Cheating Scandal Triggering TJ Change

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:LAWSUIT CALLS NEW ARLINGTON SCHOOL LOTTERY UNFAIR TO WHITE CHILDREN

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1998/....-11df-4ca2-93ea-9ffd38e49625/

This was from 1998.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These math essay questions should be having similar patterns, so it should be a coincidence that the kids saw the question that they practiced. If you google for Math questions you will get questions that could be in the next exam(hopefully lottery doesn’t go thru), this is no big deal.
Usually these math questions are like 2 rabbits are placed in an isolated island, in one month they become 4, in 2 months they become 8... find the number of rabbits after so and month. This question can be asked with penguins instead of rabbits. If the exam is predictable change the test to grade the kids, don’t just replace it lottery.

FCPS has learned with AAP and TJ that no matter how many millions of dollars they spend to make a test secure, cheaters find a way to cheat. They have decided that for TJ it is best to get rid of the tests that advantage cheaters. The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. The lottery with a screening benchmark gets them out of a perpetual need to spend millions changing the test to foil cheaters.

We should institute a lottery system for top universities because too many white parents cheat and bribe to get their kids into them.

Well, get rid of legacy preference for a start.

Should colleges get rid of legacy preference? Of course, if their goal was to have all of the best students.

Will they? No, because their goal is to make money. Legacy students are likely to have money and to contribute it back to the university.

Having the best students helps you make money, but not as easily or as directly as having donors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m sure the Asian students cheated their way on SAT/ACT .... because they seem to be overrepresented in the high score portion of every academic test k-college. There is no other explanation.

Whites love to spread stereotypes of Asians and accuse them of cheating because they don’t understand it and cannot accept that immigration students without any social capital or connections are beating them academically and this doesn’t fit with the narrative that minority groups are not successful academically because they are disadvantaged.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

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

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

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

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

This sounds credible but are there any credible sources for this information?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

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

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

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

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

This sounds credible but are there any credible sources for this information?

The description of the preparation company sounds very much like one of the tutoring places we tried in 5th grade. We left as soon as we noticed favoritism towards families of the same origin as the company owner.

[Anonymous]

No, the TJ change was not prompted by outside prep companies. The "prep" is a red herring by a few "Karens" whose kids are lazy and lack talents to compete. They spent way more on travel sports prep.

The school board meetings' notes are public information. The board and Brabrand decided to implement a change prompted by very low admission numbers for URMs and the tragedy of George Floyd.

The "prep" issue is separate and should be addressed as such. The remedy is easy - shutting down all the prep companies or FCS offering similar prep for free to URMs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No, the TJ change was not prompted by outside prep companies. The "prep" is a red herring by a few "Karens" whose kids are lazy and lack talents to compete. They spent way more on travel sports prep.

The school board meetings' notes are public information. The board and Brabrand decided to implement a change prompted by very low admission numbers for URMs and the tragedy of George Floyd.

The "prep" issue is separate and should be addressed as such. The remedy is easy - shutting down all the prep companies or FCS offering similar prep for free to URMs.

Can you support that claim with any evidence?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No, the TJ change was not prompted by outside prep companies. The "prep" is a red herring by a few "Karens" whose kids are lazy and lack talents to compete. They spent way more on travel sports prep.

The school board meetings' notes are public information. The board and Brabrand decided to implement a change prompted by very low admission numbers for URMs and the tragedy of George Floyd.

The "prep" issue is separate and should be addressed as such. The remedy is easy - shutting down all the prep companies or FCS offering similar prep for free to URMs.

On what legal basis would it be "easy" to shut down a prep company? The prep companies are retooling to help kids get into TJ under the revised criteria. And they are in it for the long haul, unlike the School Board members who just force changes for a short-lived, feel-good moment or two.

The only thing that puts the prep companies out of business is reduced demand for their services.

[Anonymous]

where is the evidence of these claims against curie?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:]

On what legal basis would it be "easy" to shut down a prep company? The prep companies are retooling to help kids get into TJ under the revised criteria. And they are in it for the long haul, unlike the School Board members who just force changes for a short-lived, feel-good moment or two.

The only thing that puts the prep companies out of business is reduced demand for their services.

Their retooling appears to have made them more likely to get kids into TJ, if you account for the per school quotas.
It was easier to prep for essays that math problems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:where is the evidence of these claims against curie?

It was on another thread. Some Curie kids said they saw the questions.
This could mean they saw similar questions made by Curie as part of their classes.

[Anonymous]

Lots of Curie kids got in this year. My friend joined his DS in Curie this year. Looks like the changes FCPS made have a big boost to Curie.

[Anonymous]

There are a lot more cheating scandals at TJ than Curie.

[Anonymous]

Well what was the name of the company?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lots of Curie kids got in this year. My friend joined his DS in Curie this year. Looks like the changes FCPS made have a big boost to Curie.

Given that the number of students admitted from Curie reduced from 133 to about 90 this year (in a year where total admits went from 480 to 550), and that the percentage of FARMS students increased from about 1% to about 25%, I think it's safe to assume that the admissions changes had a negative impact on the prep market.