TJ Failure to Notify Letter of Commendation Winners

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think Asra is unbiased or a good source for facts, but clearly they didn’t notify the Commended Scholars and that’s not acceptable. My DC was Commended in a different FCPS school and it was announced in News You Choose and we received the certificate in the mail. While DC has great grades and SAT scores, Commended was included in the common app and I am sure it contributed to the large merit scholarship that DC was offered with a recent college acceptance. It’s part of DCs academic accomplishments and it’s not acceptable that TJ wouldn’t share this info with the students in a timely manner and with celebration.

Wait. So, are parents really upset that their child was not “celebrated” in a school-wide email?

Or do parents really just want to see who is at the bottom of the class? Ie not NMSF and not Commended?

I think the entire thing is ridiculous. Achieving Commended when you are a TJ student is not anything to jump up and down about. Almost the entire class is one or the other.

240 Commended in the class of 2023
132 NMSF in the class of 2023

So only about 70 or so students were neither. Eh, they should have sent letters to the students because maybe there were a handful who didn’t know how the commended cutoff works. But beyond sending a letter, it just seems silly to send out an email when over 80% of the graduating class is getting the award.

I agree that the sheer number of winners makes would make the small minority of non-winners feel worse than they'd feel in a typical high school, where they'd be a large majority, so I agree that a ceremony wouldn't be a good idea. However, it is unacceptable to notify the families of the honor. I wouldn't have known about my DS award if we didn't get a letter from our school. Heck, I wasn't even aware that award existed before my son got it. It may pale in comparison to being a semifinalist or finalist, but it's still a great honor if you think about it, and I was proud of him. He did put it on his college apps too. Not sure if it had any effect, but I would have been upset if he wasn't able to do that because we weren't notified of the award.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just think that it’s hilarious that someone is bent out of shape over “Commended” status. It’s not that big of a deal.

+1[/quote
A "commended" student at TJ likely earned a higher score than many semi finalists from 32 other states.

That is the same for any commented student. Being a Commended student just does not have the same cache. It is an also ran. Other schools in FCPS don’t do anything either. This is a non- issue that is being pushed on us.

[Anonymous]

I got rejected by TJ and I'm very happy about it. In the end I got accepted to Princeton and Stanford, went to the former. HS didn't matter as much as I thought it would.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think Asra is unbiased or a good source for facts, but clearly they didn’t notify the Commended Scholars and that’s not acceptable. My DC was Commended in a different FCPS school and it was announced in News You Choose and we received the certificate in the mail. While DC has great grades and SAT scores, Commended was included in the common app and I am sure it contributed to the large merit scholarship that DC was offered with a recent college acceptance. It’s part of DCs academic accomplishments and it’s not acceptable that TJ wouldn’t share this info with the students in a timely manner and with celebration.

Wait. So, are parents really upset that their child was not “celebrated” in a school-wide email?

Or do parents really just want to see who is at the bottom of the class? Ie not NMSF and not Commended?

I think the entire thing is ridiculous. Achieving Commended when you are a TJ student is not anything to jump up and down about. Almost the entire class is one or the other.

It’s the notion that these absurd TJ admins can’t recognize the achievement of some students for fear of hurting the feelings of other students that’s so ridiculous, when the entire reason for TJ’s existence is for those people to look down their noses at other kids.

Time to get rid of this magnet, which is fast becoming a farce.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think Asra is unbiased or a good source for facts, but clearly they didn’t notify the Commended Scholars and that’s not acceptable. My DC was Commended in a different FCPS school and it was announced in News You Choose and we received the certificate in the mail. While DC has great grades and SAT scores, Commended was included in the common app and I am sure it contributed to the large merit scholarship that DC was offered with a recent college acceptance. It’s part of DCs academic accomplishments and it’s not acceptable that TJ wouldn’t share this info with the students in a timely manner and with celebration.

Why couldn’t families have looked at the cutoffs and just compared their child’s score to the cutoff? Why is not getting the letter a scandal? There are no scholarships or anything associated with being Commended, right?

I think I’m missing something.

Not every parent is aware of this stuff. There’s plenty of first-gen kids at TJ who’s parents aren’t familiar with the system. I was a NMSF back in the day and my parents knew nothing about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think Asra is unbiased or a good source for facts, but clearly they didn’t notify the Commended Scholars and that’s not acceptable. My DC was Commended in a different FCPS school and it was announced in News You Choose and we received the certificate in the mail. While DC has great grades and SAT scores, Commended was included in the common app and I am sure it contributed to the large merit scholarship that DC was offered with a recent college acceptance. It’s part of DCs academic accomplishments and it’s not acceptable that TJ wouldn’t share this info with the students in a timely manner and with celebration.

Wait. So, are parents really upset that their child was not “celebrated” in a school-wide email?

Or do parents really just want to see who is at the bottom of the class? Ie not NMSF and not Commended?

I think the entire thing is ridiculous. Achieving Commended when you are a TJ student is not anything to jump up and down about. Almost the entire class is one or the other.

240 Commended in the class of 2023
132 NMSF in the class of 2023

So only about 70 or so students were neither. Eh, they should have sent letters to the students because maybe there were a handful who didn’t know how the commended cutoff works. But beyond sending a letter, it just seems silly to send out an email when over 80% of the graduating class is getting the award.

I agree that the sheer number of winners makes would make the small minority of non-winners feel worse than they'd feel in a typical high school, where they'd be a large majority, so I agree that a ceremony wouldn't be a good idea. However, it is unacceptable to notify the families of the honor. I wouldn't have known about my DS award if we didn't get a letter from our school. Heck, I wasn't even aware that award existed before my son got it. It may pale in comparison to being a semifinalist or finalist, but it's still a great honor if you think about it, and I was proud of him. He did put it on his college apps too. Not sure if it had any effect, but I would have been upset if he wasn't able to do that because we weren't notified of the award.

Exactly!

[Anonymous]

Bonitatibus needs to be fired over the break. She is anti-Asian and has zero credibility after this latest debacle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think Asra is unbiased or a good source for facts, but clearly they didn’t notify the Commended Scholars and that’s not acceptable. My DC was Commended in a different FCPS school and it was announced in News You Choose and we received the certificate in the mail. While DC has great grades and SAT scores, Commended was included in the common app and I am sure it contributed to the large merit scholarship that DC was offered with a recent college acceptance. It’s part of DCs academic accomplishments and it’s not acceptable that TJ wouldn’t share this info with the students in a timely manner and with celebration.

Wait. So, are parents really upset that their child was not “celebrated” in a school-wide email?

Or do parents really just want to see who is at the bottom of the class? Ie not NMSF and not Commended?

I think the entire thing is ridiculous. Achieving Commended when you are a TJ student is not anything to jump up and down about. Almost the entire class is one or the other.

I think you are ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think Asra is unbiased or a good source for facts, but clearly they didn’t notify the Commended Scholars and that’s not acceptable. My DC was Commended in a different FCPS school and it was announced in News You Choose and we received the certificate in the mail. While DC has great grades and SAT scores, Commended was included in the common app and I am sure it contributed to the large merit scholarship that DC was offered with a recent college acceptance. It’s part of DCs academic accomplishments and it’s not acceptable that TJ wouldn’t share this info with the students in a timely manner and with celebration.

Wait. So, are parents really upset that their child was not “celebrated” in a school-wide email?

Or do parents really just want to see who is at the bottom of the class? Ie not NMSF and not Commended?

I think the entire thing is ridiculous. Achieving Commended when you are a TJ student is not anything to jump up and down about. Almost the entire class is one or the other.

It’s the notion that these absurd TJ admins can’t recognize the achievement of some students for fear of hurting the feelings of other students that’s so ridiculous, when the entire reason for TJ’s existence is for those people to look down their noses at other kids.

Time to get rid of this magnet, which is fast becoming a farce.

And it's funded by our tax dollars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think Asra is unbiased or a good source for facts, but clearly they didn’t notify the Commended Scholars and that’s not acceptable. My DC was Commended in a different FCPS school and it was announced in News You Choose and we received the certificate in the mail. While DC has great grades and SAT scores, Commended was included in the common app and I am sure it contributed to the large merit scholarship that DC was offered with a recent college acceptance. It’s part of DCs academic accomplishments and it’s not acceptable that TJ wouldn’t share this info with the students in a timely manner and with celebration.

Wait. So, are parents really upset that their child was not “celebrated” in a school-wide email?

Or do parents really just want to see who is at the bottom of the class? Ie not NMSF and not Commended?

I think the entire thing is ridiculous. Achieving Commended when you are a TJ student is not anything to jump up and down about. Almost the entire class is one or the other.

240 Commended in the class of 2023
132 NMSF in the class of 2023

So only about 70 or so students were neither. Eh, they should have sent letters to the students because maybe there were a handful who didn’t know how the commended cutoff works. But beyond sending a letter, it just seems silly to send out an email when over 80% of the graduating class is getting the award.

I agree that the sheer number of winners makes would make the small minority of non-winners feel worse than they'd feel in a typical high school, where they'd be a large majority, so I agree that a ceremony wouldn't be a good idea. However, it is unacceptable to notify the families of the honor. I wouldn't have known about my DS award if we didn't get a letter from our school. Heck, I wasn't even aware that award existed before my son got it. It may pale in comparison to being a semifinalist or finalist, but it's still a great honor if you think about it, and I was proud of him. He did put it on his college apps too. Not sure if it had any effect, but I would have been upset if he wasn't able to do that because we weren't notified of the award.

Exactly!

NP. While I can see that the non winners at TJ would feel worse than at a different school due to the ratios, I really don’t think that’s a valid reason to not give them a ceremony. You don’t need to make the ceremony mandatory for all students to attend, but not publicly acknowledging an honor that some students have worked incredibly hard to earn is really low in my opinion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think Asra is unbiased or a good source for facts, but clearly they didn’t notify the Commended Scholars and that’s not acceptable. My DC was Commended in a different FCPS school and it was announced in News You Choose and we received the certificate in the mail. While DC has great grades and SAT scores, Commended was included in the common app and I am sure it contributed to the large merit scholarship that DC was offered with a recent college acceptance. It’s part of DCs academic accomplishments and it’s not acceptable that TJ wouldn’t share this info with the students in a timely manner and with celebration.

Wait. So, are parents really upset that their child was not “celebrated” in a school-wide email?

Or do parents really just want to see who is at the bottom of the class? Ie not NMSF and not Commended?

I think the entire thing is ridiculous. Achieving Commended when you are a TJ student is not anything to jump up and down about. Almost the entire class is one or the other.

240 Commended in the class of 2023
132 NMSF in the class of 2023

So only about 70 or so students were neither. Eh, they should have sent letters to the students because maybe there were a handful who didn’t know how the commended cutoff works. But beyond sending a letter, it just seems silly to send out an email when over 80% of the graduating class is getting the award.

I agree that the sheer number of winners makes would make the small minority of non-winners feel worse than they'd feel in a typical high school, where they'd be a large majority, so I agree that a ceremony wouldn't be a good idea. However, it is unacceptable to notify the families of the honor. I wouldn't have known about my DS award if we didn't get a letter from our school. Heck, I wasn't even aware that award existed before my son got it. It may pale in comparison to being a semifinalist or finalist, but it's still a great honor if you think about it, and I was proud of him. He did put it on his college apps too. Not sure if it had any effect, but I would have been upset if he wasn't able to do that because we weren't notified of the award.

Exactly!

NP. While I can see that the non winners at TJ would feel worse than at a different school due to the ratios, I really don’t think that’s a valid reason to not give them a ceremony. You don’t need to make the ceremony mandatory for all students to attend, but not publicly acknowledging an honor that some students have worked incredibly hard to earn is really low in my opinion.

There’s a lot of space between having a ceremony and notifying the winners. I don’t think anyone would be upset about a lack of a ceremony if the administration had completed the most basic task of notifying the families in a timely fashion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think Asra is unbiased or a good source for facts, but clearly they didn’t notify the Commended Scholars and that’s not acceptable. My DC was Commended in a different FCPS school and it was announced in News You Choose and we received the certificate in the mail. While DC has great grades and SAT scores, Commended was included in the common app and I am sure it contributed to the large merit scholarship that DC was offered with a recent college acceptance. It’s part of DCs academic accomplishments and it’s not acceptable that TJ wouldn’t share this info with the students in a timely manner and with celebration.

Wait. So, are parents really upset that their child was not “celebrated” in a school-wide email?

Or do parents really just want to see who is at the bottom of the class? Ie not NMSF and not Commended?

I think the entire thing is ridiculous. Achieving Commended when you are a TJ student is not anything to jump up and down about. Almost the entire class is one or the other.

240 Commended in the class of 2023
132 NMSF in the class of 2023

So only about 70 or so students were neither. Eh, they should have sent letters to the students because maybe there were a handful who didn’t know how the commended cutoff works. But beyond sending a letter, it just seems silly to send out an email when over 80% of the graduating class is getting the award.

I agree that the sheer number of winners makes would make the small minority of non-winners feel worse than they'd feel in a typical high school, where they'd be a large majority, so I agree that a ceremony wouldn't be a good idea. However, it is unacceptable to notify the families of the honor. I wouldn't have known about my DS award if we didn't get a letter from our school. Heck, I wasn't even aware that award existed before my son got it. It may pale in comparison to being a semifinalist or finalist, but it's still a great honor if you think about it, and I was proud of him. He did put it on his college apps too. Not sure if it had any effect, but I would have been upset if he wasn't able to do that because we weren't notified of the award.

Exactly!

NP. While I can see that the non winners at TJ would feel worse than at a different school due to the ratios, I really don’t think that’s a valid reason to not give them a ceremony. You don’t need to make the ceremony mandatory for all students to attend, but not publicly acknowledging an honor that some students have worked incredibly hard to earn is really low in my opinion.

People work hard to earn things that aren't publicly acknowledged all the time. There aren't ceremonies for every little thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think Asra is unbiased or a good source for facts, but clearly they didn’t notify the Commended Scholars and that’s not acceptable. My DC was Commended in a different FCPS school and it was announced in News You Choose and we received the certificate in the mail. While DC has great grades and SAT scores, Commended was included in the common app and I am sure it contributed to the large merit scholarship that DC was offered with a recent college acceptance. It’s part of DCs academic accomplishments and it’s not acceptable that TJ wouldn’t share this info with the students in a timely manner and with celebration.

Wait. So, are parents really upset that their child was not “celebrated” in a school-wide email?

Or do parents really just want to see who is at the bottom of the class? Ie not NMSF and not Commended?

I think the entire thing is ridiculous. Achieving Commended when you are a TJ student is not anything to jump up and down about. Almost the entire class is one or the other.

240 Commended in the class of 2023
132 NMSF in the class of 2023

So only about 70 or so students were neither. Eh, they should have sent letters to the students because maybe there were a handful who didn’t know how the commended cutoff works. But beyond sending a letter, it just seems silly to send out an email when over 80% of the graduating class is getting the award.

I agree that the sheer number of winners makes would make the small minority of non-winners feel worse than they'd feel in a typical high school, where they'd be a large majority, so I agree that a ceremony wouldn't be a good idea. However, it is unacceptable to notify the families of the honor. I wouldn't have known about my DS award if we didn't get a letter from our school. Heck, I wasn't even aware that award existed before my son got it. It may pale in comparison to being a semifinalist or finalist, but it's still a great honor if you think about it, and I was proud of him. He did put it on his college apps too. Not sure if it had any effect, but I would have been upset if he wasn't able to do that because we weren't notified of the award.

Exactly!

NP. While I can see that the non winners at TJ would feel worse than at a different school due to the ratios, I really don’t think that’s a valid reason to not give them a ceremony. You don’t need to make the ceremony mandatory for all students to attend, but not publicly acknowledging an honor that some students have worked incredibly hard to earn is really low in my opinion.

There’s a lot of space between having a ceremony and notifying the winners. I don’t think anyone would be upset about a lack of a ceremony if the administration had completed the most basic task of notifying the families in a timely fashion.

Yes!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think Asra is unbiased or a good source for facts, but clearly they didn’t notify the Commended Scholars and that’s not acceptable. My DC was Commended in a different FCPS school and it was announced in News You Choose and we received the certificate in the mail. While DC has great grades and SAT scores, Commended was included in the common app and I am sure it contributed to the large merit scholarship that DC was offered with a recent college acceptance. It’s part of DCs academic accomplishments and it’s not acceptable that TJ wouldn’t share this info with the students in a timely manner and with celebration.

Wait. So, are parents really upset that their child was not “celebrated” in a school-wide email?

Or do parents really just want to see who is at the bottom of the class? Ie not NMSF and not Commended?

I think the entire thing is ridiculous. Achieving Commended when you are a TJ student is not anything to jump up and down about. Almost the entire class is one or the other.

It’s the notion that these absurd TJ admins can’t recognize the achievement of some students for fear of hurting the feelings of other students that’s so ridiculous, when the entire reason for TJ’s existence is for those people to look down their noses at other kids.

Time to get rid of this magnet, which is fast becoming a farce.

And it's funded by our tax dollars.

Either have a real magnet that recognizes and rewards merit and achievement or get rid of it. No reason to pay extra for a school that now exists just so it can hand out participation trophies at graduation to a bunch of random kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think Asra is unbiased or a good source for facts, but clearly they didn’t notify the Commended Scholars and that’s not acceptable. My DC was Commended in a different FCPS school and it was announced in News You Choose and we received the certificate in the mail. While DC has great grades and SAT scores, Commended was included in the common app and I am sure it contributed to the large merit scholarship that DC was offered with a recent college acceptance. It’s part of DCs academic accomplishments and it’s not acceptable that TJ wouldn’t share this info with the students in a timely manner and with celebration.

Wait. So, are parents really upset that their child was not “celebrated” in a school-wide email?

Or do parents really just want to see who is at the bottom of the class? Ie not NMSF and not Commended?

I think the entire thing is ridiculous. Achieving Commended when you are a TJ student is not anything to jump up and down about. Almost the entire class is one or the other.

240 Commended in the class of 2023
132 NMSF in the class of 2023

So only about 70 or so students were neither. Eh, they should have sent letters to the students because maybe there were a handful who didn’t know how the commended cutoff works. But beyond sending a letter, it just seems silly to send out an email when over 80% of the graduating class is getting the award.

I agree that the sheer number of winners makes would make the small minority of non-winners feel worse than they'd feel in a typical high school, where they'd be a large majority, so I agree that a ceremony wouldn't be a good idea. However, it is unacceptable to notify the families of the honor. I wouldn't have known about my DS award if we didn't get a letter from our school. Heck, I wasn't even aware that award existed before my son got it. It may pale in comparison to being a semifinalist or finalist, but it's still a great honor if you think about it, and I was proud of him. He did put it on his college apps too. Not sure if it had any effect, but I would have been upset if he wasn't able to do that because we weren't notified of the award.

Exactly!

NP. While I can see that the non winners at TJ would feel worse than at a different school due to the ratios, I really don’t think that’s a valid reason to not give them a ceremony. You don’t need to make the ceremony mandatory for all students to attend, but not publicly acknowledging an honor that some students have worked incredibly hard to earn is really low in my opinion.

There’s a lot of space between having a ceremony and notifying the winners. I don’t think anyone would be upset about a lack of a ceremony if the administration had completed the most basic task of notifying the families in a timely fashion.

Exactly. Who the hell does Ann Bonitatubus think she is to withhold information from students and their families that was intended to be shared with them?