Reflections on the "TJ Papers"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow lots to read but thank you for the summary. Early identification of URM students and early mentoring can help achieve equity without discrimination against another group.

Agreed. But how do we do this? Very important issue so I am truly interested in hearing how this can be achieved.

I am no education expert. Teachers can start to identify gifted kids from K, you don’t have to be an advanced reader to be gifted. Maybe teachers need to figure how how to identify giftedness without assessing advanced reading and math skills. Parents play a big role in their child’s education and future. Unfortunately gifted kids will be left behind if they don’t have an involved parent. Each title one school should have a mentor for these kids, make sure they are doing what they need to stay on track. The mentor along with the AART should make sure these students to have what they need to thrive and be ready for TJ if that’s where they want to go.

Sloan Presidio told SB members that there wasn't a "pipeline issue" because there were sufficient numbers of Black and Hispanic students in 8th grade receiving AAP/LLIV services to fill TJ if they applied and were admitted.

But if you accepted this you had to think (1) participation in AAP equates to meeting the qualifications for TJ and (2) therefore, there was a problem with the admissions process that FCPS had to "fix."

A better analysis would have been to acknowledge that TJ had been screening for a higher level of qualification than simply meeting the threshold for AAP/LLIV services, and that FCPS still had work to do to challenge its Black and Hispanic students in AAP/LLIV. Instead, in the rush to change the TJ demographics, the baby was thrown out with the bath water, and objective measures of qualification were tossed aside in favor of experience factors that, as Brabrand's emails make clear, Brabrand made sure were reverse-engineered to produce the result that he wanted.

[Anonymous]

I am concerned that a state legislator has proposed a bill about TJ admissions that was written by the Coalition for TJ. It would great to have a neutral approach, not a partisan one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sad. Very sad that TJ admissions have become so political. I hope they take up the offer from that professor to make an "unpreppable test" that we keep hearing about and figure out how to fix the AAP process to identify URMs earlier and give them an honest chance to compete for admission to TJ.

Yes - it is sad, but you have to ask:

- which party politicized it?

The entire school board and Brabrand are democrats.

- why do people vote against their children’s best interests by voting for democrats? And before someone attacks republicans here, let school boards were balanced or even majority R; yet the republicans never proposed anything as radical as what the current entrenched Dem school board has actually done.

So looking forward to change under Youngkin!

We have to have a more politically diverse group of School Board members.

The 12-0 Democratic School Board of the past two years has been the largest disaster in recent FCPS history. It's not that these people never disagree with each other; they do, sometimes vociferously, and ridicule each other in their text messages and emails, as revealed by the discovery in this case. The problem is that they believe that publicly they have to toe the same party line and speak with an almost uniform voice. They operate in constant fear of being called out as "on the wrong side of history" by their political patrons.

That is a recipe for disaster, and we see the poor results time after time with this School Board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sad. Very sad that TJ admissions have become so political. I hope they take up the offer from that professor to make an "unpreppable test" that we keep hearing about and figure out how to fix the AAP process to identify URMs earlier and give them an honest chance to compete for admission to TJ.

Also sad that Brabrand & the SB made this their top priority in 2020 during a pandemic when they should have been focused on remote learning, remediation, and making sure that school conditions were as safe as possible for kids when they returned to school.

But operations never excited this crowd when they could focus instead on sexy social justice issues.

I agree.

And I think this thread should be moved from AAP to fcps forum, because they TJ admissions issue affected all of our students. The TJ doc dump solidifies how much the entire student body, but especially special ed, suffered as a result of their obsession with TJ admissions during the pandemic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow lots to read but thank you for the summary. Early identification of URM students and early mentoring can help achieve equity without discrimination against another group.

Agreed. But how do we do this? Very important issue so I am truly interested in hearing how this can be achieved.

If you read through the docs, there was a blurb backed with actual stats that there were enough URM black and hispanic kids in level IV centers taking geometry in 8th to fill half a TJ freshman class, but they were not applying for TJ .

If the students are prepared, but not interested, for whatever reason, then lowering the standards to something almost any fcps can meet (algebra in 8th and low GPA cut off for middle school) is a huge mistake.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would be far more interested in the text messages regarding how to educate our children during a pandemic. I hope it got the attention and passion this TJ change did.

The school board was not interested in that topic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow lots to read but thank you for the summary. Early identification of URM students and early mentoring can help achieve equity without discrimination against another group.

Agreed. But how do we do this? Very important issue so I am truly interested in hearing how this can be achieved.

I am no education expert. Teachers can start to identify gifted kids from K, you don’t have to be an advanced reader to be gifted. Maybe teachers need to figure how how to identify giftedness without assessing advanced reading and math skills. Parents play a big role in their child’s education and future. Unfortunately gifted kids will be left behind if they don’t have an involved parent. Each title one school should have a mentor for these kids, make sure they are doing what they need to stay on track. The mentor along with the AART should make sure these students to have what they need to thrive and be ready for TJ if that’s where they want to go.

But you certainly don't hesitate to offer your opinion and your "shoulds". Why don't you volunteer to create this new mentorship program?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow lots to read but thank you for the summary. Early identification of URM students and early mentoring can help achieve equity without discrimination against another group.

Agreed. But how do we do this? Very important issue so I am truly interested in hearing how this can be achieved.

I am no education expert. Teachers can start to identify gifted kids from K, you don’t have to be an advanced reader to be gifted. Maybe teachers need to figure how how to identify giftedness without assessing advanced reading and math skills. Parents play a big role in their child’s education and future. Unfortunately gifted kids will be left behind if they don’t have an involved parent. Each title one school should have a mentor for these kids, make sure they are doing what they need to stay on track. The mentor along with the AART should make sure these students to have what they need to thrive and be ready for TJ if that’s where they want to go.

But you certainly don't hesitate to offer your opinion and your "shoulds". Why don't you volunteer to create this new mentorship program?

FCPS are the experts with a ton of money. They spent loads of money on useless surveys and programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow lots to read but thank you for the summary. Early identification of URM students and early mentoring can help achieve equity without discrimination against another group.

Agreed. But how do we do this? Very important issue so I am truly interested in hearing how this can be achieved.

I am no education expert. Teachers can start to identify gifted kids from K, you don’t have to be an advanced reader to be gifted. Maybe teachers need to figure how how to identify giftedness without assessing advanced reading and math skills. Parents play a big role in their child’s education and future. Unfortunately gifted kids will be left behind if they don’t have an involved parent. Each title one school should have a mentor for these kids, make sure they are doing what they need to stay on track. The mentor along with the AART should make sure these students to have what they need to thrive and be ready for TJ if that’s where they want to go.

But you certainly don't hesitate to offer your opinion and your "shoulds". Why don't you volunteer to create this new mentorship program?

It's easier just to discriminate against Asians and give bonus points to pretend we are solving the problem.

[Anonymous]

As a Mt Vernon voter, it's nice to know that at least our politicians are effective.

[Anonymous]

Very sad. The real victims are the students who did not get in who deserved to be at TJ, and the students who did get in and are now struggling with low grades with some who have already gone back to their base school.

[Anonymous]

Wow. FCPS is about o lose this case. Bigly.

Can’t wait to see Brabrand gone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am concerned that a state legislator has proposed a bill about TJ admissions that was written by the Coalition for TJ. It would great to have a neutral approach, not a partisan one.

And, this was written as a reaction to what our SB did last year--I think.

And, FCPS has put a statement against this bill on their website--which I find troubling. Claiming that TJ is #1 is kind of interesting as we have yet to see the results of the changes.

https://www.fcps.edu/news/see-what-makes-tjhsst-one-highest-rated-high-schools-nation

I find this too political to be on a public school system's website.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am concerned that a state legislator has proposed a bill about TJ admissions that was written by the Coalition for TJ. It would great to have a neutral approach, not a partisan one.

And, this was written as a reaction to what our SB did last year--I think.

And, FCPS has put a statement against this bill on their website--which I find troubling. Claiming that TJ is #1 is kind of interesting as we have yet to see the results of the changes.

https://www.fcps.edu/news/see-what-makes-tjhsst-one-highest-rated-high-schools-nation

I find this too political to be on a public school system's website.

They must have known that the plaintiffs in the TJ litigation were going to release all those damning documents yesterday and wanted to come out swinging. It's not like Davis's bill was going to get enacted for quite some time, if ever.

But, yes, whether you view it as too political or just legal maneuvering, it's not the sort of thing FCPS should be featuring this prominently on their web site. It just underscores how much time they spend obsessing over TJ and how little time they spend on other things that also ought to matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow lots to read but thank you for the summary. Early identification of URM students and early mentoring can help achieve equity without discrimination against another group.

Agreed. But how do we do this? Very important issue so I am truly interested in hearing how this can be achieved.

I am no education expert. Teachers can start to identify gifted kids from K, you don’t have to be an advanced reader to be gifted. Maybe teachers need to figure how how to identify giftedness without assessing advanced reading and math skills. Parents play a big role in their child’s education and future. Unfortunately gifted kids will be left behind if they don’t have an involved parent. Each title one school should have a mentor for these kids, make sure they are doing what they need to stay on track. The mentor along with the AART should make sure these students to have what they need to thrive and be ready for TJ if that’s where they want to go.

I think most teachers are more likely to recognize good classroom behavior and early academic skills picked up at home as 'gifted' at that age. Pretty sure one of my DD's kinder classmates has a photographic memory or something similar based on the speed at which he can solve any Where's Waldo or I Spy page (like, instantly - it's almost spooky), but he also started the school year not speaking any English. Would he be identified as gifted? Would he be in a position to benefit from any of the county's AAP services, or not until his written and spoken English caught up?