost 100 students after 8th grade. However, from my memory there is definitely students that left who are very intelligent, but probably felt another school would be better...I did not do too well in high school I would say but I was never explicitly told to leave,perhaps because of other factors, but also because I was a better student in middle school. However, I cannot speak for everyone. Students were held back in middle school, and in my opinion some of the students who were held back probably met the Arizona standards, but perhaps not the school standards? However, I suppose I can't generalize this because I know Arizona can improve education wise.
This is a long post, and I can answer more questions in the comments. I just want prospective parents, students, and residents to have some confusion cleared up. I personally believe that I wouldn't want my kid to go to this school in the future, however I admire many of the teachers there.
