Reflections on the "TJ Papers"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow lots to read but thank you for the summary. Early identification of URM students and early mentoring can help achieve equity without discrimination against another group.

Agreed. But how do we do this? Very important issue so I am truly interested in hearing how this can be achieved.

I am no education expert. Teachers can start to identify gifted kids from K, you don’t have to be an advanced reader to be gifted. Maybe teachers need to figure how how to identify giftedness without assessing advanced reading and math skills. Parents play a big role in their child’s education and future. Unfortunately gifted kids will be left behind if they don’t have an involved parent. Each title one school should have a mentor for these kids, make sure they are doing what they need to stay on track. The mentor along with the AART should make sure these students to have what they need to thrive and be ready for TJ if that’s where they want to go.

And the best part is TJ gets to not have URM or FARMs students for another decade while the experiment is conducted and the data is analyzed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow lots to read but thank you for the summary. Early identification of URM students and early mentoring can help achieve equity without discrimination against another group.

Agreed. But how do we do this? Very important issue so I am truly interested in hearing how this can be achieved.

I am no education expert. Teachers can start to identify gifted kids from K, you don’t have to be an advanced reader to be gifted. Maybe teachers need to figure how how to identify giftedness without assessing advanced reading and math skills. Parents play a big role in their child’s education and future. Unfortunately gifted kids will be left behind if they don’t have an involved parent. Each title one school should have a mentor for these kids, make sure they are doing what they need to stay on track. The mentor along with the AART should make sure these students to have what they need to thrive and be ready for TJ if that’s where they want to go.

I think most teachers are more likely to recognize good classroom behavior and early academic skills picked up at home as 'gifted' at that age. Pretty sure one of my DD's kinder classmates has a photographic memory or something similar based on the speed at which he can solve any Where's Waldo or I Spy page (like, instantly - it's almost spooky), but he also started the school year not speaking any English. Would he be identified as gifted? Would he be in a position to benefit from any of the county's AAP services, or not until his written and spoken English caught up?

Photographic memory is not necessarily a sign of intellectual giftedness. Not saying the child isn’t smart, but remembering where Waldo is doesn’t necessarily point to high intelligence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow lots to read but thank you for the summary. Early identification of URM students and early mentoring can help achieve equity without discrimination against another group.

Agreed. But how do we do this? Very important issue so I am truly interested in hearing how this can be achieved.

I am no education expert. Teachers can start to identify gifted kids from K, you don’t have to be an advanced reader to be gifted. Maybe teachers need to figure how how to identify giftedness without assessing advanced reading and math skills. Parents play a big role in their child’s education and future. Unfortunately gifted kids will be left behind if they don’t have an involved parent. Each title one school should have a mentor for these kids, make sure they are doing what they need to stay on track. The mentor along with the AART should make sure these students to have what they need to thrive and be ready for TJ if that’s where they want to go.

And the best part is TJ gets to not have URM or FARMs students for another decade while the experiment is conducted and the data is analyzed.

DP, but it's odd that somehow in the midst of a pandemic Brabrand and the School Board decided that one of FCPS's top priorities should be increasing the number and percentage of URM and FARMS students at one school out of the 200 or so schools in FCPS. It's certainly not like they don't have other schools with demographics that are anything but representative of the county as a whole.

[Anonymous]

Photographic memory is not necessarily a sign of intellectual giftedness. Not saying the child isn’t smart, but remembering where Waldo is doesn’t necessarily point to high intelligence.

I taught k and first. And, no, to PP who said that teachers use "classroom behavior' as a judge of giftedness. While almost all teachers will tell you that their lives are much easier when students have good "classroom behavior," that never indicates giftedness to anyone with any sense.

What indicates giftedness to me?
Creativity
Intellectual curiosity
Putting 2 and 2 together--and I am not talking necessarily about math.

There are lots of other things, too. i remember a neighbor who went to First Grade open house. The class had drawn their lifesized bodies. The teacher pointed out to the mom that her son had drawn his feet in a different way than the other kids that she found impressive. Later, in second grade, he was identified as gifted as a result of Otis-Lennon and CogAt. His teacher picked up on something by astute observation. By the way, this kid did not have good "classroom behavior."

Plenty of kids can be taught to memorize. I am blessed with a talent for trivia and a memory for details. It is a talent--you certainly would not want me to do your taxes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow lots to read but thank you for the summary. Early identification of URM students and early mentoring can help achieve equity without discrimination against another group.

Whenever someone says this, my sense is always that what they really want is for admissions to stay exactly as it is so that kids who already have the advantage of early “mentoring” (in the form of parents who are highly interested in education) will continue to be the ones who go to TJ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow lots to read but thank you for the summary. Early identification of URM students and early mentoring can help achieve equity without discrimination against another group.

Agreed. But how do we do this? Very important issue so I am truly interested in hearing how this can be achieved.

I am no education expert. Teachers can start to identify gifted kids from K, you don’t have to be an advanced reader to be gifted. Maybe teachers need to figure how how to identify giftedness without assessing advanced reading and math skills. Parents play a big role in their child’s education and future. Unfortunately gifted kids will be left behind if they don’t have an involved parent. Each title one school should have a mentor for these kids, make sure they are doing what they need to stay on track. The mentor along with the AART should make sure these students to have what they need to thrive and be ready for TJ if that’s where they want to go.

And the best part is TJ gets to not have URM or FARMs students for another decade while the experiment is conducted and the data is analyzed.

DP, but it's odd that somehow in the midst of a pandemic Brabrand and the School Board decided that one of FCPS's top priorities should be increasing the number and percentage of URM and FARMS students at one school out of the 200 or so schools in FCPS. It's certainly not like they don't have other schools with demographics that are anything but representative of the county as a whole.

Langley has Tholen backing the status quo. There is no group of TJ voters or diners that a single board member has to answer to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow lots to read but thank you for the summary. Early identification of URM students and early mentoring can help achieve equity without discrimination against another group.

Agreed. But how do we do this? Very important issue so I am truly interested in hearing how this can be achieved.

I am no education expert. Teachers can start to identify gifted kids from K, you don’t have to be an advanced reader to be gifted. Maybe teachers need to figure how how to identify giftedness without assessing advanced reading and math skills. Parents play a big role in their child’s education and future. Unfortunately gifted kids will be left behind if they don’t have an involved parent. Each title one school should have a mentor for these kids, make sure they are doing what they need to stay on track. The mentor along with the AART should make sure these students to have what they need to thrive and be ready for TJ if that’s where they want to go.

And the best part is TJ gets to not have URM or FARMs students for another decade while the experiment is conducted and the data is analyzed.

DP, but it's odd that somehow in the midst of a pandemic Brabrand and the School Board decided that one of FCPS's top priorities should be increasing the number and percentage of URM and FARMS students at one school out of the 200 or so schools in FCPS. It's certainly not like they don't have other schools with demographics that are anything but representative of the county as a whole.

To be fair, Brabrand and the SB’s second biggest priority was the tens of millions of $$$ spent renaming all those schools (it cost $500k to $1 million - per school to rename).

A distant priority was:

- Covid and distance learning. In 2023, can we please elect a SB focused on, maybe, academics?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow lots to read but thank you for the summary. Early identification of URM students and early mentoring can help achieve equity without discrimination against another group.

Agreed. But how do we do this? Very important issue so I am truly interested in hearing how this can be achieved.

If you read through the docs, there was a blurb backed with actual stats that there were enough URM black and hispanic kids in level IV centers taking geometry in 8th to fill half a TJ freshman class, but they were not applying for TJ .

If the students are prepared, but not interested, for whatever reason, then lowering the standards to something almost any fcps can meet (algebra in 8th and low GPA cut off for middle school) is a huge mistake.

As a parent of a TJ kid, I think the bolded needs to be looked at. WHY are kids/parents not interested? (And some are overly interested.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow lots to read but thank you for the summary. Early identification of URM students and early mentoring can help achieve equity without discrimination against another group.

Agreed. But how do we do this? Very important issue so I am truly interested in hearing how this can be achieved.

If you read through the docs, there was a blurb backed with actual stats that there were enough URM black and hispanic kids in level IV centers taking geometry in 8th to fill half a TJ freshman class, but they were not applying for TJ .

If the students are prepared, but not interested, for whatever reason, then lowering the standards to something almost any fcps can meet (algebra in 8th and low GPA cut off for middle school) is a huge mistake.

As a parent of a TJ kid, I think the bolded needs to be looked at. WHY are kids/parents not interested? (And some are overly interested.)

Why is it hard to understand that a 45+ minute commute to high school isn't desirable for a lot of kids especially if it means having to drop sports and activities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow lots to read but thank you for the summary. Early identification of URM students and early mentoring can help achieve equity without discrimination against another group.

Agreed. But how do we do this? Very important issue so I am truly interested in hearing how this can be achieved.

I am no education expert. Teachers can start to identify gifted kids from K, you don’t have to be an advanced reader to be gifted. Maybe teachers need to figure how how to identify giftedness without assessing advanced reading and math skills. Parents play a big role in their child’s education and future. Unfortunately gifted kids will be left behind if they don’t have an involved parent. Each title one school should have a mentor for these kids, make sure they are doing what they need to stay on track. The mentor along with the AART should make sure these students to have what they need to thrive and be ready for TJ if that’s where they want to go.

And the best part is TJ gets to not have URM or FARMs students for another decade while the experiment is conducted and the data is analyzed.

DP, but it's odd that somehow in the midst of a pandemic Brabrand and the School Board decided that one of FCPS's top priorities should be increasing the number and percentage of URM and FARMS students at one school out of the 200 or so schools in FCPS. It's certainly not like they don't have other schools with demographics that are anything but representative of the county as a whole.

To be fair, Brabrand and the SB’s second biggest priority was the tens of millions of $$$ spent renaming all those schools (it cost $500k to $1 million - per school to rename).

A distant priority was:

- Covid and distance learning. In 2023, can we please elect a SB focused on, maybe, academics?

The school renamings didn't cost tens of millions. Four FCPS schools have been renamed: Stuart (to Justice), Lee (to Lewis), Lanier (to Johnson), and Mosby Woods (to Mosaic).

A fair estimate would be that each HS renaming cost $500K, and the middle and elementary school renamings cost $200K each. So that would be about $1.5M in total. Further, since Lanier was a City of Fairfax-owned school and the City of Fairfax School Board ultimately made the decision to change that school's name, the cost was largely borne by Fairfax City, not Fairfax County, taxpayers.

From a process perspective, after the Stuart renaming, which took forever and chewed up a lot of time, the later renamings were fairly expeditious. In comparison, the TJ admissions changes seemed to be the main priority of the School Board and Brabrand for much of 2020, which was really unfortunate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow lots to read but thank you for the summary. Early identification of URM students and early mentoring can help achieve equity without discrimination against another group.

Agreed. But how do we do this? Very important issue so I am truly interested in hearing how this can be achieved.

I am no education expert. Teachers can start to identify gifted kids from K, you don’t have to be an advanced reader to be gifted. Maybe teachers need to figure how how to identify giftedness without assessing advanced reading and math skills. Parents play a big role in their child’s education and future. Unfortunately gifted kids will be left behind if they don’t have an involved parent. Each title one school should have a mentor for these kids, make sure they are doing what they need to stay on track. The mentor along with the AART should make sure these students to have what they need to thrive and be ready for TJ if that’s where they want to go.

But you certainly don't hesitate to offer your opinion and your "shoulds". Why don't you volunteer to create this new mentorship program?

There have been many efforts at early identification and mentorship--both in FCPS and throughout the nation. There's not been anything that has been terribly successful yet. It's not easy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am concerned that a state legislator has proposed a bill about TJ admissions that was written by the Coalition for TJ. It would great to have a neutral approach, not a partisan one.

And, this was written as a reaction to what our SB did last year--I think.

And, FCPS has put a statement against this bill on their website--which I find troubling. Claiming that TJ is #1 is kind of interesting as we have yet to see the results of the changes.

https://www.fcps.edu/news/see-what-makes-tjhsst-one-highest-rated-high-schools-nation

I find this too political to be on a public school system's website.

Wow. That is a VERY political page. Surprised to see something worded like that from FCPS. It does read to me a bit like they copy and pasted from whatever the lawyer prepared to defend on the case.

Regardless why is a public school system taking a position on state legislation? That does not seem at all appropriate for them to do regardless of the topic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow lots to read but thank you for the summary. Early identification of URM students and early mentoring can help achieve equity without discrimination against another group.

Agreed. But how do we do this? Very important issue so I am truly interested in hearing how this can be achieved.

+1 agree wholeheartedly but apparently it takes too much time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am concerned that a state legislator has proposed a bill about TJ admissions that was written by the Coalition for TJ. It would great to have a neutral approach, not a partisan one.

And, this was written as a reaction to what our SB did last year--I think.

And, FCPS has put a statement against this bill on their website--which I find troubling. Claiming that TJ is #1 is kind of interesting as we have yet to see the results of the changes.

https://www.fcps.edu/news/see-what-makes-tjhsst-one-highest-rated-high-schools-nation

I find this too political to be on a public school system's website.

Wow. That is a VERY political page. Surprised to see something worded like that from FCPS. It does read to me a bit like they copy and pasted from whatever the lawyer prepared to defend on the case.

Regardless why is a public school system taking a position on state legislation? That does not seem at all appropriate for them to do regardless of the topic

Totally agree. The bill may not fly but the politicians on the other side have no business using the platform of the School system to put forth their overtly political position. And to use (in the most politically expedient way) a rainbow mix of kids as props. What a travesty. Scotty knows the end is nigh. The gloves are off and his presence is over. He wants to follow Qarni to a D&I role someplace hence the last paragraph…..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow lots to read but thank you for the summary. Early identification of URM students and early mentoring can help achieve equity without discrimination against another group.

Agreed. But how do we do this? Very important issue so I am truly interested in hearing how this can be achieved.

If you read through the docs, there was a blurb backed with actual stats that there were enough URM black and hispanic kids in level IV centers taking geometry in 8th to fill half a TJ freshman class, but they were not applying for TJ .

If the students are prepared, but not interested, for whatever reason, then lowering the standards to something almost any fcps can meet (algebra in 8th and low GPA cut off for middle school) is a huge mistake.

As a parent of a TJ kid, I think the bolded needs to be looked at. WHY are kids/parents not interested? (And some are overly interested.)

It's not really advertised at high poverty schools.