TJ Failure to Notify Letter of Commendation Winners

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:lawsuits to follow, probbaly.

…Seriously, on what grounds?

Does it matter? All they care about is FAUX OUTRAGE.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can you imagine being her kid? So embarrassing.

It’s common knowledge in TJ circles how embarrassed her son is of his mother’s behavior. He is openly apologetic for the discord that she’s sown within the TJ community and he is pitied, rightfully, as a result.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you imagine being her kid? So embarrassing.

It’s common knowledge in TJ circles how embarrassed her son is of his mother’s behavior. He is openly apologetic for the discord that she’s sown within the TJ community and he is pitied, rightfully, as a result.

You know what else is common knowledge in the TJ community - that this whole topic is a giant nothingburger.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you imagine being her kid? So embarrassing.

It’s common knowledge in TJ circles how embarrassed her son is of his mother’s behavior. He is openly apologetic for the discord that she’s sown within the TJ community and he is pitied, rightfully, as a result.

Poor kid.

[anomani]

Anonymous wrote:Does the College Board not notify students?

The College Board does not notify students, nor does National Merit Scholarship Corporation, based on comments from both organizations to me.

Link to email exchange: https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23466082/national-merit-scholarship-corporation-emails.pdf

This is what the National Merit spokeswoman said to me:

MY QUESTION: With this situation as an example, why doesn’t the National Merit Scholarship Corporation send to the College Board the data of students who are commended students? Does it notify the College Board of semi-finalists and finalists?

NATIONAL MERIT ANSWER: – College Board is not involved in the administration of the National Merit Scholarship Program

MY QUESTION: Why doesn’t the National Merit Scholarship Corporation also notify students directly that they are commended students, semi-finalists or finalists?

NATIONAL MERIT ANSWER: – high school officials have consistently requested to be the first to announce and recognize their Semifinalists and Commended Students in the National Merit Scholarship Program

[anomani]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is "city journal. org?" Never heard of it.

She’s a legit author. Google her and TJ. The article is based on facts if she wrote it.

No, she's a Trumphumper who pushing RWNJ propaganda.

I have no clue what "RWNJ" propaganda means, and your little sexist insult is disgusting.

[anomani]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t get it, don’t you know whether you are a nmsf or commended based on your score? Why would you need your school to tell you?

Not everyone is jumping on Reddit to find out the relevant cut-offs. It was clearly incumbent on the school to notify the commended students promptly and the school officials failed to do so.

That is correct. I would also like to remind everyone that most of the families at TJ are immigrant parents and having had an immigrant parent for whom I translated everything from slumber parties to proms, I would expect that a school district and school administrators who actually believe in equity -- and access for immigrant families and people who are English as second language learners -- would understand that basic information about awards is a bare minimum for informing parents about their children's progress in school. Bare minimum.

[anomani]

Anonymous wrote:Status was emailed to kids on their FCPS email that kids literally check multiple times a day.

This is on the kid if they didn’t check it in time.

And regardless, commended is a big nothingburger and no one is getting a different admissions decision based on that one thing.

Should they apologize? I guess, people are upset. Did they do anything wrong? No. If anything, this is proof that college board should be emailing results direct to kids instead of passing the buck to schools that already have 75926485 things to do. There is zero reason why one of the bubble sections on the psat can’t be “email address”

Kids do not check that email multiple times a day. This is not on the kid. The practice is to notify parents in schools in Fairfax County as well as the nation. Why would Ann Bonitatibus not inform parents directly? Because she doesn't care about having them know.

It is actually inaccurate and very irresponsible and misleading information to call the Commended Student award a "nothingburger." First of all, it is not your right or the principal's right to withhold information from a parent.

Further, being a Commended Student makes students eligible for 800 scholarships from corporate sponsors. The list is long of "Special Scholarships," as named by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

This is the link to 2022 scholarships -- https://www.nationalmerit.org/s/1758/images/gid2/editor_documents/student_guide.pdf?gid=2&pgid=61

Go to page 10. You will see the long list of scholarships that Commended Students are eligible to receive.

[anomani]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t get it, don’t you know whether you are a nmsf or commended based on your score? Why would you need your school to tell you?

Because the National Merit Scholarship Corporation has a specific algorithm that is state-based. Further, the recognition is from an organization, and the principal does not have a right to withhold that direct information from parents, especially mostly immigrant parents who don't know America's National Merit system.

[anomani]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop trying to make fetch happen, Asra.

(1) hilarious and (2) +1000

I have no idea what that means.

[Anonymous]

https://www.fox5dc.com/news/top-ranked-virginia-high-school-accused-of-depriving-students-of-merit-awards?taid=63abecfc55e0a20001a8ae01&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=trueanthem&utm_source=twitter

So this article says the remedy is that TJ is going to call the schools that the commended student applied to and *emphasize* that the applicant is a middle-of-the-pack TJ student? I’d ask them not to do that if I was one of the kids. Schools know that most of TJs top students are semifinalists.

[Anonymous]

anomani wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop trying to make fetch happen, Asra.

(1) hilarious and (2) +1000

I have no idea what that means.

Anomani has had a busy evening. How many other of the comments on this thread were all written by the same person?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Status was emailed to kids on their FCPS email that kids literally check multiple times a day.

This is on the kid if they didn’t check it in time.

And regardless, commended is a big nothingburger and no one is getting a different admissions decision based on that one thing.

Should they apologize? I guess, people are upset. Did they do anything wrong? No. If anything, this is proof that college board should be emailing results direct to kids instead of passing the buck to schools that already have 75926485 things to do. There is zero reason why one of the bubble sections on the psat can’t be “email address”

If the TJ community views a Letter of Commendation, awarded only to the top 3% of PSAT test takers, as a “big nothingburger,” it truly is time to tackle the arrogance by shutting down the magnet program.

Alternatively, the administration could apologize for its errors and FCPS could do the right thing and install new leadership at the school. Bonitatubus has stuck her foot in her mouth one too many times already, and now we are seeing that she also withheld information that she was obligated to pass only promptly to recognized students due to her misguided view of what advances an “equity” agenda.

I’m not part of the TJ community. I still view it as relatively meaningless. A pat on the back, a congratulations from mom and dad, sure. But something for a college app? Not really, unless you have nothing else to list there.

Would you tell the kid with a 206 from WV or Montana that is a semi finalist that it's "relatively meaningless?" Their score is lower than the TJ "commended" student's.

No, because to them it isn’t meaningless at all. But to a TJ kid, it is. You want to know what the response would have been from the overwhelming majority of TJ parents would be if their kid came home with a “commended scholar” letter?

“What, so you didn’t make the Semifinalist list? Better study harder next time.”

Asra is butthurt right now because the Coalition is staring defeat at the Circuit and Supreme Courts in the face and she’s tired of being called a loser.

So she’s using her platform, her Trump playbook, and her instincts for identity politics and faux outrage to gin up conservatives and Russian troll bot farms on Twitter to get back to relevance.

Spoiler alert: she’s still a loser and the most she’s going to get out of this is a few thousand more Twitter followers.

Which - remember - is the point all along.

The point is that people want to be treated fairly and equally. This case wasn't about admissions changes and trying to provide others an opportunity. It was withholding an asset (an award) from students, while the persons withholding those assets appropriated them for other uses (padding their brag sheet). Bonitatibus used these awards as part of her resume to win the FCPS 2020 Region 2 Outstanding Principal on the backs of the students she is oppressing.

https://tjhsst.fcps.edu/features/dr-bonitatibus-named-fcps-2020-region-2-outstanding-principal

Yeah… no.

No one at TJ relies on the administration to let them know about things like this. That’s just not a thing that happens. They look it up themselves.

There’s no doubt in anyone’s realistic mind that Asra’s kid and the kid mentioned in the story knew EXACTLY what their statuses were. If they are like most TJ students, they probably didn’t have one ounce of interest in any of the benefits of “commended student” status.

Again… NO ONE CARES about this at TJ. You can make the argument that the administration should have done some level of due diligence given that, apparently, the group that administers the award doesn’t do it themselves, but to posit this as some kind of “big deal” within the context of the TJ a community is disingenuous at best and malevolent at worst.

One wonders why Asra is so obsessed with Ann. Ann didn’t have anything to do with the admissions process changes - but she probably didn’t enjoy being told to check her privilege from her address in one of the wealthiest zip codes in America.

It gets sadder and sadder the more you watch it, and you begin to understand why every respected institution she’s ever belonged to can’t run away from her fast enough.

Can one look it up? I truly don't know. I didn't even know this award existed, so I wouldn't have even known to look; and I'm not even an immigrant who has no idea about our system. I was a NMSF myself a few decades ago. When did the commended award start being issued? The bottom line is these kids earned something which was withheld from them. That is wrong, and you can't blame them for not looking for it.

[Anonymous]

The way colleges interpret PSAT awards is it helps them evaluate how much they can rely on the reported SAT score as a reflection of their aptitude. Between a student who got a 1600 and NMSF and a student who got a 1600 and no PSAT award, chances are the former's score is more indicative of aptitude. Not necessarily, but when they have tens of thousands of applicants, it can tip the scales. Now, the commended award might not have as much weight as the semifinalist or finalist award, but it still has weight. So, yeah, the administration's omission matters in a significant way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The way colleges interpret PSAT awards is it helps them evaluate how much they can rely on the reported SAT score as a reflection of their aptitude. Between a student who got a 1600 and NMSF and a student who got a 1600 and no PSAT award, chances are the former's score is more indicative of aptitude. Not necessarily, but when they have tens of thousands of applicants, it can tip the scales. Now, the commended award might not have as much weight as the semifinalist or finalist award, but it still has weight. So, yeah, the administration's omission matters in a significant way.

My SIL, who is an admissions officer, says it's more like this...a 1550 + NMSF is more indicative of aptitude than a 1600 alone. Commendations would be used in a similar manner.