TJ Commended Student Emails Released - Who is really responsible?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Uh, no, there are more commended students at TJ than semifinalists. He wanted to protect the feelings of the 20% or so of TJ students who were neither semifinalists nor commended.

THIS. And it states so in the emails

Ultimately, he did distribute them so his opinion about the "feelings" is moot.

It's not moot. He used it as a cover-up for why he didn't distribute them when the reality is he just forgot to do it. That's lying to a parent and it's not okay.

He used it as a reason for why they didn’t deliver the letters with much fanfare. Subtle but extremely important distinction there.

"Mr. Kosatka, you told me that you held these letters, in part, because you were concerned about handing them out around students who didn't receive the award."

This. Was. A. Lie.

And it was a lie to cover the fact that he forgot to do it.

We don't know what he actually said or what he meant by it.

Look, I think that the Coalition for TJ is the single worst thing to happen to the school in its existence. It's literally ripping the school apart at the seams, making it more difficult for the school to educate its students and maintain its position. I generally side with the school on most things. And I acknowledge that Yashar, like all of the major players on Asra's side in this, are Republican operatives who are hell bent on destroying public education.

But in reading this e-mail chain and digging into the facts surrounding the situation, there's only one conclusion you can come to, and that's that the DSS either lied to cover his ass or made a decision that was his and his alone to withhold these letters for whatever reason. Either of these are fireable offenses, neither of them should implicate the principal in any way because she CLEARLY wasn't on board with them, and neither of them should be inviting a damn state-level investigation.

Ya this is a big nothing but the far-right clowns are definitely out to destroy public education and sew grievance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The thing is, the issue is not whether the school administrators think there is value to being a NM Commended Student. That is not their role. The students earned that distinction the day they took their PSATs and the scores and cutoffs were established. The school’s only role is to distribute the letters to the students and let the student decide whether there is value in adding that award to their college and scholarship applications.

You may believe that it is a waste of resources for the state to investigate the handling of these commendations because you feel they are trivial. But what happens when the school withholds awards or information about your student because it is deemed trivial before the student (or you) have the opportunity to even see it? What happens if the administrator making the call doesn’t happen to share your worldview and values?

TJ did distribute the certificates. They just did it a little too slowly for any possible ED applications (for the rare kids who didn't already know their status).

They withheld them and only released them after several TJ parents started ASKING for them. That is not releasing them 'slowly'. They withheld them in 2020 and 2021 as well.

This is not right. There was an email posted by Arsa dated in September 2020, when TJ notified the students via Naviance and mentioned the certificate will be distributed in June 2021. It happened in the middle of the pandemic when no one was at school. For 2022 case, in you read the email posted by Arsa, the parent started to contact the school after they noticed the certificate dated in Sep 2022, however, received in the mid of November, and that is when the whole drama started.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The thing is, the issue is not whether the school administrators think there is value to being a NM Commended Student. That is not their role. The students earned that distinction the day they took their PSATs and the scores and cutoffs were established. The school’s only role is to distribute the letters to the students and let the student decide whether there is value in adding that award to their college and scholarship applications.

You may believe that it is a waste of resources for the state to investigate the handling of these commendations because you feel they are trivial. But what happens when the school withholds awards or information about your student because it is deemed trivial before the student (or you) have the opportunity to even see it? What happens if the administrator making the call doesn’t happen to share your worldview and values?

TJ did distribute the certificates. They just did it a little too slowly for any possible ED applications (for the rare kids who didn't already know their status).

Won't the kid be able to see their commended status on collegeboard and thus include that in their ED application regardless of whether or not someone told them they were commended? Based on my kid's recent PSAT score (he's in 11th grade), we already know he is/will be commended and intend to include that in the common app. At a school like TJ, everyone is hyper aware of these things and I'd be surprised if some kid is waiting for a certificate to confirm his status..

Exactly. These are bright, engaged kids. How many kids did this actually impact - any?

It's all faux outrage to push politics at the expense of TJ kids. Disgusting Republicans.

Agree. My kid went to TJ (graduated a couple of years ago). A large chunk of kids end up becoming NMF's and it didn't really affect college outcomes. In retrospect, he'd have been better off going to base HS. Other factors (race, etc.) in play that impact admissions way more than NMF status. I don't think TJ kids are targeting colleges where a 'commended' status will influence the outcome.

This is exactly correct. And here's the thing - getting to be a Commended Student is certainly... commendable, shall we say. It's a significant accomplishment, and the kids should have been notified in a timely manner.

But to assert that these kids' college prospects or futures were in any way damaged by the delay... if you're pushing that, you're proving that you have no idea how college admissions work, especially at a place like TJ. Period.

So by all means, continue to push that nonsense, and expose yourself as clueless.

And desperate. Sure seems like Republicans are freaking out after the November disappointments.

The more they push ridiculous hysteria the more they just look crazy and irrelevant.

You can expect a steady drip of stories like this from now until the November School Board elections. That's what all of this is about.

Instead of doing anything useful for FCPS maybe they can hold public clown show hearings just like Congress?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Uh, no, there are more commended students at TJ than semifinalists. He wanted to protect the feelings of the 20% or so of TJ students who were neither semifinalists nor commended.

THIS. And it states so in the emails

Ultimately, he did distribute them so his opinion about the "feelings" is moot.

It's not moot. He used it as a cover-up for why he didn't distribute them when the reality is he just forgot to do it. That's lying to a parent and it's not okay.

He used it as a reason for why they didn’t deliver the letters with much fanfare. Subtle but extremely important distinction there.

"Mr. Kosatka, you told me that you held these letters, in part, because you were concerned about handing them out around students who didn't receive the award."

This. Was. A. Lie.

And it was a lie to cover the fact that he forgot to do it.

I saw that as well. I’m not defending Kosatka and I think what he did was wrong, but I would like to point out that Yashar was already mad at him by this point. She had already accused him of lying to her. It’s important to remember that pretty much anything she says from that email on is not entirely trustworthy because she thinks he’s wronged her and no longer has any incentive to work in good faith with him. (Same goes if the roles were reversed, but we don’t have any letters like that.) It’s possible she got upset with him and either misremembered in the heat of the moment or deliberately misconstrued the situation because she knew this would eventually end up with Asra. We don’t know what was running through her head at the time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Uh, no, there are more commended students at TJ than semifinalists. He wanted to protect the feelings of the 20% or so of TJ students who were neither semifinalists nor commended.

THIS. And it states so in the emails

Ultimately, he did distribute them so his opinion about the "feelings" is moot.

It's not moot. He used it as a cover-up for why he didn't distribute them when the reality is he just forgot to do it. That's lying to a parent and it's not okay.

He used it as a reason for why they didn’t deliver the letters with much fanfare. Subtle but extremely important distinction there.

"Mr. Kosatka, you told me that you held these letters, in part, because you were concerned about handing them out around students who didn't receive the award."

This. Was. A. Lie.

And it was a lie to cover the fact that he forgot to do it.

We don't know what he actually said or what he meant by it.

Look, I think that the Coalition for TJ is the single worst thing to happen to the school in its existence. It's literally ripping the school apart at the seams, making it more difficult for the school to educate its students and maintain its position. I generally side with the school on most things. And I acknowledge that Yashar, like all of the major players on Asra's side in this, are Republican operatives who are hell bent on destroying public education.

But in reading this e-mail chain and digging into the facts surrounding the situation, there's only one conclusion you can come to, and that's that the DSS either lied to cover his ass or made a decision that was his and his alone to withhold these letters for whatever reason. Either of these are fireable offenses, neither of them should implicate the principal in any way because she CLEARLY wasn't on board with them, and neither of them should be inviting a damn state-level investigation.

+100. The fight between the Coalition and… the school? TJAAG? (Are there even people in TJAAG? I feel like I hear about them very little compared to the Coalition.) is going scorched-earth and everyone will be worse off for it. And if you think it isn’t disruptive, then you’ve never been in class with TJ students fighting Coalition members on Facebook, or run a TJ club with the fear that some nut job parent will get you in trouble because you didn’t pick their kid for a competitive team and that’s apparently racist. Just because it’s not obvious from the outside doesn’t mean this isn’t hurting the school.

-2022 TJ grad who has worried about all the above in the past

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Uh, no, there are more commended students at TJ than semifinalists. He wanted to protect the feelings of the 20% or so of TJ students who were neither semifinalists nor commended.

THIS. And it states so in the emails

Ultimately, he did distribute them so his opinion about the "feelings" is moot.

It's not moot. He used it as a cover-up for why he didn't distribute them when the reality is he just forgot to do it. That's lying to a parent and it's not okay.

He used it as a reason for why they didn’t deliver the letters with much fanfare. Subtle but extremely important distinction there.

"Mr. Kosatka, you told me that you held these letters, in part, because you were concerned about handing them out around students who didn't receive the award."

This. Was. A. Lie.

And it was a lie to cover the fact that he forgot to do it.

We don't know what he actually said or what he meant by it.

Look, I think that the Coalition for TJ is the single worst thing to happen to the school in its existence. It's literally ripping the school apart at the seams, making it more difficult for the school to educate its students and maintain its position. I generally side with the school on most things. And I acknowledge that Yashar, like all of the major players on Asra's side in this, are Republican operatives who are hell bent on destroying public education.

But in reading this e-mail chain and digging into the facts surrounding the situation, there's only one conclusion you can come to, and that's that the DSS either lied to cover his ass or made a decision that was his and his alone to withhold these letters for whatever reason. Either of these are fireable offenses, neither of them should implicate the principal in any way because she CLEARLY wasn't on board with them, and neither of them should be inviting a damn state-level investigation.

+100. The fight between the Coalition and… the school? TJAAG? (Are there even people in TJAAG? I feel like I hear about them very little compared to the Coalition.) is going scorched-earth and everyone will be worse off for it. And if you think it isn’t disruptive, then you’ve never been in class with TJ students fighting Coalition members on Facebook, or run a TJ club with the fear that some nut job parent will get you in trouble because you didn’t pick their kid for a competitive team and that’s apparently racist. Just because it’s not obvious from the outside doesn’t mean this isn’t hurting the school.

-2022 TJ grad who has worried about all the above in the past

Wow. That is unreal. Why are they doing this?!?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The thing is, the issue is not whether the school administrators think there is value to being a NM Commended Student. That is not their role. The students earned that distinction the day they took their PSATs and the scores and cutoffs were established. The school’s only role is to distribute the letters to the students and let the student decide whether there is value in adding that award to their college and scholarship applications.

You may believe that it is a waste of resources for the state to investigate the handling of these commendations because you feel they are trivial. But what happens when the school withholds awards or information about your student because it is deemed trivial before the student (or you) have the opportunity to even see it? What happens if the administrator making the call doesn’t happen to share your worldview and values?

TJ did distribute the certificates. They just did it a little too slowly for any possible ED applications (for the rare kids who didn't already know their status).

They withheld them and only released them after several TJ parents started ASKING for them. That is not releasing them 'slowly'. They withheld them in 2020 and 2021 as well.

This is not right. There was an email posted by Arsa dated in September 2020, when TJ notified the students via Naviance and mentioned the certificate will be distributed in June 2021. It happened in the middle of the pandemic when no one was at school. For 2022 case, in you read the email posted by Arsa, the parent started to contact the school after they noticed the certificate dated in Sep 2022, however, received in the mid of November, and that is when the whole drama started.

+1

Go read the first email.

She emailed AFTER her kid received his certificate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The thing is, the issue is not whether the school administrators think there is value to being a NM Commended Student. That is not their role. The students earned that distinction the day they took their PSATs and the scores and cutoffs were established. The school’s only role is to distribute the letters to the students and let the student decide whether there is value in adding that award to their college and scholarship applications.

You may believe that it is a waste of resources for the state to investigate the handling of these commendations because you feel they are trivial. But what happens when the school withholds awards or information about your student because it is deemed trivial before the student (or you) have the opportunity to even see it? What happens if the administrator making the call doesn’t happen to share your worldview and values?

TJ did distribute the certificates. They just did it a little too slowly for any possible ED applications (for the rare kids who didn't already know their status).

Won't the kid be able to see their commended status on collegeboard and thus include that in their ED application regardless of whether or not someone told them they were commended? Based on my kid's recent PSAT score (he's in 11th grade), we already know he is/will be commended and intend to include that in the common app. At a school like TJ, everyone is hyper aware of these things and I'd be surprised if some kid is waiting for a certificate to confirm his status..

Exactly. These are bright, engaged kids. How many kids did this actually impact - any?

It's all faux outrage to push politics at the expense of TJ kids. Disgusting Republicans.

Agree. My kid went to TJ (graduated a couple of years ago). A large chunk of kids end up becoming NMF's and it didn't really affect college outcomes. In retrospect, he'd have been better off going to base HS. Other factors (race, etc.) in play that impact admissions way more than NMF status. I don't think TJ kids are targeting colleges where a 'commended' status will influence the outcome.

This is exactly correct. And here's the thing - getting to be a Commended Student is certainly... commendable, shall we say. It's a significant accomplishment, and the kids should have been notified in a timely manner.

But to assert that these kids' college prospects or futures were in any way damaged by the delay... if you're pushing that, you're proving that you have no idea how college admissions work, especially at a place like TJ. Period.

So by all means, continue to push that nonsense, and expose yourself as clueless.

And desperate. Sure seems like Republicans are freaking out after the November disappointments.

The more they push ridiculous hysteria the more they just look crazy and irrelevant.

You can expect a steady drip of stories like this from now until the November School Board elections. That's what all of this is about.

Good. The School Board sucks and pays next to no attention to our pyramid. If controversy around TJ helps unseat some of them, that's fine with me.

At the expense of TJ students? Really?

[Anonymous]

I am in DC and know little about TJ but this entire thread is insane. And the person who posted these emails is insane. Are all TJ parents like this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Uh, no, there are more commended students at TJ than semifinalists. He wanted to protect the feelings of the 20% or so of TJ students who were neither semifinalists nor commended.

THIS. And it states so in the emails

Ultimately, he did distribute them so his opinion about the "feelings" is moot.

It's not moot. He used it as a cover-up for why he didn't distribute them when the reality is he just forgot to do it. That's lying to a parent and it's not okay.

He used it as a reason for why they didn’t deliver the letters with much fanfare. Subtle but extremely important distinction there.

"Mr. Kosatka, you told me that you held these letters, in part, because you were concerned about handing them out around students who didn't receive the award."

This. Was. A. Lie.

And it was a lie to cover the fact that he forgot to do it.

We don't know what he actually said or what he meant by it.

Look, I think that the Coalition for TJ is the single worst thing to happen to the school in its existence. It's literally ripping the school apart at the seams, making it more difficult for the school to educate its students and maintain its position. I generally side with the school on most things. And I acknowledge that Yashar, like all of the major players on Asra's side in this, are Republican operatives who are hell bent on destroying public education.

But in reading this e-mail chain and digging into the facts surrounding the situation, there's only one conclusion you can come to, and that's that the DSS either lied to cover his ass or made a decision that was his and his alone to withhold these letters for whatever reason. Either of these are fireable offenses, neither of them should implicate the principal in any way because she CLEARLY wasn't on board with them, and neither of them should be inviting a damn state-level investigation.

+100. The fight between the Coalition and… the school? TJAAG? (Are there even people in TJAAG? I feel like I hear about them very little compared to the Coalition.) is going scorched-earth and everyone will be worse off for it. And if you think it isn’t disruptive, then you’ve never been in class with TJ students fighting Coalition members on Facebook, or run a TJ club with the fear that some nut job parent will get you in trouble because you didn’t pick their kid for a competitive team and that’s apparently racist. Just because it’s not obvious from the outside doesn’t mean this isn’t hurting the school.

-2022 TJ grad who has worried about all the above in the past

The TJAAG is a real group with real people. https://www.tjaag.org/

They are just as active as the Coalition, if not more so; the difference is that they can rely on publications like the Washington Post and bodies like the FCPS School Board to parrot their viewpoints, whereas the Coalition has to make more noise to get people to pay attention.

Fundamentally, the TJAAG tries to thread a needle, in that it's trying to preserve an elitist institution that serves only 3-4% of FCPS high school students and yet suggest that it's deeply committed to principles of equity. They've tied themselves up into some rhetorical knots recently, such as when a number of them have suggested that receiving a letter of commendation is a "consolation prize" and a "4th-rate award," which comes across as awfully elitist when 97% of high school students are neither semifinalists nor commended students.

Overall, many of them (you?) come across as less interested in equity, or for that matter anything having to do with schools other than TJ, so much as just making sure that TJ is sufficiently diverse, with fewer Asian kids, so that all the alumni will still feel comfortable name-dropping that they went to TJ in random conversations with acquaintances.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The thing is, the issue is not whether the school administrators think there is value to being a NM Commended Student. That is not their role. The students earned that distinction the day they took their PSATs and the scores and cutoffs were established. The school’s only role is to distribute the letters to the students and let the student decide whether there is value in adding that award to their college and scholarship applications.

You may believe that it is a waste of resources for the state to investigate the handling of these commendations because you feel they are trivial. But what happens when the school withholds awards or information about your student because it is deemed trivial before the student (or you) have the opportunity to even see it? What happens if the administrator making the call doesn’t happen to share your worldview and values?

TJ did distribute the certificates. They just did it a little too slowly for any possible ED applications (for the rare kids who didn't already know their status).

Won't the kid be able to see their commended status on collegeboard and thus include that in their ED application regardless of whether or not someone told them they were commended? Based on my kid's recent PSAT score (he's in 11th grade), we already know he is/will be commended and intend to include that in the common app. At a school like TJ, everyone is hyper aware of these things and I'd be surprised if some kid is waiting for a certificate to confirm his status..

Exactly. These are bright, engaged kids. How many kids did this actually impact - any?

It's all faux outrage to push politics at the expense of TJ kids. Disgusting Republicans.

Agree. My kid went to TJ (graduated a couple of years ago). A large chunk of kids end up becoming NMF's and it didn't really affect college outcomes. In retrospect, he'd have been better off going to base HS. Other factors (race, etc.) in play that impact admissions way more than NMF status. I don't think TJ kids are targeting colleges where a 'commended' status will influence the outcome.

This is exactly correct. And here's the thing - getting to be a Commended Student is certainly... commendable, shall we say. It's a significant accomplishment, and the kids should have been notified in a timely manner.

But to assert that these kids' college prospects or futures were in any way damaged by the delay... if you're pushing that, you're proving that you have no idea how college admissions work, especially at a place like TJ. Period.

So by all means, continue to push that nonsense, and expose yourself as clueless.

And desperate. Sure seems like Republicans are freaking out after the November disappointments.

The more they push ridiculous hysteria the more they just look crazy and irrelevant.

You can expect a steady drip of stories like this from now until the November School Board elections. That's what all of this is about.

Good. The School Board sucks and pays next to no attention to our pyramid. If controversy around TJ helps unseat some of them, that's fine with me.

At the expense of TJ students? Really?

You do know TJHSST is a creation of a Republican Board of Supervisors in the mid-80s, right? It's the other party that keeps trying to "reform" it rather than allow it to concentrate on its original mission.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am in DC and know little about TJ but this entire thread is insane. And the person who posted these emails is insane. Are all TJ parents like this?

No, and that’s the point. A few right wing operatives are attacking TJ for political purposes - some don’t even have kids there anymore- and it’s ruining the experience of the students there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Uh, no, there are more commended students at TJ than semifinalists. He wanted to protect the feelings of the 20% or so of TJ students who were neither semifinalists nor commended.

THIS. And it states so in the emails

Ultimately, he did distribute them so his opinion about the "feelings" is moot.

It's not moot. He used it as a cover-up for why he didn't distribute them when the reality is he just forgot to do it. That's lying to a parent and it's not okay.

He used it as a reason for why they didn’t deliver the letters with much fanfare. Subtle but extremely important distinction there.

"Mr. Kosatka, you told me that you held these letters, in part, because you were concerned about handing them out around students who didn't receive the award."

This. Was. A. Lie.

And it was a lie to cover the fact that he forgot to do it.

I saw that as well. I’m not defending Kosatka and I think what he did was wrong, but I would like to point out that Yashar was already mad at him by this point. She had already accused him of lying to her. It’s important to remember that pretty much anything she says from that email on is not entirely trustworthy because she thinks he’s wronged her and no longer has any incentive to work in good faith with him. (Same goes if the roles were reversed, but we don’t have any letters like that.) It’s possible she got upset with him and either misremembered in the heat of the moment or deliberately misconstrued the situation because she knew this would eventually end up with Asra. We don’t know what was running through her head at the time.

I don't think that's fair and it smacks of misogyny.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The thing is, the issue is not whether the school administrators think there is value to being a NM Commended Student. That is not their role. The students earned that distinction the day they took their PSATs and the scores and cutoffs were established. The school’s only role is to distribute the letters to the students and let the student decide whether there is value in adding that award to their college and scholarship applications.

You may believe that it is a waste of resources for the state to investigate the handling of these commendations because you feel they are trivial. But what happens when the school withholds awards or information about your student because it is deemed trivial before the student (or you) have the opportunity to even see it? What happens if the administrator making the call doesn’t happen to share your worldview and values?

TJ did distribute the certificates. They just did it a little too slowly for any possible ED applications (for the rare kids who didn't already know their status).

So this is a big far-right conspiracy, nothing burger. Got it.

+1. Apparently the TJ apologists above did not see this morning's news

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought the discussion can be shifted toward Langley and Westfield now, at least TJ sent out the certificate themselves, the other two schools completely missed it

+1. We now have two other schools which did the same thing. I really couldn't believe some of the posts by TJ apologists here yesterday. !) a significant property value (an award) was withheld on purpose from the students - we now know at three schools - it makes no difference wither it is Commended or not, and 2) the reason given, stated twice in the principal's emails, was for equity reason. You can try and say this was an oversight error, but the emails say twice what was said. Yes, A FCPS committee review (now underway) is in order, and apparently, the AG does have to be involved because this may be county widespread.