TJ - Neurobio cheating

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do you "know" this?

DP, but I heard about this from my kid-- who is a freshman. It was all over the school. I did not hear all the details of how the neurobio ring worked, but I did hear that the kids were let off with a warning. Until TJ starts flunking and expelling cheaters, this will never get better. And no-- I don't think I'll return my kid to his base school. Thanks anyway. Like a lot of parents, I will have my kid stay put and fight hard to have the new administration come down on cheaters hard and make cheating so painful that the kids, and the teachers and parents who enable it, cut it out or leave. They are the ones ruining the school. Not my kid.

TJ administration won't do anything unless the news comes out in major papers like Washington Post. Then the admins butts will be on fire and things are likely to change for good. If someone has contacts with major media like NYTimes, Wash Post, Wtop, NPR, etc, this kind of information should go out. This is no way to blame the honest kids, but actually to help them.

You don't need personal contacts. Pick up the phone or send an e-mail. Get some coverage on this, TJ parents. The PP is right--until the school flunks and expels kids for this kind of thing, it will continue and will just keep harming the honest kids.

Nearly 100% certain that if TJ were 75% white population there will be no cries of cheating even if it was going on, parents would circle wagon and form a tight group to hush it down and handle it secretly. As if TJ is the only school this happens, the voices are growing louder because of the Asian population in TJ.

So you admit that there is a cheating problem at TJ!
That's a good start.

LOL .. admit what, when I am not a TJ parent and my kid is not in TJ. You have an axe to grind, that is what I am calling out, and anyone reading these forums can do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do you "know" this?

DP, but I heard about this from my kid-- who is a freshman. It was all over the school. I did not hear all the details of how the neurobio ring worked, but I did hear that the kids were let off with a warning. Until TJ starts flunking and expelling cheaters, this will never get better. And no-- I don't think I'll return my kid to his base school. Thanks anyway. Like a lot of parents, I will have my kid stay put and fight hard to have the new administration come down on cheaters hard and make cheating so painful that the kids, and the teachers and parents who enable it, cut it out or leave. They are the ones ruining the school. Not my kid.

TJ administration won't do anything unless the news comes out in major papers like Washington Post. Then the admins butts will be on fire and things are likely to change for good. If someone has contacts with major media like NYTimes, Wash Post, Wtop, NPR, etc, this kind of information should go out. This is no way to blame the honest kids, but actually to help them.

You don't need personal contacts. Pick up the phone or send an e-mail. Get some coverage on this, TJ parents. The PP is right--until the school flunks and expels kids for this kind of thing, it will continue and will just keep harming the honest kids.

Nearly 100% certain that if TJ were 75% white population there will be no cries of cheating even if it was going on, parents would circle wagon and form a tight group to hush it down and handle it secretly. As if TJ is the only school this happens, the voices are growing louder because of the Asian population in TJ.

So you admit that there is a cheating problem at TJ!
That's a good start.

LOL .. admit what, when I am not a TJ parent and my kid is not in TJ. You have an axe to grind, that is what I am calling out, and anyone reading these forums can do that.

No, sorry, you are completely wrong on this. People don't like cheating. It has nothing to do with race. There are plenty of incidents of white people cheating where they have been caught and punished. If TJ were 75% white and there were a sophomore cheating ring there would be just as much of an outcry if appropriate consequences were not applied.

+1. I really don't care what ethnicity, race, gender, religion, etc. kids who cheat are. They screw up things at TJ for my kid by giving a significant boost the the kids who cheat. When it comes time to curve a test, that's a problem. Deflect all you want, but cheaters do not get a pass because they are Asian. And ithe administration should come down as hard on AA, white, Hispanic or multicultural cheaters.

The only axe people want to grind here is the cheating axe. Over the years, at many schools and at many levels, I have seen people of all races get caught cheating at various times and there have been consequences with no regard for the race of the perpetrators.

No one likes cheating. Parents of any race should not make excuses when their children cheat and should support the school when it uncovers and needs to deal with cheating.

[Anonymous]

Not trying to defend the cheaters, but that neurobio teacher should be reprimanded or even let go. How can a teacher not notice the easy vs hard questions? Which teachers in their right mind would let students come up with test questions for others? That is the epitome of stupidity and laziness. It is one thing to let students make up some questions and incorporate some randomly in a test, but letting students choose which questions to give to whom will inevitably lead to this kind of allegiance among students.

Agreed, but I'd go farther and say the administration made the right call. Even under the best conditions, a test where students answer different questions seems inherently unfair. Add in the idea of letting students write the questions and it's more of a psychological experiment than anything. Kids who received more difficult questions crafted by the most advanced students would be at a disadvantage. Given the amount of unbalance baked in, no one should be surprised that some opportunistic Slytherin kids did what comes naturally to help themselves. They never should have been put in that position. Don't get me wrong, they're still exploitative little shits. But alerting the "major media" about a "huge cheating scandal"? Maybe next time.

[Anonymous]

And now the situation is corrected. This particular story is over. The Neurobio class operates very differently now and the complained of cheating is over.

[Anonymous]

It's so disappointing that students with the incredible privilege of taking a neurobiology class in high school would engage in these slimeball tactics. My question for TJ- does anyone care about learning for the sake of learning, or is it only about grades, competition and getting to the next level?

[Anonymous]

It's all about be able to say "my child goes to TJ"

[Anonymous]

My DC and many other TJ kids I know are there to learn, don't obsess about grades, and balance all the work with sports and other activities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's so disappointing that students with the incredible privilege of taking a neurobiology class in high school would engage in these slimeball tactics. My question for TJ- does anyone care about learning for the sake of learning, or is it only about grades, competition and getting to the next level?

It's been only about grades, competition and getting to the next level for many TJ kids from a very young age. It's just amplified as the stakes get higher and they are all lumped together in one school. It's an unhealthy environment that promotes getting ahead at any cost. The continues because there are no real consequences to cheating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do you "know" this?

DP, but I heard about this from my kid-- who is a freshman. It was all over the school. I did not hear all the details of how the neurobio ring worked, but I did hear that the kids were let off with a warning. Until TJ starts flunking and expelling cheaters, this will never get better. And no-- I don't think I'll return my kid to his base school. Thanks anyway. Like a lot of parents, I will have my kid stay put and fight hard to have the new administration come down on cheaters hard and make cheating so painful that the kids, and the teachers and parents who enable it, cut it out or leave. They are the ones ruining the school. Not my kid.

TJ administration won't do anything unless the news comes out in major papers like Washington Post. Then the admins butts will be on fire and things are likely to change for good. If someone has contacts with major media like NYTimes, Wash Post, Wtop, NPR, etc, this kind of information should go out. This is no way to blame the honest kids, but actually to help them.

You don't need personal contacts. Pick up the phone or send an e-mail. Get some coverage on this, TJ parents. The PP is right--until the school flunks and expels kids for this kind of thing, it will continue and will just keep harming the honest kids.

Nearly 100% certain that if TJ were 75% white population there will be no cries of cheating even if it was going on, parents would circle wagon and form a tight group to hush it down and handle it secretly. As if TJ is the only school this happens, the voices are growing louder because of the Asian population in TJ.

Maybe there are cases where this is true, but the cheating is at the level that it has to be addressed. I don't care what color the kids are, and feel like it's making TJ a toxic environment for all kids at the school by artificially inflating grades, which means kids who aren't cheating have to work even harder than they already do to try to be competitive to colleges. I think we've all become so obsessed with our kids being the best academically that we are pushing them in ways that make them feel they have to be the best at everything in order to be ok.

[Anonymous]

It's a high school, people. A high school.

[Anonymous]

eh, the reason you take a class is to learn the material. I don't understand why the teacher would make it her students' responsibility to create tests for each other in the first place. Isn't test creation the teacher's responsibility?

[Anonymous]

Even if there was no intent to cheat, it seems pretty obvious that a student created test by group A might be easier (maybe a lot easier) than a test created by the students in group B.

Sounds like a very flawed process to begin with. And the students who took advantage of it to purposefully pad their (and their friends') own GPAs while hurting the GPAs of the other kids in the class should be ashamed of themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP the prior case is unique - frankly as unique as if you google and find the TJ student who was admitted to all 8 ivies plus Stanford and MIT. Shame on you for taking the admitted struggles of a young girl and her family - which her father ultimately publicly spoke about as being a matter of personal family concern about the daughter's well being - to use that as part of your vendetta against TJ and to claim all TJ students are like that. Just false -- and you only display your ignorance by claiming its true.

If your kid is at TJ and is as unhappy as you are with TJ, there are other options ... base school, private school, home school, early admission to college, etc.

If you aren't part of the TJ community, come see it some time - go to an Open event, come to a concert or play, go to a sporting event, run or walk in one of the relays. They have many events open to the public and the number will increase now that construction is complete. I am sure you will find that the school community is very different from how you seek to portray it here, for whatever reason.

Not the PP you're responding to, but this is far from unique. I recall seeing a leaked SIP or some document of that nature a few years ago on the FCAG forum, and one of the issues prominently discussed was the cheating problem at TJ.
Is this unique to TJ? Of course not. Is the intensity worse at TJ than other places? Probably, given the high level of competition. You take a bunch of kids who are used to being top dogs and put them in an environment where they're by definition mostly average, and a not insignificant number will do whatever it takes to remain top dog, especially given the parental pressure they're facing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And now the situation is corrected. This particular story is over. The Neurobio class operates very differently now and the complained of cheating is over.

I do not have a kid at TJ but would like to know if the kids who cheated faced any real consequences, such as a failing grade, suspension, being removed from academic clubs or honor society, losing things like student council posts, etc. Our HS had a cheating incident among several students in one class and of course the school isn't saying what, if anything, was done to the kids who cheated. I get that it's a privacy issue, and no one needs to publicize kids' names, but frankly it would be useful for other students to know that cheating had very specific consequences.

[Anonymous]

The new principal has already said her top priority is dealing with student stress, which she views as the cause of academic integrity violations. Fingers crossed that something actually gets done.

http://www.tjtoday.org/21198/showcase/bonitatibus-announced-as-new-principal-beginning-2017-2018-school-year/

Some parents were definitely worried that we were going to end up with an Asian principal. Not PC to say, but it has certainly been a subject of discussion and worry among the parents. I have also heard Asian parents say the opposite-- they "deserved" an Asian principal who gets the Asian academics mindset, because the school is majority Asian. A lot of ceoncern among non-Asian parents they would go this way and the environment at TJ would get even worse.

I think it would have been even better if they had pulled someone from FCPS. Like the Carson principal who left a couple years ago (Fratalli ???) who made the school an academic powerhouse, and was very popular in the school community.


But, bonus points for getting a woman. It was wrong that TJ had about a 50/50 male female split in applicant, but came out 60/40 male in acceptances for class of 2021. Especially since women tend to outperform men in selective HS and college admissions. No one can say with a straight face that men were that much better than women.