TJ admission should be a pure lottery for all who meet application requirements.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Instead of a lottery why not have each middle school
Select their best and brightest and send them? Then students are competing with peers from their own school.

This is what is currently happening under the new process.

Yup, this. the new process allocates seats to each school and the kids who do not get those seats are selected through the old application process.

Old application process as in exam based admission?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Instead of a lottery why not have each middle school
Select their best and brightest and send them? Then students are competing with peers from their own school.

This is what is currently happening under the new process.

Top 1.5 from each middle school but only issue is some MS could have students not qualifying in top 1.5 % category but can easily be on top 1.5 on other MS!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I believe that TJ should either have continued with the old system, which was in place for years and emphasized objective assessments, or gone to a pure lottery among students meeting threshold requirements.

The new system is highly offensive - it commits ever more FCPS resources to ever more subjective assessments of applicants to a single school and requires heavy vetting by lawyers and FCPS officials. As a result, it diverts more Gatehouse resources and School Board attention away from other schools and towards TJ.

It is past time for TJHSST to be shut down and for TJ to return to use as a community school.

The old system was not objective. Most of the scoring was based on the interpretation of the SIS and recommendations once passed the first round (not a very high bar).

What? Not a high bar? It knocked out two thirds of applicants and was cited as the reason URM do not get into TJ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I believe that TJ should either have continued with the old system, which was in place for years and emphasized objective assessments, or gone to a pure lottery among students meeting threshold requirements.

The new system is highly offensive - it commits ever more FCPS resources to ever more subjective assessments of applicants to a single school and requires heavy vetting by lawyers and FCPS officials. As a result, it diverts more Gatehouse resources and School Board attention away from other schools and towards TJ.

It is past time for TJHSST to be shut down and for TJ to return to use as a community school.

The old system was not objective. Most of the scoring was based on the interpretation of the SIS and recommendations once passed the first round (not a very high bar).

What? Not a high bar? It knocked out two thirds of applicants and was cited as the reason URM do not get into TJ.

Indeed. About 1/3 of applicants made it to the semifinal round, and about 1/2 of the semifinalists got admitted. Here is what is used to take to make it to make it to the semifinal round:

Semifinalist Selections:

In order to qualify for the semifinalist pool, a student must have:
- Overall GPA of at least 3.0 (based upon final marks for 7th grade and 1st quarter 8th grade in core subjects)
- Mathematical Reasoning- at least 50th percentile on Quant-Q
- Reading- at least 75th percentile on Aspire
- Science- at least 75th percentile on Aspire
AND one of the following:
-Mathematical Reasoning- at least 75th percentile on Quant-Q
or
-Science- at least 90th percentile on Aspire

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I believe that TJ should either have continued with the old system, which was in place for years and emphasized objective assessments, or gone to a pure lottery among students meeting threshold requirements.

The new system is highly offensive - it commits ever more FCPS resources to ever more subjective assessments of applicants to a single school and requires heavy vetting by lawyers and FCPS officials. As a result, it diverts more Gatehouse resources and School Board attention away from other schools and towards TJ.

It is past time for TJHSST to be shut down and for TJ to return to use as a community school.

The old system was not objective. Most of the scoring was based on the interpretation of the SIS and recommendations once passed the first round (not a very high bar).

What? Not a high bar? It knocked out two thirds of applicants and was cited as the reason URM do not get into TJ.

Indeed. About 1/3 of applicants made it to the semifinal round, and about 1/2 of the semifinalists got admitted. Here is what is used to take to make it to make it to the semifinal round:

Semifinalist Selections:

In order to qualify for the semifinalist pool, a student must have:
- Overall GPA of at least 3.0 (based upon final marks for 7th grade and 1st quarter 8th grade in core subjects)
- Mathematical Reasoning- at least 50th percentile on Quant-Q
- Reading- at least 75th percentile on Aspire
- Science- at least 75th percentile on Aspire
AND one of the following:
-Mathematical Reasoning- at least 75th percentile on Quant-Q
or
-Science- at least 90th percentile on Aspire

It is true that the overwhelming majority of applicants from underrepresented groups did not make the semifinalist pool based on their exam scores in all years. It's important to remember that those are all graded on a curve, and therefore if any student's score is artificially inflated by targeted exam prep, the entire pool gets skewed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I believe that TJ should either have continued with the old system, which was in place for years and emphasized objective assessments, or gone to a pure lottery among students meeting threshold requirements.

The new system is highly offensive - it commits ever more FCPS resources to ever more subjective assessments of applicants to a single school and requires heavy vetting by lawyers and FCPS officials. As a result, it diverts more Gatehouse resources and School Board attention away from other schools and towards TJ.

It is past time for TJHSST to be shut down and for TJ to return to use as a community school.

The old system was not objective. Most of the scoring was based on the interpretation of the SIS and recommendations once passed the first round (not a very high bar).

What? Not a high bar? It knocked out two thirds of applicants and was cited as the reason URM do not get into TJ.

Indeed. About 1/3 of applicants made it to the semifinal round, and about 1/2 of the semifinalists got admitted. Here is what is used to take to make it to make it to the semifinal round:

Semifinalist Selections:

In order to qualify for the semifinalist pool, a student must have:
- Overall GPA of at least 3.0 (based upon final marks for 7th grade and 1st quarter 8th grade in core subjects)
- Mathematical Reasoning- at least 50th percentile on Quant-Q
- Reading- at least 75th percentile on Aspire
- Science- at least 75th percentile on Aspire
AND one of the following:
-Mathematical Reasoning- at least 75th percentile on Quant-Q
or
-Science- at least 90th percentile on Aspire

It is true that the overwhelming majority of applicants from underrepresented groups did not make the semifinalist pool based on their exam scores in all years. It's important to remember that those are all graded on a curve, and therefore if any student's score is artificially inflated by targeted exam prep, the entire pool gets skewed.

Yes. The test was graded on a curve and very few URM made it to the semifinal round. No one knows how much prep "artificially" inflates scores, but the assumption has been that it does.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I believe that TJ should either have continued with the old system, which was in place for years and emphasized objective assessments, or gone to a pure lottery among students meeting threshold requirements.

The new system is highly offensive - it commits ever more FCPS resources to ever more subjective assessments of applicants to a single school and requires heavy vetting by lawyers and FCPS officials. As a result, it diverts more Gatehouse resources and School Board attention away from other schools and towards TJ.

It is past time for TJHSST to be shut down and for TJ to return to use as a community school.

The old system was not objective. Most of the scoring was based on the interpretation of the SIS and recommendations once passed the first round (not a very high bar).

What? Not a high bar? It knocked out two thirds of applicants and was cited as the reason URM do not get into TJ.

Indeed. About 1/3 of applicants made it to the semifinal round, and about 1/2 of the semifinalists got admitted. Here is what is used to take to make it to make it to the semifinal round:

Semifinalist Selections:

In order to qualify for the semifinalist pool, a student must have:
- Overall GPA of at least 3.0 (based upon final marks for 7th grade and 1st quarter 8th grade in core subjects)
- Mathematical Reasoning- at least 50th percentile on Quant-Q
- Reading- at least 75th percentile on Aspire
- Science- at least 75th percentile on Aspire
AND one of the following:
-Mathematical Reasoning- at least 75th percentile on Quant-Q
or
-Science- at least 90th percentile on Aspire

It is true that the overwhelming majority of applicants from underrepresented groups did not make the semifinalist pool based on their exam scores in all years. It's important to remember that those are all graded on a curve, and therefore if any student's score is artificially inflated by targeted exam prep, the entire pool gets skewed.

Yes. The test was graded on a curve and very few URM made it to the semifinal round. No one knows how much prep "artificially" inflates scores, but the assumption has been that it does.

Interestingly, the percentage of Asian students in the Class of 2022 dipped by about 10% (from 74.9% in 2021 to 65.2% in 2022) and then recovered to 72 and 73% for 2023 and 2024.

What was the difference? 2022 was the first class to take the new battery of exams - the Quant-Q and the two ACT Aspire exams - before the prep companies had a chance to catch up.

[Anonymous]

Agree but people never feel like lotteries are fair ex post

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I believe that TJ should either have continued with the old system, which was in place for years and emphasized objective assessments, or gone to a pure lottery among students meeting threshold requirements.

The new system is highly offensive - it commits ever more FCPS resources to ever more subjective assessments of applicants to a single school and requires heavy vetting by lawyers and FCPS officials. As a result, it diverts more Gatehouse resources and School Board attention away from other schools and towards TJ.

It is past time for TJHSST to be shut down and for TJ to return to use as a community school.

The old system was not objective. Most of the scoring was based on the interpretation of the SIS and recommendations once passed the first round (not a very high bar).

What? Not a high bar? It knocked out two thirds of applicants and was cited as the reason URM do not get into TJ.

Indeed. About 1/3 of applicants made it to the semifinal round, and about 1/2 of the semifinalists got admitted. Here is what is used to take to make it to make it to the semifinal round:

Semifinalist Selections:

In order to qualify for the semifinalist pool, a student must have:
- Overall GPA of at least 3.0 (based upon final marks for 7th grade and 1st quarter 8th grade in core subjects)
- Mathematical Reasoning- at least 50th percentile on Quant-Q
- Reading- at least 75th percentile on Aspire
- Science- at least 75th percentile on Aspire
AND one of the following:
-Mathematical Reasoning- at least 75th percentile on Quant-Q
or
-Science- at least 90th percentile on Aspire

It is true that the overwhelming majority of applicants from underrepresented groups did not make the semifinalist pool based on their exam scores in all years. It's important to remember that those are all graded on a curve, and therefore if any student's score is artificially inflated by targeted exam prep, the entire pool gets skewed.

Yes. The test was graded on a curve and very few URM made it to the semifinal round. No one knows how much prep "artificially" inflates scores, but the assumption has been that it does.

Interestingly, the percentage of Asian students in the Class of 2022 dipped by about 10% (from 74.9% in 2021 to 65.2% in 2022) and then recovered to 72 and 73% for 2023 and 2024.

What was the difference? 2022 was the first class to take the new battery of exams - the Quant-Q and the two ACT Aspire exams - before the prep companies had a chance to catch up.

Sounds like they need to change the test every year. Not to target one group but to prevent prepping across the board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I believe that TJ should either have continued with the old system, which was in place for years and emphasized objective assessments, or gone to a pure lottery among students meeting threshold requirements.

The new system is highly offensive - it commits ever more FCPS resources to ever more subjective assessments of applicants to a single school and requires heavy vetting by lawyers and FCPS officials. As a result, it diverts more Gatehouse resources and School Board attention away from other schools and towards TJ.

It is past time for TJHSST to be shut down and for TJ to return to use as a community school.

The old system was not objective. Most of the scoring was based on the interpretation of the SIS and recommendations once passed the first round (not a very high bar).

What? Not a high bar? It knocked out two thirds of applicants and was cited as the reason URM do not get into TJ.

Indeed. About 1/3 of applicants made it to the semifinal round, and about 1/2 of the semifinalists got admitted. Here is what is used to take to make it to make it to the semifinal round:

Semifinalist Selections:

In order to qualify for the semifinalist pool, a student must have:
- Overall GPA of at least 3.0 (based upon final marks for 7th grade and 1st quarter 8th grade in core subjects)
- Mathematical Reasoning- at least 50th percentile on Quant-Q
- Reading- at least 75th percentile on Aspire
- Science- at least 75th percentile on Aspire
AND one of the following:
-Mathematical Reasoning- at least 75th percentile on Quant-Q
or
-Science- at least 90th percentile on Aspire

It is true that the overwhelming majority of applicants from underrepresented groups did not make the semifinalist pool based on their exam scores in all years. It's important to remember that those are all graded on a curve, and therefore if any student's score is artificially inflated by targeted exam prep, the entire pool gets skewed.

Yes. The test was graded on a curve and very few URM made it to the semifinal round. No one knows how much prep "artificially" inflates scores, but the assumption has been that it does.

Interestingly, the percentage of Asian students in the Class of 2022 dipped by about 10% (from 74.9% in 2021 to 65.2% in 2022) and then recovered to 72 and 73% for 2023 and 2024.

What was the difference? 2022 was the first class to take the new battery of exams - the Quant-Q and the two ACT Aspire exams - before the prep companies had a chance to catch up.

Sounds like they need to change the test every year. Not to target one group but to prevent prepping across the board.

Is there a middle ground we can try to reach? Is there a way to have a test and a minimum score that shows you are ready for TJ that isn't graded on a curve (so you are not handicapped in clearing the bar by preppers if that is the perceived problem), and then do a a lottery for those that meet the admissions criteria and have cleared the minimum test score hurdle? This way you aren't taking race into account, not providing an advantage or disadvantage based on race, and letting a lottery decide who amongst those gifted and prepared kids go to TJ. While it may be believed that more preppers will meet the minimum, it isn't closing the door on others for not having as high of scores or being excluded in the curve. Maybe something like this could help us move past the lawsuits, the Asian hate, and the racial stigma of being an URM at TJ that allegedly persists.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I believe that TJ should either have continued with the old system, which was in place for years and emphasized objective assessments, or gone to a pure lottery among students meeting threshold requirements.

The new system is highly offensive - it commits ever more FCPS resources to ever more subjective assessments of applicants to a single school and requires heavy vetting by lawyers and FCPS officials. As a result, it diverts more Gatehouse resources and School Board attention away from other schools and towards TJ.

It is past time for TJHSST to be shut down and for TJ to return to use as a community school.

The old system was not objective. Most of the scoring was based on the interpretation of the SIS and recommendations once passed the first round (not a very high bar).

What? Not a high bar? It knocked out two thirds of applicants and was cited as the reason URM do not get into TJ.

Indeed. About 1/3 of applicants made it to the semifinal round, and about 1/2 of the semifinalists got admitted. Here is what is used to take to make it to make it to the semifinal round:

Semifinalist Selections:

In order to qualify for the semifinalist pool, a student must have:
- Overall GPA of at least 3.0 (based upon final marks for 7th grade and 1st quarter 8th grade in core subjects)
- Mathematical Reasoning- at least 50th percentile on Quant-Q
- Reading- at least 75th percentile on Aspire
- Science- at least 75th percentile on Aspire
AND one of the following:
-Mathematical Reasoning- at least 75th percentile on Quant-Q
or
-Science- at least 90th percentile on Aspire

It is true that the overwhelming majority of applicants from underrepresented groups did not make the semifinalist pool based on their exam scores in all years. It's important to remember that those are all graded on a curve, and therefore if any student's score is artificially inflated by targeted exam prep, the entire pool gets skewed.

Yes. The test was graded on a curve and very few URM made it to the semifinal round. No one knows how much prep "artificially" inflates scores, but the assumption has been that it does.

Interestingly, the percentage of Asian students in the Class of 2022 dipped by about 10% (from 74.9% in 2021 to 65.2% in 2022) and then recovered to 72 and 73% for 2023 and 2024.

What was the difference? 2022 was the first class to take the new battery of exams - the Quant-Q and the two ACT Aspire exams - before the prep companies had a chance to catch up.

Sounds like they need to change the test every year. Not to target one group but to prevent prepping across the board.

It's a good idea in theory, but it's not really practicable. If you are going to use a test for a public school, it pretty much has to be a standardized test, and changing it every year is inefficient because of proctoring issues and the amount of research needed to determine if a test is worthy of adoption.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I believe that TJ should either have continued with the old system, which was in place for years and emphasized objective assessments, or gone to a pure lottery among students meeting threshold requirements.

The new system is highly offensive - it commits ever more FCPS resources to ever more subjective assessments of applicants to a single school and requires heavy vetting by lawyers and FCPS officials. As a result, it diverts more Gatehouse resources and School Board attention away from other schools and towards TJ.

It is past time for TJHSST to be shut down and for TJ to return to use as a community school.

The old system was not objective. Most of the scoring was based on the interpretation of the SIS and recommendations once passed the first round (not a very high bar).

What? Not a high bar? It knocked out two thirds of applicants and was cited as the reason URM do not get into TJ.

Indeed. About 1/3 of applicants made it to the semifinal round, and about 1/2 of the semifinalists got admitted. Here is what is used to take to make it to make it to the semifinal round:

Semifinalist Selections:

In order to qualify for the semifinalist pool, a student must have:
- Overall GPA of at least 3.0 (based upon final marks for 7th grade and 1st quarter 8th grade in core subjects)
- Mathematical Reasoning- at least 50th percentile on Quant-Q
- Reading- at least 75th percentile on Aspire
- Science- at least 75th percentile on Aspire
AND one of the following:
-Mathematical Reasoning- at least 75th percentile on Quant-Q
or
-Science- at least 90th percentile on Aspire

It is true that the overwhelming majority of applicants from underrepresented groups did not make the semifinalist pool based on their exam scores in all years. It's important to remember that those are all graded on a curve, and therefore if any student's score is artificially inflated by targeted exam prep, the entire pool gets skewed.

Yes. The test was graded on a curve and very few URM made it to the semifinal round. No one knows how much prep "artificially" inflates scores, but the assumption has been that it does.

Interestingly, the percentage of Asian students in the Class of 2022 dipped by about 10% (from 74.9% in 2021 to 65.2% in 2022) and then recovered to 72 and 73% for 2023 and 2024.

What was the difference? 2022 was the first class to take the new battery of exams - the Quant-Q and the two ACT Aspire exams - before the prep companies had a chance to catch up.

Sounds like they need to change the test every year. Not to target one group but to prevent prepping across the board.

Is there a middle ground we can try to reach? Is there a way to have a test and a minimum score that shows you are ready for TJ that isn't graded on a curve (so you are not handicapped in clearing the bar by preppers if that is the perceived problem), and then do a a lottery for those that meet the admissions criteria and have cleared the minimum test score hurdle? This way you aren't taking race into account, not providing an advantage or disadvantage based on race, and letting a lottery decide who amongst those gifted and prepared kids go to TJ. While it may be believed that more preppers will meet the minimum, it isn't closing the door on others for not having as high of scores or being excluded in the curve. Maybe something like this could help us move past the lawsuits, the Asian hate, and the racial stigma of being an URM at TJ that allegedly persists.

This is another good idea in theory but there are a couple of issues.

1) Preppers who would not have met the standard without prep but do with it make it less likely that students who are unprepped get into the school. The point of a lot of these solutions is to try to eliminate the industry altogether as much as possible.

2) You're not going to move past the lawsuits without going back to a system that favors invested parents. The lottery would have been just as problematic if not more. And as it turns out, it's proving much harder to stigmatize the students from underrepresented groups at TJ simply because there are so many more of them. You tend not to be crappy to people when they're your friends, or friends of your friends. Representation matters!

As for Asian hate, it's definitely a real thing in society but it has been grossly misappropriated to apply to the TJ situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I believe that TJ should either have continued with the old system, which was in place for years and emphasized objective assessments, or gone to a pure lottery among students meeting threshold requirements.

The new system is highly offensive - it commits ever more FCPS resources to ever more subjective assessments of applicants to a single school and requires heavy vetting by lawyers and FCPS officials. As a result, it diverts more Gatehouse resources and School Board attention away from other schools and towards TJ.

It is past time for TJHSST to be shut down and for TJ to return to use as a community school.

The old system was not objective. Most of the scoring was based on the interpretation of the SIS and recommendations once passed the first round (not a very high bar).

What? Not a high bar? It knocked out two thirds of applicants and was cited as the reason URM do not get into TJ.

Indeed. About 1/3 of applicants made it to the semifinal round, and about 1/2 of the semifinalists got admitted. Here is what is used to take to make it to make it to the semifinal round:

Semifinalist Selections:

In order to qualify for the semifinalist pool, a student must have:
- Overall GPA of at least 3.0 (based upon final marks for 7th grade and 1st quarter 8th grade in core subjects)
- Mathematical Reasoning- at least 50th percentile on Quant-Q
- Reading- at least 75th percentile on Aspire
- Science- at least 75th percentile on Aspire
AND one of the following:
-Mathematical Reasoning- at least 75th percentile on Quant-Q
or
-Science- at least 90th percentile on Aspire

It is true that the overwhelming majority of applicants from underrepresented groups did not make the semifinalist pool based on their exam scores in all years. It's important to remember that those are all graded on a curve, and therefore if any student's score is artificially inflated by targeted exam prep, the entire pool gets skewed.

Yes. The test was graded on a curve and very few URM made it to the semifinal round. No one knows how much prep "artificially" inflates scores, but the assumption has been that it does.

Interestingly, the percentage of Asian students in the Class of 2022 dipped by about 10% (from 74.9% in 2021 to 65.2% in 2022) and then recovered to 72 and 73% for 2023 and 2024.

What was the difference? 2022 was the first class to take the new battery of exams - the Quant-Q and the two ACT Aspire exams - before the prep companies had a chance to catch up.

Sounds like they need to change the test every year. Not to target one group but to prevent prepping across the board.

Is there a middle ground we can try to reach? Is there a way to have a test and a minimum score that shows you are ready for TJ that isn't graded on a curve (so you are not handicapped in clearing the bar by preppers if that is the perceived problem), and then do a a lottery for those that meet the admissions criteria and have cleared the minimum test score hurdle? This way you aren't taking race into account, not providing an advantage or disadvantage based on race, and letting a lottery decide who amongst those gifted and prepared kids go to TJ. While it may be believed that more preppers will meet the minimum, it isn't closing the door on others for not having as high of scores or being excluded in the curve. Maybe something like this could help us move past the lawsuits, the Asian hate, and the racial stigma of being an URM at TJ that allegedly persists.

This is another good idea in theory but there are a couple of issues.

1) Preppers who would not have met the standard without prep but do with it make it less likely that students who are unprepped get into the school. The point of a lot of these solutions is to try to eliminate the industry altogether as much as possible.

2) You're not going to move past the lawsuits without going back to a system that favors invested parents. The lottery would have been just as problematic if not more. And as it turns out, it's proving much harder to stigmatize the students from underrepresented groups at TJ simply because there are so many more of them. You tend not to be crappy to people when they're your friends, or friends of your friends. Representation matters!

As for Asian hate, it's definitely a real thing in society but it has been grossly misappropriated to apply to the TJ situation.

Moving backwards just invites other lawsuits. People forget that there was already a threat of lawsuits that prompted this change in the first place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I believe that TJ should either have continued with the old system, which was in place for years and emphasized objective assessments, or gone to a pure lottery among students meeting threshold requirements.

The new system is highly offensive - it commits ever more FCPS resources to ever more subjective assessments of applicants to a single school and requires heavy vetting by lawyers and FCPS officials. As a result, it diverts more Gatehouse resources and School Board attention away from other schools and towards TJ.

It is past time for TJHSST to be shut down and for TJ to return to use as a community school.

The old system was not objective. Most of the scoring was based on the interpretation of the SIS and recommendations once passed the first round (not a very high bar).

What? Not a high bar? It knocked out two thirds of applicants and was cited as the reason URM do not get into TJ.

Indeed. About 1/3 of applicants made it to the semifinal round, and about 1/2 of the semifinalists got admitted. Here is what is used to take to make it to make it to the semifinal round:

Semifinalist Selections:

In order to qualify for the semifinalist pool, a student must have:
- Overall GPA of at least 3.0 (based upon final marks for 7th grade and 1st quarter 8th grade in core subjects)
- Mathematical Reasoning- at least 50th percentile on Quant-Q
- Reading- at least 75th percentile on Aspire
- Science- at least 75th percentile on Aspire
AND one of the following:
-Mathematical Reasoning- at least 75th percentile on Quant-Q
or
-Science- at least 90th percentile on Aspire

It is true that the overwhelming majority of applicants from underrepresented groups did not make the semifinalist pool based on their exam scores in all years. It's important to remember that those are all graded on a curve, and therefore if any student's score is artificially inflated by targeted exam prep, the entire pool gets skewed.

Yes. The test was graded on a curve and very few URM made it to the semifinal round. No one knows how much prep "artificially" inflates scores, but the assumption has been that it does.

Interestingly, the percentage of Asian students in the Class of 2022 dipped by about 10% (from 74.9% in 2021 to 65.2% in 2022) and then recovered to 72 and 73% for 2023 and 2024.

What was the difference? 2022 was the first class to take the new battery of exams - the Quant-Q and the two ACT Aspire exams - before the prep companies had a chance to catch up.

Sounds like they need to change the test every year. Not to target one group but to prevent prepping across the board.

Is there a middle ground we can try to reach? Is there a way to have a test and a minimum score that shows you are ready for TJ that isn't graded on a curve (so you are not handicapped in clearing the bar by preppers if that is the perceived problem), and then do a a lottery for those that meet the admissions criteria and have cleared the minimum test score hurdle? This way you aren't taking race into account, not providing an advantage or disadvantage based on race, and letting a lottery decide who amongst those gifted and prepared kids go to TJ. While it may be believed that more preppers will meet the minimum, it isn't closing the door on others for not having as high of scores or being excluded in the curve. Maybe something like this could help us move past the lawsuits, the Asian hate, and the racial stigma of being an URM at TJ that allegedly persists.

This is another good idea in theory but there are a couple of issues.

1) Preppers who would not have met the standard without prep but do with it make it less likely that students who are unprepped get into the school. The point of a lot of these solutions is to try to eliminate the industry altogether as much as possible.

2) You're not going to move past the lawsuits without going back to a system that favors invested parents. The lottery would have been just as problematic if not more. And as it turns out, it's proving much harder to stigmatize the students from underrepresented groups at TJ simply because there are so many more of them. You tend not to be crappy to people when they're your friends, or friends of your friends. Representation matters!

As for Asian hate, it's definitely a real thing in society but it has been grossly misappropriated to apply to the TJ situation.

there will always be an asterisk after the change in admissions process. deserved or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I believe that TJ should either have continued with the old system, which was in place for years and emphasized objective assessments, or gone to a pure lottery among students meeting threshold requirements.

The new system is highly offensive - it commits ever more FCPS resources to ever more subjective assessments of applicants to a single school and requires heavy vetting by lawyers and FCPS officials. As a result, it diverts more Gatehouse resources and School Board attention away from other schools and towards TJ.

It is past time for TJHSST to be shut down and for TJ to return to use as a community school.

The old system was not objective. Most of the scoring was based on the interpretation of the SIS and recommendations once passed the first round (not a very high bar).

What? Not a high bar? It knocked out two thirds of applicants and was cited as the reason URM do not get into TJ.

Indeed. About 1/3 of applicants made it to the semifinal round, and about 1/2 of the semifinalists got admitted. Here is what is used to take to make it to make it to the semifinal round:

Semifinalist Selections:

In order to qualify for the semifinalist pool, a student must have:
- Overall GPA of at least 3.0 (based upon final marks for 7th grade and 1st quarter 8th grade in core subjects)
- Mathematical Reasoning- at least 50th percentile on Quant-Q
- Reading- at least 75th percentile on Aspire
- Science- at least 75th percentile on Aspire
AND one of the following:
-Mathematical Reasoning- at least 75th percentile on Quant-Q
or
-Science- at least 90th percentile on Aspire

It is true that the overwhelming majority of applicants from underrepresented groups did not make the semifinalist pool based on their exam scores in all years. It's important to remember that those are all graded on a curve, and therefore if any student's score is artificially inflated by targeted exam prep, the entire pool gets skewed.

Yes. The test was graded on a curve and very few URM made it to the semifinal round. No one knows how much prep "artificially" inflates scores, but the assumption has been that it does.

Interestingly, the percentage of Asian students in the Class of 2022 dipped by about 10% (from 74.9% in 2021 to 65.2% in 2022) and then recovered to 72 and 73% for 2023 and 2024.

What was the difference? 2022 was the first class to take the new battery of exams - the Quant-Q and the two ACT Aspire exams - before the prep companies had a chance to catch up.

Sounds like they need to change the test every year. Not to target one group but to prevent prepping across the board.

Is there a middle ground we can try to reach? Is there a way to have a test and a minimum score that shows you are ready for TJ that isn't graded on a curve (so you are not handicapped in clearing the bar by preppers if that is the perceived problem), and then do a a lottery for those that meet the admissions criteria and have cleared the minimum test score hurdle? This way you aren't taking race into account, not providing an advantage or disadvantage based on race, and letting a lottery decide who amongst those gifted and prepared kids go to TJ. While it may be believed that more preppers will meet the minimum, it isn't closing the door on others for not having as high of scores or being excluded in the curve. Maybe something like this could help us move past the lawsuits, the Asian hate, and the racial stigma of being an URM at TJ that allegedly persists.

This is another good idea in theory but there are a couple of issues.

1) Preppers who would not have met the standard without prep but do with it make it less likely that students who are unprepped get into the school. The point of a lot of these solutions is to try to eliminate the industry altogether as much as possible.

2) You're not going to move past the lawsuits without going back to a system that favors invested parents. The lottery would have been just as problematic if not more. And as it turns out, it's proving much harder to stigmatize the students from underrepresented groups at TJ simply because there are so many more of them. You tend not to be crappy to people when they're your friends, or friends of your friends. Representation matters!

As for Asian hate, it's definitely a real thing in society but it has been grossly misappropriated to apply to the TJ situation.

there will always be an asterisk after the change in admissions process. deserved or not.

So let's not allow these students to attend TJ because they may be stigmatized. OK.