TJ admissions now verifying free and reduced price meal status for successful 2026 applicants

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“And they took away teacher recommendations. If they cared about taking high achieving students they would not have done that…“

Bet that it was the teachers who did not want to write recommendations each year..TJ just respected their opinions..

they already have enough BS to deal with, including being outed to Youngkin for teaching so called CRT

Youngkin proposed something about transgender, pronouns etc last week? But, I would have rather preferred an announcement that they were planning to fund additional STEM academies in Virginia.. oh well.

Interesting because I’ve been reading in other threads that the best STEM schools other than TJ are the existing top neighborhood schools with lots of challenging math/science courses and that courses with STEM just stuck in their names often are poorly taught or nothing special. So just creating more “STEM academies” sounds more like PR than anything else.

Being able to take calculus in 9th or 10th grade and continuing this progression without having to go to a community college or take classes online, is not PR.

You don’t have to be a “STEM academy” to do this. You just need to offer challenging classes. And why push calculus on 9th graders unless they are truly ready?

The number who are truly ready is generally so low that schools can't offer their own higher level classes. Having a larger group at TJ allows them to offer these classes.
The number of kids who are ready for this is higher than you think, particularly for calculus in 10th grade.

After 126 pages this is the #1 point.

1. TJ should only be for kids who are truly advanced in math not all this woke bs with folks taking Algebra 1 in 8th and somehow getting in.
2. Most of the top tier AAP feeder high schools have a big enough cohort to have entire classes advanced at this level so TJ isn't needed.
3. TJ should just be shut down at this point it's redundant.

TLDR TJ should only be for rich kids and not serve the greater community

DP. The tl;dr should be that TJ is meant to match kids with the appropriate level of service and meet the needs of kids who cannot have their needs met at their base school. Obviously, there will be kids at Langley who can have their needs met at their base school who are objectively stronger students than some kids at Annandale High school who can't have their needs met there. It's not at all a problem to admit kids who are outliers at their base schools, even if the definition of an outlier varies by school.

But, FCPS does have a small cohort of kids who are taking Calculus in either 8th or 9th grade. Those kids will not have an adequate peer group nor will they have adequate course offerings at their base school, since almost every FCPS base school only offers one year of DE post-calculus math. TJ has a wealth of post calc math classes that they will no longer be able to offer if they lack sufficient cohort of kids who are that advanced. It logistically makes the most sense to place the kids who are exceptionally advanced and who will quite literally run out of classes at the base school at a school like TJ, which has the appropriate classes. It likewise makes little sense to place kids at TJ who are unlikely to need anything. beyond the standard AP Calc and AP Science classes offered at every FCPS high school.

It's not sufficient to be advanced by course (don't even think it's necessary). These days there are many "advanced" kids who have big mathematical gaps (can barely reason geometrically, may not even be fully comfortable with some algebraic manipulations, etc.). What's far more important (and harder to do) is for kids to develop strong problem solving skills, i.e be able to figure out and solve things that they don't initially know how to do right away. One good proxy for this skill is being good at math contests. In fact I don't even think "advanced" is necessary, only problem solving skills are, to be able to succeed at TJ. I'd take kids who do very well on the AMC 10 and above contests any day over kids who were accelerated in base school math classes with nothing else to show, and the reason is that there is no problem solving skills being taught in K12 math classes, even calculus.

They aren't looking for advanced problem solvers either. Each of the last two years, an 8th grade JMO qualifier got rejected from TJ.

I'm not even specifically stating that kids with high AMC 10 scores or kids taking Calculus in 8th or 9th grade ought to be guaranteed admissions. I think that if a child is taking precalc in 8th, has straight As throughout, and has qualified for AIME a couple times, that kid is the real deal. Kids like this should undoubtedly be accepted to TJ. I would not be surprised if the majority of kids that FCPS has accelerated to Algebra in 5th or earlier would fit this profile.

Agreed, these days it's not that easy to pass the AMC 10, they've gotten quite difficult in recent years and kids who can do it would definitely thrive in math/science classes at TJ. They should do admit them, but they obviously can't advertise or give out any information as that would just spark an even worse parent arms race of acceleration than what we currently have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
So basically if I get my kid way ahead by signing them up for outside math they should automatically get into to TJ?

Signing up for outside math is not the same as being capable of advanced math.

That's the key point. In the United States it's not common or expected to be signing up for additional schoolwork especially if your kid is already above grade level.

These are all actions that are common in other countries. It's time to stop servicing folks who are in Calculus in 9th or 10th not because they are actually talented but because they have been suppplemented at home or in official afterschool sessions/classes for years priors.

There are many kids who would be "advanced" in math if they spent double the normal time on math; outside of school in addition to in-school instruction.

Like it or, you xenophobic moron, this is the United States. These are people legally in the US contributing to the economy. Maybe even your boss. So you can't wish them away with your nonsense. If people like you were in charge we wouldn't have had great universities, nuclear capabilities and so many other things in this country. All of that came from outside the United States. Deal with it!

Guess what these test prepping fools aren't the smartest kids. You know what makes the US better than those Asian countries creativity and real understanding. There are so many of these prepped kids who have no depth. It's all drill and kill. Deal with that.

DP cutting into this argument chain... you're making creativity about race, which is not accurate. In fact, academically, other races exhibit just as much creativity (and certainly real understanding of academics) compared to American peers. I partially agree with what you're trying to say though, which is that Asians cultures tend to act less creatively because they follow a narrower set of norms when it comes to many things, education included, so everyone 'looks alike'. However you're not seeing the deeper picture, you talk technology i.e "nuclear capabilities" and call it US superiority, but are you aware that most cutting edge tech research in the US is done by Asians? We have an amazing system of drawing the best and the brightest here to the US to work in science, mathematics, technology, and without them working here we wouldn't be technologically superior. It takes a lot of intelligence, creativity, hard work, and luck to succeed in these fields, and sadly America does not organically produce nowhere nearly enough capable people to handle the demand we have for advancing these fields.

As to "prepping", again this is more dependent on individual families as to how they implement it on their kids, they can do it creatively where their kids are getting genuine, enriching, stimulation, or they can slowly "drill and kill" the creativity out of them which seems to be what you are referring to.

[Anonymous]

Some of those AIME qualifiers don't even like math as much as they used to. Too many days at Sunshine have beaten their interest down. But their parents pushed them ahead so they would be guaranteed to get into TJ. The stress surrounding math acceleration is killing their long term success.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“And they took away teacher recommendations. If they cared about taking high achieving students they would not have done that…“

Bet that it was the teachers who did not want to write recommendations each year..TJ just respected their opinions..

they already have enough BS to deal with, including being outed to Youngkin for teaching so called CRT

Youngkin proposed something about transgender, pronouns etc last week? But, I would have rather preferred an announcement that they were planning to fund additional STEM academies in Virginia.. oh well.

Interesting because I’ve been reading in other threads that the best STEM schools other than TJ are the existing top neighborhood schools with lots of challenging math/science courses and that courses with STEM just stuck in their names often are poorly taught or nothing special. So just creating more “STEM academies” sounds more like PR than anything else.

Being able to take calculus in 9th or 10th grade and continuing this progression without having to go to a community college or take classes online, is not PR.

You don’t have to be a “STEM academy” to do this. You just need to offer challenging classes. And why push calculus on 9th graders unless they are truly ready?

The number who are truly ready is generally so low that schools can't offer their own higher level classes. Having a larger group at TJ allows them to offer these classes.
The number of kids who are ready for this is higher than you think, particularly for calculus in 10th grade.

After 126 pages this is the #1 point.

1. TJ should only be for kids who are truly advanced in math not all this woke bs with folks taking Algebra 1 in 8th and somehow getting in.
2. Most of the top tier AAP feeder high schools have a big enough cohort to have entire classes advanced at this level so TJ isn't needed.
3. TJ should just be shut down at this point it's redundant.

TLDR TJ should only be for rich kids and not serve the greater community

DP. The tl;dr should be that TJ is meant to match kids with the appropriate level of service and meet the needs of kids who cannot have their needs met at their base school. Obviously, there will be kids at Langley who can have their needs met at their base school who are objectively stronger students than some kids at Annandale High school who can't have their needs met there. It's not at all a problem to admit kids who are outliers at their base schools, even if the definition of an outlier varies by school.

But, FCPS does have a small cohort of kids who are taking Calculus in either 8th or 9th grade. Those kids will not have an adequate peer group nor will they have adequate course offerings at their base school, since almost every FCPS base school only offers one year of DE post-calculus math. TJ has a wealth of post calc math classes that they will no longer be able to offer if they lack sufficient cohort of kids who are that advanced. It logistically makes the most sense to place the kids who are exceptionally advanced and who will quite literally run out of classes at the base school at a school like TJ, which has the appropriate classes. It likewise makes little sense to place kids at TJ who are unlikely to need anything. beyond the standard AP Calc and AP Science classes offered at every FCPS high school.

It's not sufficient to be advanced by course (don't even think it's necessary). These days there are many "advanced" kids who have big mathematical gaps (can barely reason geometrically, may not even be fully comfortable with some algebraic manipulations, etc.). What's far more important (and harder to do) is for kids to develop strong problem solving skills, i.e be able to figure out and solve things that they don't initially know how to do right away. One good proxy for this skill is being good at math contests. In fact I don't even think "advanced" is necessary, only problem solving skills are, to be able to succeed at TJ. I'd take kids who do very well on the AMC 10 and above contests any day over kids who were accelerated in base school math classes with nothing else to show, and the reason is that there is no problem solving skills being taught in K12 math classes, even calculus.

They aren't looking for advanced problem solvers either. Each of the last two years, an 8th grade JMO qualifier got rejected from TJ.

I'm not even specifically stating that kids with high AMC 10 scores or kids taking Calculus in 8th or 9th grade ought to be guaranteed admissions. I think that if a child is taking precalc in 8th, has straight As throughout, and has qualified for AIME a couple times, that kid is the real deal. Kids like this should undoubtedly be accepted to TJ. I would not be surprised if the majority of kids that FCPS has accelerated to Algebra in 5th or earlier would fit this profile.

Agreed, these days it's not that easy to pass the AMC 10, they've gotten quite difficult in recent years and kids who can do it would definitely thrive in math/science classes at TJ. They should do admit them, but they obviously can't advertise or give out any information as that would just spark an even worse parent arms race of acceleration than what we currently have.

I had to pay for all kinds of outside enrichment and badger the principal at my child's ES to ensure they could take calculus in 8th. I mean if I hadn't done all that god forbid they'd be back in honors geometry like their peers, but it was worth the $20k in prep to guarantee them a spot at TJ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“And they took away teacher recommendations. If they cared about taking high achieving students they would not have done that…“

Bet that it was the teachers who did not want to write recommendations each year..TJ just respected their opinions..

they already have enough BS to deal with, including being outed to Youngkin for teaching so called CRT

Youngkin proposed something about transgender, pronouns etc last week? But, I would have rather preferred an announcement that they were planning to fund additional STEM academies in Virginia.. oh well.

Interesting because I’ve been reading in other threads that the best STEM schools other than TJ are the existing top neighborhood schools with lots of challenging math/science courses and that courses with STEM just stuck in their names often are poorly taught or nothing special. So just creating more “STEM academies” sounds more like PR than anything else.

Being able to take calculus in 9th or 10th grade and continuing this progression without having to go to a community college or take classes online, is not PR.

You don’t have to be a “STEM academy” to do this. You just need to offer challenging classes. And why push calculus on 9th graders unless they are truly ready?

The number who are truly ready is generally so low that schools can't offer their own higher level classes. Having a larger group at TJ allows them to offer these classes.
The number of kids who are ready for this is higher than you think, particularly for calculus in 10th grade.

After 126 pages this is the #1 point.

1. TJ should only be for kids who are truly advanced in math not all this woke bs with folks taking Algebra 1 in 8th and somehow getting in.
2. Most of the top tier AAP feeder high schools have a big enough cohort to have entire classes advanced at this level so TJ isn't needed.
3. TJ should just be shut down at this point it's redundant.

TLDR TJ should only be for rich kids and not serve the greater community

DP. The tl;dr should be that TJ is meant to match kids with the appropriate level of service and meet the needs of kids who cannot have their needs met at their base school. Obviously, there will be kids at Langley who can have their needs met at their base school who are objectively stronger students than some kids at Annandale High school who can't have their needs met there. It's not at all a problem to admit kids who are outliers at their base schools, even if the definition of an outlier varies by school.

But, FCPS does have a small cohort of kids who are taking Calculus in either 8th or 9th grade. Those kids will not have an adequate peer group nor will they have adequate course offerings at their base school, since almost every FCPS base school only offers one year of DE post-calculus math. TJ has a wealth of post calc math classes that they will no longer be able to offer if they lack sufficient cohort of kids who are that advanced. It logistically makes the most sense to place the kids who are exceptionally advanced and who will quite literally run out of classes at the base school at a school like TJ, which has the appropriate classes. It likewise makes little sense to place kids at TJ who are unlikely to need anything. beyond the standard AP Calc and AP Science classes offered at every FCPS high school.

It's not sufficient to be advanced by course (don't even think it's necessary). These days there are many "advanced" kids who have big mathematical gaps (can barely reason geometrically, may not even be fully comfortable with some algebraic manipulations, etc.). What's far more important (and harder to do) is for kids to develop strong problem solving skills, i.e be able to figure out and solve things that they don't initially know how to do right away. One good proxy for this skill is being good at math contests. In fact I don't even think "advanced" is necessary, only problem solving skills are, to be able to succeed at TJ. I'd take kids who do very well on the AMC 10 and above contests any day over kids who were accelerated in base school math classes with nothing else to show, and the reason is that there is no problem solving skills being taught in K12 math classes, even calculus.

They aren't looking for advanced problem solvers either. Each of the last two years, an 8th grade JMO qualifier got rejected from TJ.

I'm not even specifically stating that kids with high AMC 10 scores or kids taking Calculus in 8th or 9th grade ought to be guaranteed admissions. I think that if a child is taking precalc in 8th, has straight As throughout, and has qualified for AIME a couple times, that kid is the real deal. Kids like this should undoubtedly be accepted to TJ. I would not be surprised if the majority of kids that FCPS has accelerated to Algebra in 5th or earlier would fit this profile.

Agreed, these days it's not that easy to pass the AMC 10, they've gotten quite difficult in recent years and kids who can do it would definitely thrive in math/science classes at TJ. They should do admit them, but they obviously can't advertise or give out any information as that would just spark an even worse parent arms race of acceleration than what we currently have.

I had to pay for all kinds of outside enrichment and badger the principal at my child's ES to ensure they could take calculus in 8th. I mean if I hadn't done all that god forbid they'd be back in honors geometry like their peers, but it was worth the $20k in prep to guarantee them a spot at TJ.

lol love it

this isn't about race this is about a bunch of prepping robots with no actual knowledge or depth. P.S. these same kids have terrible college admissions given their high stats. Why, we need leaders and innovators who are also smart. The test prepping rote memorization is not the winning ticket some folks think it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
So basically if I get my kid way ahead by signing them up for outside math they should automatically get into to TJ?

Signing up for outside math is not the same as being capable of advanced math.

That's the key point. In the United States it's not common or expected to be signing up for additional schoolwork especially if your kid is already above grade level.

These are all actions that are common in other countries. It's time to stop servicing folks who are in Calculus in 9th or 10th not because they are actually talented but because they have been suppplemented at home or in official afterschool sessions/classes for years priors.

There are many kids who would be "advanced" in math if they spent double the normal time on math; outside of school in addition to in-school instruction.

Like it or, you xenophobic moron, this is the United States. These are people legally in the US contributing to the economy. Maybe even your boss. So you can't wish them away with your nonsense. If people like you were in charge we wouldn't have had great universities, nuclear capabilities and so many other things in this country. All of that came from outside the United States. Deal with it!

Guess what these test prepping fools aren't the smartest kids. You know what makes the US better than those Asian countries creativity and real understanding. There are so many of these prepped kids who have no depth. It's all drill and kill. Deal with that.

DP cutting into this argument chain... you're making creativity about race, which is not accurate. In fact, academically, other races exhibit just as much creativity (and certainly real understanding of academics) compared to American peers. I partially agree with what you're trying to say though, which is that Asians cultures tend to act less creatively because they follow a narrower set of norms when it comes to many things, education included, so everyone 'looks alike'. However you're not seeing the deeper picture, you talk technology i.e "nuclear capabilities" and call it US superiority, but are you aware that most cutting edge tech research in the US is done by Asians? We have an amazing system of drawing the best and the brightest here to the US to work in science, mathematics, technology, and without them working here we wouldn't be technologically superior. It takes a lot of intelligence, creativity, hard work, and luck to succeed in these fields, and sadly America does not organically produce nowhere nearly enough capable people to handle the demand we have for advancing these fields.

As to "prepping", again this is more dependent on individual families as to how they implement it on their kids, they can do it creatively where their kids are getting genuine, enriching, stimulation, or they can slowly "drill and kill" the creativity out of them which seems to be what you are referring to.

You are arguing using logic with a lazy, racist xenophobe. waste of breath.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“And they took away teacher recommendations. If they cared about taking high achieving students they would not have done that…“

Bet that it was the teachers who did not want to write recommendations each year..TJ just respected their opinions..

they already have enough BS to deal with, including being outed to Youngkin for teaching so called CRT

Youngkin proposed something about transgender, pronouns etc last week? But, I would have rather preferred an announcement that they were planning to fund additional STEM academies in Virginia.. oh well.

Interesting because I’ve been reading in other threads that the best STEM schools other than TJ are the existing top neighborhood schools with lots of challenging math/science courses and that courses with STEM just stuck in their names often are poorly taught or nothing special. So just creating more “STEM academies” sounds more like PR than anything else.

Being able to take calculus in 9th or 10th grade and continuing this progression without having to go to a community college or take classes online, is not PR.

You don’t have to be a “STEM academy” to do this. You just need to offer challenging classes. And why push calculus on 9th graders unless they are truly ready?

The number who are truly ready is generally so low that schools can't offer their own higher level classes. Having a larger group at TJ allows them to offer these classes.
The number of kids who are ready for this is higher than you think, particularly for calculus in 10th grade.

After 126 pages this is the #1 point.

1. TJ should only be for kids who are truly advanced in math not all this woke bs with folks taking Algebra 1 in 8th and somehow getting in.
2. Most of the top tier AAP feeder high schools have a big enough cohort to have entire classes advanced at this level so TJ isn't needed.
3. TJ should just be shut down at this point it's redundant.

TLDR TJ should only be for rich kids and not serve the greater community

DP. The tl;dr should be that TJ is meant to match kids with the appropriate level of service and meet the needs of kids who cannot have their needs met at their base school. Obviously, there will be kids at Langley who can have their needs met at their base school who are objectively stronger students than some kids at Annandale High school who can't have their needs met there. It's not at all a problem to admit kids who are outliers at their base schools, even if the definition of an outlier varies by school.

But, FCPS does have a small cohort of kids who are taking Calculus in either 8th or 9th grade. Those kids will not have an adequate peer group nor will they have adequate course offerings at their base school, since almost every FCPS base school only offers one year of DE post-calculus math. TJ has a wealth of post calc math classes that they will no longer be able to offer if they lack sufficient cohort of kids who are that advanced. It logistically makes the most sense to place the kids who are exceptionally advanced and who will quite literally run out of classes at the base school at a school like TJ, which has the appropriate classes. It likewise makes little sense to place kids at TJ who are unlikely to need anything. beyond the standard AP Calc and AP Science classes offered at every FCPS high school.

It's not sufficient to be advanced by course (don't even think it's necessary). These days there are many "advanced" kids who have big mathematical gaps (can barely reason geometrically, may not even be fully comfortable with some algebraic manipulations, etc.). What's far more important (and harder to do) is for kids to develop strong problem solving skills, i.e be able to figure out and solve things that they don't initially know how to do right away. One good proxy for this skill is being good at math contests. In fact I don't even think "advanced" is necessary, only problem solving skills are, to be able to succeed at TJ. I'd take kids who do very well on the AMC 10 and above contests any day over kids who were accelerated in base school math classes with nothing else to show, and the reason is that there is no problem solving skills being taught in K12 math classes, even calculus.

They aren't looking for advanced problem solvers either. Each of the last two years, an 8th grade JMO qualifier got rejected from TJ.

I'm not even specifically stating that kids with high AMC 10 scores or kids taking Calculus in 8th or 9th grade ought to be guaranteed admissions. I think that if a child is taking precalc in 8th, has straight As throughout, and has qualified for AIME a couple times, that kid is the real deal. Kids like this should undoubtedly be accepted to TJ. I would not be surprised if the majority of kids that FCPS has accelerated to Algebra in 5th or earlier would fit this profile.

Agreed, these days it's not that easy to pass the AMC 10, they've gotten quite difficult in recent years and kids who can do it would definitely thrive in math/science classes at TJ. They should do admit them, but they obviously can't advertise or give out any information as that would just spark an even worse parent arms race of acceleration than what we currently have.

I had to pay for all kinds of outside enrichment and badger the principal at my child's ES to ensure they could take calculus in 8th. I mean if I hadn't done all that god forbid they'd be back in honors geometry like their peers, but it was worth the $20k in prep to guarantee them a spot at TJ.

It doesn't work that way. You can't badger the principal to a point that they accelerate your kid. The principal does not even have unilateral power to skip your kid ahead. FCPS has protocols, and Gatehouse has to agree with and sign off on the acceleration. It will not happen for a typical kid who is bright but not gifted and heavily enriched. Gatehouse will not see whatever metrics it wishes to see, and it will say no. It's one of the reasons that so few kids are accelerated beyond the standard track in math, despite the pushiness of parents in FCPS.

I don't know what the protocols are for skips to Algebra in 5th or earlier. For Algebra in 6th, the kid has to have a 145+ CogAT Quant, a 575+ on the 4th grade math SOL, and the teacher's recommendation to be allowed to take another pretty comprehensive test provided by Gatehouse. If the kid passes, then they can take 6th grade AAP math while in 5th. They then have to meet the IAAT and SOL benchmarks for Algebra the next year. Gatehouse is pretty inflexible with these criteria, and it wouldn't be possible for a parent to whine their way in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“And they took away teacher recommendations. If they cared about taking high achieving students they would not have done that…“

Bet that it was the teachers who did not want to write recommendations each year..TJ just respected their opinions..

they already have enough BS to deal with, including being outed to Youngkin for teaching so called CRT

Youngkin proposed something about transgender, pronouns etc last week? But, I would have rather preferred an announcement that they were planning to fund additional STEM academies in Virginia.. oh well.

Interesting because I’ve been reading in other threads that the best STEM schools other than TJ are the existing top neighborhood schools with lots of challenging math/science courses and that courses with STEM just stuck in their names often are poorly taught or nothing special. So just creating more “STEM academies” sounds more like PR than anything else.

Being able to take calculus in 9th or 10th grade and continuing this progression without having to go to a community college or take classes online, is not PR.

You don’t have to be a “STEM academy” to do this. You just need to offer challenging classes. And why push calculus on 9th graders unless they are truly ready?

The number who are truly ready is generally so low that schools can't offer their own higher level classes. Having a larger group at TJ allows them to offer these classes.
The number of kids who are ready for this is higher than you think, particularly for calculus in 10th grade.

After 126 pages this is the #1 point.

1. TJ should only be for kids who are truly advanced in math not all this woke bs with folks taking Algebra 1 in 8th and somehow getting in.
2. Most of the top tier AAP feeder high schools have a big enough cohort to have entire classes advanced at this level so TJ isn't needed.
3. TJ should just be shut down at this point it's redundant.

TLDR TJ should only be for rich kids and not serve the greater community

DP. The tl;dr should be that TJ is meant to match kids with the appropriate level of service and meet the needs of kids who cannot have their needs met at their base school. Obviously, there will be kids at Langley who can have their needs met at their base school who are objectively stronger students than some kids at Annandale High school who can't have their needs met there. It's not at all a problem to admit kids who are outliers at their base schools, even if the definition of an outlier varies by school.

But, FCPS does have a small cohort of kids who are taking Calculus in either 8th or 9th grade. Those kids will not have an adequate peer group nor will they have adequate course offerings at their base school, since almost every FCPS base school only offers one year of DE post-calculus math. TJ has a wealth of post calc math classes that they will no longer be able to offer if they lack sufficient cohort of kids who are that advanced. It logistically makes the most sense to place the kids who are exceptionally advanced and who will quite literally run out of classes at the base school at a school like TJ, which has the appropriate classes. It likewise makes little sense to place kids at TJ who are unlikely to need anything. beyond the standard AP Calc and AP Science classes offered at every FCPS high school.

It's not sufficient to be advanced by course (don't even think it's necessary). These days there are many "advanced" kids who have big mathematical gaps (can barely reason geometrically, may not even be fully comfortable with some algebraic manipulations, etc.). What's far more important (and harder to do) is for kids to develop strong problem solving skills, i.e be able to figure out and solve things that they don't initially know how to do right away. One good proxy for this skill is being good at math contests. In fact I don't even think "advanced" is necessary, only problem solving skills are, to be able to succeed at TJ. I'd take kids who do very well on the AMC 10 and above contests any day over kids who were accelerated in base school math classes with nothing else to show, and the reason is that there is no problem solving skills being taught in K12 math classes, even calculus.

They aren't looking for advanced problem solvers either. Each of the last two years, an 8th grade JMO qualifier got rejected from TJ.

I'm not even specifically stating that kids with high AMC 10 scores or kids taking Calculus in 8th or 9th grade ought to be guaranteed admissions. I think that if a child is taking precalc in 8th, has straight As throughout, and has qualified for AIME a couple times, that kid is the real deal. Kids like this should undoubtedly be accepted to TJ. I would not be surprised if the majority of kids that FCPS has accelerated to Algebra in 5th or earlier would fit this profile.

Agreed, these days it's not that easy to pass the AMC 10, they've gotten quite difficult in recent years and kids who can do it would definitely thrive in math/science classes at TJ. They should do admit them, but they obviously can't advertise or give out any information as that would just spark an even worse parent arms race of acceleration than what we currently have.

I had to pay for all kinds of outside enrichment and badger the principal at my child's ES to ensure they could take calculus in 8th. I mean if I hadn't done all that god forbid they'd be back in honors geometry like their peers, but it was worth the $20k in prep to guarantee them a spot at TJ.

I know! It's gotten so expensive to get your kid into TJ these days and the board of education is to blame!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“And they took away teacher recommendations. If they cared about taking high achieving students they would not have done that…“

Bet that it was the teachers who did not want to write recommendations each year..TJ just respected their opinions..

they already have enough BS to deal with, including being outed to Youngkin for teaching so called CRT

Youngkin proposed something about transgender, pronouns etc last week? But, I would have rather preferred an announcement that they were planning to fund additional STEM academies in Virginia.. oh well.

Interesting because I’ve been reading in other threads that the best STEM schools other than TJ are the existing top neighborhood schools with lots of challenging math/science courses and that courses with STEM just stuck in their names often are poorly taught or nothing special. So just creating more “STEM academies” sounds more like PR than anything else.

Being able to take calculus in 9th or 10th grade and continuing this progression without having to go to a community college or take classes online, is not PR.

You don’t have to be a “STEM academy” to do this. You just need to offer challenging classes. And why push calculus on 9th graders unless they are truly ready?

The number who are truly ready is generally so low that schools can't offer their own higher level classes. Having a larger group at TJ allows them to offer these classes.
The number of kids who are ready for this is higher than you think, particularly for calculus in 10th grade.

After 126 pages this is the #1 point.

1. TJ should only be for kids who are truly advanced in math not all this woke bs with folks taking Algebra 1 in 8th and somehow getting in.
2. Most of the top tier AAP feeder high schools have a big enough cohort to have entire classes advanced at this level so TJ isn't needed.
3. TJ should just be shut down at this point it's redundant.

TLDR TJ should only be for rich kids and not serve the greater community

DP. The tl;dr should be that TJ is meant to match kids with the appropriate level of service and meet the needs of kids who cannot have their needs met at their base school. Obviously, there will be kids at Langley who can have their needs met at their base school who are objectively stronger students than some kids at Annandale High school who can't have their needs met there. It's not at all a problem to admit kids who are outliers at their base schools, even if the definition of an outlier varies by school.

But, FCPS does have a small cohort of kids who are taking Calculus in either 8th or 9th grade. Those kids will not have an adequate peer group nor will they have adequate course offerings at their base school, since almost every FCPS base school only offers one year of DE post-calculus math. TJ has a wealth of post calc math classes that they will no longer be able to offer if they lack sufficient cohort of kids who are that advanced. It logistically makes the most sense to place the kids who are exceptionally advanced and who will quite literally run out of classes at the base school at a school like TJ, which has the appropriate classes. It likewise makes little sense to place kids at TJ who are unlikely to need anything. beyond the standard AP Calc and AP Science classes offered at every FCPS high school.

It's not sufficient to be advanced by course (don't even think it's necessary). These days there are many "advanced" kids who have big mathematical gaps (can barely reason geometrically, may not even be fully comfortable with some algebraic manipulations, etc.). What's far more important (and harder to do) is for kids to develop strong problem solving skills, i.e be able to figure out and solve things that they don't initially know how to do right away. One good proxy for this skill is being good at math contests. In fact I don't even think "advanced" is necessary, only problem solving skills are, to be able to succeed at TJ. I'd take kids who do very well on the AMC 10 and above contests any day over kids who were accelerated in base school math classes with nothing else to show, and the reason is that there is no problem solving skills being taught in K12 math classes, even calculus.

They aren't looking for advanced problem solvers either. Each of the last two years, an 8th grade JMO qualifier got rejected from TJ.

I'm not even specifically stating that kids with high AMC 10 scores or kids taking Calculus in 8th or 9th grade ought to be guaranteed admissions. I think that if a child is taking precalc in 8th, has straight As throughout, and has qualified for AIME a couple times, that kid is the real deal. Kids like this should undoubtedly be accepted to TJ. I would not be surprised if the majority of kids that FCPS has accelerated to Algebra in 5th or earlier would fit this profile.

Agreed, these days it's not that easy to pass the AMC 10, they've gotten quite difficult in recent years and kids who can do it would definitely thrive in math/science classes at TJ. They should do admit them, but they obviously can't advertise or give out any information as that would just spark an even worse parent arms race of acceleration than what we currently have.

I had to pay for all kinds of outside enrichment and badger the principal at my child's ES to ensure they could take calculus in 8th. I mean if I hadn't done all that god forbid they'd be back in honors geometry like their peers, but it was worth the $20k in prep to guarantee them a spot at TJ.

It doesn't work that way. You can't badger the principal to a point that they accelerate your kid. The principal does not even have unilateral power to skip your kid ahead. FCPS has protocols, and Gatehouse has to agree with and sign off on the acceleration. It will not happen for a typical kid who is bright but not gifted and heavily enriched. Gatehouse will not see whatever metrics it wishes to see, and it will say no. It's one of the reasons that so few kids are accelerated beyond the standard track in math, despite the pushiness of parents in FCPS.

I don't know what the protocols are for skips to Algebra in 5th or earlier. For Algebra in 6th, the kid has to have a 145+ CogAT Quant, a 575+ on the 4th grade math SOL, and the teacher's recommendation to be allowed to take another pretty comprehensive test provided by Gatehouse. If the kid passes, then they can take 6th grade AAP math while in 5th. They then have to meet the IAAT and SOL benchmarks for Algebra the next year. Gatehouse is pretty inflexible with these criteria, and it wouldn't be possible for a parent to whine their way in.

I did at our school. They normally won't provide acceleration past a year but if you push hard enough anything is possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“And they took away teacher recommendations. If they cared about taking high achieving students they would not have done that…“

Bet that it was the teachers who did not want to write recommendations each year..TJ just respected their opinions..

they already have enough BS to deal with, including being outed to Youngkin for teaching so called CRT

Youngkin proposed something about transgender, pronouns etc last week? But, I would have rather preferred an announcement that they were planning to fund additional STEM academies in Virginia.. oh well.

Interesting because I’ve been reading in other threads that the best STEM schools other than TJ are the existing top neighborhood schools with lots of challenging math/science courses and that courses with STEM just stuck in their names often are poorly taught or nothing special. So just creating more “STEM academies” sounds more like PR than anything else.

Being able to take calculus in 9th or 10th grade and continuing this progression without having to go to a community college or take classes online, is not PR.

You don’t have to be a “STEM academy” to do this. You just need to offer challenging classes. And why push calculus on 9th graders unless they are truly ready?

The number who are truly ready is generally so low that schools can't offer their own higher level classes. Having a larger group at TJ allows them to offer these classes.
The number of kids who are ready for this is higher than you think, particularly for calculus in 10th grade.

After 126 pages this is the #1 point.

1. TJ should only be for kids who are truly advanced in math not all this woke bs with folks taking Algebra 1 in 8th and somehow getting in.
2. Most of the top tier AAP feeder high schools have a big enough cohort to have entire classes advanced at this level so TJ isn't needed.
3. TJ should just be shut down at this point it's redundant.

TLDR TJ should only be for rich kids and not serve the greater community

DP. The tl;dr should be that TJ is meant to match kids with the appropriate level of service and meet the needs of kids who cannot have their needs met at their base school. Obviously, there will be kids at Langley who can have their needs met at their base school who are objectively stronger students than some kids at Annandale High school who can't have their needs met there. It's not at all a problem to admit kids who are outliers at their base schools, even if the definition of an outlier varies by school.

But, FCPS does have a small cohort of kids who are taking Calculus in either 8th or 9th grade. Those kids will not have an adequate peer group nor will they have adequate course offerings at their base school, since almost every FCPS base school only offers one year of DE post-calculus math. TJ has a wealth of post calc math classes that they will no longer be able to offer if they lack sufficient cohort of kids who are that advanced. It logistically makes the most sense to place the kids who are exceptionally advanced and who will quite literally run out of classes at the base school at a school like TJ, which has the appropriate classes. It likewise makes little sense to place kids at TJ who are unlikely to need anything. beyond the standard AP Calc and AP Science classes offered at every FCPS high school.

It's not sufficient to be advanced by course (don't even think it's necessary). These days there are many "advanced" kids who have big mathematical gaps (can barely reason geometrically, may not even be fully comfortable with some algebraic manipulations, etc.). What's far more important (and harder to do) is for kids to develop strong problem solving skills, i.e be able to figure out and solve things that they don't initially know how to do right away. One good proxy for this skill is being good at math contests. In fact I don't even think "advanced" is necessary, only problem solving skills are, to be able to succeed at TJ. I'd take kids who do very well on the AMC 10 and above contests any day over kids who were accelerated in base school math classes with nothing else to show, and the reason is that there is no problem solving skills being taught in K12 math classes, even calculus.

They aren't looking for advanced problem solvers either. Each of the last two years, an 8th grade JMO qualifier got rejected from TJ.

I'm not even specifically stating that kids with high AMC 10 scores or kids taking Calculus in 8th or 9th grade ought to be guaranteed admissions. I think that if a child is taking precalc in 8th, has straight As throughout, and has qualified for AIME a couple times, that kid is the real deal. Kids like this should undoubtedly be accepted to TJ. I would not be surprised if the majority of kids that FCPS has accelerated to Algebra in 5th or earlier would fit this profile.

Agreed, these days it's not that easy to pass the AMC 10, they've gotten quite difficult in recent years and kids who can do it would definitely thrive in math/science classes at TJ. They should do admit them, but they obviously can't advertise or give out any information as that would just spark an even worse parent arms race of acceleration than what we currently have.

I had to pay for all kinds of outside enrichment and badger the principal at my child's ES to ensure they could take calculus in 8th. I mean if I hadn't done all that god forbid they'd be back in honors geometry like their peers, but it was worth the $20k in prep to guarantee them a spot at TJ.

It doesn't work that way. You can't badger the principal to a point that they accelerate your kid. The principal does not even have unilateral power to skip your kid ahead. FCPS has protocols, and Gatehouse has to agree with and sign off on the acceleration. It will not happen for a typical kid who is bright but not gifted and heavily enriched. Gatehouse will not see whatever metrics it wishes to see, and it will say no. It's one of the reasons that so few kids are accelerated beyond the standard track in math, despite the pushiness of parents in FCPS.

I don't know what the protocols are for skips to Algebra in 5th or earlier. For Algebra in 6th, the kid has to have a 145+ CogAT Quant, a 575+ on the 4th grade math SOL, and the teacher's recommendation to be allowed to take another pretty comprehensive test provided by Gatehouse. If the kid passes, then they can take 6th grade AAP math while in 5th. They then have to meet the IAAT and SOL benchmarks for Algebra the next year. Gatehouse is pretty inflexible with these criteria, and it wouldn't be possible for a parent to whine their way in.

I did at our school. They normally won't provide acceleration past a year but if you push hard enough anything is possible.

Why is all this acceleration needed. Yall are ridiculous

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
So basically if I get my kid way ahead by signing them up for outside math they should automatically get into to TJ?

Signing up for outside math is not the same as being capable of advanced math.

But see, you made the pro-reform folks' point for them. The vast majority of kids at TJ who are currently in advanced math are there because their parents signed them up for "outside math". And then they run into a buzzsaw when they get to TJ because it get serious and they don't have the talent to handle it without giving up everything else in their lives and staying up until midnight or later every night - or worse yet, taking additional tutoring.

The true talent at TJ is obscured by these kids, who are referred to as the "try-hards". Those kids still get As more often than not at TJ, but they do poorly in the college admissions process relative to their peers because they don't have the real extracurricular heft to support their applications - they just have the same crap that the other TJ try-hards have (Model UN, Debate, Crew, Cross Country, etc.)

For this reason, it doesn't make sense to limit TJ to kids who present as "capable of advanced math" because at this point, the prep industry has made that phrase meaningless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“And they took away teacher recommendations. If they cared about taking high achieving students they would not have done that…“

Bet that it was the teachers who did not want to write recommendations each year..TJ just respected their opinions..

they already have enough BS to deal with, including being outed to Youngkin for teaching so called CRT

Youngkin proposed something about transgender, pronouns etc last week? But, I would have rather preferred an announcement that they were planning to fund additional STEM academies in Virginia.. oh well.

Interesting because I’ve been reading in other threads that the best STEM schools other than TJ are the existing top neighborhood schools with lots of challenging math/science courses and that courses with STEM just stuck in their names often are poorly taught or nothing special. So just creating more “STEM academies” sounds more like PR than anything else.

Being able to take calculus in 9th or 10th grade and continuing this progression without having to go to a community college or take classes online, is not PR.

You don’t have to be a “STEM academy” to do this. You just need to offer challenging classes. And why push calculus on 9th graders unless they are truly ready?

The number who are truly ready is generally so low that schools can't offer their own higher level classes. Having a larger group at TJ allows them to offer these classes.
The number of kids who are ready for this is higher than you think, particularly for calculus in 10th grade.

After 126 pages this is the #1 point.

1. TJ should only be for kids who are truly advanced in math not all this woke bs with folks taking Algebra 1 in 8th and somehow getting in.
2. Most of the top tier AAP feeder high schools have a big enough cohort to have entire classes advanced at this level so TJ isn't needed.
3. TJ should just be shut down at this point it's redundant.

TLDR TJ should only be for rich kids and not serve the greater community

DP. The tl;dr should be that TJ is meant to match kids with the appropriate level of service and meet the needs of kids who cannot have their needs met at their base school. Obviously, there will be kids at Langley who can have their needs met at their base school who are objectively stronger students than some kids at Annandale High school who can't have their needs met there. It's not at all a problem to admit kids who are outliers at their base schools, even if the definition of an outlier varies by school.

But, FCPS does have a small cohort of kids who are taking Calculus in either 8th or 9th grade. Those kids will not have an adequate peer group nor will they have adequate course offerings at their base school, since almost every FCPS base school only offers one year of DE post-calculus math. TJ has a wealth of post calc math classes that they will no longer be able to offer if they lack sufficient cohort of kids who are that advanced. It logistically makes the most sense to place the kids who are exceptionally advanced and who will quite literally run out of classes at the base school at a school like TJ, which has the appropriate classes. It likewise makes little sense to place kids at TJ who are unlikely to need anything. beyond the standard AP Calc and AP Science classes offered at every FCPS high school.

It's not sufficient to be advanced by course (don't even think it's necessary). These days there are many "advanced" kids who have big mathematical gaps (can barely reason geometrically, may not even be fully comfortable with some algebraic manipulations, etc.). What's far more important (and harder to do) is for kids to develop strong problem solving skills, i.e be able to figure out and solve things that they don't initially know how to do right away. One good proxy for this skill is being good at math contests. In fact I don't even think "advanced" is necessary, only problem solving skills are, to be able to succeed at TJ. I'd take kids who do very well on the AMC 10 and above contests any day over kids who were accelerated in base school math classes with nothing else to show, and the reason is that there is no problem solving skills being taught in K12 math classes, even calculus.

They aren't looking for advanced problem solvers either. Each of the last two years, an 8th grade JMO qualifier got rejected from TJ.

I'm not even specifically stating that kids with high AMC 10 scores or kids taking Calculus in 8th or 9th grade ought to be guaranteed admissions. I think that if a child is taking precalc in 8th, has straight As throughout, and has qualified for AIME a couple times, that kid is the real deal. Kids like this should undoubtedly be accepted to TJ. I would not be surprised if the majority of kids that FCPS has accelerated to Algebra in 5th or earlier would fit this profile.

Agreed, these days it's not that easy to pass the AMC 10, they've gotten quite difficult in recent years and kids who can do it would definitely thrive in math/science classes at TJ. They should do admit them, but they obviously can't advertise or give out any information as that would just spark an even worse parent arms race of acceleration than what we currently have.

I had to pay for all kinds of outside enrichment and badger the principal at my child's ES to ensure they could take calculus in 8th. I mean if I hadn't done all that god forbid they'd be back in honors geometry like their peers, but it was worth the $20k in prep to guarantee them a spot at TJ.

It doesn't work that way. You can't badger the principal to a point that they accelerate your kid. The principal does not even have unilateral power to skip your kid ahead. FCPS has protocols, and Gatehouse has to agree with and sign off on the acceleration. It will not happen for a typical kid who is bright but not gifted and heavily enriched. Gatehouse will not see whatever metrics it wishes to see, and it will say no. It's one of the reasons that so few kids are accelerated beyond the standard track in math, despite the pushiness of parents in FCPS.

I don't know what the protocols are for skips to Algebra in 5th or earlier. For Algebra in 6th, the kid has to have a 145+ CogAT Quant, a 575+ on the 4th grade math SOL, and the teacher's recommendation to be allowed to take another pretty comprehensive test provided by Gatehouse. If the kid passes, then they can take 6th grade AAP math while in 5th. They then have to meet the IAAT and SOL benchmarks for Algebra the next year. Gatehouse is pretty inflexible with these criteria, and it wouldn't be possible for a parent to whine their way in.

I did at our school. They normally won't provide acceleration past a year but if you push hard enough anything is possible.

Name the school or it didn't happen. FCPS does an excellent job of clamping down on parents pushing their kids ahead. Again, Gatehouse will not sign off on a skip just because the parents are complaining.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“And they took away teacher recommendations. If they cared about taking high achieving students they would not have done that…“

Bet that it was the teachers who did not want to write recommendations each year..TJ just respected their opinions..

they already have enough BS to deal with, including being outed to Youngkin for teaching so called CRT

Youngkin proposed something about transgender, pronouns etc last week? But, I would have rather preferred an announcement that they were planning to fund additional STEM academies in Virginia.. oh well.

Interesting because I’ve been reading in other threads that the best STEM schools other than TJ are the existing top neighborhood schools with lots of challenging math/science courses and that courses with STEM just stuck in their names often are poorly taught or nothing special. So just creating more “STEM academies” sounds more like PR than anything else.

Being able to take calculus in 9th or 10th grade and continuing this progression without having to go to a community college or take classes online, is not PR.

You don’t have to be a “STEM academy” to do this. You just need to offer challenging classes. And why push calculus on 9th graders unless they are truly ready?

The number who are truly ready is generally so low that schools can't offer their own higher level classes. Having a larger group at TJ allows them to offer these classes.
The number of kids who are ready for this is higher than you think, particularly for calculus in 10th grade.

After 126 pages this is the #1 point.

1. TJ should only be for kids who are truly advanced in math not all this woke bs with folks taking Algebra 1 in 8th and somehow getting in.
2. Most of the top tier AAP feeder high schools have a big enough cohort to have entire classes advanced at this level so TJ isn't needed.
3. TJ should just be shut down at this point it's redundant.

TLDR TJ should only be for rich kids and not serve the greater community

DP. The tl;dr should be that TJ is meant to match kids with the appropriate level of service and meet the needs of kids who cannot have their needs met at their base school. Obviously, there will be kids at Langley who can have their needs met at their base school who are objectively stronger students than some kids at Annandale High school who can't have their needs met there. It's not at all a problem to admit kids who are outliers at their base schools, even if the definition of an outlier varies by school.

But, FCPS does have a small cohort of kids who are taking Calculus in either 8th or 9th grade. Those kids will not have an adequate peer group nor will they have adequate course offerings at their base school, since almost every FCPS base school only offers one year of DE post-calculus math. TJ has a wealth of post calc math classes that they will no longer be able to offer if they lack sufficient cohort of kids who are that advanced. It logistically makes the most sense to place the kids who are exceptionally advanced and who will quite literally run out of classes at the base school at a school like TJ, which has the appropriate classes. It likewise makes little sense to place kids at TJ who are unlikely to need anything. beyond the standard AP Calc and AP Science classes offered at every FCPS high school.

It's not sufficient to be advanced by course (don't even think it's necessary). These days there are many "advanced" kids who have big mathematical gaps (can barely reason geometrically, may not even be fully comfortable with some algebraic manipulations, etc.). What's far more important (and harder to do) is for kids to develop strong problem solving skills, i.e be able to figure out and solve things that they don't initially know how to do right away. One good proxy for this skill is being good at math contests. In fact I don't even think "advanced" is necessary, only problem solving skills are, to be able to succeed at TJ. I'd take kids who do very well on the AMC 10 and above contests any day over kids who were accelerated in base school math classes with nothing else to show, and the reason is that there is no problem solving skills being taught in K12 math classes, even calculus.

They aren't looking for advanced problem solvers either. Each of the last two years, an 8th grade JMO qualifier got rejected from TJ.

I'm not even specifically stating that kids with high AMC 10 scores or kids taking Calculus in 8th or 9th grade ought to be guaranteed admissions. I think that if a child is taking precalc in 8th, has straight As throughout, and has qualified for AIME a couple times, that kid is the real deal. Kids like this should undoubtedly be accepted to TJ. I would not be surprised if the majority of kids that FCPS has accelerated to Algebra in 5th or earlier would fit this profile.

Agreed, these days it's not that easy to pass the AMC 10, they've gotten quite difficult in recent years and kids who can do it would definitely thrive in math/science classes at TJ. They should do admit them, but they obviously can't advertise or give out any information as that would just spark an even worse parent arms race of acceleration than what we currently have.

I had to pay for all kinds of outside enrichment and badger the principal at my child's ES to ensure they could take calculus in 8th. I mean if I hadn't done all that god forbid they'd be back in honors geometry like their peers, but it was worth the $20k in prep to guarantee them a spot at TJ.

It doesn't work that way. You can't badger the principal to a point that they accelerate your kid. The principal does not even have unilateral power to skip your kid ahead. FCPS has protocols, and Gatehouse has to agree with and sign off on the acceleration. It will not happen for a typical kid who is bright but not gifted and heavily enriched. Gatehouse will not see whatever metrics it wishes to see, and it will say no. It's one of the reasons that so few kids are accelerated beyond the standard track in math, despite the pushiness of parents in FCPS.

I don't know what the protocols are for skips to Algebra in 5th or earlier. For Algebra in 6th, the kid has to have a 145+ CogAT Quant, a 575+ on the 4th grade math SOL, and the teacher's recommendation to be allowed to take another pretty comprehensive test provided by Gatehouse. If the kid passes, then they can take 6th grade AAP math while in 5th. They then have to meet the IAAT and SOL benchmarks for Algebra the next year. Gatehouse is pretty inflexible with these criteria, and it wouldn't be possible for a parent to whine their way in.

I did at our school. They normally won't provide acceleration past a year but if you push hard enough anything is possible.

Name the school or it didn't happen. FCPS does an excellent job of clamping down on parents pushing their kids ahead. Again, Gatehouse will not sign off on a skip just because the parents are complaining.

You would be surprised because I know someone who did this too. It's ridiculous that Gatehouse let some kids in and others out just because of the parents.

[Anonymous]

Basis is a part of the problem too. In order to survive as a private school in McLean, they allowed all sorts of acceleration to Asian families who wanted an easy in to TJ after 8th grade. These students study math in the evenings after school and all weekend. I think it has lessened a little due to these AIME qualifiers not getting in to TJ with the admissions changes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“And they took away teacher recommendations. If they cared about taking high achieving students they would not have done that…“

Bet that it was the teachers who did not want to write recommendations each year..TJ just respected their opinions..

they already have enough BS to deal with, including being outed to Youngkin for teaching so called CRT

Youngkin proposed something about transgender, pronouns etc last week? But, I would have rather preferred an announcement that they were planning to fund additional STEM academies in Virginia.. oh well.

Interesting because I’ve been reading in other threads that the best STEM schools other than TJ are the existing top neighborhood schools with lots of challenging math/science courses and that courses with STEM just stuck in their names often are poorly taught or nothing special. So just creating more “STEM academies” sounds more like PR than anything else.

Being able to take calculus in 9th or 10th grade and continuing this progression without having to go to a community college or take classes online, is not PR.

You don’t have to be a “STEM academy” to do this. You just need to offer challenging classes. And why push calculus on 9th graders unless they are truly ready?

The number who are truly ready is generally so low that schools can't offer their own higher level classes. Having a larger group at TJ allows them to offer these classes.
The number of kids who are ready for this is higher than you think, particularly for calculus in 10th grade.

After 126 pages this is the #1 point.

1. TJ should only be for kids who are truly advanced in math not all this woke bs with folks taking Algebra 1 in 8th and somehow getting in.
2. Most of the top tier AAP feeder high schools have a big enough cohort to have entire classes advanced at this level so TJ isn't needed.
3. TJ should just be shut down at this point it's redundant.

TLDR TJ should only be for rich kids and not serve the greater community

DP. The tl;dr should be that TJ is meant to match kids with the appropriate level of service and meet the needs of kids who cannot have their needs met at their base school. Obviously, there will be kids at Langley who can have their needs met at their base school who are objectively stronger students than some kids at Annandale High school who can't have their needs met there. It's not at all a problem to admit kids who are outliers at their base schools, even if the definition of an outlier varies by school.

But, FCPS does have a small cohort of kids who are taking Calculus in either 8th or 9th grade. Those kids will not have an adequate peer group nor will they have adequate course offerings at their base school, since almost every FCPS base school only offers one year of DE post-calculus math. TJ has a wealth of post calc math classes that they will no longer be able to offer if they lack sufficient cohort of kids who are that advanced. It logistically makes the most sense to place the kids who are exceptionally advanced and who will quite literally run out of classes at the base school at a school like TJ, which has the appropriate classes. It likewise makes little sense to place kids at TJ who are unlikely to need anything. beyond the standard AP Calc and AP Science classes offered at every FCPS high school.

It's not sufficient to be advanced by course (don't even think it's necessary). These days there are many "advanced" kids who have big mathematical gaps (can barely reason geometrically, may not even be fully comfortable with some algebraic manipulations, etc.). What's far more important (and harder to do) is for kids to develop strong problem solving skills, i.e be able to figure out and solve things that they don't initially know how to do right away. One good proxy for this skill is being good at math contests. In fact I don't even think "advanced" is necessary, only problem solving skills are, to be able to succeed at TJ. I'd take kids who do very well on the AMC 10 and above contests any day over kids who were accelerated in base school math classes with nothing else to show, and the reason is that there is no problem solving skills being taught in K12 math classes, even calculus.

They aren't looking for advanced problem solvers either. Each of the last two years, an 8th grade JMO qualifier got rejected from TJ.

I'm not even specifically stating that kids with high AMC 10 scores or kids taking Calculus in 8th or 9th grade ought to be guaranteed admissions. I think that if a child is taking precalc in 8th, has straight As throughout, and has qualified for AIME a couple times, that kid is the real deal. Kids like this should undoubtedly be accepted to TJ. I would not be surprised if the majority of kids that FCPS has accelerated to Algebra in 5th or earlier would fit this profile.

Agreed, these days it's not that easy to pass the AMC 10, they've gotten quite difficult in recent years and kids who can do it would definitely thrive in math/science classes at TJ. They should do admit them, but they obviously can't advertise or give out any information as that would just spark an even worse parent arms race of acceleration than what we currently have.

I had to pay for all kinds of outside enrichment and badger the principal at my child's ES to ensure they could take calculus in 8th. I mean if I hadn't done all that god forbid they'd be back in honors geometry like their peers, but it was worth the $20k in prep to guarantee them a spot at TJ.

It doesn't work that way. You can't badger the principal to a point that they accelerate your kid. The principal does not even have unilateral power to skip your kid ahead. FCPS has protocols, and Gatehouse has to agree with and sign off on the acceleration. It will not happen for a typical kid who is bright but not gifted and heavily enriched. Gatehouse will not see whatever metrics it wishes to see, and it will say no. It's one of the reasons that so few kids are accelerated beyond the standard track in math, despite the pushiness of parents in FCPS.

I don't know what the protocols are for skips to Algebra in 5th or earlier. For Algebra in 6th, the kid has to have a 145+ CogAT Quant, a 575+ on the 4th grade math SOL, and the teacher's recommendation to be allowed to take another pretty comprehensive test provided by Gatehouse. If the kid passes, then they can take 6th grade AAP math while in 5th. They then have to meet the IAAT and SOL benchmarks for Algebra the next year. Gatehouse is pretty inflexible with these criteria, and it wouldn't be possible for a parent to whine their way in.

I did at our school. They normally won't provide acceleration past a year but if you push hard enough anything is possible.

Name the school or it didn't happen. FCPS does an excellent job of clamping down on parents pushing their kids ahead. Again, Gatehouse will not sign off on a skip just because the parents are complaining.

You would be surprised because I know someone who did this too. It's ridiculous that Gatehouse let some kids in and others out just because of the parents.

Again, name the school where this is happening. I also highly doubt that Gatehouse is even allowing this level of acceleration for kids who don't have multiple metrics (CogAT Q, iready, teacher recommendations, and a ton of FCPS internal testing) pointing toward the kid being an outlier. I've been through the process. Gatehouse is very rigid and very thorough with what it wants. My kid's AAP center had quite a lot of kids who were taking Algebra by 5th grade in their outside enrichment classes. All of those kids had to wait until 7th grade to take Algebra in FCPS.