FCPS plans to "reform" TJ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach science in college and have received teaching awards. I had to help a friend's child last year for his science class. I was disappointed in TJ's teaching quality. The kid is super smart and hard working. He is probably the top 5% in TJ. However he basically got nothing from class. In addition, the quiz/exam was unrealistic hard. I honestly cannot see anyone could pass the class without significant outside tutoring help. I was told many students dropped after the first exam. This is not a problem with the students, but the teachers. I heard not all teachers in TJ are like this but it is common. High expectation is not the same as just throw things at students. Teachers make a big difference in student's life. Guess what is this student's perception in this subject now? We are losing a bright student in this STEM field. This is sad. Based on this experience, I will think twice before send my own kid to TJ.

And they didn’t lose a bright student. Check with him in June. They had a kid who took too high and level and was returned to the right level. I expect he got a decent grade in honors without tutoring and a strong grounding in physics. The issue is they need to stop letting kids without the background try and then actively weeding.

It is indeed Physics. This kid got A at the end and scored 5 in AP Physics C. He said the AP test was not bad. But he does not like Physics and just glad it was over. Obviously he won't be pursuing anything in Physics, although I see a tremendous talent. That is what I meant by losing a bright student in the STEM field.

I guess. But he made that choice. TJ is very clear with kids and parents during registration. AP Physics requires self teaching BC over the summer. It requires twice the work of Physics 1. And here’s the thing. It doesn’t cover physics as well. TJ doesn’t offer an AP in physics before C precisely because they designed their own curriculum in Physics 1 that does not directly track AP. It’s considered on of the best in the world, and they regularly train educators from around the world on their Physics 1 curriculum. DH has a physics minor undergrad and does high level Calc and was very impressed with the grounding of Physics 1. And the teaching. (As a note, they do the exact same thing in geosystems. Mandatory senior class, requires bio, chem, Physics and Calc, taught as state of the art to teachers around the world). The suggested track is Physics 1 to AP. But kids and parents get caught up in the academic arms race and quest for MIT, and extra AP, and many end up miserable.


I sound hard hearted. But after 4 years of TJ, I am done with parents who insist their kid overaccelerate at an already challenging school and then gripe about the kids being miserable. Skip test this, self study and petition out of that. Not follow the recommended path here. Kids can do that. But it should not be on TJ when the kids are miserable and struggle. Because they warn: if you do this, you will have 8-10 hours of homework a week (I just looked up the handout), have to self teach BC over the summer, and are likely to need to drop if if they don’t have BC already done and take Physics 1 first.

OTHO— DS has a friend who went the AP route junior year and dropped down after the first test. Finished BC, back in AP this year and says it’s night and day better. She loves the class (Engineering kid). Right about now, freaked out I’m going to have to drop AP Physics messages are popping up on the TJ inter webs. Again. So predictable if parents would accept the tracking recommendations.

Actually I did suggest the kid not to take AP C before the school year but he insisted... What surprised me was the bad teaching. This kid could do fine in Physics without my help if the teacher is good. He has the physical intuition and very strong math. Of course this is just one case, I am sure there are many wonderful teachers at TJ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach science in college and have received teaching awards. I had to help a friend's child last year for his science class. I was disappointed in TJ's teaching quality. The kid is super smart and hard working. He is probably the top 5% in TJ. However he basically got nothing from class. In addition, the quiz/exam was unrealistic hard. I honestly cannot see anyone could pass the class without significant outside tutoring help. I was told many students dropped after the first exam. This is not a problem with the students, but the teachers. I heard not all teachers in TJ are like this but it is common. High expectation is not the same as just throw things at students. Teachers make a big difference in student's life. Guess what is this student's perception in this subject now? We are losing a bright student in this STEM field. This is sad. Based on this experience, I will think twice before send my own kid to TJ.

And they didn’t lose a bright student. Check with him in June. They had a kid who took too high and level and was returned to the right level. I expect he got a decent grade in honors without tutoring and a strong grounding in physics. The issue is they need to stop letting kids without the background try and then actively weeding.

It is indeed Physics. This kid got A at the end and scored 5 in AP Physics C. He said the AP test was not bad. But he does not like Physics and just glad it was over. Obviously he won't be pursuing anything in Physics, although I see a tremendous talent. That is what I meant by losing a bright student in the STEM field.

I guess. But he made that choice. TJ is very clear with kids and parents during registration. AP Physics requires self teaching BC over the summer. It requires twice the work of Physics 1. And here’s the thing. It doesn’t cover physics as well. TJ doesn’t offer an AP in physics before C precisely because they designed their own curriculum in Physics 1 that does not directly track AP. It’s considered on of the best in the world, and they regularly train educators from around the world on their Physics 1 curriculum. DH has a physics minor undergrad and does high level Calc and was very impressed with the grounding of Physics 1. And the teaching. (As a note, they do the exact same thing in geosystems. Mandatory senior class, requires bio, chem, Physics and Calc, taught as state of the art to teachers around the world). The suggested track is Physics 1 to AP. But kids and parents get caught up in the academic arms race and quest for MIT, and extra AP, and many end up miserable.


I sound hard hearted. But after 4 years of TJ, I am done with parents who insist their kid overaccelerate at an already challenging school and then gripe about the kids being miserable. Skip test this, self study and petition out of that. Not follow the recommended path here. Kids can do that. But it should not be on TJ when the kids are miserable and struggle. Because they warn: if you do this, you will have 8-10 hours of homework a week (I just looked up the handout), have to self teach BC over the summer, and are likely to need to drop if if they don’t have BC already done and take Physics 1 first.

OTHO— DS has a friend who went the AP route junior year and dropped down after the first test. Finished BC, back in AP this year and says it’s night and day better. She loves the class (Engineering kid). Right about now, freaked out I’m going to have to drop AP Physics messages are popping up on the TJ inter webs. Again. So predictable if parents would accept the tracking recommendations.

Actually I did suggest the kid not to take AP C before the school year but he insisted... What surprised me was the bad teaching. This kid could do fine in Physics without my help if the teacher is good. He has the physical intuition and very strong math. Of course this is just one case, I am sure there are many wonderful teachers at TJ.

NP. I think you are right. Some teachers are unfortunately quite mediocre at TJ. My DS is in AP Physics now and there are some complaints going around about how the class average on the test for teacher A is much lower than the average for teacher B. When that happens on a standardized test, it usually tells you there is a discrepancy in the teaching quality. If my kid decides to stay in AP, I might have to get him a tutor to bring up the quality of instruction.

[Anonymous]

The variability in instruction is frustrating. Multivariable Calculus is a completely different experience depending on who you get but it all looks the same on the transcript.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The variability in instruction is frustrating. Multivariable Calculus is a completely different experience depending on who you get but it all looks the same on the transcript.

This is notorious with one teacher at TJ who goes his own way. But the issue with him isn’t supposed to be instruction. It’s the ridiculous difficulty of the tests. Much harder than the other teacher. They’ve made a lot of progress with standardizing grades and expectations through BC. I’m hoping the get there on the higher level classes. And APUSH. All the kids know there is one teacher who makes life... hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The variability in instruction is frustrating. Multivariable Calculus is a completely different experience depending on who you get but it all looks the same on the transcript.

This is notorious with one teacher at TJ who goes his own way. But the issue with him isn’t supposed to be instruction. It’s the ridiculous difficulty of the tests. Much harder than the other teacher. They’ve made a lot of progress with standardizing grades and expectations through BC. I’m hoping the get there on the higher level classes. And APUSH. All the kids know there is one teacher who makes life... hard.

According to my kid, this teacher is really good but his tests are very, very hard compared to other teachers' tests, and he unfortunately doesn't curve even though the class average is low. It seems really unfair because ultimately colleges won't know that the kids with Bs and who had him had to work so much harder for their Bs than other kids who had As with other teachers. Anyway, my kid is still happy with this class because the level of instruction has been great compared to her previous years.

Also, even though math classes up to BC are supposedly standardized, who the kids get as teacher can still make a huge difference because of the discrepancy in quality of instruction and the way tests are being graded. There is one notorious math teacher who is quite bad at teaching and takes points off for things that other teachers would not. My DD had her last year in BC and is very thankful for being rid of her this year even though it means getting the harder Multi teacher.

[Anonymous]

My TJ kid has this multi teacher. They absolutely loved the teacher and agreed tests were way harder than other teachers. However, kid is saying that what was taught and the way it was taught was a huge advantage in college math class. So there’s that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My TJ kid has this multi teacher. They absolutely loved the teacher and agreed tests were way harder than other teachers. However, kid is saying that what was taught and the way it was taught was a huge advantage in college math class. So there’s that.

I’ve heard very good things too about the teaching. I think this is an issue of need to standardize the grading or math tracking. There are definitely kids who come in with Geometry, follow the sequence, and drop to AP AB, then BC because they are terrified of one of the (often 2) multi teachers tests and a C (or lower) going to colleges for first semester. And it makes first semester seniors applying to colleges panic. Seems like both multi classes should be curved to the same grade.