Concerns about TJ Admissions

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can have concerns about TJ admissions but you can’t change it so just make sure your kid is prepared for the test and understands the pros and cons of attending TJ

As for the students whose base schools did not prepare them, I think TJ should take responsibility for getting those kids the remedial help they need. Clearly those kids are motivated. Teachers should not be accepting that those kids are destined to do poorly - they need additional supports and help and maybe there need to be some lower level classes for freshman available in certain subjects.

It's not clear that these kids are so much more motivated that other TJ students that it can make up for years and years of poor academics. Lower level classes are available in every base school, where these kids can thrive and develop their confidence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi OP!

I am the parent of a sophomore at TJ. My child is earning excellent grades, loves TJ, and clearly belongs there.

Please read the thread someone created about rigor at TJ, though feel free to ignore the last few pages, which devolved into the same tired bickering. I’m convinced there is a troll here in the AAP section who worked on the admissions revision and/or is part of the FCPS Chief Equity Officer, Nardos King’s 55-person department at Gatehouse.

Once you have an idea of the rigor, please discuss it and help your child decide whether to apply, with one major caveat:

- please do not push them to attend if they do not want to go to TJ.

TJ has far too many students who were forced, by their parents, to go. Don’t be that parent.

As for the revised standards, the opinions about it really don’t matter on an individual basis. They will not change in time for the next admission cycle.

If your child decides TJ is the right fit, by all means, have them apply. There is little to no guarantee of admission (unless you have the right “experience factors” which account for up to 40% of the decision).

TJ is a wonderful opportunity for the right student.

And it's is a horrible soul crushing confidence killer for the wrong student.

This is an often overlooked cost.

Everybody frames the cost as some rich smart kids not being put in a rigorous environment that they think they are entitled to. Theya re rich and smart they will be fine

Putting aside how shitty a person you have to be to believe this is OK, you are also ignoring the kids who are unprepared for TJ and go there only to drown there but by the end of their freshman year, they cannot bear the thought of going back to their base school with their tail between their legs. So they gut it out at TJ with Bs and Cs with a few As and Ds mixed in, go to NOVA and get into UVA through the back door...maybe.

There are a lot of terrible bad-faith arguments against the modernization of the admissions process, but this is by far one of the most disingenuous and paternalistic.

Pretending that you care about students who go to TJ and are in over their heads for their own sake is really gross when what you're really doing is advocating for kids in their academic situation to have no hope of attending.

Kids who are drowning go back to their base school. This happened all the time prior to the changes in the admissions process and is genuinely no big deal. They're not returning to their base school "with their tail between their legs" - they're usually going back because it's just not the right fit for them for whatever reason and there isn't any shame in it. You're applying shame to it probably because you would have shame about it if it happened to your kid.

Kids who go back get replaced through the froshmore admissions process and those kids generally come in, hit the ground running, and do very well for themselves. They're no worse off for having missed out on their freshman year and you still have a huge chunk of kids who would never have had a shot at TJ in the first place who end up doing very well and improving outcomes for themselves by being in a stronger environment.

The Class of 2025 was the most unprepared probably in TJ history, thanks to a combination of a new process that had yet to be refined and an overcorrection that gave too much credit (rather than the appropriate amount) to kids for coming from disadvantaged economic backgrounds. And they still had fantastic and successful TJ careers with excellent college outcomes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You could always do what I did and email the head of admissions and let her know your child’s stats. I shared all of my child’s 99th percentile test results and my child is now at TJ.

Terrible idea, which could well work AGAINST your child getting in.

+1.

One of the admissions officer told me that tj really hates it when parents are pushy in this way.

I would not risk it.

One admission officer told me they are being forced to achieve a predetermined diversity composition and parents have no idea on what criteria their student is being selected on. They only realize later after already struggling with Cs and Ds.

I hate the new admissions process but I highly doubt that there is a predetermined diversity composition. That is so clearly illegal that it's more than a lawsuit, it's an invitation to have the next republican governor come in and take over the process.

Lies dont get revealed with just one court case, unfortunately.¹

For years, every school that was later found to use race in admissions defended its closed “holistic” process as fully compliant with the law, until court cases exposed what was really happening behind the scenes. Harvard, for instance, long maintained that race was not a factor in its admissions decisions, but the “lop list” exhibit revealed during litigation showed that one of its four key columns explicitly listed each applicant’s race. Such revelations rarely come from a single lawsuit; it often takes multiple court challenges to uncover the full truth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi OP!

I am the parent of a sophomore at TJ. My child is earning excellent grades, loves TJ, and clearly belongs there.

Please read the thread someone created about rigor at TJ, though feel free to ignore the last few pages, which devolved into the same tired bickering. I’m convinced there is a troll here in the AAP section who worked on the admissions revision and/or is part of the FCPS Chief Equity Officer, Nardos King’s 55-person department at Gatehouse.

Once you have an idea of the rigor, please discuss it and help your child decide whether to apply, with one major caveat:

- please do not push them to attend if they do not want to go to TJ.

TJ has far too many students who were forced, by their parents, to go. Don’t be that parent.

As for the revised standards, the opinions about it really don’t matter on an individual basis. They will not change in time for the next admission cycle.

If your child decides TJ is the right fit, by all means, have them apply. There is little to no guarantee of admission (unless you have the right “experience factors” which account for up to 40% of the decision).

TJ is a wonderful opportunity for the right student.

The original question is about the admission process, not the rigor. Stay focused please.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi OP!

I am the parent of a sophomore at TJ. My child is earning excellent grades, loves TJ, and clearly belongs there.

Please read the thread someone created about rigor at TJ, though feel free to ignore the last few pages, which devolved into the same tired bickering. I’m convinced there is a troll here in the AAP section who worked on the admissions revision and/or is part of the FCPS Chief Equity Officer, Nardos King’s 55-person department at Gatehouse.

Once you have an idea of the rigor, please discuss it and help your child decide whether to apply, with one major caveat:

- please do not push them to attend if they do not want to go to TJ.

TJ has far too many students who were forced, by their parents, to go. Don’t be that parent.

As for the revised standards, the opinions about it really don’t matter on an individual basis. They will not change in time for the next admission cycle.

If your child decides TJ is the right fit, by all means, have them apply. There is little to no guarantee of admission (unless you have the right “experience factors” which account for up to 40% of the decision).

TJ is a wonderful opportunity for the right student.

Don’t assume that just because your student was selected, they’re automatically prepared for the rigor at TJ. The current essay based selection process has been doing a disservice to parents who fail to understand whether their student selection was based on merit or to primarily to support the diversity chart. Since the admissions change, many students have faced the harsh reality of returning to their base schools during or at end of freshman year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Since merit-based evaluation did not yield the intended level of student diversity, the system transitioned to the current subjective, essay-based lottery process. While a school-based quota exists, many students from lower-performing schools decline their offers. Consequently, those spots are reallocated to the top four middle schools, which nurture overwhelming number of FCPS’s advanced STEM students.

Keep telling yourself that. It apparently makes you feel better about yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Since merit-based evaluation did not yield the intended level of student diversity, the system transitioned to the current subjective, essay-based lottery process. While a school-based quota exists, many students from lower-performing schools decline their offers. Consequently, those spots are reallocated to the top four middle schools, which nurture overwhelming number of FCPS’s advanced STEM students.

Keep telling yourself that. It apparently makes you feel better about yourself.

The DEI nonsense is dead. Merit is back

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi OP!

I am the parent of a sophomore at TJ. My child is earning excellent grades, loves TJ, and clearly belongs there.

Please read the thread someone created about rigor at TJ, though feel free to ignore the last few pages, which devolved into the same tired bickering. I’m convinced there is a troll here in the AAP section who worked on the admissions revision and/or is part of the FCPS Chief Equity Officer, Nardos King’s 55-person department at Gatehouse.

Once you have an idea of the rigor, please discuss it and help your child decide whether to apply, with one major caveat:

- please do not push them to attend if they do not want to go to TJ.

TJ has far too many students who were forced, by their parents, to go. Don’t be that parent.

As for the revised standards, the opinions about it really don’t matter on an individual basis. They will not change in time for the next admission cycle.

If your child decides TJ is the right fit, by all means, have them apply. There is little to no guarantee of admission (unless you have the right “experience factors” which account for up to 40% of the decision).

TJ is a wonderful opportunity for the right student.

And it's is a horrible soul crushing confidence killer for the wrong student.

This is an often overlooked cost.

Everybody frames the cost as some rich smart kids not being put in a rigorous environment that they think they are entitled to. Theya re rich and smart they will be fine

Putting aside how shitty a person you have to be to believe this is OK, you are also ignoring the kids who are unprepared for TJ and go there only to drown there but by the end of their freshman year, they cannot bear the thought of going back to their base school with their tail between their legs. So they gut it out at TJ with Bs and Cs with a few As and Ds mixed in, go to NOVA and get into UVA through the back door...maybe.

There are a lot of terrible bad-faith arguments against the modernization of the admissions process, but this is by far one of the most disingenuous and paternalistic.

Pretending that you care about students who go to TJ and are in over their heads for their own sake is really gross when what you're really doing is advocating for kids in their academic situation to have no hope of attending.

Kids who are drowning go back to their base school. This happened all the time prior to the changes in the admissions process and is genuinely no big deal. They're not returning to their base school "with their tail between their legs" - they're usually going back because it's just not the right fit for them for whatever reason and there isn't any shame in it. You're applying shame to it probably because you would have shame about it if it happened to your kid.

Kids who go back get replaced through the froshmore admissions process and those kids generally come in, hit the ground running, and do very well for themselves. They're no worse off for having missed out on their freshman year and you still have a huge chunk of kids who would never have had a shot at TJ in the first place who end up doing very well and improving outcomes for themselves by being in a stronger environment.

The Class of 2025 was the most unprepared probably in TJ history, thanks to a combination of a new process that had yet to be refined and an overcorrection that gave too much credit (rather than the appropriate amount) to kids for coming from disadvantaged economic backgrounds. And they still had fantastic and successful TJ careers with excellent college outcomes.

It's not "no big deal" - even if they do excellently in grade 10 onwards, the low 9th grade GPA will be an ever present black mark, reminding elite colleges that this is a student who failed to handle the demands of an elite high school. On the other hand, if they had stayed at their local hs, they would have excellent grade all throughout and there would be no evidence that they would have been unable to handle TJ and thus they would be a much more appealing admit to elite colleges.

[Anonymous]

And froshmore admits do get a worse experience - one year less of being in an appropriately challenging environment is self-evidently a bad thing. That's why virtually every froshmore admit was a freshman reject - no one ever thinks "I'd rather go to my local hs all four years than TJ for all four years, but I'd rather go to TJ in 10th onwards than my local HS for all four years".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi OP!

I am the parent of a sophomore at TJ. My child is earning excellent grades, loves TJ, and clearly belongs there.

Please read the thread someone created about rigor at TJ, though feel free to ignore the last few pages, which devolved into the same tired bickering. I’m convinced there is a troll here in the AAP section who worked on the admissions revision and/or is part of the FCPS Chief Equity Officer, Nardos King’s 55-person department at Gatehouse.

Once you have an idea of the rigor, please discuss it and help your child decide whether to apply, with one major caveat:

- please do not push them to attend if they do not want to go to TJ.

TJ has far too many students who were forced, by their parents, to go. Don’t be that parent.

As for the revised standards, the opinions about it really don’t matter on an individual basis. They will not change in time for the next admission cycle.

If your child decides TJ is the right fit, by all means, have them apply. There is little to no guarantee of admission (unless you have the right “experience factors” which account for up to 40% of the decision).

TJ is a wonderful opportunity for the right student.

And it's is a horrible soul crushing confidence killer for the wrong student.

I am the pp to whom you responded.

While I would not have put it in such inflammatory terms, I do not wholly disagree with you.

IMO, there seem to be at least two categories of “wrong students” or rather: students who are a poor fit for what TJ offers:

1) students who truly do not want to be sent to TJ, but their, um, “tiger” or helicopter or lawnmower parent(s) force them to go to TJ against their will (these student usually hate their HS experience), and

2) students who, through no fault of their own, come from middle schools which simply do not offer the rigorous academic demands during 7th and 8th grade, to adequately prepare the candidate for one of the very top-academicly-ranked high schools in the nation. Two of my child’s teachers at TJ independently shared with me they have a student or two (unnamed, of course), who struggle by with straight Cs and Ds at TJ, as a result of how poorly they were prepared during K-8 in their base pyramid in FCPS.

While we do not need yet-another admissions-revision debate, the experiences these two teachers shared appear to confirm direct consequences of the school board artificially setting a benchmark of “offering admission” to every single MS within FCPS. It’s nice to pretend all middle schools are equal, but it is far from reality (nor is it an achievable reality, imo).

BTW, both teachers felt bad for the students struggling with Ds and Cs, and the teachers both acknowledged the students would likely be at the very top of their class at their base HS, where the academic performance standards were drastically lower than at TJ.
As a side note, while TJ does have a written policy goal for students to maintain a 3.5 gpa, it is not a requirement nor is it enforced. Rather, students below an average 3.5gpa “may” be “counseled” (ie it is a suggestion), they could benefit by returning to their base. Hence, there are a few students at the very bottom who remain at TJ for all 4 years, for reasons only they and their parents know.

Are there any middle schools which don't offer algebra 1 in 7th and geometry in 8th?

I believe that some of the Title 1 MS do not have enough kids to offer geometry in 8th grade. I think the reason that Geometry is not a requirement is because not every MS has enough kids to offer a geometry class. I am listing the SOL numbers from the 8th grade geometry offerings for last year below. These are just the 8th graders and only the total number who took the SOL. there is a 100% pass rate but many of the schools are at a 50% pass advanced rate. There are a good number of schools that probably offer 1 geometry class based on numbers, Hayfield, Herndon, Holmes, Key, Liberty, Poe, Stone, and Whitman all have fewer then 25 students take the geometry SOL. Herndon, Key, Poe, and Stone have 11 or fewer students taking the SOL.

Carson has 229 students take the geometry SOL in 8th grade
Cooper has 128 students take the geometry SOL in 8th grade
Franklin has 40 students take the geometry SOL in 8th grade
Frost has 108 students take the geometry SOL in 8th grade
Glasgow has 53 students take the geometry SOL in 8th grade
Hayfield has 18 students take the geometry SOL in 8th grade
Herndon has under 10 students take the geometry SOL in 8th grade
Holmes has 23 students take the geometry SOL in 8th grade
Hughes has 63 students take the geometry SOL in 8th grade
Irving has 69 students take the geometry SOL in 8th grade
Jackson has 85 students take the geometry SOL in 8th grade
Johnson has 91 students take the geometry SOL in 8th grade
Key has under 10 students take the geometry SOL in 8th grade
Kilmer has 120 students take the geometry SOL in 8th grade
Lake Braddock has 96 students take the geometry SOL in 8th grade
Liberty has 17 students take the geometry SOL in 8th grade
Longfellow has 167 students take the geometry SOL in 8th grade
Poe has under 10 students take the geometry SOL in 8th grade
Robinson has 47 students take the geometry SOL in 8th grade
Rocky Run has 110 students take the geometry SOL in 8th grade
Sandburg has 69 students take the geometry SOL in 8th grade
South County has 53 students take the geometry SOL in 8th grade
Stone has 11 students take the geometry SOL in 8th grade
Thoreau has 77 students take the geometry SOL in 8th grade
Twain has 47 students take the geometry SOL in 8th grade
Whitman has 21 students take the geometry SOL in 8th grade

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi OP!

I am the parent of a sophomore at TJ. My child is earning excellent grades, loves TJ, and clearly belongs there.

Please read the thread someone created about rigor at TJ, though feel free to ignore the last few pages, which devolved into the same tired bickering. I’m convinced there is a troll here in the AAP section who worked on the admissions revision and/or is part of the FCPS Chief Equity Officer, Nardos King’s 55-person department at Gatehouse.

Once you have an idea of the rigor, please discuss it and help your child decide whether to apply, with one major caveat:

- please do not push them to attend if they do not want to go to TJ.

TJ has far too many students who were forced, by their parents, to go. Don’t be that parent.

As for the revised standards, the opinions about it really don’t matter on an individual basis. They will not change in time for the next admission cycle.

If your child decides TJ is the right fit, by all means, have them apply. There is little to no guarantee of admission (unless you have the right “experience factors” which account for up to 40% of the decision).

TJ is a wonderful opportunity for the right student.

And it's is a horrible soul crushing confidence killer for the wrong student.

This is an often overlooked cost.

Everybody frames the cost as some rich smart kids not being put in a rigorous environment that they think they are entitled to. Theya re rich and smart they will be fine

Putting aside how shitty a person you have to be to believe this is OK, you are also ignoring the kids who are unprepared for TJ and go there only to drown there but by the end of their freshman year, they cannot bear the thought of going back to their base school with their tail between their legs. So they gut it out at TJ with Bs and Cs with a few As and Ds mixed in, go to NOVA and get into UVA through the back door...maybe.

There are a lot of terrible bad-faith arguments against the modernization of the admissions process, but this is by far one of the most disingenuous and paternalistic.

Pretending that you care about students who go to TJ and are in over their heads for their own sake is really gross when what you're really doing is advocating for kids in their academic situation to have no hope of attending.

Kids who are drowning go back to their base school. This happened all the time prior to the changes in the admissions process and is genuinely no big deal. They're not returning to their base school "with their tail between their legs" - they're usually going back because it's just not the right fit for them for whatever reason and there isn't any shame in it. You're applying shame to it probably because you would have shame about it if it happened to your kid.

Kids who go back get replaced through the froshmore admissions process and those kids generally come in, hit the ground running, and do very well for themselves. They're no worse off for having missed out on their freshman year and you still have a huge chunk of kids who would never have had a shot at TJ in the first place who end up doing very well and improving outcomes for themselves by being in a stronger environment.

The Class of 2025 was the most unprepared probably in TJ history, thanks to a combination of a new process that had yet to be refined and an overcorrection that gave too much credit (rather than the appropriate amount) to kids for coming from disadvantaged economic backgrounds. And they still had fantastic and successful TJ careers with excellent college outcomes.

It's not "no big deal" - even if they do excellently in grade 10 onwards, the low 9th grade GPA will be an ever present black mark, reminding elite colleges that this is a student who failed to handle the demands of an elite high school. On the other hand, if they had stayed at their local hs, they would have excellent grade all throughout and there would be no evidence that they would have been unable to handle TJ and thus they would be a much more appealing admit to elite colleges.

Or they write an amazing essay reflecting how hard they had to work to catch up as a freshman in order to excel in their last three years and demonstrate their dedication to their education and crush it with higher tiered schools. If you don't think that an essay outlining how hard it is to come from an impoverished school, get slapped in the face freshman year, work your butt off and end up with A's at an elite school is not going to lead to lots of acceptance, you are crazy. Especially if the student applies to one of the schools, like all the University of California schools, that looks at grades 10-12 because they know some kids struggle with 9th grade.

[Anonymous]

As a quick follow on, I ran the Algebra 1 in 8th grade SOL scores. I am not going to list all of them but I am posting the pass advanced in Algebra 1 numbers for the following schools:

Hayfield 45 (16.79%)
Herndon (46 (18.47%)
Holmes 13 (9.22%)
Key 18 (9.33%)
Liberty 88 (30.99%)
Poe 11 (8.21%)
Stone 31 (8.76%)
Whitman 14 (7.95%)

Most other MS have a 25% or higher pass advanced rate with Cooper, Johnson, Lake Braddock, Liberty, Longfellow, and Rocky Run in the 30% passed advanced rate. Longfellow had the highest pass advanced rate last year with 36.51%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi OP!

I am the parent of a sophomore at TJ. My child is earning excellent grades, loves TJ, and clearly belongs there.

Please read the thread someone created about rigor at TJ, though feel free to ignore the last few pages, which devolved into the same tired bickering. I’m convinced there is a troll here in the AAP section who worked on the admissions revision and/or is part of the FCPS Chief Equity Officer, Nardos King’s 55-person department at Gatehouse.

Once you have an idea of the rigor, please discuss it and help your child decide whether to apply, with one major caveat:

- please do not push them to attend if they do not want to go to TJ.

TJ has far too many students who were forced, by their parents, to go. Don’t be that parent.

As for the revised standards, the opinions about it really don’t matter on an individual basis. They will not change in time for the next admission cycle.

If your child decides TJ is the right fit, by all means, have them apply. There is little to no guarantee of admission (unless you have the right “experience factors” which account for up to 40% of the decision).

TJ is a wonderful opportunity for the right student.

And it's is a horrible soul crushing confidence killer for the wrong student.

This is an often overlooked cost.

Everybody frames the cost as some rich smart kids not being put in a rigorous environment that they think they are entitled to. Theya re rich and smart they will be fine

Putting aside how shitty a person you have to be to believe this is OK, you are also ignoring the kids who are unprepared for TJ and go there only to drown there but by the end of their freshman year, they cannot bear the thought of going back to their base school with their tail between their legs. So they gut it out at TJ with Bs and Cs with a few As and Ds mixed in, go to NOVA and get into UVA through the back door...maybe.

There are a lot of terrible bad-faith arguments against the modernization of the admissions process, but this is by far one of the most disingenuous and paternalistic.

Pretending that you care about students who go to TJ and are in over their heads for their own sake is really gross when what you're really doing is advocating for kids in their academic situation to have no hope of attending.

Kids who are drowning go back to their base school. This happened all the time prior to the changes in the admissions process and is genuinely no big deal. They're not returning to their base school "with their tail between their legs" - they're usually going back because it's just not the right fit for them for whatever reason and there isn't any shame in it. You're applying shame to it probably because you would have shame about it if it happened to your kid.

Kids who go back get replaced through the froshmore admissions process and those kids generally come in, hit the ground running, and do very well for themselves. They're no worse off for having missed out on their freshman year and you still have a huge chunk of kids who would never have had a shot at TJ in the first place who end up doing very well and improving outcomes for themselves by being in a stronger environment.

The Class of 2025 was the most unprepared probably in TJ history, thanks to a combination of a new process that had yet to be refined and an overcorrection that gave too much credit (rather than the appropriate amount) to kids for coming from disadvantaged economic backgrounds. And they still had fantastic and successful TJ careers with excellent college outcomes.

Now you're a mind reader?
It's not bad policy just because it is bad for the institution and for the gifted kids, it's bad policy because it's bad for everyone including the unprepared kids as well.

And yes there have always been kids that washed out of TJ and went back to their base school but it was like 5 kids a year not 50.
We didn't used to see nearly this many froshmores.

What you did to the class of 2025 horrible when you rushed the new process because you didn't think it could get it done if people had time to contemplate and react to it.

Ready.
Fire.
Aim.

That sort of rushed half ass method of governing seems similar to what we see from the trump administration
And frankly the rationale for the irresponsible behavior is pretty much the same:
The only way to implement really bad ideas is quickly and without regard for consequences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You could always do what I did and email the head of admissions and let her know your child’s stats. I shared all of my child’s 99th percentile test results and my child is now at TJ.

Terrible idea, which could well work AGAINST your child getting in.

+1.

One of the admissions officer told me that tj really hates it when parents are pushy in this way.

I would not risk it.

One admission officer told me they are being forced to achieve a predetermined diversity composition and parents have no idea on what criteria their student is being selected on. They only realize later after already struggling with Cs and Ds.

I hate the new admissions process but I highly doubt that there is a predetermined diversity composition. That is so clearly illegal that it's more than a lawsuit, it's an invitation to have the next republican governor come in and take over the process.

Lies dont get revealed with just one court case, unfortunately.¹

For years, every school that was later found to use race in admissions defended its closed “holistic” process as fully compliant with the law, until court cases exposed what was really happening behind the scenes. Harvard, for instance, long maintained that race was not a factor in its admissions decisions, but the “lop list” exhibit revealed during litigation showed that one of its four key columns explicitly listed each applicant’s race. Such revelations rarely come from a single lawsuit; it often takes multiple court challenges to uncover the full truth.

Well, I think TJ should probably get sued every year.
FCPS certainly should get FOIA's pretty regularly about TJ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Since merit-based evaluation did not yield the intended level of student diversity, the system transitioned to the current subjective, essay-based lottery process. While a school-based quota exists, many students from lower-performing schools decline their offers. Consequently, those spots are reallocated to the top four middle schools, which nurture overwhelming number of FCPS’s advanced STEM students.

Keep telling yourself that. It apparently makes you feel better about yourself.

DP

The froshmores all seem to come from "the usual suspect"

Lots of Indians and lots of east asians.
Not a lot of english language learners