What changes in the TJ admissions procedure do you predict this year ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Instead of a lottery, can't they just tweak the admissions process - the application/paperwork would be purely paperwork- grades, letters, test scores, etc.
Any multiple choice questions about race or gender are eliminated. Even home address, school pyramid, and full name should be done away with. Purely clinical.
You'd be identified solely by your student ID number that all fcps kids have.

They are looking to focus on race, not make it a blind process.

But if race seems to be defining factor, then take it out completely of the admissions process. What is the harm in a blind process? You're weeding out the "men from the boys" to achieve that desirable academic vigor that defines TJ.

It was race blind before. They didn’t like the outcome so now they want to change the selection to change the racial makeup.

It was NOT race blind. Those prep program were filled with Asians paying to play. That is not race blind.

Prep programs were open to anyone.

So then why were substantially 100% of the 133 names that Curie posted of South Asian descent? It's not open to everyone if a) people don't know about it, b) a lot of people can't afford it, and c) they siphon off kids several weeks in who they think can't hack it.

What does this have to do with anything? Do you have proof that Curie turned anyone NOT South Asian away?

You didn't say "income blind". You said "not race blind", and that's a lie since anyone willing to pay could have been at Curie. And what's with the fixation on Curie anyway?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
My European neighbors send their DD to TJ prep school twice a week and she studies on weekends. Lot of parental pressure to study, music, and extra activities... I feel bad for her.

Parents who can afford the prep schools and tutoring, can afford to send their kids to private school.

WHO CARES if TJ loses its top spot. My tax dollars want STEM labs/activities for all students and all high schools!

Love this perspective.

+1. This is what equitable access to these programs should look like -- all schools need to give their students opportunities for enrichment and deeper learning instead of hoarding those resources in a single school's programming.

Then you need to tell Brabrand his plan is garbage and that TJ needs to serve its surrounding community once again.

The lottery approach doesn't change the concentration of resources at one high school; it just spreads out geographically those with access to those resources in a more random manner.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Instead of a lottery, can't they just tweak the admissions process - the application/paperwork would be purely paperwork- grades, letters, test scores, etc.
Any multiple choice questions about race or gender are eliminated. Even home address, school pyramid, and full name should be done away with. Purely clinical.
You'd be identified solely by your student ID number that all fcps kids have.

They are looking to focus on race, not make it a blind process.

But if race seems to be defining factor, then take it out completely of the admissions process. What is the harm in a blind process? You're weeding out the "men from the boys" to achieve that desirable academic vigor that defines TJ.

It was race blind before. They didn’t like the outcome so now they want to change the selection to change the racial makeup.

It was NOT race blind. Those prep program were filled with Asians paying to play. That is not race blind.

Prep programs were open to anyone.

So then why were substantially 100% of the 133 names that Curie posted of South Asian descent? It's not open to everyone if a) people don't know about it, b) a lot of people can't afford it, and c) they siphon off kids several weeks in who they think can't hack it.

What does this have to do with anything? Do you have proof that Curie turned anyone NOT South Asian away?

You didn't say "income blind". You said "not race blind", and that's a lie since anyone willing to pay could have been at Curie. And what's with the fixation on Curie anyway?

curie is the smoking gun critics of TJ have been looking for- it's an expensive test site catering to a single race that managed to cheat in order to get TJ placements. It proves all of the criticism of the whole prepping industry

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
My European neighbors send their DD to TJ prep school twice a week and she studies on weekends. Lot of parental pressure to study, music, and extra activities... I feel bad for her.

Parents who can afford the prep schools and tutoring, can afford to send their kids to private school.

WHO CARES if TJ loses its top spot. My tax dollars want STEM labs/activities for all students and all high schools!

Love this perspective.

+1. This is what equitable access to these programs should look like -- all schools need to give their students opportunities for enrichment and deeper learning instead of hoarding those resources in a single school's programming.

Then you need to tell Brabrand his plan is garbage and that TJ needs to serve its surrounding community once again.

The lottery approach doesn't change the concentration of resources at one high school; it just spreads out geographically those with access to those resources in a more random manner.

+1 poster here. I agree with you that the lottery approach isn't the appropriate response to the problems they claim they're trying to solve. I wish Brabrand seriously took community feedback into account before moving ahead and presenting the lottery plan to the board as the sole option. I'm hoping for some additional discussion before the final vote is taken, but I'm afraid they're a long way off from even considering a plan to provide TJ-caliber programs and resources to other high schools.

[Anonymous]

This is a radical rethinking of the purpose of having a TJ. TJ in theory should be serving the top 1% of intellectually bright minds in the county to foster the next generation of innovation and keep our country competitive. I certainly get that there is strong possibility that the system is gamed by test prep, tiger parents and the like, but this will significantly water down a pretty exceptional program. We may increase diversity but at quite a cost to the historical purpose of TJ. Mealy mouthed “leaders” like Braebrand are searching for an easy band-aid solution without addressing issues that will positively affect inequality and diversity. This is spineless and shameful. It would be far better to form a 10 year plan aimed at giving bright minds equal opportunity to do well on tests and be academically prepared for the rigors of TJ - and not to dilute it and thereby change the purpose of the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a radical rethinking of the purpose of having a TJ. TJ in theory should be serving the top 1% of intellectually bright minds in the county to foster the next generation of innovation and keep our country competitive. I certainly get that there is strong possibility that the system is gamed by test prep, tiger parents and the like, but this will significantly water down a pretty exceptional program. We may increase diversity but at quite a cost to the historical purpose of TJ. Mealy mouthed “leaders” like Braebrand are searching for an easy band-aid solution without addressing issues that will positively affect inequality and diversity. This is spineless and shameful. It would be far better to form a 10 year plan aimed at giving bright minds equal opportunity to do well on tests and be academically prepared for the rigors of TJ - and not to dilute it and thereby change the purpose of the school.

There are tons of TJ students nowhere near the top 1%. The admissions process is flawed. It needs to be replaced

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS has just driven all of the TJ Prep companies out of business, which made the admissions test “pay to play”. This will also make it unnecessary for Asians to move in droves to areas where the MS has historically sent the most kids to TJ. Now, they would be better served moving to different areas. Lastly, Asian children will no longer have to spend 5 years of their life preparing for TJ. This will result in diversity. The other unintended consequences remain to be seen.

Are you joking?

My asian kid will still be preparing like crazy for college. This is something that we do as a culture even back in our home countries. Our kids will still be going to weekend language classes, STEM camps, extra math sessions and the like. Our kids grades won't suddenly drop by any means by destroying TJ.

You are right about moving patterns and housing values. Though you might see an influx of asian kids into areas that have had fewer kids who went to TJ to take advantage of that.

fortunately college are getting better at seeing through that and disregarding it

I don't think colleges are going to downplay extracurriculars. Tech colleges for sure won't be. In engineering school it was blatantly obvious who had previous programming experience, as well as experience with computer hardware/soldering/shop/software skills.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a radical rethinking of the purpose of having a TJ. TJ in theory should be serving the top 1% of intellectually bright minds in the county to foster the next generation of innovation and keep our country competitive. I certainly get that there is strong possibility that the system is gamed by test prep, tiger parents and the like, but this will significantly water down a pretty exceptional program. We may increase diversity but at quite a cost to the historical purpose of TJ. Mealy mouthed “leaders” like Braebrand are searching for an easy band-aid solution without addressing issues that will positively affect inequality and diversity. This is spineless and shameful. It would be far better to form a 10 year plan aimed at giving bright minds equal opportunity to do well on tests and be academically prepared for the rigors of TJ - and not to dilute it and thereby change the purpose of the school.

Did TJ ever have a clear purpose and, if so, was it this one?

In the mid-80s enrollments were down locally and nationally. FCPS thought it might need to close Annandale, Jefferson or Stuart. Meanwhile real estate developers were building suburban office parks to lure the East Coast operations of West Coast defense contractors during the Reagan era.

Someone had an "aha" moment and decided they could repurpose Jefferson as a regional magnet, thereby keeping the school open and giving the Board of Supervisors something else to market about Fairfax County to the Northrup Grummans of the world. It wasn't like they did a study of FCPS and concluded its courses or schools were inadequate.

At one point TJ had a mission statement that it could serve as a type of lab school to experiment with new ways of teaching and learning that could be applied more broadly. But that went by the wayside. At some point it seems like TJ became the point of TJ, and all the talk about it fostering the next generation of innovative leaders and scientists was a retrofit to justify the competitiveness to attend the school. When you embrace that rhetoric, and then admit cohorts of kids that look nothing like the communities it serves, it is a recipe for disaster. No one should be surprised that we ended up where we are today, because the thinking behind the school's opening wasn't really that deep or thoughtful to begin with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Instead of a lottery, can't they just tweak the admissions process - the application/paperwork would be purely paperwork- grades, letters, test scores, etc.
Any multiple choice questions about race or gender are eliminated. Even home address, school pyramid, and full name should be done away with. Purely clinical.
You'd be identified solely by your student ID number that all fcps kids have.

They are looking to focus on race, not make it a blind process.

But if race seems to be defining factor, then take it out completely of the admissions process. What is the harm in a blind process? You're weeding out the "men from the boys" to achieve that desirable academic vigor that defines TJ.

It was race blind before. They didn’t like the outcome so now they want to change the selection to change the racial makeup.

It was NOT race blind. Those prep program were filled with Asians paying to play. That is not race blind.

Doesn't race blind mean not taking the person's race into account? Asians certainly were the overwhelming majority of applicants, and would likely continue to be in the majority from the data presented by FCPS under this lottery program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Instead of a lottery, can't they just tweak the admissions process - the application/paperwork would be purely paperwork- grades, letters, test scores, etc.
Any multiple choice questions about race or gender are eliminated. Even home address, school pyramid, and full name should be done away with. Purely clinical.
You'd be identified solely by your student ID number that all fcps kids have.

They are looking to focus on race, not make it a blind process.

But if race seems to be defining factor, then take it out completely of the admissions process. What is the harm in a blind process? You're weeding out the "men from the boys" to achieve that desirable academic vigor that defines TJ.

It was race blind before. They didn’t like the outcome so now they want to change the selection to change the racial makeup.

It was NOT race blind. Those prep program were filled with Asians paying to play. That is not race blind.

Prep programs were open to anyone.

So then why were substantially 100% of the 133 names that Curie posted of South Asian descent? It's not open to everyone if a) people don't know about it, b) a lot of people can't afford it, and c) they siphon off kids several weeks in who they think can't hack it.

What does this have to do with anything? Do you have proof that Curie turned anyone NOT South Asian away?

You didn't say "income blind". You said "not race blind", and that's a lie since anyone willing to pay could have been at Curie. And what's with the fixation on Curie anyway?

No one has proof that they turned non-South Asians away.

I didn't say any of the above. That's a different poster.

Willing to pay and able to pay are two different things.

The fact that substantially 100% of the kids are of South Asian descent is proof of either: 1) South Asians are just better than everyone else; 2) Everyone else was excluded; 3) The program is somehow only known to South Asians, in spite of their crowing on Facebook about their successes.

The fixation on Curie comes from the fact that they have grown from 51 TJ students in 2022 to 95 in 2023 and 133 in 2024, and that the explosion just so happens to have occurred right after TJ students claim that Curie handed students problems from a secured exam.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a radical rethinking of the purpose of having a TJ. TJ in theory should be serving the top 1% of intellectually bright minds in the county to foster the next generation of innovation and keep our country competitive. I certainly get that there is strong possibility that the system is gamed by test prep, tiger parents and the like, but this will significantly water down a pretty exceptional program. We may increase diversity but at quite a cost to the historical purpose of TJ. Mealy mouthed “leaders” like Braebrand are searching for an easy band-aid solution without addressing issues that will positively affect inequality and diversity. This is spineless and shameful. It would be far better to form a 10 year plan aimed at giving bright minds equal opportunity to do well on tests and be academically prepared for the rigors of TJ - and not to dilute it and thereby change the purpose of the school.

Did TJ ever have a clear purpose and, if so, was it this one?

In the mid-80s enrollments were down locally and nationally. FCPS thought it might need to close Annandale, Jefferson or Stuart. Meanwhile real estate developers were building suburban office parks to lure the East Coast operations of West Coast defense contractors during the Reagan era.

Someone had an "aha" moment and decided they could repurpose Jefferson as a regional magnet, thereby keeping the school open and giving the Board of Supervisors something else to market about Fairfax County to the Northrup Grummons of the world. It wasn't like they did a study of FCPS and concluded its courses or schools were inadequate.

At one point TJ had a mission statement that it could serve as a type of lab school to experiment with new ways of teaching and learning that could be applied more broadly. But that went by the wayside. At some point it seems like TJ became the point of TJ, and all the talk about it fostering the next generation of innovative leaders and scientists was a retrofit to justify the competitiveness to attend the school. When you embrace that rhetoric, and then admit cohorts of kids that look nothing like the communities it serves, it is a recipe for disaster. No one should be surprised that we ended up where we are today, because the thinking behind the school's opening wasn't really that deep or thoughtful to begin with.

Right because the #1 high school in the nation just happened by itself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
My European neighbors send their DD to TJ prep school twice a week and she studies on weekends. Lot of parental pressure to study, music, and extra activities... I feel bad for her.

Parents who can afford the prep schools and tutoring, can afford to send their kids to private school.

WHO CARES if TJ loses its top spot. My tax dollars want STEM labs/activities for all students and all high schools!

Love this perspective.

+1. This is what equitable access to these programs should look like -- all schools need to give their students opportunities for enrichment and deeper learning instead of hoarding those resources in a single school's programming.

Then you need to tell Brabrand his plan is garbage and that TJ needs to serve its surrounding community once again.

The lottery approach doesn't change the concentration of resources at one high school; it just spreads out geographically those with access to those resources in a more random manner.

+1 poster here. I agree with you that the lottery approach isn't the appropriate response to the problems they claim they're trying to solve. I wish Brabrand seriously took community feedback into account before moving ahead and presenting the lottery plan to the board as the sole option. I'm hoping for some additional discussion before the final vote is taken, but I'm afraid they're a long way off from even considering a plan to provide TJ-caliber programs and resources to other high schools.

FCPS has budget shortfall issues as it is. Once they finish renovating all the high schools and exhaust those bond referendums, they might have a chance to get some of those issues addressed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a radical rethinking of the purpose of having a TJ. TJ in theory should be serving the top 1% of intellectually bright minds in the county to foster the next generation of innovation and keep our country competitive. I certainly get that there is strong possibility that the system is gamed by test prep, tiger parents and the like, but this will significantly water down a pretty exceptional program. We may increase diversity but at quite a cost to the historical purpose of TJ. Mealy mouthed “leaders” like Braebrand are searching for an easy band-aid solution without addressing issues that will positively affect inequality and diversity. This is spineless and shameful. It would be far better to form a 10 year plan aimed at giving bright minds equal opportunity to do well on tests and be academically prepared for the rigors of TJ - and not to dilute it and thereby change the purpose of the school.

Did TJ ever have a clear purpose and, if so, was it this one?

In the mid-80s enrollments were down locally and nationally. FCPS thought it might need to close Annandale, Jefferson or Stuart. Meanwhile real estate developers were building suburban office parks to lure the East Coast operations of West Coast defense contractors during the Reagan era.

Someone had an "aha" moment and decided they could repurpose Jefferson as a regional magnet, thereby keeping the school open and giving the Board of Supervisors something else to market about Fairfax County to the Northrup Grummons of the world. It wasn't like they did a study of FCPS and concluded its courses or schools were inadequate.

At one point TJ had a mission statement that it could serve as a type of lab school to experiment with new ways of teaching and learning that could be applied more broadly. But that went by the wayside. At some point it seems like TJ became the point of TJ, and all the talk about it fostering the next generation of innovative leaders and scientists was a retrofit to justify the competitiveness to attend the school. When you embrace that rhetoric, and then admit cohorts of kids that look nothing like the communities it serves, it is a recipe for disaster. No one should be surprised that we ended up where we are today, because the thinking behind the school's opening wasn't really that deep or thoughtful to begin with.

Right because the #1 high school in the nation just happened by itself.

TJ received massive funding from private enterprise before being named as the #1 high school in the country and will continue to do so after all of this shakes out. Indeed, you may see more/different companies investing in TJ as they seek to performatively show that they, too, are interested in diversity in STEM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:


The School Board should care if TJ loses it's top spot, but it apparently doesn't. They are busy destroying the last crown jewel of FCPS in the name of "equity".

why should they care? The overwhelming majority of students derive no benefit from that ranking. Far more students would benefit if the resources were spread across multiple schools

Many of those resources are donations.

There are more than a few people who live in this area because of TJ. That desirability effects property values and taxes collected, as well as the job market and overall wages. For example, I can work anywhere remotely due to the nature of my work, but we live here because of TJ, so FCPS students get the benefit of my kids presence and tax money. Plenty of other tech workers can say the same thing.

Drop TJ and I would expect the housing values of certain school pyramids will drop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Instead of a lottery, can't they just tweak the admissions process - the application/paperwork would be purely paperwork- grades, letters, test scores, etc.
Any multiple choice questions about race or gender are eliminated. Even home address, school pyramid, and full name should be done away with. Purely clinical.
You'd be identified solely by your student ID number that all fcps kids have.

They are looking to focus on race, not make it a blind process.

But if race seems to be defining factor, then take it out completely of the admissions process. What is the harm in a blind process? You're weeding out the "men from the boys" to achieve that desirable academic vigor that defines TJ.

It was race blind before. They didn’t like the outcome so now they want to change the selection to change the racial makeup.

It was NOT race blind. Those prep program were filled with Asians paying to play. That is not race blind.

Prep programs were open to anyone.

So then why were substantially 100% of the 133 names that Curie posted of South Asian descent? It's not open to everyone if a) people don't know about it, b) a lot of people can't afford it, and c) they siphon off kids several weeks in who they think can't hack it.

What does this have to do with anything? Do you have proof that Curie turned anyone NOT South Asian away?

You didn't say "income blind". You said "not race blind", and that's a lie since anyone willing to pay could have been at Curie. And what's with the fixation on Curie anyway?

No one has proof that they turned non-South Asians away.

I didn't say any of the above. That's a different poster.

Willing to pay and able to pay are two different things.

The fact that substantially 100% of the kids are of South Asian descent is proof of either: 1) South Asians are just better than everyone else; 2) Everyone else was excluded; 3) The program is somehow only known to South Asians, in spite of their crowing on Facebook about their successes.

The fixation on Curie comes from the fact that they have grown from 51 TJ students in 2022 to 95 in 2023 and 133 in 2024, and that the explosion just so happens to have occurred right after TJ students claim that Curie handed students problems from a secured exam.

"Willing to pay" and "able to pay" in this case is a distinction without a difference. Anyone who was able to pay for Curie's services would have been welcome down their door. Unless you have proof they turned non-South Asians away, you have no grounds to claim they are racially restrictive.

I mean my son goes to RSM. His class is substantially Indian, Asia and surprise, Russian. Are they turning down white or black Americans? no. They serve anyone who approaches them, and these happen to be the communities where interest is coming from.

Where is the claim Curie handed students problems from a secured exam? Post link.

Besides, there is still a little matter of 75% OTHER students at TJ, that you are so willing to chuck down the toilet.