Cheating Scandal Triggering TJ Change

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did somehow people cheat to get into the school?

In a nutshell, one prep company prepped 28% of this years freshman. That’s 133 kids. It’s insane given how competing the prep company market is in NVa. Two years ago, they got 51 kids in and last year it was around 80. The company has been around for YEARS, so such a massive increase raises eyebrows. The company (foolishly) posted the lists of first and last names TJ admits to their FB page each year, so it’s easy to verify.

THEN, current TJ students started posting online on various social media that the company HAD A COPY of the test ahead of time. This test is supposed to be “unpreppable” but the company got students to report back what the questions were after the test. Then they used that to help the students taking the test on the accommodations day, summer round admissions and of course for the next years class. Apparently FCPS and the owners of the TJ admissions test have been watching the company for a while, so this was a good opportunity to do something. This prep company is making millions off of gaming the TJ admissions process.

Added on top of that the this prep company virtually ONLY preps students of one specific background. Added to that almost no Hispanic or black students were admitted and girls were sorely underrepresented as well. It just looks disgusting and simply cannot continue.

Our very own Varsity Blues-type scandal for FCPS. Awesome, thanks cheaters for creating a problem during a time when there are already plenty of problems.

Asking students what the questions were and having a COPY of the exam are two different things.

Also, girls are not SORELY underrepresented.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did somehow people cheat to get into the school?

In a nutshell, one prep company prepped 28% of this years freshman. That’s 133 kids. It’s insane given how competing the prep company market is in NVa. Two years ago, they got 51 kids in and last year it was around 80. The company has been around for YEARS, so such a massive increase raises eyebrows. The company (foolishly) posted the lists of first and last names TJ admits to their FB page each year, so it’s easy to verify.

THEN, current TJ students started posting online on various social media that the company HAD A COPY of the test ahead of time. This test is supposed to be “unpreppable” but the company got students to report back what the questions were after the test. Then they used that to help the students taking the test on the accommodations day, summer round admissions and of course for the next years class. Apparently FCPS and the owners of the TJ admissions test have been watching the company for a while, so this was a good opportunity to do something. This prep company is making millions off of gaming the TJ admissions process.

Added on top of that the this prep company virtually ONLY preps students of one specific background. Added to that almost no Hispanic or black students were admitted and girls were sorely underrepresented as well. It just looks disgusting and simply cannot continue.

Our very own Varsity Blues-type scandal for FCPS. Awesome, thanks cheaters for creating a problem during a time when there are already plenty of problems.

None of what you described is cheating.

It is cheating when the Quant-Q is supposed to be secure. It's not illegal, but it creates an intentional imbalance in the process because FCPS is disallowed from offering any prep material for it by the company that produces the exam.

Sounds like a problem between FCPS and Quant-Q. There's still no indication who is cheating or doing anything illegal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP - be honest and do not mislead people. None of this is happening for the benefit of Black and Hispanic students. This was very clear from the PPT shared at the school board meeting. The projected number of Black and Hispanic students under the new model is still in the single digits. So your theory of "others like them" is flawed. The group where the model showed the most drastic increase were whites. OK? Whites. That's the group driving the process. That's the group that feels slighted by the prevalence of Asians at TJ. Not Blacks and Hispanics.

That's just false. On that slide, modeling for the class of 2024, you saw whites increase from 18-25%, Blacks from 1-7% and Hispanic from 3-8%. And that's with a depressed applicant pool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP - be honest and do not mislead people. None of this is happening for the benefit of Black and Hispanic students. This was very clear from the PPT shared at the school board meeting. The projected number of Black and Hispanic students under the new model is still in the single digits. So your theory of "others like them" is flawed. The group where the model showed the most drastic increase were whites. OK? Whites. That's the group driving the process. That's the group that feels slighted by the prevalence of Asians at TJ. Not Blacks and Hispanics.

+1 and I'd say specifically white girls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did somehow people cheat to get into the school?

In a nutshell, one prep company prepped 28% of this years freshman. That’s 133 kids. It’s insane given how competing the prep company market is in NVa. Two years ago, they got 51 kids in and last year it was around 80. The company has been around for YEARS, so such a massive increase raises eyebrows. The company (foolishly) posted the lists of first and last names TJ admits to their FB page each year, so it’s easy to verify.

THEN, current TJ students started posting online on various social media that the company HAD A COPY of the test ahead of time. This test is supposed to be “unpreppable” but the company got students to report back what the questions were after the test. Then they used that to help the students taking the test on the accommodations day, summer round admissions and of course for the next years class. Apparently FCPS and the owners of the TJ admissions test have been watching the company for a while, so this was a good opportunity to do something. This prep company is making millions off of gaming the TJ admissions process.

Added on top of that the this prep company virtually ONLY preps students of one specific background. Added to that almost no Hispanic or black students were admitted and girls were sorely underrepresented as well. It just looks disgusting and simply cannot continue.

Our very own Varsity Blues-type scandal for FCPS. Awesome, thanks cheaters for creating a problem during a time when there are already plenty of problems.

None of what you described is cheating.

It is cheating when the Quant-Q is supposed to be secure. It's not illegal, but it creates an intentional imbalance in the process because FCPS is disallowed from offering any prep material for it by the company that produces the exam.

Sounds like a problem between FCPS and Quant-Q. There's still no indication who is cheating or doing anything illegal.

If the Quant-Q is compromised, there's no value in using it. People are obsessed with the question of if it's CHEATING or ILLEGAL - but that misses the point....probably intentionally. The Quant-Q has absolutely no value if students are able to prepare for it.

[Anonymous]

Students sign a statment the day of the test that they will not discuss the test.

If a student takes the test, then goes back to their prep company and downloads on what was on the test, that is cheating.

It would be interesting to see if the owners of the Quant Q agreed that this is not illegal. Their IP was stolen.

[Anonymous]

How many fewer girls were admitted this year.

[Anonymous]

I think high performing kids in TJ will benefit by having slightly less bright kids also in the mix. It will allow the best students to shine and there will actually be a curve,

Besides, I really doubt any kid who is not the right material for this program wants to be in the program just to prove a point to some apologists.

This is a brutal program. There is no way that students will succeed who are not very able.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did somehow people cheat to get into the school?

In a nutshell, one prep company prepped 28% of this years freshman. That’s 133 kids. It’s insane given how competing the prep company market is in NVa. Two years ago, they got 51 kids in and last year it was around 80. The company has been around for YEARS, so such a massive increase raises eyebrows. The company (foolishly) posted the lists of first and last names TJ admits to their FB page each year, so it’s easy to verify.

THEN, current TJ students started posting online on various social media that the company HAD A COPY of the test ahead of time. This test is supposed to be “unpreppable” but the company got students to report back what the questions were after the test. Then they used that to help the students taking the test on the accommodations day, summer round admissions and of course for the next years class. Apparently FCPS and the owners of the TJ admissions test have been watching the company for a while, so this was a good opportunity to do something. This prep company is making millions off of gaming the TJ admissions process.

Added on top of that the this prep company virtually ONLY preps students of one specific background. Added to that almost no Hispanic or black students were admitted and girls were sorely underrepresented as well. It just looks disgusting and simply cannot continue.

Our very own Varsity Blues-type scandal for FCPS. Awesome, thanks cheaters for creating a problem during a time when there are already plenty of problems.

None of what you described is cheating.

It is cheating when the Quant-Q is supposed to be secure. It's not illegal, but it creates an intentional imbalance in the process because FCPS is disallowed from offering any prep material for it by the company that produces the exam.

Sounds like a problem between FCPS and Quant-Q. There's still no indication who is cheating or doing anything illegal.

If the Quant-Q is compromised, there's no value in using it. People are obsessed with the question of if it's CHEATING or ILLEGAL - but that misses the point....probably intentionally. The Quant-Q has absolutely no value if students are able to prepare for it.

But most importantly it shows that the current process is NOT ABOUT MERIT! If students at one prep company had special access to the Quant Q ahead of time then the ASSUMPTION that we currently have a merit-based admissions is FALSE for a good percentage (28%) of the class of 2024.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did somehow people cheat to get into the school?

Yes. Hundreds of kids cheated and bribed their way into Harvard, USC, Georgetown, Duke, UCLA etc.

Some also cheated to get into TJ

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How many fewer girls were admitted this year.

Girls are almost 50% of the applicants. They are about 40% of the school. For black, hispanic and white girls, the "yield" to admissions is much worse than the "yield" for asian girls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP - be honest and do not mislead people. None of this is happening for the benefit of Black and Hispanic students. This was very clear from the PPT shared at the school board meeting. The projected number of Black and Hispanic students under the new model is still in the single digits. So your theory of "others like them" is flawed. The group where the model showed the most drastic increase were whites. OK? Whites. That's the group driving the process. That's the group that feels slighted by the prevalence of Asians at TJ. Not Blacks and Hispanics.

+1 and I'd say specifically white girls.

Not really. White boys and girls, both are unable to compete with Asian-American boys and girls. They are usually a full 100 points behind Asian-Americans in SATs also.

Blacks and Hispanics are the excuse given by Whites to subjugate and replace the Asian-Americans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP - be honest and do not mislead people. None of this is happening for the benefit of Black and Hispanic students. This was very clear from the PPT shared at the school board meeting. The projected number of Black and Hispanic students under the new model is still in the single digits. So your theory of "others like them" is flawed. The group where the model showed the most drastic increase were whites. OK? Whites. That's the group driving the process. That's the group that feels slighted by the prevalence of Asians at TJ. Not Blacks and Hispanics.

That's just false. On that slide, modeling for the class of 2024, you saw whites increase from 18-25%, Blacks from 1-7% and Hispanic from 3-8%. And that's with a depressed applicant pool.

Is 7 or 8 not single digit?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did somehow people cheat to get into the school?

In a nutshell, one prep company prepped 28% of this years freshman. That’s 133 kids. It’s insane given how competing the prep company market is in NVa. Two years ago, they got 51 kids in and last year it was around 80. The company has been around for YEARS, so such a massive increase raises eyebrows. The company (foolishly) posted the lists of first and last names TJ admits to their FB page each year, so it’s easy to verify.

THEN, current TJ students started posting online on various social media that the company HAD A COPY of the test ahead of time. This test is supposed to be “unpreppable” but the company got students to report back what the questions were after the test. Then they used that to help the students taking the test on the accommodations day, summer round admissions and of course for the next years class. Apparently FCPS and the owners of the TJ admissions test have been watching the company for a while, so this was a good opportunity to do something. This prep company is making millions off of gaming the TJ admissions process.

Added on top of that the this prep company virtually ONLY preps students of one specific background. Added to that almost no Hispanic or black students were admitted and girls were sorely underrepresented as well. It just looks disgusting and simply cannot continue.

Our very own Varsity Blues-type scandal for FCPS. Awesome, thanks cheaters for creating a problem during a time when there are already plenty of problems.

Asking students what the questions were and having a COPY of the exam are two different things.

Also, girls are not SORELY underrepresented.

Both are cheating, and I question your ethics if you don’t see that.

[Anonymous]

Why is DCUM the only place I have heard of this cheating scandal? No one has a reputable source.