Let's think of ALL the ways that families might game the new TJ admissions process

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is really no point to game the system. TJ will no longer be desirable for many families. TJ as we know it, will be destroyed in three years when the current students graduate. TJ will be just another Edison Academy. Funny FCPS think having two STEM academies in Alexandria is the way to go. Wealthy white schools will benefit the most.

This is right. Why would someone still be gunning for TJ? Do people not get what happened here?

Such a shame. There is no more incentive to achieve anything higher than AP Calculus in a mediocre HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is really no point to game the system. TJ will no longer be desirable for many families. TJ as we know it, will be destroyed in three years when the current students graduate. TJ will be just another Edison Academy. Funny FCPS think having two STEM academies in Alexandria is the way to go. Wealthy white schools will benefit the most.

This is right. Why would someone still be gunning for TJ? Do people not get what happened here?

Private schools will get more applications. FCPS doesn't realize they just saved Basis Independent McLean, which is struggling now partly because of the existence of TJ. McLean, Langley and Vienna pyramids will be more desired.

[Anonymous]

Closing TJ is the best option at this point. Let it be a neighborhood high school for Columbia, Weyanoke, Mason Crest, Bren Mar Park and 1/2 of Parklawn ES. Then Annandale can reclaim Wakefield Forest and the part of Ravenworth it lost to Lake Braddock. Move the part of Rose Hill that goes to Hayfield to Edison, move Fort Belvoir from Mount Vernon to Hayfield, and move Fort Hunt and Stratford Landing from West Potomac to Mount Vernon. We would save so much money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is really no point to game the system. TJ will no longer be desirable for many families. TJ as we know it, will be destroyed in three years when the current students graduate. TJ will be just another Edison Academy. Funny FCPS think having two STEM academies in Alexandria is the way to go. Wealthy white schools will benefit the most.

This is right. Why would someone still be gunning for TJ? Do people not get what happened here?

Private schools will get more applications. FCPS doesn't realize they just saved Basis Independent McLean, which is struggling now partly because of the existence of TJ. McLean, Langley and Vienna pyramids will be more desired.

What's so great about Basis Independent McLean?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is really no point to game the system. TJ will no longer be desirable for many families. TJ as we know it, will be destroyed in three years when the current students graduate. TJ will be just another Edison Academy. Funny FCPS think having two STEM academies in Alexandria is the way to go. Wealthy white schools will benefit the most.

This is right. Why would someone still be gunning for TJ? Do people not get what happened here?

Private schools will get more applications. FCPS doesn't realize they just saved Basis Independent McLean, which is struggling now partly because of the existence of TJ. McLean, Langley and Vienna pyramids will be more desired.

What's so great about Basis Independent McLean?

Access to APs. For Langley, there are no (zero!) APs available to freshman no matter what your level is. At Basis, they can take whatever they are ready for - AP Psychology, AP Econ, etc. most of the students are done by 11th grade and can either apply to college early or can do a research year with Basis.

Basis McLean has gone through a very rough beginning years. If they can turn things around, it could truly be a force in this area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Private school families will be the most advantaged because they can rent in a low interest region for a short while without even moving there or uprooting their child's education.

During the online school period, they could rent in Fairfax and live in another state or even abroad until the lottery.

[Anonymous]

Three years ago, MCPS started accepting kids for the prestigious middle school magnets through a "peer cohort" system whereby kids were selected based on being outliers at their own schools.

If the doomsday folks upthread were correct, that would have led to a flood of parents moving in 5th grade for the advantage.

It hasn't materialized, because the idea is farcical.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From another thread:


Besides, if parents aren’t paying for test prep, then they can rent a one Br apartment in one of the Eastern County regions where very few kids apply at the beginning of 8th grade. And mom can drive Jr to and from the associate AAP MS Center there for a year and pick up the mail once a week. And the exact same kids will end up at TJ— and compete with many fewer kids for lottery spots than they will out of Carson and RRMS.

It took me less than a minute to figure out how to game the system. Before my neighbor told me about two friends who had done just that and were sharing a 1BR apartment to use as an address. It’s nice theY transitioned this year when the kid can DL from their nice Western County homes and not commute.


That’s what idiots like bra band and SB don’t get.


+1. In fact, this year will be very easy TJ admission for the kids whose parents jumped on renting an apartment in a low attendance region as soon as the writing was on the wall. And some parents definitely did. Some of those regions probably don’t get 60 applicants. And outreach this year is going to be impossible. It’s going to be funny when they end up with as many or more Asian kids at TJ next year.

Maybe they could... just spitballing here... put the time, money and energy into actually nurturing STEM talent from PK onward and having high expectations of all kids.

Nah. That’s crazy talk.

Yes, will be really funny! I would have definitely rented an apartment in a low enrollment region, if it increased my child’s acceptance chances. And I’m not even Asian.

This already happens, and FCPS is well aware of it - hence the changes. Gaming the system should not be a way of life for anyone - in America, or anywhere. What is that teaching young children?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Closing TJ is the best option at this point. Let it be a neighborhood high school for Columbia, Weyanoke, Mason Crest, Bren Mar Park and 1/2 of Parklawn ES. Then Annandale can reclaim Wakefield Forest and the part of Ravenworth it lost to Lake Braddock. Move the part of Rose Hill that goes to Hayfield to Edison, move Fort Belvoir from Mount Vernon to Hayfield, and move Fort Hunt and Stratford Landing from West Potomac to Mount Vernon. We would save so much money.

+1

Nailed it. No reason for TJ, with too few seats, to exist at this point. I think that is becoming clear to FCPS.

[Anonymous]

Are schools that bad in China? Are we the only country with decent colleges?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Virtual school is only going to last for a year, hopefully. I doubt that parents are transferring their kids this year to game the systems.

Kids will have to attend the school for at least a year in a regular year. So parents will have to be willing to rent a place and then transport their kid to a different school for a year. And the areas with fewer kids attending TJ, and hence with a likely greater chance to be selected in the lottery, are likely to be at schools with fewer after school options. So parents will have to decide that it is worth it to rent an apartment that they might not use, drive their kid a larger distance to a school that they probably don't think is as strong and with fewer after school STEM options.

I don't see that happening.

Then you aren’t a member of the TJ community. And you don’t get the sacrifices families make to attend and help their kid succeed. We are and were talking about this at dinner the other night. We know people who are doing it now for younger siblings. And all of us absolutely believe it will continue as long as TJ is advanced enough to be worth attending.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's what's hilarious - the more families out there that choose to do this, the less likely it is that it will work for any one of them as an individual family.

I'll bet you there are folks from Regions 1 and 2 who are floating this idea to see if people will bite on it and thus increase their own chances by staying home.

There is no end to the underhanded crap that people will try to pull in order to gain admission to a school that they're already talking about as being "ruined".

Franklin is base school for half of Carson and is in the same region as RRMS. You’d need 200 plus kids to do this for it to even out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Closing TJ is the best option at this point. Let it be a neighborhood high school for Columbia, Weyanoke, Mason Crest, Bren Mar Park and 1/2 of Parklawn ES. Then Annandale can reclaim Wakefield Forest and the part of Ravenworth it lost to Lake Braddock. Move the part of Rose Hill that goes to Hayfield to Edison, move Fort Belvoir from Mount Vernon to Hayfield, and move Fort Hunt and Stratford Landing from West Potomac to Mount Vernon. We would save so much money.

Western County says Hi! No way FCPS will do a mass rezoning. They have crammed 3000 kids into Chantilly, and are building additions everywhere to avoid it. It’s why “equity” starts at TJ and not Langley, which manages to have less diversity than TJ in terms of SES. FCPS can virtue signal about equity without addressing a base school that’s 1% ELL, 3% FARMs and almost 90% white and Asian.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Closing TJ is the best option at this point. Let it be a neighborhood high school for Columbia, Weyanoke, Mason Crest, Bren Mar Park and 1/2 of Parklawn ES. Then Annandale can reclaim Wakefield Forest and the part of Ravenworth it lost to Lake Braddock. Move the part of Rose Hill that goes to Hayfield to Edison, move Fort Belvoir from Mount Vernon to Hayfield, and move Fort Hunt and Stratford Landing from West Potomac to Mount Vernon. We would save so much money.

+1

Nailed it. No reason for TJ, with too few seats, to exist at this point. I think that is becoming clear to FCPS.

+2. I think operating a magnet with 1825 kids (2% FARMS) when there are overcrowded high schools elsewhere in the county is an equal protection claim waiting to happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Closing TJ is the best option at this point. Let it be a neighborhood high school for Columbia, Weyanoke, Mason Crest, Bren Mar Park and 1/2 of Parklawn ES. Then Annandale can reclaim Wakefield Forest and the part of Ravenworth it lost to Lake Braddock. Move the part of Rose Hill that goes to Hayfield to Edison, move Fort Belvoir from Mount Vernon to Hayfield, and move Fort Hunt and Stratford Landing from West Potomac to Mount Vernon. We would save so much money.

Western County says Hi! No way FCPS will do a mass rezoning. They have crammed 3000 kids into Chantilly, and are building additions everywhere to avoid it. It’s why “equity” starts at TJ and not Langley, which manages to have less diversity than TJ in terms of SES. FCPS can virtue signal about equity without addressing a base school that’s 1% ELL, 3% FARMs and almost 90% white and Asian.

They’ve turned Chantilly into a factory with almost 3000 kids while TJ has 1825 kids and a lower FARMS percentage than Langley.