New Jay Matthew's op ed on TJ

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

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Ok. Where to start? First, your English is perfect. If your kids had a hard time learning English, which I doubt, it's because you chose to speak a different language at home. It wasn't because you didn't understand/speak English like many poor immigrants. My DC's best friend's parents have a hard time communicating with me and can't help their kids at all. They also don't have the financial means for tutors. Those kids deserve equity points. Your kids, not so much. My friends are from Sweden, they chose not to speak English at home, their kids do extremely well in school because the parents are well educated...Do you really think their kids are much more deserving of equity points because they speak another language at home?

Thank you for complimenting my English. When I came to the US, I didn't understand what people were saying. In the car, I started listening to NPR because they talk non-stop and do so clearly. I borrowed audio books from the library and listened to them at home. Why can't poor immigrants that you refer to listen to NPR and audio books and take free English courses? There are plenty of them online and on the CDs that can be borrowed from the library. Pre-COVID, they used to have free in-person English classes in the libraries. When the resources are readily available, it's a personal choice what to learn or not to learn.

Well that means that the “experience “points that your kids deserve are because you have to renew your visas and driver license yearly? Oh and no extended family or relatives? Give me a break. Ok who is next, who struggle more? Probably the family without cleaning person, or the kid that have to go grocery shopping after school?

These points are irrelevant to my kids. I’m just saying that an immigrant who had no support system and English language skills deserves more points than a person whose parents and grandparents were born in the US.

As a immigrant myself and my kids without any Family around and tight budget I completely disagree with you. I decided to come to this country and immerse in it and be part of it without any special treatment of any kind, because I truly believe in meritocracy and in my abilities and capacity and above all it was my decision.

Ok, do you think that the special treatment Aka experience points should go to people who were born here, only because it wasn’t their decision to come to this country? What is their experience about - to be born in the wealthiest country and not move anywhere else?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Ok. Where to start? First, your English is perfect. If your kids had a hard time learning English, which I doubt, it's because you chose to speak a different language at home. It wasn't because you didn't understand/speak English like many poor immigrants. My DC's best friend's parents have a hard time communicating with me and can't help their kids at all. They also don't have the financial means for tutors. Those kids deserve equity points. Your kids, not so much. My friends are from Sweden, they chose not to speak English at home, their kids do extremely well in school because the parents are well educated...Do you really think their kids are much more deserving of equity points because they speak another language at home?

Thank you for complimenting my English. When I came to the US, I didn't understand what people were saying. In the car, I started listening to NPR because they talk non-stop and do so clearly. I borrowed audio books from the library and listened to them at home. Why can't poor immigrants that you refer to listen to NPR and audio books and take free English courses? There are plenty of them online and on the CDs that can be borrowed from the library. Pre-COVID, they used to have free in-person English classes in the libraries. When the resources are readily available, it's a personal choice what to learn or not to learn.

Well that means that the “experience “points that your kids deserve are because you have to renew your visas and driver license yearly? Oh and no extended family or relatives? Give me a break. Ok who is next, who struggle more? Probably the family without cleaning person, or the kid that have to go grocery shopping after school?

These points are irrelevant to my kids. I’m just saying that an immigrant who had no support system and English language skills deserves more points than a person whose parents and grandparents were born in the US.

As a immigrant myself and my kids without any Family around and tight budget I completely disagree with you. I decided to come to this country and immerse in it and be part of it without any special treatment of any kind, because I truly believe in meritocracy and in my abilities and capacity and above all it was my decision.

Ok, do you think that the special treatment Aka experience points should go to people who were born here, only because it wasn’t their decision to come to this country? What is their experience about - to be born in the wealthiest country and not move anywhere else?

of not! The admission should be only base on merits, no race, no experiences, no languages, no anything just test and GPA. Who are you to tell me that the experiences of your kids are more valuable that a white kid born here with all the money and privileges? You don’t know if that kid saw the killing of their family? Of if is a kid that is from the Appalachian that recently move to the area? Or who have more “experience “ a black or brown kid upper middle class growing up in NOVA vs. appalachian white kid with a single household? This is a good example of why could not be race driven, and just should be given admission to pure merits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The admission should be only base on merits, no race, no experiences, no languages, no anything just test and GPA. Who are you to tell me that the experiences of your kids are more valuable that a white kid born here with all the money and privileges? You don’t know if that kid saw the killing of their family? Of if is a kid that is from the Appalachian that recently move to the area? Or who have more “experience “ a black or brown kid upper middle class growing up in NOVA vs. appalachian white kid with a single household? This is a good example of why could not be race driven, and just should be given admission to pure merits.

The experience factors new to the TJ admission process don't say that a preference is given to a child who saw the killing of their family. The factors listed on their website are as follows: "students who are economically disadvantaged, English language learners, special education students, or students who are currently attending underrepresented middle schools." In their view, a child attending an underrepresented middle school gains some more valuable experience than a child who attends Longfellow or Rachel Carson or a child whose family was killed.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Really??? The new standards are race neutral but you are vehemently complaining about them because you think they will impact the number of Asians admitted. There are no race quotas under the new system, so Asians can apply and be admitted like everyone else. There will be a broader cross section of kids admitted because it promotes geographic diversity across the county. The geographic diversity also means there will be more SES diversity. But you only care that one group retains all the spots. I think you are the one focused on race, not the government.

The new standards were implemented with a goal of changing the racial makeup of TJ. Just as the new admissions standards for ACL were implemented with a goal of bringing in more 'black and brown people', where brown people does not mean South Asian.
Tests where Asians do well were deweighted or removed in favor of geographic diversity(which was used by the Ivy Leagues a century ago to reduce the number of Jews).

+1. They initiated the admission changes when the BLM movement was in full force, motivated by the desire to please the BLM supporters. This year, the general public seems to understand that Asian lives matter too.

Admissions to TJ has been a hot-button issue for over twenty years. FCPS made a major effort to improve the demographics of the school back in 2001, for example, when the school was over 60% white.

The admissions statistics became an issue again this year when FCPS released the demographic numbers and the number of Black students was listed as "TS", or too small to report. That release, which was about a month later than usual due to COVID-19 issues, did coincide with protests centered around the state-sponsored murder of another unarmed Black man.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have at it...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/thomas-jefferson-high-school-admissions-debate/2021/03/26/e730baf6-8c30-11eb-a730-1b4ed9656258_story.html

Jackson said I am overlooking the fact that the portion of admitted students who are designated gifted will be less. That percentage “will decrease from the 90 percent who are in current classes under the merit-test admissions process to an estimated 60 percent under the new ‘holistic’ plan,” he said, “and it will racially discriminate against Asian Americans because school officials feel that they are overrepresented.”

He (similar to many others) doesn't even address this issue. It's like, oh they will be fine in other programs....

Re: "they will be fine in other programs", they will not. Other FCPS schools than TJ do not offer the suite of advanced math courses. So, if a child comes in having completed Alg2 or Precalc in Middle School, the child is basically out of choices in a regular HS, unless the parents are willing to pay college tuition to take courses at GMU or the like. How's this fair?

One solution is to make sure that all HS in the county offer the same courses as TJ does in STEM. Then the playing field is leveled, for those advanced kids who may not have the luck to get into TJ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
One solution is to make sure that all HS in the county offer the same courses as TJ does in STEM. Then the playing field is leveled, for those advanced kids who may not have the luck to get into TJ.

Go to the AAP forum and see the thread on Virginia banning advanced math- in a few years FCPS will barely be offering calculus for 12th graders, and no one will be taking even algebra 1 in middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
One solution is to make sure that all HS in the county offer the same courses as TJ does in STEM. Then the playing field is leveled, for those advanced kids who may not have the luck to get into TJ.

Go to the AAP forum and see the thread on Virginia banning advanced math- in a few years FCPS will barely be offering calculus for 12th graders, and no one will be taking even algebra 1 in middle school.

to be fair, that does solve the TJ problem

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
One solution is to make sure that all HS in the county offer the same courses as TJ does in STEM. Then the playing field is leveled, for those advanced kids who may not have the luck to get into TJ.

Go to the AAP forum and see the thread on Virginia banning advanced math- in a few years FCPS will barely be offering calculus for 12th graders, and no one will be taking even algebra 1 in middle school.

to be fair, that does solve the TJ problem

HA!

Does anyone know if Virginia higher ed has weighed in on the advanced math thing? It's an endlessly bad idea and creates upstream pipeline problems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have at it...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/thomas-jefferson-high-school-admissions-debate/2021/03/26/e730baf6-8c30-11eb-a730-1b4ed9656258_story.html

Jackson said I am overlooking the fact that the portion of admitted students who are designated gifted will be less. That percentage “will decrease from the 90 percent who are in current classes under the merit-test admissions process to an estimated 60 percent under the new ‘holistic’ plan,” he said, “and it will racially discriminate against Asian Americans because school officials feel that they are overrepresented.”

He (similar to many others) doesn't even address this issue. It's like, oh they will be fine in other programs....

Re: "they will be fine in other programs", they will not. Other FCPS schools than TJ do not offer the suite of advanced math courses. So, if a child comes in having completed Alg2 or Precalc in Middle School, the child is basically out of choices in a regular HS, unless the parents are willing to pay college tuition to take courses at GMU or the like. How's this fair?

One solution is to make sure that all HS in the county offer the same courses as TJ does in STEM. Then the playing field is leveled, for those advanced kids who may not have the luck to get into TJ.

Good luck finding 24 other teachers to teach complex analysis and discrete math and cryptanalysis. And DNA science and optics and supercomputing. Maybe you have an online course offering for this stuff - that could be a solution.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
One solution is to make sure that all HS in the county offer the same courses as TJ does in STEM. Then the playing field is leveled, for those advanced kids who may not have the luck to get into TJ.

Go to the AAP forum and see the thread on Virginia banning advanced math- in a few years FCPS will barely be offering calculus for 12th graders, and no one will be taking even algebra 1 in middle school.

So the solution that Braedumb and these idiots in Virginia DOE are thinking of is to dumb down the curriculum to the lowest common denominator? Nice way to race to the bottom! Read Tom Friedman's "The World is Flat"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
One solution is to make sure that all HS in the county offer the same courses as TJ does in STEM. Then the playing field is leveled, for those advanced kids who may not have the luck to get into TJ.

Go to the AAP forum and see the thread on Virginia banning advanced math- in a few years FCPS will barely be offering calculus for 12th graders, and no one will be taking even algebra 1 in middle school.

So the solution that Braedumb and these idiots in Virginia DOE are thinking of is to dumb down the curriculum to the lowest common denominator? Nice way to race to the bottom! Read Tom Friedman's "The World is Flat"

Who says ridiculous things like “Braedumb”? Harry, is that you?