Raising the Standards of Student Learning to the Highest International Levels

The network of BASIS Charter Schools has been educating middle and high school students since 1998, and educating primary school students since 2013. Our schools are able to provide an unparalleled level of education through our dynamic, pivotal BASIS Charter School Curriculum and the bright, passionate subject experts who teach it. Our schools are among the best in the nation, despite being open-enrollment (i.e., nonselective), tuition-free public schools.

BASIS.ed, the charter management organization that manages the BASIS Charter School campuses, was founded in 2009 to help manage our growing network—just two campuses at the time, but now comprising 32 campuses.

Every campus in our network is built upon the same Cognia-accredited pedagogic curricular and cultural platform. We strive to provide the widest possible access to our acclaimed academic program and thereby the widest degree of possibilities in the future lives of our students.

BASIS.ed oversees, implements, and manages the BASIS Charter School Curriculum, including the related assessments and training processes that make our consistently outstanding student outcomes possible. We also provide all back-office support services: human resources, finance and accounting, marketing, operations, and IT.

Our network’s culture focuses on key factors that improve and sustain student learning at a high level. We relentlessly monitor results to ensure that students and teachers are meeting high expectations, and we provide support wherever, whenever, or however needed. Our cycles of performance metrics and program oversight allow superior BASIS Charter School Curriculum teachers to advance—and those standards inspire professionalism in every school we manage.

The Culture of BASIS Charter School Campuses

The BASIS Charter School Curriculum academic model is how and why we exist. It champions our unique culture of inquiry and intellect, and relies upon our teachers’ passion for the subjects that they teach to inspire students. The culture-plus-curriculum building blocks underpin learning environments where a love of learning and personal responsibility matters. BASIS Charter Schools are places where students come to class prepared to think actively, ask questions, seek answers, and be respectful.

What do our students learn to respect?

  • acquiring knowledge for its own sake, and not just means to an end
  • the scientific method
  • the power of asking questions
  • the satisfaction of finding answers
  • other people and diverse viewpoints
  • the importance of hard work
  • the power of a support system
  • the capabilities they have within

The BASIS Charter School Curriculum is a pathway for students to discover

  • A love of applied knowledge, invention, creative problem-solving
  • That asking questions and seeking help are fundamental to self-reliance
  • Individual strengths that emerge as they rise to challenges

Above all, the BASIS Charter School Curriculum is designed to prepare students for more than academic success. It prepares people for a lifetime of dreaming and doing.

What Makes BASIS Charter Schools Unique

The Culture of the BASIS Charter Schools Network

If one word encapsulates the culture of the network of BASIS Charter Schools across Arizona, Louisiana, Texas, and Washington, D.C., it would be “participation.” Participation starts with those who understand, embrace, and cultivate our principles: teachers, school managers, and school staff. Participation extends to students and parents who quickly discover that while classrooms and curriculum are important, educational experiences are a function of anytime, anywhere openness to learning. The culture of BASIS Charter Schools is built on the expectation of professionalism, intellectual boundary-pushing, and tolerance for differences—with everyone participating!

Professionalism

The BASIS Charter Schools network has always treated teachers as the true professionals they are, and on each of our campuses, everyone has a profession. The teacher’s job is to know, inspire, and educate our students via a combination of the BASIS Charter School Curriculum and their own creativity. The school administrator’s job is to facilitate the educational process by clearing time and space for learning; supporting faculty, staff, students, and families; and making sure the community lives up to our network’s values. The BASIS Charter School student’s job is to actively participate in learning, to find subjects and academic forums they love, and to remain inquisitive. Everyone at BASIS Charter Schools shares these goals. We are guided by the same standards and ideals, and everyone contributes to our collective professionalism and learning community.

Intellectual Tolerance

BASIS Charter Schools do not mandate agreement or uniformity of ideas, experiences, or philosophies. We do require mutual respect as an outgrowth of acknowledging the complexity and value of other perspectives. Therefore, our teachers take responsibility for showing students the importance of developing and defending personal, intellectual, and moral principles while considering those of others. We view ideas as important: we discuss all aspects of them, ruminate about them, consider their start and path, and view them with intellectual earnestness.

Striving for Excellence

At BASIS.ed we’re proud of our charter schools’ and students’ outcomes. Yet we always look to improve, as do our students. In fact, a BASIS Charter School student’s educational progress is a continuous process of learning from shortfalls, building on success, and analyzing possibilities. Every BASIS Charter School student learns that growth stems from applying oneself—and going further, reaching higher, than they thought they could. At BASIS.ed, we strive to live up to those precise ideals, every day.