Any visibility into how TJ admissions test is assessed/how 1.5% works

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here thanks again. Also fascinating how people felt the need to bring race into a basic, factual question. Never change DCUM!!!

The Supreme Court of the United States considered the TJ race question and they took it seriously. However, that case was just one of many. And there are many many reasons why they do not accept a case.

They did not ultimately grant a writ of certiorari. That only means they did not take up the case - yet.

The PP here loves to lie and falsely claim the race issue was “laughed out of court.” That never happened but she always perpetuates that lie.

My guess is she’s a former FCPS school board member or a lawyer who FCPS hired to defend their admissions changes.

[Anonymous]

Anyone know the scoring scale for the 4 SPS essays and PSE? Is it out of total 50 points, for example and all questions weighted same? Or are questions weighted like 50% for PSE and 50% for other essays? And then add extra points on top of that if have any of the 3 extra experience factors (so kind of like 1.0 if take an AP class). Everything I have seen just talks about ranking, but doesn’t say how actually calculated.

Can students request to get copies of their answers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone know the scoring scale for the 4 SPS essays and PSE? Is it out of total 50 points, for example and all questions weighted same? Or are questions weighted like 50% for PSE and 50% for other essays? And then add extra points on top of that if have any of the 3 extra experience factors (so kind of like 1.0 if take an AP class). Everything I have seen just talks about ranking, but doesn’t say how actually calculated.

Can students request to get copies of their answers?

OP I am wondering that too. Also wondering what the grading rubric is for SPS essays - is it more about what you write about (ex you started a math tutoring program at your middle school) or how well essay is written. Do two separate graders review each essay or just one?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:- 1.5% is a cap on the middle school; not a factor for individual admission assessments;

- most middle schools never come close to the 1.5% cap

- the cap was placed by the FCPS school board as an indirect way to reduce the number of Asian/Indian students at TJ, without singling out those students by race (which would have been unlawful racial discrimination if they had said “ no more than X-percent Asian” for example ).

- in practice, Longfellow Middle school in McLean previously sent 80 to 90 kids every year to TJ prior to the 1.5% revision. Most of those 80 to 90 were Asian. After the 1.5 cap was imposed, Longfellow can only send about 40 (and the majority of those 40 kids every year are Asian/Indian).

This is completely incorrect. 1.5% is an allocation per school. Longfellows numbers were reduced because other schools got more seats, not because Longfellow was capped. In what world is 40 kids 1.5% of longfellows class? That would be a 2600 person class. Longfellows class is actually like 600 so they will get a minimum of 9 seats (1.5%) but they end up filling a lot of the unallocsted spots as well.

PP is incorrect.

Longfellow previously sent 80 to 90 kids every year before the school board’s “reforms.”

Now it sends approx. 40

I am PP - I was not arguing that Longfellow sends fewer students than they did in the past. I was arguing PP's comment that the 1.5% is a cap - it is in fact a floor. Longfellow does not have a 40 student cap. They have approximately a 10 student floor. The extra ~30 students they send are filling unallocated seats. They do not send as many students as they did before because all middle schools in FCPS (and Arlington and Loudoun) have a similar floor so seats that might have previously gone to Longfellow are now allocated to other schools.

[Anonymous]

PSE - 300 points
SPS - all 4 essays are worth a total of 300 points
Gpa - 300 points

Experience points - I don’t know for sure

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PSE - 300 points
SPS - all 4 essays are worth a total of 300 points
Gpa - 300 points

Experience points - I don’t know for sure

Given so many apply and assume most all have 4.0, assume many ties for scores even when add in experience factors. When ties, what happens? How break the ties?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has TJ said anything about how the various essays are graded and how the math essay is weighted compared to the other essays? Also for middle schools that typically did not send very many kids to TJ, does 1.5% of their 8th grade class now get into TJ if at least 1.5% made it to the essay test round? For example, if it is a middle school with 300 8th graders and only 3 of them take the TJ admissions test, do all 3 of those kids get in because they met the minimum GPA/math standards or do they still have to get a reasonably good score on the essays?

For context, are you asking because yours is one of the 3 that you hope get in or asking because yours is at a school where 300+ took the test so mad that the 3 may “take spot” or your kid?

OP here I am asking a factual question so not sure if the context really matters. My kids school is in between but closer to being a school where few kids took the test. So in part I am wondering if my kid is really just competing against ~10 kids for ~5 spots or if he is also being assessed against some kind of objective standard of what is TJ-worthy and it is possible that only 1 or 2 kids from his 8th grade class of 300 will be accepted. I honestly am not even sure what I want the answer to be (I don't want my kid going there if he is going to be one of the weakest students).

Context matters because the PP is looking for a reason to call someone a racist today.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks! I’d be shocked if my kid could get in based on the general pool but he may have a shot at being one of the candidates from his school (other kids said they couldn’t finish all the essays in time).

The PP is correct. The first cut is at the school level and then there is another cut at the school district level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:- 1.5% is a cap on the middle school; not a factor for individual admission assessments;

- most middle schools never come close to the 1.5% cap

- the cap was placed by the FCPS school board as an indirect way to reduce the number of Asian/Indian students at TJ, without singling out those students by race (which would have been unlawful racial discrimination if they had said “ no more than X-percent Asian” for example ).

- in practice, Longfellow Middle school in McLean previously sent 80 to 90 kids every year to TJ prior to the 1.5% revision. Most of those 80 to 90 were Asian. After the 1.5 cap was imposed, Longfellow can only send about 40 (and the majority of those 40 kids every year are Asian/Indian).

It's not a cap, it's a quota. They are trying to fill that quota.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:- 1.5% is a cap on the middle school; not a factor for individual admission assessments;

- most middle schools never come close to the 1.5% cap

- the cap was placed by the FCPS school board as an indirect way to reduce the number of Asian/Indian students at TJ, without singling out those students by race (which would have been unlawful racial discrimination if they had said “ no more than X-percent Asian” for example ).

- in practice, Longfellow Middle school in McLean previously sent 80 to 90 kids every year to TJ prior to the 1.5% revision. Most of those 80 to 90 were Asian. After the 1.5 cap was imposed, Longfellow can only send about 40 (and the majority of those 40 kids every year are Asian/Indian).

This is completely incorrect. 1.5% is an allocation per school. Longfellows numbers were reduced because other schools got more seats, not because Longfellow was capped. In shag world is 40 kids 1.5% of longfellows class? That would be a 2600 person class. Longfellows class is actually like 600 so they will get a minimum of 9 seats (1.5%) but they end up filling a lot of the unallocsted spots as well.

PP is incorrect.

Longfellow previously sent 80 to 90 kids every year before the school board’s “reforms.”

Now it sends approx. 40

There was a time when Longfellow sent that many kids to TJ, but it was a long time ago. The more recent numbers before the changes were in the neighborhood of 60, with Carson taking over the top spot in the 70-80 range.

I have no sympathy for the poor 55th best kid at Longfellow or the 75th best at Carson, but I do think we need to make sure that the new process is actually identifying the 40-60 kids at those schools who can have the strongest overall impact at TJ.