Our experience with BASIS Oro Valley left us concerned about the school culture. Discipline felt overly punitive, communication with families was often unresponsive, and many staff interactions were dismissive or rude. The academic reputation is strong, but families should consider whether the environment prioritizes student well-being alongside academics. We became highly concerned about our children after time spent at this school and after seeing really negative interactions with teachers and staff. I know we were not alone in this. https://www.acluaz.org/app/uploads/2018/10/schools_choosing_students_web_new_logo.pdf https://www.tucsonweekly.com/newsopinion/basis-makes-a-rare-response-to-criticism-part-2-8348082/ https://medium.com/%40andrewthoesen/the-unfortunate-truth-behind-basis-f7db092025da https://www.the74million.org/article/report-charter-schools-are-failing-students-with-disabilities/ https://www.texasobserver.org/parents-say-top-ranked-charter-school-shortchanges-special-education-students/ read more

An elite education for those who are eager and ready to be challenged academically. Outstanding ACT and SAT scores, college admissions and opportunities to do senior research projects. All students are held accountable for time management, assignments and assessment. Attrition rate is high between 8th & 9th grade due to increased amount of AP classes in high school and students maturity level. The facilities are clean and kept up by management. read more

Very advanced school, makes high school level education easy at 6th grade. I don't know what else to put so I'm going to fill the character requirement by typing this. read more

if you are moving to this school, don't. It will ruin your life and rip all the fun out of it. The program is way too challenging, by 6th grade they will have you learning advanced topics, which might sound good but not when it's taught by under qualified teachers who don't know how to teach and don't give access to homeworks and lessons. read more

Basis helped my children improve their writing , math, science , and other skills. The teachers and monitors make kids feel safe and loved .They always encourage students to keep trying their best. read more

Don't believe these FAKE bad reviews of BASIS Oro Valley. BASIS Oro Valley is a great, kind, friendly, welcoming, exciting school that Arizona has been gifted with. BASIS OV is THE top school in Tucson and the #2 school in Arizona, so I see barely any problems. The reviews about the deans not caring about people with special needs are FAKE. The administration and staff are very kind people. The tests at BASIS may be hard (e.g. unit tests in class and Pre-Comps/Comps), but this gives students opportunities to learn stuff that can get them a good career. The "bullying" at this school is very minimal, if at all. The teachers actually do care about the students; it's just that sometimes they are busy (Looking at you Karen Q.) YOU SHOULD DEFINITELY APPLY YOUR KID!!!! read more

I could not give this school more praise. My daughter received an A+ education. The curriculum was challenging and my daughter was not the "perfect" student. The teaching staff were available before and after school for tutoring. The teachers love to teach and it shows. As a parent I needed to do my part and had to get a tutor with one particularly hard area for which the school provided a list of older students willing to tutor one on one, to ensure my daughters success. The administrative staff were involved and accommodating when needed. This school may not be for every child but if you are searching for a great quality education this is the place. read more

This school is a joke. my son attended for three years and after us both having a mental breakdown we left. The kids are mean and bully, with no help from the staff unless "you have proof". the teachers are also bullies, BEWARE the fourth grade math teacher Ms. Rodgers who stopped allowing me direct communication after i begged her for help for my sons struggling in the class. She blamed my poor parenting and the fact i am a single mother in his reason for falling behind. 2-3 hours of homework at night is a guarantee, and there is no time for fun at school because academics is all that matters to them. Parents are not allowed in the school-EVER. The racism and treatment depending on your Socioeconomic status is real. I once had a run in with Ms. Miller in the parking lot after my son accidently hit her mercedes with my car door. She got in my face and scolded me that i obviously didnt care about my car-a 2012 Camry - but i should respect other people things. I didnt know at the time she was a teacher but i after i realized it i was so disappointed. If you are looking for a place to send your child to feel like an adult with a full time job this is the place for you. read more

Its got a pretty good high school but the middle school is bad. My kid has the Spanish teacher "Mrs.Tyrell" and she has left the room multiple times with no clear reason, been very rude to students, and from what I've heard no one has learned anything in her class. The other teachers are better but the curriculum is also very intense and no 6th grader needs to know physics or latin. read more

i am a long time student here, and honestly, it's great. your not going to find a better school nearby. the admins can be a bit touchy, and maybe they aren't the best at handling kids with learning disabilities, but i can say with 100% confidence, that the only kids that leave basis are kids that don't put in the effort. i'm not about to tell you that your kids wont have multiple hours of homework each night, but any accusations of racism, sexism, or teachers not caring about your kids, are Absolutly false. the secrete to success at basis is putting in the effort, going to student hours, and building relationships with the teachers. read more

BASIS Oro Valley - the upper school building - Elementary Schools Near Me - Oro Valley, Arizona

Both my boys have had a wonderful experience at Basis OV. They're quite advanced academically thanks to the curriculum. My boys knowledge of Math and Science was important to me and the school has given them an exceptional understanding of if. My 3rd grader knows a lot of Mandarin, it's really cool to hear him speak it and be excited about learning it. Once in high school it's a sometimes daunting amount of work but it's surely prepared him for college. The downside is there isn't much time for athletics or clubs, unless they require little investment of time. It's not a perfect balance so I would say it's not ideal for many different types of kids. They have to be academically ambitious and fully focused or it's not the right fit for them. We may be leaving for a different high school next year so my son can have time for clubs and more activities but I am so grateful for the foundation Basis has given him to be a high achieving student with exceptional knowledge in every subject. read more

If you want a great education for your child, this is the place. Just know that your child will have to want it and have to work for it, but all in all the kids love it here, they love the challenge and my child couldn't be happier... she started at BASIS Tucson Downtown in 5th grade and is now in the 11th grade at BASIS OV. What I really like about the teachers is that they all hold a degree in their specialty that they teach. We couldn't be happier! Go Jaguars! read more

BASIS Oro Valley - Elementary Schools Near Me - Oro Valley, Arizona

Basis Oro Valley has been one of the worst schools I have ever attended. I have been here for more than half my life and not only is it ridiculously hard and overwhelming, the staff/teachers do not care for the student's well-being and mental health. I don't know why but middle schoolers are learning college materials and preparing for college exams while also having tons of homework and tests dumped on them without end. There are literally exams worth 50% of your grade at the end/middle of the year with everything they've learned on it with only a week of preparation. You can't expect students to prepare and study everything that they've learned throughout the year when they haven't even learned it yet. Also, the amount of homework/tests they have every week is disgusting. It's currently Tuesday and we have already 3 exams and a few more planned for the rest of the week. And on top of that, we have tons and tons of homework, we have to do. The teachers also never tell us what's going to be on the test/quiz/exam, it could be on anything we learned. They never provide help or even a study guide. Do not get me started on the staff's negligence of the well-being of the students. The people who are supposed to help student's mental health or deal with their personal matter is horrible. One of the students there experienced a stalker at the school and what did the staff do? Nothing, they forced them into a room to "talk it out", like that would help anything. The amount of racism and discrimination that goes around in this school is disgusting and the staff plays it off as "a dumb rumor" when people are literally calling slurs and racist terms like no tomorrow. Have mental issues/disabilities? Get ready for a lot of bullying from the staff and students. The staff thinks trauma and mental issues do not exist and don't pay any attention to struggling students (EX: the same student was getting abused by their dad like threatened to be killed and stabbed with sharp objects, and the only thing the school did was call CPS and not help the student clean up their materials that their abusive dad ripped up, not help their struggling grades and certainly did not help their mental being). None of the teachers care that students have other things to do outside of school and continue to dump the same amount of homework on the students every day. The teachers constantly play favorites and actively last out/rant to students about their issues and the amount of mental pain the students are causing them even though they just asked a question. The teachers are racist, the students are racist, and it's not a safe learning environment when everyone is having a mental breakdown. Falling behind? That's the student's fault and the teachers bring to effort to help the student catch up or help. Don't understand? Prepared to be publicly humiliated in front of the entire class for not understanding something. Need help? Better ask other students instead of the teachers that explain nothing. Have other things you have to deal with outside of school and so you can't do any of the work? Well, that's not the teacher's problem so 0. The head of the school literally said that they're trying to put off the workload so we're not carrying a huge backpack but they never did anything. In fact, it seems even worse. The planning in this school is terrible. If you donate to this school, your money is probably going to something stupid like instead of a 2nd floor for the very cramped upper school with huge and small children cramped in a small hallway, let's buy tablets for the lower school 5th graders that don't even need them. There's supposed to be a testing calender for tests to make sure students aren't overwhelmed but it has been confirmed by the teachers that none of the teachers use the thing and no one cares about the thing. My younger sibling had 4 different English teachers last year and each of them wrote the very important 50% of your grade exam and then left so the new teachers had no clue what was on the exam. And it's not like the teachers were going to answer any questions about the exam either because "I'm not going to be yelled at by children" even though they weren't answering any questions. The schedule is messed up, there are hours longs classes on certain days but that means you have to cut down on other classes making the classes different every day and making it more confusing because there are constant room changes and constant issues with everything. I've been here for too many years and I cannot stress enough how terrible this school is and how much I do not suggest enrolling your children here. You get no breaks from anything, no recess, like 20 minutes of lunch and nothing else. read more

BASIS Oro Valley is a great school. Most of the 1-star reviews are false. Most of the teachers have at least 4 degrees in the subject that they teach, and they never, I mean never, turn a blind eye on harassment, bullying, or homophobes. I mean, sure, some teachers are kind-of bad, but they mean well. Some teachers grew up in stressful environments, and they know what it's like to live in them. The testing calendar is great, because it ensures that there are no more than 3 tests/quizzes every day. Most of the material that they teach is easy. I mean, my son joined BASIS in 7th grade, and he has no trouble catching up to the curriculum, despite the fact that he barely even knew english. The teachers were kind, and they helped him with most of the activities. The only reason I didn't put a 5/5 is because their sports teams suck. Their high school has no American football, no swim team, despite most other BASISes having a swim team, and their soccer and volleyball coaches are being coached by teachers with no experience with the sport. read more

The school is rigid and intolerant. I second Alexandra's review. My son was doing ok in the school. He has ADHD and has Aspergers. Instead of being tolerant and teaching him to make mistakes and move on, they made him a pariah. They didn't test him or help him. With no time to get a lawyer, they pushed us into a corner with no way out. I was an advocate and now I'm a critic because no kid ever deserves this kind of treatment. read more

Ok so if your looking for a school for your kid don't choose this one, the school is mentally draining, the teachers suck and the deans aren't trauma informed. Depending on the student the deans act different ways sometimes if your crying they will sit you down and give you candy, and for other kids if your crying they will straight up tell u to stop crying. I don't recommend going to basis the only pro of going there is academic wise, they do teach you certain things you wouldn't learn at a public school. They do put a lot of stress on you throughout the year. Please don't go to basis find a better school. read more

Stay away from this school! Its a huge scam to obtain government funds. This school discriminates on the public by advancing the curriculum by 1 grade level. That means if your child is in 3rd grade at a public school and transfers to basis teachers will be teaching at 4th grade level in 3rd grade. This should be against the law as it discriminates against students who did not attend starting from grade K. Teachers make claims that they can skip a grade by a little makeup work. For an average student this is a big lie. This school doesn't care about how many children are left behind. Faculty and staff act like Basis is gifted student school but this scam. read more

This is a HARD school and the staff makes no bones about it before and during your child's attendance. We came from Illinois where the standards were much lower than this school. It was difficult for my daughter at first and she would come home frustrated and sad that she was struggling day after day with math. In stepped the school. There is available tutoring after school at no cost from both the teachers and a group of peer tutors. This goes for ANY class. The math is still hard for her, but she's not failing and is comfortable asking for help as they repeatedly suggest. I cannot speak for athletics other than I know their focus is not on them and there are few to choose from. This is an entirely different experience for my daughter and she has come to really love it. She is challenged every day and feels a sense of pride when she does well. I feel terrible for the reviewers here that had a bad experience. read more

Okay, so to summarise, I've only been here for a while, and, to put it bluntly, I believe this school is terrible. However, I'll review this to the best of my ability, and tell what I believe has room for improvement, and what doesn't. Personally, I believe that most things about this school has a lot of room for improvement. I am often awake until quite late, due to a massive amount of homework. Typically, I am up until around 1 AM or earlier, however, this will likely vary from person to person, so take this part with a grain of salt. The homework doesn't even seem that effective, it seems more like busywork. You're basically drowning in mountains of busywork. If you'd prefer not to have this, then I beg of you, DON'T GO. With the deans, some are nice, some... well, not so much. If you care about your kid's mental health, I encourage you to choose a different school. This school has a tolerable curriculum, however, it is ahead by 2-3 years after a while, specifically around middle school. It is also quite mentally draining. For example, due to high stress from the comps, which are basically final exams for middle schoolers, however, if you don't pass them, you don't advance to the next grade. This seems tolerable, but considering the difficulty of the content being advanced, it is rather stressful. Due to the stress, there's always a possibility that the kid will wind up overworking just before it, then not doing well, and possibly end up burnt out by high school. Not only that, we also start at 7:20 AM, which, as you can see, is rather early. Additionally, there's something called "academic support." It sounds good, but it is quite literally utter trash. They don't help you with understanding the content taught, you just get the grades, and then go to student hours. I, personally, believe that the student hours sometimes are good, but other times they make me want to rip my hair follicles out. It also has potential to cause mental illness. Honestly, it probably will. The teachers are okay. Some are good, like they keep you engaged and make you want to learn, other ones make you want to rip out your eardrums. It seems like a good school for the "gifted," and as someone who was referred to as gifted, transferred in, then it all went downhill from there, you're most likely incorrect. Also, the teachers are like, so toxic sometimes. Like, you might get lectured for falling asleep for 6 seconds, when you got only 4 hours of sleep? Yeah, that happened to me. I fell asleep for about 6 seconds, and got lectured, though I had dark circles that could let a cruise ship sail through them. Even my mother would like to pull me out, and that says something. I have a friend who got bullied often, and attempted suicide, because the school didn't do anything about it. Basically, in short, please don't go this school doesn't care at ALL about your health. Physically, mentally or emotionally. Not only that, the teachers, too, are treated terribly. One teacher teaches like a lot of things and only gets paid around 40k a year. Like, said teacher deserves a higher pay, honestly. Teaching multiple classes of different subjects? Yes, the teachers need a much higher pay, too. Not only that, the school's policies are also really terrible. For example, the students are also allowed to vote where the money goes to, which could've been a good idea but it wasn't. A lot of the good teachers left because of a lack of pay, as the donations were given to get a vending machine, that has terrible food. read more

This is the only school I've ever been to and it is awful and very dissapointing dispite its prestige. They recruit whatever teachers they can, it's like a military draft. They put no actual effort into figuring out whether the teacher is qualified or not, they just want to know if they have experience in the slightest. Another key problem is how they pay overwhelming attention to tiny things that have nothing to do with learning. For example, they will make you call your parents for missing a signature for a quiz or not having the right binder when you come to classs. They turn a blind eye to things such as bulling, discrimination, homophobes, and spreading of false accusations. They care about milking the parents for "funds" at these fundraisers that aren't enjoyable and are a complete waste of money, and yes they have plenty in federal funds. I now must mention the horrifying mental health records. They degrade your mental health by assigning 3 hours of homework a night and making you get to school by 7:20 AM for your first class. Because of their messy school "testing schedule" you have to cram constantly for quizzes and tests on material you just learned. For middle school they make you take pre-comps and comps, cummilatived tests that stress you out so much people become suicidal at times close to comps a test of the whole year's material. Simply put, BASIS.ed is based on an outdated Eastern European school system for the Balkans and former Czechoslovakia. They care more about their ranking than their students, parents, or even staff. I don't recommend this school or any of their other schools throught the west coast and southwest USA. I have been here since Kindergarten and I am currently in 8th grade. I have realised this school is absoluetly lackluster and not worth it. read more

Do your research and you will find this school to be one the best high schools in the country. However, this might not be the school for your child. It is not the school for students that don't have the ability to work hard. Even if your child is very intelligent, expect hours of studying per night and your child will be studying on weekends as well. If your child struggles in school please reread my first sentence, "this is one of the top schools in the country"! If your child can't succeed in a Tucson public school they WILL NOT make it at this school. They have high standards and only those that prioritize school will succeed. If your looking for extra curricular activities, you might need to look off campus because the school is limited in that regard. But to throw a fact out there, the average SAT score for a Basis grad is almost 1400! So if your kid is willing to put in the work, they will have an excellent chance of qualifying for a top college. read more

I'm a mom for my kid who goes to basis, this is their 2nd year at basis and im now starting to believe all of the things he told me. I decided to look at these reviews before pulling him from basis or before I made him stay at basis. He's been begging me to pull him out of basis since he first started, so I thought i'd share some of his experience at basis oro valley.To start it off the teachers have been very disrespectful to him and his classmates, the teachers don't abide by their names that they ask the teachers to be called. The teachers also call on students who aren't good at the subject which embarreses the student, which brings me to my next subject. My son has been bullied because of this and he has attempted suicide twice since he's started here (I know i'm a bad mom for not taking him out of the school) but the deans and teachers did nothing about it. The school also puts a lot of pressure on the students and my son has came home crying because of his bad grades because he knows our standards in our household, which he hasn't been able to maintain since he went to basis. Parents, please take your kids out of basis and don't think about signing them up for basis find a better school for them. read more

DO NOT AND I REPEAT DO NOT attend Basis Oro Valley. Sure, the school strengthens your academic ability but the process is mentally draining. This school created so many problems for my daughter. She had to deal with major anxiety at the school. Its an extremely toxic environment and the school gives out far to much work, my daughter would be up till 1 am trying to finish all her homework plus balancing her with her athletics out of school. Speaking of athletics, this school has a horrible athletics. They cost way too much just for an extremely short season where your child doesnt even learn how to actually play well. They also scam you, they would charge us for money without even consulting us. They would also constantly bug you to donate to their school even though everything is already over priced. Pretty much the only "good" thing about this school is its academics. They give constant homework and tests and quizzes every single week for each class, sometimes even 2 quizzes a week. But then they make a scene whenever you dont get the best grades by putting your child in what they call "academic support" which all they do is give you your grades and dont even try helping you learn more material. How are students supposted to get perfect scores when they barley get any sleep cause of the amount of homework they get?! Also may I add, academic support was absolutely horrible for my daughter. They would create a scene whenever they called her to the principals office for it. Which caused so much embarrassment and anxiety for my daughter. She would absolutely hate going to academic support cause it didnt even help her and it was embarrassing getting called to the principals office every week in study hall (study hall was a 25 minute period of complete silence with everyone sitting in a classroom studying or doing homework) Some teachers were also toxic and judgmental when it came to grades, they would give judgmental looks at my daughter when she didnt get a good grade. They would also have stupid rules like, making the parent sign your childs planner everyday. And if it wasnt signed you would get sent to the principal. I also spoke up about one of my daughters teachers handing out too much homework and they all completely denied it. Even though all of children were complaining about having to do 10 pages of homework. Thank god I got my daughter out of that toxic environment after 3 years of her having to deal with anxiety, stress, and no sleep. DONT go to this school. Its toxic, judgmental, and will drain your child of their happiness like it did mine. (They are also hiding some of the bad reviews so scroll down more or go to most critical) read more

Not a good athletics school if you want to go there al you're going to get is academics no lunch no recess no breaks no food it's not a great experience for me read more

As a student of BASIS itself, I honestly hate it. My first year at BASIS was amazing. Then suddenly the school system changed. Different people came in, the rules became stricter, practically everything one could do was considered bad behavior. The school system had done a complete 360. BASIS used to be a place where I was looking forward to go to everyday. The atmosphere was comfortable and friendly. Once new people came in, the atmosphere seemed tense and afraid. Power was abused sometimes. It seems as if the school is getting worse day by day. The education is the only thing that is good at the school in my opinion besides the very few amount of good teachers. Signing off, a certain BASIS student who goes by the code name CriticalAcid read more

I am an Indian immigrant from Yemen, I regret putting my child through this emotional hell.

There's a misconception people have about charter schools. They associate the standards to which they are held as more in line with a private school. This is absolutely not so. They are government funded and must conform to the same rules as public schools. I have a son that I sent to this school, and I still feel the guilt when I think of the emotional abuse they put him through due to my ignorance. All I knew at the time was that I had an intelligent child who was failing and becoming more and more undone. They asked multiple times if he had adhd or autism, I said I didn't think so. Rule #1 if the school has any suspicion of a disorder it is their OBLIGATION to do testing. After he failed, and they said he was not allowed to return to the school I had him tested myself when the same thing happened at a SECOND school. He had not only tested on the autism spectrum, but also ADHD inattentive. Short story, I had to hire a lawyer. So please, if you want a better education for your child be informed of the school's obligations. Do NOT let them bully you, because they will to keep their scores high. read more