New TJ Lawsuit Filed 3/10/21 by Pacific Legal Foundation

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sure, if you say so.

I hope you will read the news involving hate and harassment if Asian Americans and try a bit harder to watch your language. Pro tip— if you call a space with lots of Asian Americans toxic, you’re on the wrong path.

What happened in Atlanta is disgusting and unconscionable. Trying to use those horrific hate-filled murders to justify shutting down a conversation about how harmful TJ’s culture of hyper competition can be to its students simply because it happens to have a high concentration of Asian-Americans is grossly tone-deaf.

It’s important to note here that we will have accomplished absolutely nothing if the racial composition of the school changes but the culture of comparison doesn’t.

Do you have firsthand experience with TJ’s “culture”? I do and disagree with your depiction. I also find you deeply in denial of your racism.

I've had enough people on these boards show appreciation for my experience with TJ to speak for itself.

I know enough about TJ to know that when our students were first surveyed as part of the Challenge Success initiative back in 2018, the two top words they used to describe it were "toxic" and "competitive". Now, the fifth one was "fun", so that's pretty cool, but it's not like I'm inventing those words out of thin air.

I know enough about TJ to know that the former principal, Dr. Evan Glazer, used to tell 8th graders coming in for Freshmen Preview Night that they'd better make 100% sure that they were in love with STEM as 13 and 14 year olds or else "this might not be the place for you".

I could go on and on, but that's besides the point.

My depiction is, like it or not, spot-on and informed by literally decades of experience. The "TJ parents" on here may have something of a snapshot of what the school looks like now from their conversations with their kids, or perhaps even from volunteering from time to time, but that's nothing compared to being on the ground every day and getting to know dozens of kids in each class. And those parents have no context of the history of the school and what it was like 10, 15, 20 years ago. And that's fine, but you haven't put the time in and you just don't know.

The problems with TJ in its current state have less to do with its racial composition and more to do with what the old admissions process selected for. By placing a hard and relatively arbitrary cut-off on exam percentiles - remember, 99th Math, 99th science, and 74th English means you're out of luck - TJ Admissions deeply incentivized families to invest tons of time, money, and effort into beating the exam. And because those exams were graded by percentile score, it's not like you could simply make the grade and be qualified - you had to compete with all of the other students taking those exams to qualify.

The Admissions Office also made it abundantly clear that you had to prove your passion for STEM - which incentivized students and families to drop or put on the back burner any passions they had that were outside of STEM in pursuit of MathCounts, Science Olympiad, Odyssey of the Mind, VEX Robotics, and whatever else filled that bucket. Parents at several schools who had the time and resources to do so would volunteer to "coach" these teams - and in many cases would select their own kids and the kids in their communities to do it and box out others.

All of this is to say that the core problem is that the Admissions Office provided families with a fairly explicit pathway to TJ that - probably unintentionally - incentivized families to sell out to the admissions process and make every single decision based on "how will this help my TJ application". Selecting for kids and families with that attitude leads to having kids in the school who make every decision based on "how will this help my college application". By the way - I know enough about TJ to remember how 8th period transitioned from a chance to relax, hang out with friends, engage in fun activities, and do some healthy volunteerism to what it is now, which is basically an opportunity to enhance a student's LinkedIn profile. Seriously, go take a look at the lists of available activities down through the years and see how it's turned from a needed break in the day to another source of stress and competition for these kids.

These are problems with TJ, not with Asian-Americans. The new process needs to select for exceptional students who want to have a great high school experience and take advantage of all that TJ has to offer, both in STEM and otherwise. It needs to be attractive to those types of students. But when I highlight those problems, because TJ is 70% Asian-American, folks come at me like I'm saying that "Asian-Americans are toxic". That's not what's happening. You don't own TJ enough to claim that a harsh evaluation of TJ is equivalent to a harsh evaluation of Asian-Americans - there are other kids there too who contribute to these issues.

The atmosphere there is toxic and it pervades everything that goes on there. And some students - bless them - dodge it successfully and have a great experience! But hop on over to tjvents on Facebook and tell me that that's a healthy environment.

[Anonymous]

The FCPS School Board is just providing middle school students with a new and different pathway to TJ admissions that will be studied carefully and reverse engineered.

If PP - perhaps a TJ teacher - really has such critical observations to share about the school, she or he should have been testifying in favor of the School Board for the magnet's dissolution.

All these people ever want to do is refashion a TJ that is more to their liking, and makes them feel better about having TJ on their own resumes, while still very much centering a school that fewer than 4% of FCPS high school students will ever attend as if it is the only school in FCPS that remotely matters. And they are more than prepared to engage in overt anti-Asian racism to advance their goal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:While most posters on this forum are driven by a sense of propriety and not malice - casual anti-Asian racism can lead you here

https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/16/us/metro-atlanta-shootings/index.html

Some pro FCPS admin posters here may not recognize their own casual anti-Asian racism, but they are perpetuating the same old racial stereotype and prejudice towards Asian communities. They don't really have any hard evidence to back up their assertion but they claimed things like "most TJ parents are here illegally", "far far too many TJ kids having mental health issues", "they cheat and prep", etc. In today's environment causal racism is deadly. Before spewing out your own prejudice ask yourself if you have real data to back it up.

Exactly. There is a huge amount of casual anti-Asian racism in this community and on this board. Those people need to examine their thoughts and statements. Many are from those who fully adopted the anti-racist philosophy but have no awareness of their own racism against Asian Americans. It’s not just trumpers who do it. It has become a huge problem in America and those folks need to own up to their own thinking and statements.

It is worth noting that the folks who advocate for the status quo with respect to elite school admissions find a lot of friends in the Trumpist community.

The reason is because they hate Black folks WAY more than they hate you, and you do a good job of keeping them out of "their" schools.

But they still hate you enough to commit atrocities against you given the opportunity. They are using you.

Taking race out of admissions is not the same as hate. It's looking for equality in admissions decisions as opposed to affirmative action.

Equality based on what? Some misguided notion of “merit” as narrowly and conveniently defined by an ability to study for a high-stakes exam?

You mean like what is required to practice most professions?

It's a very narrow group of professions that require exceptional performance on high-stakes exams to practice. VERY narrow. Those jobs make a lot of money, but there are a lot of ways to make a lot of money that are outside of those realms.

What is required to practice most professions is professionalism, the ability to collaborate, the ability to follow and give instructions, reliability, integrity, a relevant skill set and many others. Not much of that is about exam performance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The FCPS School Board is just providing middle school students with a new and different pathway to TJ admissions that will be studied carefully and reverse engineered.

If PP - perhaps a TJ teacher - really has such critical observations to share about the school, she or he should have been testifying in favor of the School Board for the magnet's dissolution.

All these people ever want to do is refashion a TJ that is more to their liking, and makes them feel better about having TJ on their own resumes, while still very much centering a school that fewer than 4% of FCPS high school students will ever attend as if it is the only school in FCPS that remotely matters. And they are more than prepared to engage in overt anti-Asian racism to advance their goal.

Wanting students from all geographic region on Fairfax to have access to TJ is not antiAsian racism. Wanting to open up TJ to a broader academic cross section of students instead of just the top one to two percent is not antiAsaian racism. Basically FCPS can never change the TJ admissions standards in anyway that changes the percentage of Asian students? I suspect you'll have more Asians from eastern Fairfax than before under the new system. You're right, TJ only accounts for 4 percent of FCPS high school students, we all need to keep that in perspective.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The FCPS School Board is just providing middle school students with a new and different pathway to TJ admissions that will be studied carefully and reverse engineered.

If PP - perhaps a TJ teacher - really has such critical observations to share about the school, she or he should have been testifying in favor of the School Board for the magnet's dissolution.

All these people ever want to do is refashion a TJ that is more to their liking, and makes them feel better about having TJ on their own resumes, while still very much centering a school that fewer than 4% of FCPS high school students will ever attend as if it is the only school in FCPS that remotely matters. And they are more than prepared to engage in overt anti-Asian racism to advance their goal.

increasing black and hispanic enrollment is overt racism? Too bad Kansas didn't think to use that argument to argue Brown

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The FCPS School Board is just providing middle school students with a new and different pathway to TJ admissions that will be studied carefully and reverse engineered.

If PP - perhaps a TJ teacher - really has such critical observations to share about the school, she or he should have been testifying in favor of the School Board for the magnet's dissolution.

All these people ever want to do is refashion a TJ that is more to their liking, and makes them feel better about having TJ on their own resumes, while still very much centering a school that fewer than 4% of FCPS high school students will ever attend as if it is the only school in FCPS that remotely matters. And they are more than prepared to engage in overt anti-Asian racism to advance their goal.

It won't be able to be reverse-engineered if the Admissions Office actually looks for diversity of thought. One imagines a SIS question where there could be dozens of great answers and they look for exceptional students who run across that spectrum of answers.

You can only reverse-engineer the process if you know exactly what they're looking for, and apart from a few key traits there shouldn't be some ideal of Portrait of a TJ Applicant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sure, if you say so.

I hope you will read the news involving hate and harassment if Asian Americans and try a bit harder to watch your language. Pro tip— if you call a space with lots of Asian Americans toxic, you’re on the wrong path.

DP. I think the Greek system in college is toxic. I would discourage my kids from rushing. Am I anti-white because the vast majority of students in the Greek system are white? I don't think so. People think the TJ environment is toxic, not because it's predominantly Asian, but because it's become more of a cutthroat environment over the years. The cutthroat environment isn't because the kids are Asian, it's because the admissions standards and FCPS's quest to make it the number one school in the country promotes a cutthroat environment. Are we really not allowed to call out an environment as bad for students if any racial group makes up a majority of that environment? So we can only criticize environments with say 25% white, 25% Asian, 25% black and 25% Hispanic? Do you see no validity to removing a test that if you have $4,000 you might have access to the actual test questions? Do you see no validity in FCPS saying, we've created a situation where TJ's environment is not healthy for students because the focus has shifted from fostering the love of STEM to fostering a focus on high grades at all costs? I don't care if the new TJ standards result in the same percentage of Asian kids. I just care that all kids who love STEM and meet the 3.5 GPA benchmark are given the opportunity to pursue the love of STEM without needing to start preparing from 2nd grade, without needing to have resources to get outside enrichment, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sure, if you say so.

I hope you will read the news involving hate and harassment if Asian Americans and try a bit harder to watch your language. Pro tip— if you call a space with lots of Asian Americans toxic, you’re on the wrong path.

DP. I think the Greek system in college is toxic. I would discourage my kids from rushing. Am I anti-white because the vast majority of students in the Greek system are white? I don't think so. People think the TJ environment is toxic, not because it's predominantly Asian, but because it's become more of a cutthroat environment over the years. The cutthroat environment isn't because the kids are Asian, it's because the admissions standards and FCPS's quest to make it the number one school in the country promotes a cutthroat environment. Are we really not allowed to call out an environment as bad for students if any racial group makes up a majority of that environment? So we can only criticize environments with say 25% white, 25% Asian, 25% black and 25% Hispanic? Do you see no validity to removing a test that if you have $4,000 you might have access to the actual test questions? Do you see no validity in FCPS saying, we've created a situation where TJ's environment is not healthy for students because the focus has shifted from fostering the love of STEM to fostering a focus on high grades at all costs? I don't care if the new TJ standards result in the same percentage of Asian kids. I just care that all kids who love STEM and meet the 3.5 GPA benchmark are given the opportunity to pursue the love of STEM without needing to start preparing from 2nd grade, without needing to have resources to get outside enrichment, etc.

This is a fantastic point. Thank you for making it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sure, if you say so.

I hope you will read the news involving hate and harassment if Asian Americans and try a bit harder to watch your language. Pro tip— if you call a space with lots of Asian Americans toxic, you’re on the wrong path.

What happened in Atlanta is disgusting and unconscionable. Trying to use those horrific hate-filled murders to justify shutting down a conversation about how harmful TJ’s culture of hyper competition can be to its students simply because it happens to have a high concentration of Asian-Americans is grossly tone-deaf.

It’s important to note here that we will have accomplished absolutely nothing if the racial composition of the school changes but the culture of comparison doesn’t.

Do you have firsthand experience with TJ’s “culture”? I do and disagree with your depiction. I also find you deeply in denial of your racism.

I've had enough people on these boards show appreciation for my experience with TJ to speak for itself.

I know enough about TJ to know that when our students were first surveyed as part of the Challenge Success initiative back in 2018, the two top words they used to describe it were "toxic" and "competitive". Now, the fifth one was "fun", so that's pretty cool, but it's not like I'm inventing those words out of thin air.

I know enough about TJ to know that the former principal, Dr. Evan Glazer, used to tell 8th graders coming in for Freshmen Preview Night that they'd better make 100% sure that they were in love with STEM as 13 and 14 year olds or else "this might not be the place for you".

I could go on and on, but that's besides the point.

My depiction is, like it or not, spot-on and informed by literally decades of experience. The "TJ parents" on here may have something of a snapshot of what the school looks like now from their conversations with their kids, or perhaps even from volunteering from time to time, but that's nothing compared to being on the ground every day and getting to know dozens of kids in each class. And those parents have no context of the history of the school and what it was like 10, 15, 20 years ago. And that's fine, but you haven't put the time in and you just don't know.

The problems with TJ in its current state have less to do with its racial composition and more to do with what the old admissions process selected for. By placing a hard and relatively arbitrary cut-off on exam percentiles - remember, 99th Math, 99th science, and 74th English means you're out of luck - TJ Admissions deeply incentivized families to invest tons of time, money, and effort into beating the exam. And because those exams were graded by percentile score, it's not like you could simply make the grade and be qualified - you had to compete with all of the other students taking those exams to qualify.

The Admissions Office also made it abundantly clear that you had to prove your passion for STEM - which incentivized students and families to drop or put on the back burner any passions they had that were outside of STEM in pursuit of MathCounts, Science Olympiad, Odyssey of the Mind, VEX Robotics, and whatever else filled that bucket. Parents at several schools who had the time and resources to do so would volunteer to "coach" these teams - and in many cases would select their own kids and the kids in their communities to do it and box out others.

All of this is to say that the core problem is that the Admissions Office provided families with a fairly explicit pathway to TJ that - probably unintentionally - incentivized families to sell out to the admissions process and make every single decision based on "how will this help my TJ application". Selecting for kids and families with that attitude leads to having kids in the school who make every decision based on "how will this help my college application". By the way - I know enough about TJ to remember how 8th period transitioned from a chance to relax, hang out with friends, engage in fun activities, and do some healthy volunteerism to what it is now, which is basically an opportunity to enhance a student's LinkedIn profile. Seriously, go take a look at the lists of available activities down through the years and see how it's turned from a needed break in the day to another source of stress and competition for these kids.

These are problems with TJ, not with Asian-Americans. The new process needs to select for exceptional students who want to have a great high school experience and take advantage of all that TJ has to offer, both in STEM and otherwise. It needs to be attractive to those types of students. But when I highlight those problems, because TJ is 70% Asian-American, folks come at me like I'm saying that "Asian-Americans are toxic". That's not what's happening. You don't own TJ enough to claim that a harsh evaluation of TJ is equivalent to a harsh evaluation of Asian-Americans - there are other kids there too who contribute to these issues.

The atmosphere there is toxic and it pervades everything that goes on there. And some students - bless them - dodge it successfully and have a great experience! But hop on over to tjvents on Facebook and tell me that that's a healthy environment.

Talk about being tone-deaf. Have you followed this discussion? Do you notice the blatant anti-Asian trope being bandied about? There is no disagreement on the need to reform TJ, make it more inclusive and improve student experience. It is the method of this school board that is being questioned. If the method alienates a minority, it is not good. But you subscribe to the notion that collateral damage is ok in your pursuit of your noble goal. The issue with majoritarianism is a pointed ignorance of how the impacted minority feels. It is a pity when people hop on to pedestals and assume the role of the learned one without understanding the issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sure, if you say so.

I hope you will read the news involving hate and harassment if Asian Americans and try a bit harder to watch your language. Pro tip— if you call a space with lots of Asian Americans toxic, you’re on the wrong path.

What happened in Atlanta is disgusting and unconscionable. Trying to use those horrific hate-filled murders to justify shutting down a conversation about how harmful TJ’s culture of hyper competition can be to its students simply because it happens to have a high concentration of Asian-Americans is grossly tone-deaf.

It’s important to note here that we will have accomplished absolutely nothing if the racial composition of the school changes but the culture of comparison doesn’t.

Do you have firsthand experience with TJ’s “culture”? I do and disagree with your depiction. I also find you deeply in denial of your racism.

I've had enough people on these boards show appreciation for my experience with TJ to speak for itself.

I know enough about TJ to know that when our students were first surveyed as part of the Challenge Success initiative back in 2018, the two top words they used to describe it were "toxic" and "competitive". Now, the fifth one was "fun", so that's pretty cool, but it's not like I'm inventing those words out of thin air.

I know enough about TJ to know that the former principal, Dr. Evan Glazer, used to tell 8th graders coming in for Freshmen Preview Night that they'd better make 100% sure that they were in love with STEM as 13 and 14 year olds or else "this might not be the place for you".

I could go on and on, but that's besides the point.

My depiction is, like it or not, spot-on and informed by literally decades of experience. The "TJ parents" on here may have something of a snapshot of what the school looks like now from their conversations with their kids, or perhaps even from volunteering from time to time, but that's nothing compared to being on the ground every day and getting to know dozens of kids in each class. And those parents have no context of the history of the school and what it was like 10, 15, 20 years ago. And that's fine, but you haven't put the time in and you just don't know.

The problems with TJ in its current state have less to do with its racial composition and more to do with what the old admissions process selected for. By placing a hard and relatively arbitrary cut-off on exam percentiles - remember, 99th Math, 99th science, and 74th English means you're out of luck - TJ Admissions deeply incentivized families to invest tons of time, money, and effort into beating the exam. And because those exams were graded by percentile score, it's not like you could simply make the grade and be qualified - you had to compete with all of the other students taking those exams to qualify.

The Admissions Office also made it abundantly clear that you had to prove your passion for STEM - which incentivized students and families to drop or put on the back burner any passions they had that were outside of STEM in pursuit of MathCounts, Science Olympiad, Odyssey of the Mind, VEX Robotics, and whatever else filled that bucket. Parents at several schools who had the time and resources to do so would volunteer to "coach" these teams - and in many cases would select their own kids and the kids in their communities to do it and box out others.

All of this is to say that the core problem is that the Admissions Office provided families with a fairly explicit pathway to TJ that - probably unintentionally - incentivized families to sell out to the admissions process and make every single decision based on "how will this help my TJ application". Selecting for kids and families with that attitude leads to having kids in the school who make every decision based on "how will this help my college application". By the way - I know enough about TJ to remember how 8th period transitioned from a chance to relax, hang out with friends, engage in fun activities, and do some healthy volunteerism to what it is now, which is basically an opportunity to enhance a student's LinkedIn profile. Seriously, go take a look at the lists of available activities down through the years and see how it's turned from a needed break in the day to another source of stress and competition for these kids.

These are problems with TJ, not with Asian-Americans. The new process needs to select for exceptional students who want to have a great high school experience and take advantage of all that TJ has to offer, both in STEM and otherwise. It needs to be attractive to those types of students. But when I highlight those problems, because TJ is 70% Asian-American, folks come at me like I'm saying that "Asian-Americans are toxic". That's not what's happening. You don't own TJ enough to claim that a harsh evaluation of TJ is equivalent to a harsh evaluation of Asian-Americans - there are other kids there too who contribute to these issues.

The atmosphere there is toxic and it pervades everything that goes on there. And some students - bless them - dodge it successfully and have a great experience! But hop on over to tjvents on Facebook and tell me that that's a healthy environment.

Talk about being tone-deaf. Have you followed this discussion? Do you notice the blatant anti-Asian trope being bandied about? There is no disagreement on the need to reform TJ, make it more inclusive and improve student experience. It is the method of this school board that is being questioned. If the method alienates a minority, it is not good. But you subscribe to the notion that collateral damage is ok in your pursuit of your noble goal. The issue with majoritarianism is a pointed ignorance of how the impacted minority feels. It is a pity when people hop on to pedestals and assume the role of the learned one without understanding the issue.

Yep. There is plenty of legitimately anti-Asian material thrown around here. The notions that they all cheat, that they all are overprepped, or that they are here illegally are all gross and I've countered those MANY times on this forum.

And there is PLENTY of disagreement about the need to reform TJ - tons of people on these boards see it as just fine as it is.

I don't buy into the notion that "if a method alienates a minority, it's not good". If eliminating an exam is alienating to you, that tells me that your identity is wrapped up in your test-taking ability. I don't want to believe that.

And where exactly is the "collateral damage"? All that's happening is that some kids who would have gotten in under the old process will not under the new process. They may indeed be replaced by other members of their own race in some cases.

Question the methods of the school board all you want, but I'm not hearing a whole lot of solutions that will actually address the problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sure, if you say so.

I hope you will read the news involving hate and harassment if Asian Americans and try a bit harder to watch your language. Pro tip— if you call a space with lots of Asian Americans toxic, you’re on the wrong path.

DP. I think the Greek system in college is toxic. I would discourage my kids from rushing. Am I anti-white because the vast majority of students in the Greek system are white? I don't think so. People think the TJ environment is toxic, not because it's predominantly Asian, but because it's become more of a cutthroat environment over the years. The cutthroat environment isn't because the kids are Asian, it's because the admissions standards and FCPS's quest to make it the number one school in the country promotes a cutthroat environment. Are we really not allowed to call out an environment as bad for students if any racial group makes up a majority of that environment? So we can only criticize environments with say 25% white, 25% Asian, 25% black and 25% Hispanic? Do you see no validity to removing a test that if you have $4,000 you might have access to the actual test questions? Do you see no validity in FCPS saying, we've created a situation where TJ's environment is not healthy for students because the focus has shifted from fostering the love of STEM to fostering a focus on high grades at all costs? I don't care if the new TJ standards result in the same percentage of Asian kids. I just care that all kids who love STEM and meet the 3.5 GPA benchmark are given the opportunity to pursue the love of STEM without needing to start preparing from 2nd grade, without needing to have resources to get outside enrichment, etc.

You've gone out of your way expressly to reduce the number of Asian kids at TJ, so let's not pretend you're going to be sanguine if the percentage of Asian kids does not go down significantly. The arguments that you make in support of your case - namely, that the focus of the school is on "high grades at all costs" and the equally false assumption that those in charge of admissions will now be able to figure out which kids they've never met in person truly "love STEM" - suggest that you'll continue to traffic in stereotypes for as long as it takes to create the race-based, demographic balance that you and your friends at TJAAG have decided is proper.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sure, if you say so.

I hope you will read the news involving hate and harassment if Asian Americans and try a bit harder to watch your language. Pro tip— if you call a space with lots of Asian Americans toxic, you’re on the wrong path.

DP. I think the Greek system in college is toxic. I would discourage my kids from rushing. Am I anti-white because the vast majority of students in the Greek system are white? I don't think so. People think the TJ environment is toxic, not because it's predominantly Asian, but because it's become more of a cutthroat environment over the years. The cutthroat environment isn't because the kids are Asian, it's because the admissions standards and FCPS's quest to make it the number one school in the country promotes a cutthroat environment. Are we really not allowed to call out an environment as bad for students if any racial group makes up a majority of that environment? So we can only criticize environments with say 25% white, 25% Asian, 25% black and 25% Hispanic? Do you see no validity to removing a test that if you have $4,000 you might have access to the actual test questions? Do you see no validity in FCPS saying, we've created a situation where TJ's environment is not healthy for students because the focus has shifted from fostering the love of STEM to fostering a focus on high grades at all costs? I don't care if the new TJ standards result in the same percentage of Asian kids. I just care that all kids who love STEM and meet the 3.5 GPA benchmark are given the opportunity to pursue the love of STEM without needing to start preparing from 2nd grade, without needing to have resources to get outside enrichment, etc.

You've gone out of your way expressly to reduce the number of Asian kids at TJ, so let's not pretend you're going to be sanguine if the percentage of Asian kids does not go down significantly. The arguments that you make in support of your case - namely, that the focus of the school is on "high grades at all costs" and the equally false assumption that those in charge of admissions will now be able to figure out which kids they've never met in person truly "love STEM" - suggest that you'll continue to traffic in stereotypes for as long as it takes to create the race-based, demographic balance that you and your friends at TJAAG have decided is proper.

1) This was a different poster, that's what DP means, so they're new to this conversation

2) I think it's a fool's errand to try to divine which kids truly "love STEM" when they're applying at the age of 13 and submitting activities that were from when they were 10, 11, 12 years old. Kids change tremendously in terms of their interests and passions during their high school years and that should be okay when it comes to TJ.

[Anonymous]

There you go again linking “elimination of exams” to the Asian identity. You will say you were only saying something that you don’t want to believe. But you have already in a subtle and insidious way contributed to the narrative. I don’t want to say that folks in West Virginia marry their cousins. That is not true at all. But you see what that does?

The issue is not with eliminating the exam. It is not with the desire to reform TJ and make it more inclusive. It is about the haste that has gone into pushing through this “reform” in a year where the school board had so much unprecedented issues to deal with. It is cynical and politically expedient. The urgency has been justified by absolutely abhorrent Anti-Asian narrative on this board and elsewhere. There could be many more workable approaches considered given some time but Braband owes a debt to his political masters. And apologists on this board like yourself is the wind beneath his wings

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There you go again linking “elimination of exams” to the Asian identity. You will say you were only saying something that you don’t want to believe. But you have already in a subtle and insidious way contributed to the narrative. I don’t want to say that folks in West Virginia marry their cousins. That is not true at all. But you see what that does?

The issue is not with eliminating the exam. It is not with the desire to reform TJ and make it more inclusive. It is about the haste that has gone into pushing through this “reform” in a year where the school board had so much unprecedented issues to deal with. It is cynical and politically expedient. The urgency has been justified by absolutely abhorrent Anti-Asian narrative on this board and elsewhere. There could be many more workable approaches considered given some time but Braband owes a debt to his political masters. And apologists on this board like yourself is the wind beneath his wings

That is in response to PP 10:45

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There you go again linking “elimination of exams” to the Asian identity. You will say you were only saying something that you don’t want to believe. But you have already in a subtle and insidious way contributed to the narrative. I don’t want to say that folks in West Virginia marry their cousins. That is not true at all. But you see what that does?

The issue is not with eliminating the exam. It is not with the desire to reform TJ and make it more inclusive. It is about the haste that has gone into pushing through this “reform” in a year where the school board had so much unprecedented issues to deal with. It is cynical and politically expedient. The urgency has been justified by absolutely abhorrent Anti-Asian narrative on this board and elsewhere. There could be many more workable approaches considered given some time but Braband owes a debt to his political masters. And apologists on this board like yourself is the wind beneath his wings

In all seriousness, for those for whom the haste is the main issue, I have a fair amount of sympathy. I really do. You've been playing by a certain set of rules and now those rules have been completely changed. But there's also the matter of.... if it's the right thing to do, then waiting for later is not the answer. They determined that it was the right thing to do, so they went and did it. And frankly, they've gone through several iterations to get to this point (remember the merit lottery? what a crapshow that would have been) and de-randomized the process significantly.

But the bottom line is that you have people on this board who are upset about the changes to the process being "anti-Asian" and the main issue that they have with the changes is that they feel that eliminating the exam will somehow reduce the caliber of student that TJ admits. Thus, eliminating the exam is, in their eyes, "anti-Asian". I'm responding to those people, not to you. They are linking the exam with Asian-ness. They are linking "watering down the quality" with "reducing the number of Asians".

You sound pretty reasonable. The people who believe that any attempt to improve access to TJ is inherently "anti-Asian" are not.