NAACP, Local Advocates File Discrimination Complaint Against FCPS

[Anonymous]

Article in the Vienna Patch -- the argument is that FCPS is discriminatory not only at TJ but in AAP since the majority of TJ students are only from four middle schools with AAP Centers.

http://vienna.patch.com/articles/naacp-cots-file-discrimination-complaint-against-fcps


NAACP, Local Advocates File Discrimination Complaint Against FCPS
Discrimination in Thomas Jefferson admissions process begins even before applications are due, complaint to U.S. Department of Education says
By Nicole Trifone

A complaint filed Monday by two local advocacy groups alleges Fairfax County Public Schools is perpetuating discrimination against black, Latino and disabled students through the admission process for Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJHSST).

The Coalition of the Silence (COTS), a group former school board member Tina Hone founded to seek equity for all students within FCPS, and the Fairfax branch of the NAACP filed the discrimination complaint with the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights, asserting FCPS has committed "clear violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964."

At press time, FCPS had not yet had time to review the complaint, spokesman John Torre said.

While black and Hispanic students make up about 10 percent and 22 percent of the FCPS student body, respectively, they make up 1.5 percent and 2.7 percent of the TJHSST student body, the complaint says.

The complaint, written by Hone and NAACP-Fairfax County's Education Chair Charisse Espy Glassman, comes two business days after a Fairfax County School Board work session on the TJHSST admission process. At the work session, the board discussed both the lack of diversity and the declining math scores at the the Governor's School for science and technology in recent years. The board has charged FCPS staff to begin researching how to improve in both areas.

But the work session did not satisfy those who argue the process is discriminatory long before a student chooses to apply to the prestigious school, which recently earned No. 2 on U.S. News and World Report's annual ranking of U.S. high schools.

Sixty-four percent of students admitted to TJHSST attend middle schools with Level 4 Advanced Academic Middle School Centers. Most of the centers have limited diversity, carrying minority populations that don't reflect the county's demographic makeup, the complaint says.

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[Anonymous]

This is gonna get good.

[Anonymous]

[Anonymous]

Love the visuals! I'll have extra butter please!

[Anonymous]

Silly. Blacks, Latinos and disabled children't aren't GOOD at math and science.

(That's what I was supposed to say to kick this off, right?)

[Anonymous]

what about asians

[Anonymous]

they got rid of quotas years a go and this is the result. I always wondered how certain kids in mid to late 90s who were stupid got in

[Anonymous]

Asians are an over-represented minority. We're worse off than the caucasians in having an objective shot at admissions.

[Anonymous]

it's a stupid complaint. would be thrown out of court if filed in court but it wasn't. Seeks no remedies - Hone says she just wants to bring attention to the "problem," i.e., blacks and Latinos are not identified early as being potential TJ material. What, they don't take the CogAt like everybody else?

[Anonymous]

From the article:

"Test scores — without additional context and balance — are not a reliable predictor of future success," the complaint reads. "On information and belief, FCPS has never been able to produce longitudinal data supporting the myth that test scores have predictive value."

Test scores are not a good predictor of success in life. But math test scores are probably a pretty good predictor of success in math classes for which the skills and concepts tested are necessary prerequisites. And not that want to have LESS focus on those math scores, when increasing numbers of students are unprepared for their TJ math classes. Good grief.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From the article:

"Test scores — without additional context and balance — are not a reliable predictor of future success," the complaint reads. "On information and belief, FCPS has never been able to produce longitudinal data supporting the myth that test scores have predictive value."

Test scores are not a good predictor of success in life. But math test scores are probably a pretty good predictor of success in math classes for which the skills and concepts tested are necessary prerequisites. And not that want to have LESS focus on those math scores, when increasing numbers of students are unprepared for their TJ math classes. Good grief.

Those tests are biased against blacks and people for whom English is a second language, doncha know?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From the article:

"Test scores — without additional context and balance — are not a reliable predictor of future success," the complaint reads. "On information and belief, FCPS has never been able to produce longitudinal data supporting the myth that test scores have predictive value."

Test scores are not a good predictor of success in life. But math test scores are probably a pretty good predictor of success in math classes for which the skills and concepts tested are necessary prerequisites. And not that want to have LESS focus on those math scores, when increasing numbers of students are unprepared for their TJ math classes. Good grief.

Those tests are biased against blacks and people for whom English is a second language, doncha know?

i'd be willing to bet that a good number of the 300+ asians that were admitted to TJ's class this year speak/write english as a second language.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Those tests are biased against blacks and people for whom English is a second language, doncha know?

No, the problem is not the tests.

Google the studies done on the virtual elimination of the achievement gap between children attending DOD and schools on military bases. Black and hispanic children in these schools do just as well as their white and asian counterparts.

So if it possible in that situation, with a transient student body and lots of absent parents, it should be possible in a district with the vast resources of Fairfax county, in this area of highly educated parents.

Studies of black homeschool students also repeatedly show the same success and closing of the achievement gap with regards to standardized tests.

So to me, this example indicates that the problem with low test scores of these groups is not due to the tests, but are a combined problem of the schools, community, parental support/involvement, and lower expectations.

[Anonymous]

But we aren't talking about normal kids - the school only grabs the truly truly gifted. And that the demographics seems to favor Asians heavily. Perhaps they are gifted and their families work very hard to have them achieve. I know many asian families that pay for tutors and send their children to special schools on Saturdays to get them ahead.

If the other groups (white, hispanic, black, etc) can't compete they will be and should be left behind. Don't dumb the school down for quotas. That is why the U.S. is starting to fail.

[Anonymous]

Wait, aren't Asian-Americans a "minority"?