Washington Post Article On Freshmen Admitted Under New Admissions Process

[Anonymous]

25% low income? Oof, this is going to shift the schools budget from academics to social and welfare needs, you want to avoid schools with farms in the double digits.

[Anonymous]

Why do you all care about this so much?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do you all care about this so much?

People care about tax spending. Rapes in schools, failure rates of minorities in virtual learning, inhibiting advanced math, and those get ignored but TJ gets changed without a 2-year notice???!!! The NAACP sued the school. We care because Braband doesn't make us feel like we have a say in the expenditure we are forced to pay. A better expenditure would be a second STEM magnet near Rachel-Carson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We appreciate that your thread is about nothing so much as rubbing it in the face of kids who likely would have been admitted to TJ in the past that they've been turned away.

At the end of the day, the Post is a bastion of elitism. It's owned by a Princeton graduate, and the article was written by a Harvard graduate. They want to make sure that elite institutions continue to remain the focus of everyone's attention by admitting more URMs, so they retain their cachet.

It would be interesting if the Post did a follow-up story interviewing four kids who had exceptional credentials, but were denied admission to TJ and ended up at their base schools. Were they depressed and disappointed freshmen year? Or did they end up having a great freshmen year and feeling like it all worked out for the best? We'll never know because their stories won't be told by the Post. Hannah Natanson already knew she'd write this story from the moment the School Board started discussing changes to the TJ admissions process in 2020. If and when these four kids graduate from TJ in 2025, there will also be a sequel, but the experiences of the 96% of FCPS students who attend other high schools will continue to be ignored.

See, again, here's the thing. MANY highly competent and capable kids were denied admissions by both systems. Your assumption is that there is only one way -- the old way -- to decide who among those kids deserves admissions and who doesn't.

There have always been exceptional kids denied admission to TJ.

The "thing" is people like you jumping up and down about a few kids at TJ because they are URMs, and missing the bigger picture, which is that TJ remains an exercise in elitism that excludes most kids - whose needs, challenges, and successes go ignored by the self-appointed arbiters of what is good and fair (like the FCPS School Board and Hannah Natanson).

Slow clap, if any.

You're misreading my intent. I agree that in an ideal world every student who is capable of doing the work should be allowed to go to TJ. But that's not gonna happen anytime soon. So the next best thing is to have as fair and inclusive an admissions process as possible. I don't know if the current process is the best possible, but as I see it it is an improvement over the old one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:25% low income? Oof, this is going to shift the schools budget from academics to social and welfare needs, you want to avoid schools with farms in the double digits.

There is definitely truth to this. It's unavoidable. They have to provide all those supports at school. That takes time and money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:25% low income? Oof, this is going to shift the schools budget from academics to social and welfare needs, you want to avoid schools with farms in the double digits.

There is definitely truth to this. It's unavoidable. They have to provide all those supports at school. That takes time and money.

Yep. And TJ, like most successful high schools both public and private, has long benefitted from very involved parent volunteers. Low income families are less likely to be able to provide that. Though I wonder if this number is artificially influenced by the fact that during covid ALL kids were eligible for FARMS, so some applicants may have checked that box following the letter but not spirit of the question...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:25% low income? Oof, this is going to shift the schools budget from academics to social and welfare needs, you want to avoid schools with farms in the double digits.

So the kids who have the interest and the aptitude to attend TJ but lack the external supports from their schools and parents should be regulated to attending high schools with over 25% FARMs students because you are worried about having them at TJ? Do you even read what you are posting?

The kids in the article all commented that the test was a barrier but as soon it was gone they thought that they would apply. They are enjoying their experience at TJ, especially the STEM type classes, and are happy to be there.

Regardless of how kids are admitted to TJ, capable people are excluded. There were kids with high test scores that were not accepted at TJ when the test existed. There are not enough seats for all of the kids who are interested and qualified.

I have no idea what budget you think has to be shifted for the higher percentage of FARMs kids. There are more kids who will get free or reduced price meals. They all qualified based on meeting the pre reqs that TJ set out for applying so it is not like they need different classes.

It is kind of gross that your concern is that the school now needs to change how it meets the social and welfare needs of its students because they have increased the number of qualified kids who come from impoverished backgrounds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:25% low income? Oof, this is going to shift the schools budget from academics to social and welfare needs, you want to avoid schools with farms in the double digits.

Wow. Didn’t even hesitate to say that out loud.

You should stay away from TJ. And any other FCPS school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/05/31/thomas-jefferson-high-school-freshmen-admissions/

I get that these are just four kids and may not represent all the new admits under the new systems, but it was really nice to hear. They are working hard and generally enjoying the experience. They had zero shot of getting in with the old system and seem to be doing more than fine academically at TJ. I am really proud of them. I love that they are not paying attention to all the hate, they are just doing their thing. Go on, Ms. Rocket Scientist! Love that gal!

Good luck to the new class: https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/05/25/tj-class-of-2026-data/. Head up. We believe in you.

That's great to know! I think the prep arms race had made it hard for families that didn't invest thousands into enrichment and had heavily skewed admissions to a few wealthy schools. I'm sure the new process isn't perfect either but it seems like a big step in the right direction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:25% low income? Oof, this is going to shift the schools budget from academics to social and welfare needs, you want to avoid schools with farms in the double digits.

There is definitely truth to this. It's unavoidable. They have to provide all those supports at school. That takes time and money.

Yep. And TJ, like most successful high schools both public and private, has long benefitted from very involved parent volunteers. Low income families are less likely to be able to provide that. Though I wonder if this number is artificially influenced by the fact that during covid ALL kids were eligible for FARMS, so some applicants may have checked that box following the letter but not spirit of the question...

I'm sure they'll manage but please don't let this stop you from whinging

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hannah Natanson already knew she'd write this story from the moment the School Board started discussing changes to the TJ admissions process in 2020.

Safe to say if she found kids that didn't fit the narrative she would just move on to the next kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do you all care about this so much?

They resent lower income students because they didn't spend as much on prep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:25% low income? Oof, this is going to shift the schools budget from academics to social and welfare needs, you want to avoid schools with farms in the double digits.

Wow. Didn’t even hesitate to say that out loud.

You should stay away from TJ. And any other FCPS school.

+1000 these pro-privilege parents are awful people

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:25% low income? Oof, this is going to shift the schools budget from academics to social and welfare needs, you want to avoid schools with farms in the double digits.

So the kids who have the interest and the aptitude to attend TJ but lack the external supports from their schools and parents should be regulated to attending high schools with over 25% FARMs students because you are worried about having them at TJ? Do you even read what you are posting?

The kids in the article all commented that the test was a barrier but as soon it was gone they thought that they would apply. They are enjoying their experience at TJ, especially the STEM type classes, and are happy to be there.

Regardless of how kids are admitted to TJ, capable people are excluded. There were kids with high test scores that were not accepted at TJ when the test existed. There are not enough seats for all of the kids who are interested and qualified.

I have no idea what budget you think has to be shifted for the higher percentage of FARMs kids. There are more kids who will get free or reduced price meals. They all qualified based on meeting the pre reqs that TJ set out for applying so it is not like they need different classes.

It is kind of gross that your concern is that the school now needs to change how it meets the social and welfare needs of its students because they have increased the number of qualified kids who come from impoverished backgrounds.

It will go downhill, the kids don't have the means to do after school tutoring support etc that prior tj students do. The school is going to have a mess on their hands when test scores come out

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:25% low income? Oof, this is going to shift the schools budget from academics to social and welfare needs, you want to avoid schools with farms in the double digits.

Wow. Didn’t even hesitate to say that out loud.

You should stay away from TJ. And any other FCPS school.

No good fcps school has farms of 25% or higher