I’m so glad TJ is more inclusive!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:More inclusive, less prestigious. That’s the choice they made.

It's possible this may be the case in the short term, but in the long term, the investment should pay off in the form of greater interest from a wider pool of applicants. It doesn't speak highly of TJ's real prestige that significantly fewer students applied for the Class of, say, 2024 than the Class of 2004. Most elite academic schools look for their application numbers to increase so that their school becomes MORE selective - not less. It's amusing to me that folks on this board feel like TJ is super-prestigious when entire segments of the population had no interest in applying for such a long time.

When you finally start seeing TJ's application numbers grow with the population of its catchment areas, you'll know that the school is becoming more prestigious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The one constant is how self-congratulatory TJ parents are, whether we really need a TJ or whether their kids deserve to be there or not. Some of the new kids may not prepared, but the parents will hit the ground running.

There are some cultures where accomplishments of the children are first and foremost celebrated as accomplishments of the family. You can find this on Facebook when a student announces a college acceptance and the relatives rush in to congratulate "the family".

In the case of TJ, altogether too often over the years this is an accurate assessment as success in the application process is frequently owing to the parents' enthusiasm rather than the students'.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:More inclusive, less prestigious. That’s the choice they made.

It's possible this may be the case in the short term, but in the long term, the investment should pay off in the form of greater interest from a wider pool of applicants. It doesn't speak highly of TJ's real prestige that significantly fewer students applied for the Class of, say, 2024 than the Class of 2004. Most elite academic schools look for their application numbers to increase so that their school becomes MORE selective - not less. It's amusing to me that folks on this board feel like TJ is super-prestigious when entire segments of the population had no interest in applying for such a long time.

When you finally start seeing TJ's application numbers grow with the population of its catchment areas, you'll know that the school is becoming more prestigious.

A lot of people buy lottery tickets, too, but that doesn't mean the people with the winning ticket are highly respected.

And is it really a good thing to encourage the kids who might be the role models at a Justice or Lewis to apply to TJ instead?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:More inclusive, less prestigious. That’s the choice they made.

It's possible this may be the case in the short term, but in the long term, the investment should pay off in the form of greater interest from a wider pool of applicants. It doesn't speak highly of TJ's real prestige that significantly fewer students applied for the Class of, say, 2024 than the Class of 2004. Most elite academic schools look for their application numbers to increase so that their school becomes MORE selective - not less. It's amusing to me that folks on this board feel like TJ is super-prestigious when entire segments of the population had no interest in applying for such a long time.

When you finally start seeing TJ's application numbers grow with the population of its catchment areas, you'll know that the school is becoming more prestigious.

A lot of people buy lottery tickets, too, but that doesn't mean the people with the winning ticket are highly respected.

And is it really a good thing to encourage the kids who might be the role models at a Justice or Lewis to apply to TJ instead?

The lottery analogy is irrelevant as there is no lottery aspect to the adopted process that was used to put together the Class of 2025. The obviously more relevant analogy would be to elite schools that attract a high number of applications.

And yes, of course it's a good thing, because once they get to and succeed at TJ they will be the role models for the kids at Whitman and Key and Poe and Glasgow and wherever. For all that the status-quo clowns pretend to care about the pipeline and building from the ground up, having role models to look up to is one of the best ways to achieve that goal.

[Anonymous]

I wonder if grading will be more lax now at TJ to bolster and influx of less prepared students who were accepted because of the new quota system. Essentially, you see a lot of public schools that grade inflate to pass on students to the next grade and to ensure the schools scores aren’t terrible. Will TJ either fail students who can’t hack it, water down the curriculum or water down the grading system?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:More inclusive, less prestigious. That’s the choice they made.

More inclusive makes it more prestigious. When schools are more inclusive they rank much higher. Bet the matriculation looks better in about 5 years than it has in the recent years.

You can have the best STEM high school in the country or you can impose quotas to make it “look more like Fairfax County”, but you can’t have both. FCPS chose the latter.

it wasn’t done to make it look more like Fairfax, it was done to be more diverse. All the best schools want more diversity, even the private ones. Even the best colleges want diversity.

Yes, but no matter the euphemisms or how you want to reconcile it, cancelling the very metrics that measure student ability to handle challenging academics seems counterintuitive. Why do we play the emperor has no clothes with reality? If you can’t read someone, how do you know what they can do? You eventually find out when the answer is obvious, or you lower the academic rigor out of “fairness”.

Meanwhile, China keeps cranking out engineers and isn’t lowering the bar for admission.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:More inclusive, less prestigious. That’s the choice they made.

More inclusive makes it more prestigious. When schools are more inclusive they rank much higher. Bet the matriculation looks better in about 5 years than it has in the recent years.

You can have the best STEM high school in the country or you can impose quotas to make it “look more like Fairfax County”, but you can’t have both. FCPS chose the latter.

it wasn’t done to make it look more like Fairfax, it was done to be more diverse. All the best schools want more diversity, even the private ones. Even the best colleges want diversity.

Yes, but no matter the euphemisms or how you want to reconcile it, cancelling the very metrics that measure student ability to handle challenging academics seems counterintuitive. Why do we play the emperor has no clothes with reality? If you can’t read someone, how do you know what they can do? You eventually find out when the answer is obvious, or you lower the academic rigor out of “fairness”.

Meanwhile, China keeps cranking out engineers and isn’t lowering the bar for admission.

Once upon a time, TJ students aspired to have engineers working for them. Those were better times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:More inclusive, less prestigious. That’s the choice they made.

More inclusive makes it more prestigious. When schools are more inclusive they rank much higher. Bet the matriculation looks better in about 5 years than it has in the recent years.

You can have the best STEM high school in the country or you can impose quotas to make it “look more like Fairfax County”, but you can’t have both. FCPS chose the latter.

it wasn’t done to make it look more like Fairfax, it was done to be more diverse. All the best schools want more diversity, even the private ones. Even the best colleges want diversity.

Yes, but no matter the euphemisms or how you want to reconcile it, cancelling the very metrics that measure student ability to handle challenging academics seems counterintuitive. Why do we play the emperor has no clothes with reality? If you can’t read someone, how do you know what they can do? You eventually find out when the answer is obvious, or you lower the academic rigor out of “fairness”.

Meanwhile, China keeps cranking out engineers and isn’t lowering the bar for admission.

because there are no cheating scandals in China? Luckily for the US, their government is getting increasingly involved in their stock markets and banking sector.

[Anonymous]

My kid (Indian) just graduated from TJ and is in college. I certainly wish the school had been more diverse. Reflecting the demographics of the local area will likely happen only if forced but more diversity is possible.

While the "typical kid" may not have gotten in this year, most kids admitted year are still qualified to be at TJ. Most negative comments assume otherwise.

I don't think TJ has to dilute anything to cater to this cohort. However, the curriculum is no cakewalk for even the highly prepped+gifted kids let alone the kids who are not as gifted (a good chunk of the kids at TJ are not gifted, just above-average). Hopefully the new cohort is motivated enough to keep up (they are all capable) and stay at TJ. If the curriculum does get diluted a bit, I think everyone benefits.

The other aspect of success at TJ is parent involvement. If parents cannot spend the time to shuttle their kids back and forth for ECs or sports they will not be able to leverage TJ to the fullest extent. Hopefully the school mitigates that through transportation arrangements.

Good luck to all the kids!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid (Indian) just graduated from TJ and is in college. I certainly wish the school had been more diverse. Reflecting the demographics of the local area will likely happen only if forced but more diversity is possible.

While the "typical kid" may not have gotten in this year, most kids admitted year are still qualified to be at TJ. Most negative comments assume otherwise.

I don't think TJ has to dilute anything to cater to this cohort. However, the curriculum is no cakewalk for even the highly prepped+gifted kids let alone the kids who are not as gifted (a good chunk of the kids at TJ are not gifted, just above-average). Hopefully the new cohort is motivated enough to keep up (they are all capable) and stay at TJ. If the curriculum does get diluted a bit, I think everyone benefits.

The other aspect of success at TJ is parent involvement. If parents cannot spend the time to shuttle their kids back and forth for ECs or sports they will not be able to leverage TJ to the fullest extent. Hopefully the school mitigates that through transportation arrangements.

Good luck to all the kids!

Wow. Sad state of affairs. Let's the lower the bar and then call everyone a winner!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:More inclusive, less prestigious. That’s the choice they made.

More inclusive makes it more prestigious. When schools are more inclusive they rank much higher. Bet the matriculation looks better in about 5 years than it has in the recent years.

You can have the best STEM high school in the country or you can impose quotas to make it “look more like Fairfax County”, but you can’t have both. FCPS chose the latter.

it wasn’t done to make it look more like Fairfax, it was done to be more diverse. All the best schools want more diversity, even the private ones. Even the best colleges want diversity.

All admission testing should be blind. Either you are smart enough to do well on the test - and therefore the workload at TJ - or you aren't. Should not be based on race.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid (Indian) just graduated from TJ and is in college. I certainly wish the school had been more diverse. Reflecting the demographics of the local area will likely happen only if forced but more diversity is possible.

While the "typical kid" may not have gotten in this year, most kids admitted year are still qualified to be at TJ. Most negative comments assume otherwise.

I don't think TJ has to dilute anything to cater to this cohort. However, the curriculum is no cakewalk for even the highly prepped+gifted kids let alone the kids who are not as gifted (a good chunk of the kids at TJ are not gifted, just above-average). Hopefully the new cohort is motivated enough to keep up (they are all capable) and stay at TJ. If the curriculum does get diluted a bit, I think everyone benefits.

The other aspect of success at TJ is parent involvement. If parents cannot spend the time to shuttle their kids back and forth for ECs or sports they will not be able to leverage TJ to the fullest extent. Hopefully the school mitigates that through transportation arrangements.

Good luck to all the kids!

Wow. Sad state of affairs. Let's the lower the bar and then call everyone a winner!

Heading back to when it was alma mater in 1984.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid (Indian) just graduated from TJ and is in college. I certainly wish the school had been more diverse. Reflecting the demographics of the local area will likely happen only if forced but more diversity is possible.

While the "typical kid" may not have gotten in this year, most kids admitted year are still qualified to be at TJ. Most negative comments assume otherwise.

I don't think TJ has to dilute anything to cater to this cohort. However, the curriculum is no cakewalk for even the highly prepped+gifted kids let alone the kids who are not as gifted (a good chunk of the kids at TJ are not gifted, just above-average). Hopefully the new cohort is motivated enough to keep up (they are all capable) and stay at TJ. If the curriculum does get diluted a bit, I think everyone benefits.

The other aspect of success at TJ is parent involvement. If parents cannot spend the time to shuttle their kids back and forth for ECs or sports they will not be able to leverage TJ to the fullest extent. Hopefully the school mitigates that through transportation arrangements.

Good luck to all the kids!

Excellent post. So many obvious points that too many refuse to admit or believe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid (Indian) just graduated from TJ and is in college. I certainly wish the school had been more diverse. Reflecting the demographics of the local area will likely happen only if forced but more diversity is possible.

While the "typical kid" may not have gotten in this year, most kids admitted year are still qualified to be at TJ. Most negative comments assume otherwise.

I don't think TJ has to dilute anything to cater to this cohort. However, the curriculum is no cakewalk for even the highly prepped+gifted kids let alone the kids who are not as gifted (a good chunk of the kids at TJ are not gifted, just above-average). Hopefully the new cohort is motivated enough to keep up (they are all capable) and stay at TJ. If the curriculum does get diluted a bit, I think everyone benefits.

The other aspect of success at TJ is parent involvement. If parents cannot spend the time to shuttle their kids back and forth for ECs or sports they will not be able to leverage TJ to the fullest extent. Hopefully the school mitigates that through transportation arrangements.

Good luck to all the kids!

Let's clarify what's actually going to happen a little bit here.

There will probably be a minor change in the number of AP and post-AP classes that the Class of 2025 takes, as their class wasn't necessarily overselected for raw advancement - especially in math.

That doesn't equate to the curriculum being diluted. Freshmen Bio at TJ is still going to be nasty. The difficulty of HUM 1, as it always has, will depend on what teachers you have. AP Physics will still be hard as hell. Geosystems will probably still be a joke.

It's still going to be TJ - you'll probably just have the raw number of APs be around the number that it was 5-10 years ago.

Fret not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:More inclusive, less prestigious. That’s the choice they made.

More inclusive makes it more prestigious. When schools are more inclusive they rank much higher. Bet the matriculation looks better in about 5 years than it has in the recent years.

You can have the best STEM high school in the country or you can impose quotas to make it “look more like Fairfax County”, but you can’t have both. FCPS chose the latter.

it wasn’t done to make it look more like Fairfax, it was done to be more diverse. All the best schools want more diversity, even the private ones. Even the best colleges want diversity.

All admission testing should be blind. Either you are smart enough to do well on the test - and therefore the workload at TJ - or you aren't. Should not be based on race.

These aren't in any way equivalent. Equating them betrays a lack of understanding of how testing works.