Waitlisted at TJ - now what?

[Anonymous]

I don't think kids can do well with Algebra 2 HN if they do not really understand the contents. For those who are not capable, even they use private tutoring, they are not able to knock things out. It's indeed the intelligence difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand people saying that 8th grade Algebra 1 kids don’t belong at TJ and they would get eaten by the TJ Math dept. When they made that change wouldn’t that have been taken into consideration? Maybe they believed those kids also can succeed at TJ and can be admitted.

The school is supposed to be for students very interested in STEM careers. Algebra I in 8th doesn’t put a student on a path to engineering at competitive colleges. Algebra I in 8th is average not advanced. Honors Geometry should be the minimum requirement.

Every school doesn't have enough of an advanced cohort to offer Algebra 1 in 7th

The SB made a decision to "diversify" by trying to offer admissions to the top 1.5% at each middle school, that removes the total amoung of kids coming from the traditional AAP feeders and you have what you have today. Plenty of kids from the traditional AAP feeders that are more advanced than kids getting in just by being in the top 1.5% at another middle school.

This is incorrect. I bet you can't name a single FCPS middle school that doesn't have at least one Honors Algebra I class. Even if you could, FCPS has a virtual option for all of Algebra I Honors, Geometry Honors, Algebra II Honors, and Precalc Honors. There aren't any kids in FCPS who can't take 7th grade Algebra due to a lack of access.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand people saying that 8th grade Algebra 1 kids don’t belong at TJ and they would get eaten by the TJ Math dept. When they made that change wouldn’t that have been taken into consideration? Maybe they believed those kids also can succeed at TJ and can be admitted.

The kids who get eaten alive by the TJ Math department are NOT the ones who enter in Geometry after Alg 1 in 8th. Indeed, those students end up being some of the strongest in math from a foundational perspective because they took the entire high school math sequence with and among TJ students and faculty.

The kids who get eaten alive are the ones who are artificially advanced in Math beyond their actual level of comprehension and ability. These are the kids whose parents secretly send them to additional private tutoring in order to keep up.

Any actual evidence for this, or are you just talking out of your a**?

In FCPS, the kids who take Algebra I in 8th are not strong enough in math to have qualified in 7th, or they opted to take the easier, softer class. Neither of these suggest much success at a school like TJ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
You are missing something here. There are no test scores here. Just grades, essay and portrait sheet. All these kids know each others grades and unweighted GPA etc. Yes, they don't know how anyone's essays are graded. All they could know who would have gotten in if the grades were important and teacher input was actually sought. Of course the first thing I told is grades weren't really important as its only 1/3rd of total weight and rest of the 2/3rd weight goes to essays and may be those kids would have written amazingly well. His said was their english grades weren't better well, grades may not translate to essays. His argument was kids with perfect GPA, participating in lots of STEM activities at school, taking STEM exclusive electives didn't get in where kids with barely enough GPA, definitely not poor, no participation in STEM activities, no STEM electives etc were able to get in. So, we had this argument and it was difficult for me to convince him that race wasn't factor. So, his final take was if it weren't a race, it must be a lottery as he sees no other explanation unless the essays were stellar to overcome the GPA deficit.

If you have kids, you know pretty well teenage kids think they know better and are easily influenced by their friends. They don't pay that much attention to our/parents explanations, though we constantly try. Thats what bothered me when he is talking about race which he never did until now. I hope FCPS comes clear out of this and if not, kids will assume whatever they want to assume.

End of the day, TJ is definitely not going to what it used to be. Its no longer a destination for top STEM focussed students. So many kids with genuine interest in STEM couldn't get in and kids who had barely anything to show for including GPA got in. At least base schools are going to be better and I am sure my kid will do fine at base school after overcoming his disappointment and all the surprises about who got in and who didn't.

Where did you see 1/3 grade and 2/3 essays? I thought the selection criteria was a "black box" (proprietary) and not published

Its not as much of a black box as you think it is. There was a leaked internal document I found in these forums a while back. I think you find this at the web page where TJ coalition tried to sue FCPS - you/I may not like the coalition, but this document was real and came from FCPS internal discussions. Just google searched 'leaked TJ docs' and found the TJHSST Scoring Rubric’ (Exhibit B) under here https://defendinged.org/incidents/tjpapers/. You are free to dismiss and claim everything you found under the page is made up, but please note that these docs were submitted to the judge as well. This says 300 points for GPA, 300 points for essay, 300 points for portrait sheet and 300 points for other factors.

Did I read this site correctly that “economically disadvantaged” is worth 100 points while having an IEP or being ESOL is only worth 50? How is that logical when anyone can say yes to the meals questions this year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand people saying that 8th grade Algebra 1 kids don’t belong at TJ and they would get eaten by the TJ Math dept. When they made that change wouldn’t that have been taken into consideration? Maybe they believed those kids also can succeed at TJ and can be admitted.

The kids who get eaten alive by the TJ Math department are NOT the ones who enter in Geometry after Alg 1 in 8th. Indeed, those students end up being some of the strongest in math from a foundational perspective because they took the entire high school math sequence with and among TJ students and faculty.

The kids who get eaten alive are the ones who are artificially advanced in Math beyond their actual level of comprehension and ability. These are the kids whose parents secretly send them to additional private tutoring in order to keep up.

Agree. Just because kid is doing Algebra 2 in elementary does not make him the smartest. Private schools in particular say these teach all these in elementary. I believe in kid having a very strong foundation. Kid should learn what needs to be learnt at that grade level but master it. Private schools try to build a skyscrapper without a good foundation so their kids go to some ordinary college after paying so much already for private school. I have friends in the same boat who think doing middle school math in elementary from a private school is cool. These private does it because they take money they don't care about kids future. Parents should.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand people saying that 8th grade Algebra 1 kids don’t belong at TJ and they would get eaten by the TJ Math dept. When they made that change wouldn’t that have been taken into consideration? Maybe they believed those kids also can succeed at TJ and can be admitted.

The kids who get eaten alive by the TJ Math department are NOT the ones who enter in Geometry after Alg 1 in 8th. Indeed, those students end up being some of the strongest in math from a foundational perspective because they took the entire high school math sequence with and among TJ students and faculty.

The kids who get eaten alive are the ones who are artificially advanced in Math beyond their actual level of comprehension and ability. These are the kids whose parents secretly send them to additional private tutoring in order to keep up.

This is assuming that Math teachers at TJ are better than Math teachers in base schools, which may or may not be the case. From what I have observed and my kid is at TJ right now, TJ teachers do not really care. They just don't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand people saying that 8th grade Algebra 1 kids don’t belong at TJ and they would get eaten by the TJ Math dept. When they made that change wouldn’t that have been taken into consideration? Maybe they believed those kids also can succeed at TJ and can be admitted.

The kids who get eaten alive by the TJ Math department are NOT the ones who enter in Geometry after Alg 1 in 8th. Indeed, those students end up being some of the strongest in math from a foundational perspective because they took the entire high school math sequence with and among TJ students and faculty.

The kids who get eaten alive are the ones who are artificially advanced in Math beyond their actual level of comprehension and ability. These are the kids whose parents secretly send them to additional private tutoring in order to keep up.

Any actual evidence for this, or are you just talking out of your a**?

In FCPS, the kids who take Algebra I in 8th are not strong enough in math to have qualified in 7th, or they opted to take the easier, softer class. Neither of these suggest much success at a school like TJ.

+1. Not sure why PP felt a need to make up that stat, but my TJ kid's experience is the complete opposite. The kids that go Ivy or MIT (especially MIT) all show up in Algebra 2 or even typically higher. I do not believe that there has ever been a TJ grad that went to MIT that started TJ and had to take Geometry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The new system has no way to measure STEM achievement or interest. It prioritized diversity of geography, disadvantaged students, special ed and English language learners. It does not distinguish between center middle schools and base middle schools thereby making it harder for kids who chose to accept aap center placement and the most rigorous curriculum to get into TJ.

There isn’t anything wrong if we allocate a portion of seats to economically disadvantaged, provided its properly identified. However, I have always been critical about how the new process discriminated against center schools.

What I really want is to correctly identify the stem intersect/talent with whatever selection process there is. It should ‘never’ be case where you (especially kids themselves) cannot explain why some got in while others who appears to be more deserving couldn’t. My kid is damn sure that he would have gotten in if his teachers had any input.

On the whole, I would say my kid is probably more surprised than disappointed by the wait list. He says there are quite a few in the similar situation as his and would have plenty of company at his base school. He just asked me if TJ exclusive course work is more important than college admissions. I said absolutely not and not even by a long shot. He seems to be happy with it and moved on with his stuff.

Last year I was a little skeptical about the efficiency of TJ admissions, but now that I have had first hand experience with my kid and his friends (I have accompanied/interacted with them to several events) , I am sure the new process is screwed up. If you haven’t already gotten it by now, I am sure it will be abundantly clear in 4 years when we learn where TJ stacks up among other schools. All I hope is this is what we really want with TJ. That’s all I have to say! Please feel to disagree and bold any sentence in my post and offer your valuable criticism.

haha. This is what my kid said about two kids (no other experience factors) who received offers from a feeder school - X got in because of race and Y must have lied about being poor otherwise there is no way X or Y could get the offer while there are many others with better grades and clearly smarter got wait listed. When I said race isn't factor my kid said it must be a lottery then as there is no other explanation.

I am sure kids who received offers are definitely above average, but its not like it used to be where we used to know well ahead that who might get into TJ and who might not. It used to be that we were rarely surprised with the kids who got into TJ though there were a very few missed out. Now, kids have no clue and its really really sad. It's like when you get a promotion and everyone thinks you must have offered personal favors. We all know promotions should always be a formality and not a surprise to anyone.

My kid just texted me about one of his bus buddy got in, who is taking algebra I in 8th and with with GPA barely enough to qualify. Owns SF home in the same community as ours, so must not be disadvantaged. This is a center school, with majority AAP and most kids taking Geo HN in 8th with not so insignificant number taking even Algebra 2 as well. Now, my kid is absolutely certain that race is a factor, otherwise there is no way his bus buddy would have gotten in - his buddy himself shocked that he got in apparently. Can anyone explain this with out race being a factor? What the hell is going on??

Did his parents check yes to either of the meals questions?

Race has nothing to do with it!

I would like to think so, but my kid can’t explain at least two admissions with out factoring in race. He thinks only 1 of 5 admissions he is aware is apparently smart according to him and none of the other smart/standout kids that he knew didn’t get in. No idea what boxes anyone checked in, no one will reveal them and it’s up to anyone’s interpretation. I wish fcps makes every admission, gpa and selection criteria public.

I hope race wasn’t a factor, but with kids (mine and others) assuming/discussing it absolutely is, I am afraid kids start developing unnecessary resentment and affected psychologically. This is all my kid and his friends were talking/discussing since Friday, who got in and how they could have got in. It really sucks kids discussing these things and I really hope they get over it.

First of all, your 8th grader has no real idea what his "bus buddy's" schoolwork, recommendations, and essay are really like. None. Secondly, you as a parent could go a long way with helping your kid understand by explaining that they have no real idea and should expand their critical thinking skills to avoid logical fallacies like the false dichotomy he's created.

Why are you talking about "bus buddy's" schoolwork, recommendations, TJ admissions office dont care about these. They care only essay part and math question. I dont know whow they evaluate based on only these two categories since most of the kids have good gpa

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand people saying that 8th grade Algebra 1 kids don’t belong at TJ and they would get eaten by the TJ Math dept. When they made that change wouldn’t that have been taken into consideration? Maybe they believed those kids also can succeed at TJ and can be admitted.

The kids who get eaten alive by the TJ Math department are NOT the ones who enter in Geometry after Alg 1 in 8th. Indeed, those students end up being some of the strongest in math from a foundational perspective because they took the entire high school math sequence with and among TJ students and faculty.

The kids who get eaten alive are the ones who are artificially advanced in Math beyond their actual level of comprehension and ability. These are the kids whose parents secretly send them to additional private tutoring in order to keep up.

Agree. Just because kid is doing Algebra 2 in elementary does not make him the smartest. Private schools in particular say these teach all these in elementary. I believe in kid having a very strong foundation. Kid should learn what needs to be learnt at that grade level but master it. Private schools try to build a skyscrapper without a good foundation so their kids go to some ordinary college after paying so much already for private school. I have friends in the same boat who think doing middle school math in elementary from a private school is cool. These private does it because they take money they don't care about kids future. Parents should.

Which private school teaches Algebra 2 in elementary?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand people saying that 8th grade Algebra 1 kids don’t belong at TJ and they would get eaten by the TJ Math dept. When they made that change wouldn’t that have been taken into consideration? Maybe they believed those kids also can succeed at TJ and can be admitted.

The kids who get eaten alive by the TJ Math department are NOT the ones who enter in Geometry after Alg 1 in 8th. Indeed, those students end up being some of the strongest in math from a foundational perspective because they took the entire high school math sequence with and among TJ students and faculty.

The kids who get eaten alive are the ones who are artificially advanced in Math beyond their actual level of comprehension and ability. These are the kids whose parents secretly send them to additional private tutoring in order to keep up.

When our kid was there, one issue was that their math teacher one year was not one of the lead teachers setting the tests. That teacher would shake their head in despair not knowing what the test setters were going to ask. It was an advantage to be in the class of the test writing teachers. Senior year, the multivariable tests were difficult. When my kid sat the GMU final, they got 100% plus bonus points which dragged their TJ grade into "A" territory - the level 200 university exam was so much easier than the TJ tests.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
You are missing something here. There are no test scores here. Just grades, essay and portrait sheet. All these kids know each others grades and unweighted GPA etc. Yes, they don't know how anyone's essays are graded. All they could know who would have gotten in if the grades were important and teacher input was actually sought. Of course the first thing I told is grades weren't really important as its only 1/3rd of total weight and rest of the 2/3rd weight goes to essays and may be those kids would have written amazingly well. His said was their english grades weren't better well, grades may not translate to essays. His argument was kids with perfect GPA, participating in lots of STEM activities at school, taking STEM exclusive electives didn't get in where kids with barely enough GPA, definitely not poor, no participation in STEM activities, no STEM electives etc were able to get in. So, we had this argument and it was difficult for me to convince him that race wasn't factor. So, his final take was if it weren't a race, it must be a lottery as he sees no other explanation unless the essays were stellar to overcome the GPA deficit.

If you have kids, you know pretty well teenage kids think they know better and are easily influenced by their friends. They don't pay that much attention to our/parents explanations, though we constantly try. Thats what bothered me when he is talking about race which he never did until now. I hope FCPS comes clear out of this and if not, kids will assume whatever they want to assume.

End of the day, TJ is definitely not going to what it used to be. Its no longer a destination for top STEM focussed students. So many kids with genuine interest in STEM couldn't get in and kids who had barely anything to show for including GPA got in. At least base schools are going to be better and I am sure my kid will do fine at base school after overcoming his disappointment and all the surprises about who got in and who didn't.

Where did you see 1/3 grade and 2/3 essays? I thought the selection criteria was a "black box" (proprietary) and not published

Its not as much of a black box as you think it is. There was a leaked internal document I found in these forums a while back. I think you find this at the web page where TJ coalition tried to sue FCPS - you/I may not like the coalition, but this document was real and came from FCPS internal discussions. Just google searched 'leaked TJ docs' and found the TJHSST Scoring Rubric’ (Exhibit B) under here https://defendinged.org/incidents/tjpapers/. You are free to dismiss and claim everything you found under the page is made up, but please note that these docs were submitted to the judge as well. This says 300 points for GPA, 300 points for essay, 300 points for portrait sheet and 300 points for other factors.

Did I read this site correctly that “economically disadvantaged” is worth 100 points while having an IEP or being ESOL is only worth 50? How is that logical when anyone can say yes to the meals questions this year?

This really is the million-dollar question. Someone needs to ask this in a public setting at a school board meeting.

For parents considering an appeal, if your child has an IEP, is ESOL, and/or is actually low income I would absolutely lay this argument out in the written appeal.

[Anonymous]

Did people say that if someone is not eligible for free lunch but answered yes, the application will be rejected? Was it handled this way?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
You are missing something here. There are no test scores here. Just grades, essay and portrait sheet. All these kids know each others grades and unweighted GPA etc. Yes, they don't know how anyone's essays are graded. All they could know who would have gotten in if the grades were important and teacher input was actually sought. Of course the first thing I told is grades weren't really important as its only 1/3rd of total weight and rest of the 2/3rd weight goes to essays and may be those kids would have written amazingly well. His said was their english grades weren't better well, grades may not translate to essays. His argument was kids with perfect GPA, participating in lots of STEM activities at school, taking STEM exclusive electives didn't get in where kids with barely enough GPA, definitely not poor, no participation in STEM activities, no STEM electives etc were able to get in. So, we had this argument and it was difficult for me to convince him that race wasn't factor. So, his final take was if it weren't a race, it must be a lottery as he sees no other explanation unless the essays were stellar to overcome the GPA deficit.

If you have kids, you know pretty well teenage kids think they know better and are easily influenced by their friends. They don't pay that much attention to our/parents explanations, though we constantly try. Thats what bothered me when he is talking about race which he never did until now. I hope FCPS comes clear out of this and if not, kids will assume whatever they want to assume.

End of the day, TJ is definitely not going to what it used to be. Its no longer a destination for top STEM focussed students. So many kids with genuine interest in STEM couldn't get in and kids who had barely anything to show for including GPA got in. At least base schools are going to be better and I am sure my kid will do fine at base school after overcoming his disappointment and all the surprises about who got in and who didn't.

Where did you see 1/3 grade and 2/3 essays? I thought the selection criteria was a "black box" (proprietary) and not published

Its not as much of a black box as you think it is. There was a leaked internal document I found in these forums a while back. I think you find this at the web page where TJ coalition tried to sue FCPS - you/I may not like the coalition, but this document was real and came from FCPS internal discussions. Just google searched 'leaked TJ docs' and found the TJHSST Scoring Rubric’ (Exhibit B) under here https://defendinged.org/incidents/tjpapers/. You are free to dismiss and claim everything you found under the page is made up, but please note that these docs were submitted to the judge as well. This says 300 points for GPA, 300 points for essay, 300 points for portrait sheet and 300 points for other factors.

Did I read this site correctly that “economically disadvantaged” is worth 100 points while having an IEP or being ESOL is only worth 50? How is that logical when anyone can say yes to the meals questions this year?

This really is the million-dollar question. Someone needs to ask this in a public setting at a school board meeting.

For parents considering an appeal, if your child has an IEP, is ESOL, and/or is actually low income I would absolutely lay this argument out in the written appeal.

Not sure why this didn't get more traction but it's obvious what has occured. The traditional feeders have had anywhere from a 35-50% drop in admits. It makes 0 sense to be more concerned with SES/geographic diversity than who is actually the most talented in STEM.

School Admits 2024/2025

Carson 82/42
Longfellow 57/28
Cooper 33/20
Rocky Run 32/24
Frost 20/<15
Lake Braddock 17/12

Source

http://www.fcag.org/tjstatistics.shtml

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
You are missing something here. There are no test scores here. Just grades, essay and portrait sheet. All these kids know each others grades and unweighted GPA etc. Yes, they don't know how anyone's essays are graded. All they could know who would have gotten in if the grades were important and teacher input was actually sought. Of course the first thing I told is grades weren't really important as its only 1/3rd of total weight and rest of the 2/3rd weight goes to essays and may be those kids would have written amazingly well. His said was their english grades weren't better well, grades may not translate to essays. His argument was kids with perfect GPA, participating in lots of STEM activities at school, taking STEM exclusive electives didn't get in where kids with barely enough GPA, definitely not poor, no participation in STEM activities, no STEM electives etc were able to get in. So, we had this argument and it was difficult for me to convince him that race wasn't factor. So, his final take was if it weren't a race, it must be a lottery as he sees no other explanation unless the essays were stellar to overcome the GPA deficit.

If you have kids, you know pretty well teenage kids think they know better and are easily influenced by their friends. They don't pay that much attention to our/parents explanations, though we constantly try. Thats what bothered me when he is talking about race which he never did until now. I hope FCPS comes clear out of this and if not, kids will assume whatever they want to assume.

End of the day, TJ is definitely not going to what it used to be. Its no longer a destination for top STEM focussed students. So many kids with genuine interest in STEM couldn't get in and kids who had barely anything to show for including GPA got in. At least base schools are going to be better and I am sure my kid will do fine at base school after overcoming his disappointment and all the surprises about who got in and who didn't.

Where did you see 1/3 grade and 2/3 essays? I thought the selection criteria was a "black box" (proprietary) and not published

Its not as much of a black box as you think it is. There was a leaked internal document I found in these forums a while back. I think you find this at the web page where TJ coalition tried to sue FCPS - you/I may not like the coalition, but this document was real and came from FCPS internal discussions. Just google searched 'leaked TJ docs' and found the TJHSST Scoring Rubric’ (Exhibit B) under here https://defendinged.org/incidents/tjpapers/. You are free to dismiss and claim everything you found under the page is made up, but please note that these docs were submitted to the judge as well. This says 300 points for GPA, 300 points for essay, 300 points for portrait sheet and 300 points for other factors.

Did I read this site correctly that “economically disadvantaged” is worth 100 points while having an IEP or being ESOL is only worth 50? How is that logical when anyone can say yes to the meals questions this year?

This really is the million-dollar question. Someone needs to ask this in a public setting at a school board meeting.

For parents considering an appeal, if your child has an IEP, is ESOL, and/or is actually low income I would absolutely lay this argument out in the written appeal.

Not sure why this didn't get more traction but it's obvious what has occured. The traditional feeders have had anywhere from a 35-50% drop in admits. It makes 0 sense to be more concerned with SES/geographic diversity than who is actually the most talented in STEM.

School Admits 2024/2025

Carson 82/42
Longfellow 57/28
Cooper 33/20
Rocky Run 32/24
Frost 20/<15
Lake Braddock 17/12

Source

http://www.fcag.org/tjstatistics.shtml

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
You are missing something here. There are no test scores here. Just grades, essay and portrait sheet. All these kids know each others grades and unweighted GPA etc. Yes, they don't know how anyone's essays are graded. All they could know who would have gotten in if the grades were important and teacher input was actually sought. Of course the first thing I told is grades weren't really important as its only 1/3rd of total weight and rest of the 2/3rd weight goes to essays and may be those kids would have written amazingly well. His said was their english grades weren't better well, grades may not translate to essays. His argument was kids with perfect GPA, participating in lots of STEM activities at school, taking STEM exclusive electives didn't get in where kids with barely enough GPA, definitely not poor, no participation in STEM activities, no STEM electives etc were able to get in. So, we had this argument and it was difficult for me to convince him that race wasn't factor. So, his final take was if it weren't a race, it must be a lottery as he sees no other explanation unless the essays were stellar to overcome the GPA deficit.

If you have kids, you know pretty well teenage kids think they know better and are easily influenced by their friends. They don't pay that much attention to our/parents explanations, though we constantly try. Thats what bothered me when he is talking about race which he never did until now. I hope FCPS comes clear out of this and if not, kids will assume whatever they want to assume.

End of the day, TJ is definitely not going to what it used to be. Its no longer a destination for top STEM focussed students. So many kids with genuine interest in STEM couldn't get in and kids who had barely anything to show for including GPA got in. At least base schools are going to be better and I am sure my kid will do fine at base school after overcoming his disappointment and all the surprises about who got in and who didn't.

Where did you see 1/3 grade and 2/3 essays? I thought the selection criteria was a "black box" (proprietary) and not published

Its not as much of a black box as you think it is. There was a leaked internal document I found in these forums a while back. I think you find this at the web page where TJ coalition tried to sue FCPS - you/I may not like the coalition, but this document was real and came from FCPS internal discussions. Just google searched 'leaked TJ docs' and found the TJHSST Scoring Rubric’ (Exhibit B) under here https://defendinged.org/incidents/tjpapers/. You are free to dismiss and claim everything you found under the page is made up, but please note that these docs were submitted to the judge as well. This says 300 points for GPA, 300 points for essay, 300 points for portrait sheet and 300 points for other factors.

Did I read this site correctly that “economically disadvantaged” is worth 100 points while having an IEP or being ESOL is only worth 50? How is that logical when anyone can say yes to the meals questions this year?

This really is the million-dollar question. Someone needs to ask this in a public setting at a school board meeting.

For parents considering an appeal, if your child has an IEP, is ESOL, and/or is actually low income I would absolutely lay this argument out in the written appeal.

Not sure why this didn't get more traction but it's obvious what has occured. The traditional feeders have had anywhere from a 35-50% drop in admits. It makes 0 sense to be more concerned with SES/geographic diversity than who is actually the most talented in STEM.

School Admits 2024/2025

Carson 82/42
Longfellow 57/28
Cooper 33/20
Rocky Run 32/24
Frost 20/<15
Lake Braddock 17/12

Source

http://www.fcag.org/tjstatistics.shtml

Time for another lawsuit.

And the 2023 school board election cannot come soon enough.