FCPS TJ Class of 2024 Press Release - Buried; AA Admits "TS" to Mention

[Anonymous]

It doesn’t seem like that big a deal to me, TBH.

If MCPS set up a stand-alone magnet like TJ it would outrank TJ. Same if a bunch of school districts in IL, MA, NY, or NJ did so. It’s not like the education in FCPS or VA is better. It’s just that FCPS was willing to sacrifice its other schools for bragging rights. Slow clap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just an observer but I think the county should be extremely proud to have the number #1 rated High School in the country. can't do much better than that. Most of the rest of the high schools aren't much worse in NOVA anyway, and most all of the best students, be it from TJ or the other HS's, wind up at U.Va anyway.

Relatively few TJ kids end up at UVA. Over half that apply are rejected, and the top students use UVA as a safety.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just an observer but I think the county should be extremely proud to have the number #1 rated High School in the country. can't do much better than that. Most of the rest of the high schools aren't much worse in NOVA anyway, and most all of the best students, be it from TJ or the other HS's, wind up at U.Va anyway.

Relatively few TJ kids end up at UVA. Over half that apply are rejected, and the top students use UVA as a safety.

Really, over half are rejected? I wonder why, they don't want too many from the same school I guess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just an observer but I think the county should be extremely proud to have the number #1 rated High School in the country. can't do much better than that. Most of the rest of the high schools aren't much worse in NOVA anyway, and most all of the best students, be it from TJ or the other HS's, wind up at U.Va anyway.

Relatively few TJ kids end up at UVA. Over half that apply are rejected, and the top students use UVA as a safety.

Really, over half are rejected? I wonder why, they don't want too many from the same school I guess.

That is probably the reason. The reality is that it that you have to have better stats from TJ than from the other FCPS schools to get into UVA.

[Anonymous]

Please do not perpetuate the wrong statements that all Asian kids that get into TJ have years of outside academic preparations. My kids spend after school hours on instruments and sports. No time for tutoring or CTY.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please do not perpetuate the wrong statements that all Asian kids that get into TJ have years of outside academic preparations. My kids spend after school hours on instruments and sports. No time for tutoring or CTY.

Only an Asian TJ parent would think anyone needs to be set straight that their kid plays a musical instrument.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They need to study and work harder. Everyone takes the same test and is held to the same standard.

The issue is whether FCPS is making it difficult for kids who don't have the resources to accelerate in math to do well on the test. It's not just about studying harder or working harder. If you are competeting against kids with years of CYT accelerated classes, you are going to be disadvantaged. TJ, as a public school, should not allow those advantages to dictate the level of difficulty of the test. I personally don't care if TJ is all Asian, I'm just saying TJ should not have a system that has a significant disadvantage if you don't have certain extracurriculars or haven't had extensive outside math help. Honestly, other than my Asian friends, no one encouraged their kids to apply to TJ. But, if minorities are being disadvantaged by some systemic bias based on available economic resources, then something should be done. My guess is nothing will be don't and eventually the only people who will care about TJ are Asian parents who spend a bunch of resources on accelerating their kids. Even more people will happily move on to their base schools without a second thought. Basically all the smart Asian kids will be in one school cannibalizing each other's chances of getting into a good college.

This doesn’t explain why there are fewer white kids at TJ, unless you want to argue that there is something inherently Asian about outside math courses. Certainly the whites can afford them f they wanted to. Incidentally, the one kid we know at TJ is a lily-white Russian, from a not-rich family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just an observer but I think the county should be extremely proud to have the number #1 rated High School in the country. can't do much better than that. Most of the rest of the high schools aren't much worse in NOVA anyway, and most all of the best students, be it from TJ or the other HS's, wind up at U.Va anyway.

Relatively few TJ kids end up at UVA. Over half that apply are rejected, and the top students use UVA as a safety.

Only 37 of those reporting in last year's graduation publication were going to UVA (out of a class size of 455). Nearly 80% reported destinations. Next were W&M with 28, Pitt and VT with 16, Michigan 14, Cornell 13, CMU 12, and Illinois 11.

Ivy+ was 43: Harvard 5, MIT 7, Yale 5, Princeton 4, Stanford 3, Penn 3, Columbia 2, Cornell 13, Dartmouth 1

[Anonymous]

You're barking to the wrong tree, tj is majority minority. Are you coming after us Asians next?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
It's not a private school where the solution to every problem is a charity auction.

It's a public resource that should be operated for the benefit of all who subsidize it.

Whether by design or by default, TJ has sent a clear message to non-Asian kids that they are "less than." Applications are declining rapidly, and blacks, Hispanics and whites are all so dispirited by their admissions odds and what their experience likely would be like even if they were admitted that only 3-5% of eligible students apply. Meanwhile, close to 30% of the Asian 8th graders in the participating jurisdictions apply and over 70% of the admitted students are Asian.

It has been an abject failure as a community institution and FCPS - which can't churn out enough messages these days about its commitment to equity and opposition to racism - does nothing.

TJ was never meant to be a representative reflection. It is a STEM-focused school that offers top-notch education to all who apply and can get in. If you have evidence that the admissions committee gives preferential treatment to Asians, please publish it. The mere fact that it did not admit enough of a certain ethnic or racial group is not by itself evidence of bias.

Perhaps you should ask yourself - what is it that TJ offers that happens to be SO attractive to Asians and SO unattractive to others?

A reasonable chance of getting in if you're Asian and a student body that's over 70% Asian.

You are incorrect, TJ admissions discriminates against Asians in the admissions process. Asian applicants have to show higher test scores, better grades, better recommendation letters, more STEM activities and they are penalized in the subjective areas such as essays. You got it reversed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is just awful and benefits no one. Turn TJ back into a neighborhood school. The wealthy TJ kids can opt for private.

+1000

TJ benefits the Norther Virginia residents by offering a high school for those with aptitude and passion for STEM education. Most TJ students or their parents are not wealthy; they are middle class professionals. Many students' parents are engineers, lawyers, government employees, computer professionals etc.

[Anonymous]

No, TJ admissions are race-blind. You’re both wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
It's not a private school where the solution to every problem is a charity auction.

It's a public resource that should be operated for the benefit of all who subsidize it.

Whether by design or by default, TJ has sent a clear message to non-Asian kids that they are "less than." Applications are declining rapidly, and blacks, Hispanics and whites are all so dispirited by their admissions odds and what their experience likely would be like even if they were admitted that only 3-5% of eligible students apply. Meanwhile, close to 30% of the Asian 8th graders in the participating jurisdictions apply and over 70% of the admitted students are Asian.

It has been an abject failure as a community institution and FCPS - which can't churn out enough messages these days about its commitment to equity and opposition to racism - does nothing.

TJ was never meant to be a representative reflection. It is a STEM-focused school that offers top-notch education to all who apply and can get in. If you have evidence that the admissions committee gives preferential treatment to Asians, please publish it. The mere fact that it did not admit enough of a certain ethnic or racial group is not by itself evidence of bias.

Perhaps you should ask yourself - what is it that TJ offers that happens to be SO attractive to Asians and SO unattractive to others?

What's unattractive to others is how much of TJ is now a rat race as opposed to how it was before. Before kids who really enjoyed STEM would find their place at TJ. Now, even if you love STEM, you also need to be prepared for the rat race. My DC is taking multivariable/matrix in 11th at the base school. While that may not be TJ pace, that's wonderful for a STEM kid who doesn't want to be in a pressure cooker environment. When you have those options at the base school, there's no pressing need to go to TJ. For my Asian friends, however, TJ is viewed as the goal, even for nonSTEM kids. DC's friend thinks she wants to be a lawyer, but her mom was insistent that she had to apply to TJ. I don't have a problem with TJ being predominantly Asian. If Asian kids want to go there and are ok with the environment while other races aren't, so be it. Accept it and move on. So many kids from TJ end up at UVA anyway, as do many base school kids. My friend's kids, one went to TJ and one didn't, and both ended up being accepted by top 10 schools. Honestly, pick the right environment for your kid. If it's TJ, great. If it's not, your kid is not disadvantaged by not having gone to TJ.

TJ may be perceived as a "rat race" since almost all if not all of the students are very smart and thus it is that much tougher to do well. That is logical and not because there is anything that is inherently making TJ "ultra-competitive". Is MIT a rat race? Of course and the reason is similar. Is Berkeley engineering "ultra-competitive"? Of course, again the similar reason. Is Caltech known to be "ultra-competitive" yes.

In addition, many TJ students are aware that there may be no benefits in gaining admissions to top colleges by graduating from TJ. However, many TJ students want to attend TJ nevertheless for other reasons such as wanting to be with more students interested in the more academic environment (as opposed to a school where sport etc. dominates , STEM, activities, research opportunities etc. Actually, a typical TJ student is not interested in attending UVA since UVA has a sub-par STEM/CS program.

[Anonymous]

They should take away high school athletics as well since so few students are any good and it requires a disproportionate share of resources.

And band,... That's even worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Part of the benefit of those types of schools is the consistently high caliber of the students. If they start accepting a certain percentage from every race just to be "fair", that defeats the premise of the school. They may as well just have a lottery.

Someone mentioned the NBA, and I agree that it's the same thing. If the NBA was forced to accept a certain % of white and Asian and hispanic players just because that's representative of the population that lives in the area, that defeats the purpose of the NBA. It would be something, but it wouldn't be the same thing as it is now - the best of the best. And like entry to TJ, I'm sure there is some decision-making process that goes on about who should be invited to join a team - it's not just some specific number, it's a whole bunch of things.

If there's any evidence of black kids (or white kids, for that matter, if you're talking about TJ) having the scores and extracurriculars to be admitted entry and not getting in, then that would be a problem. They really should do a lottery in that case, for everyone deemed eligible. But unless that is going on, people need to just accept that some things in society are still a meritocracy.

Seriously.

The NBA is different for a host of reasons, but most importantly it is private whereas FCPS is public. And if you want to hold it up as a pure meritocracy, and not yet another business where eons of progress are yet to occur, I look forward to your defense of its coaching, administrative, and owner demographics.

TJ’s admission process and selection criteria is undeniably discriminatory against protected black, Hispanic, and poor students. I would prefer that my taxes did not subsidize discrimination.

TJ's admission process introduced subjective factors some years ago (recommendation letters and essays) in order to reduce Asian students and increase Black/Hispanic students. Look at all the key information that came out of Harvard lawsuit where they are engaged in the same process of discriminating against Asian applicants by systematically giving low scores to Asian applicants wherever and whenever possible using essays, recommendation letters etc.