I’m so glad TJ is more inclusive!

[Anonymous]

Meanwhile, China keeps cranking out engineers and isn’t lowering the bar for admission.


But, China doesn't have a diversity issue. Everyone is Asian.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Meanwhile, China keeps cranking out engineers and isn’t lowering the bar for admission.


But, China doesn't have a diversity issue. Everyone is Asian.

We also REALLY don't want to be like China from a human rights perspective.

[Anonymous]

Based on the first couple of weeks, nothing has been diluted at all. They are operating as usual albeit, without the intense pressures that some of the kids faced from their parents. If some of you are so wound up with TJ admissions, what are you going to do when college admissions starts? Do you think it will be any different? Relax.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Meanwhile, China keeps cranking out engineers and isn’t lowering the bar for admission.


But, China doesn't have a diversity issue. Everyone is Asian.

Is this sarcasm?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:More inclusive, less prestigious. That’s the choice they made.

More inclusive makes it more prestigious. When schools are more inclusive they rank much higher. Bet the matriculation looks better in about 5 years than it has in the recent years.

You can have the best STEM high school in the country or you can impose quotas to make it “look more like Fairfax County”, but you can’t have both. FCPS chose the latter.

it wasn’t done to make it look more like Fairfax, it was done to be more diverse. All the best schools want more diversity, even the private ones. Even the best colleges want diversity.

All admission testing should be blind. Either you are smart enough to do well on the test - and therefore the workload at TJ - or you aren't. Should not be based on race.

These aren't in any way equivalent. Equating them betrays a lack of understanding of how testing works.

No it actually doesn't and has been proven to specifically correlate based on intellect alone. Please don't add in all the social crap. Irrelevant.

[Anonymous]

+1. There are very few truly gifted students even at TJ. Plenty of hardworking kids will do really well.

Anonymous wrote:My kid (Indian) just graduated from TJ and is in college. I certainly wish the school had been more diverse. Reflecting the demographics of the local area will likely happen only if forced but more diversity is possible.

While the "typical kid" may not have gotten in this year, most kids admitted year are still qualified to be at TJ. Most negative comments assume otherwise.

I don't think TJ has to dilute anything to cater to this cohort. However, the curriculum is no cakewalk for even the highly prepped+gifted kids let alone the kids who are not as gifted (a good chunk of the kids at TJ are not gifted, just above-average). Hopefully the new cohort is motivated enough to keep up (they are all capable) and stay at TJ. If the curriculum does get diluted a bit, I think everyone benefits.

The other aspect of success at TJ is parent involvement. If parents cannot spend the time to shuttle their kids back and forth for ECs or sports they will not be able to leverage TJ to the fullest extent. Hopefully the school mitigates that through transportation arrangements.

Good luck to all the kids!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:More inclusive, less prestigious. That’s the choice they made.

More inclusive makes it more prestigious. When schools are more inclusive they rank much higher. Bet the matriculation looks better in about 5 years than it has in the recent years.

You can have the best STEM high school in the country or you can impose quotas to make it “look more like Fairfax County”, but you can’t have both. FCPS chose the latter.

it wasn’t done to make it look more like Fairfax, it was done to be more diverse. All the best schools want more diversity, even the private ones. Even the best colleges want diversity.

All admission testing should be blind. Either you are smart enough to do well on the test - and therefore the workload at TJ - or you aren't. Should not be based on race.

These aren't in any way equivalent. Equating them betrays a lack of understanding of how testing works.

No it actually doesn't and has been proven to specifically correlate based on intellect alone. Please don't add in all the social crap. Irrelevant.

citation needed - to where test taking ability (which can easily be manufactured by prep companies) correlates with ability to handle workload enough to take advantage of all TJ has to offer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:+1. There are very few truly gifted students even at TJ. Plenty of hardworking kids will do really well.

Anonymous wrote:My kid (Indian) just graduated from TJ and is in college. I certainly wish the school had been more diverse. Reflecting the demographics of the local area will likely happen only if forced but more diversity is possible.

While the "typical kid" may not have gotten in this year, most kids admitted year are still qualified to be at TJ. Most negative comments assume otherwise.

I don't think TJ has to dilute anything to cater to this cohort. However, the curriculum is no cakewalk for even the highly prepped+gifted kids let alone the kids who are not as gifted (a good chunk of the kids at TJ are not gifted, just above-average). Hopefully the new cohort is motivated enough to keep up (they are all capable) and stay at TJ. If the curriculum does get diluted a bit, I think everyone benefits.

The other aspect of success at TJ is parent involvement. If parents cannot spend the time to shuttle their kids back and forth for ECs or sports they will not be able to leverage TJ to the fullest extent. Hopefully the school mitigates that through transportation arrangements.

Good luck to all the kids!

This is more true than most families want to believe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Meanwhile, China keeps cranking out engineers and isn’t lowering the bar for admission.


But, China doesn't have a diversity issue. Everyone is Asian.

Is this sarcasm?

I don't know, have they finished their reeducation in Xinjiang yet?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:More inclusive, less prestigious. That’s the choice they made.

More inclusive makes it more prestigious. When schools are more inclusive they rank much higher. Bet the matriculation looks better in about 5 years than it has in the recent years.

You can have the best STEM high school in the country or you can impose quotas to make it “look more like Fairfax County”, but you can’t have both. FCPS chose the latter.

it wasn’t done to make it look more like Fairfax, it was done to be more diverse. All the best schools want more diversity, even the private ones. Even the best colleges want diversity.

All admission testing should be blind. Either you are smart enough to do well on the test - and therefore the workload at TJ - or you aren't. Should not be based on race.

It is blind and always has been.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid (Indian) just graduated from TJ and is in college. I certainly wish the school had been more diverse. Reflecting the demographics of the local area will likely happen only if forced but more diversity is possible.

While the "typical kid" may not have gotten in this year, most kids admitted year are still qualified to be at TJ. Most negative comments assume otherwise.

I don't think TJ has to dilute anything to cater to this cohort. However, the curriculum is no cakewalk for even the highly prepped+gifted kids let alone the kids who are not as gifted (a good chunk of the kids at TJ are not gifted, just above-average). Hopefully the new cohort is motivated enough to keep up (they are all capable) and stay at TJ. If the curriculum does get diluted a bit, I think everyone benefits.

The other aspect of success at TJ is parent involvement. If parents cannot spend the time to shuttle their kids back and forth for ECs or sports they will not be able to leverage TJ to the fullest extent. Hopefully the school mitigates that through transportation arrangements.

Good luck to all the kids!

+1. There are very few truly gifted students even at TJ. Plenty of hardworking kids will do really well.

I resemble this remark.
-alumus

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid (Indian) just graduated from TJ and is in college. I certainly wish the school had been more diverse. Reflecting the demographics of the local area will likely happen only if forced but more diversity is possible.

While the "typical kid" may not have gotten in this year, most kids admitted year are still qualified to be at TJ. Most negative comments assume otherwise.

I don't think TJ has to dilute anything to cater to this cohort. However, the curriculum is no cakewalk for even the highly prepped+gifted kids let alone the kids who are not as gifted (a good chunk of the kids at TJ are not gifted, just above-average). Hopefully the new cohort is motivated enough to keep up (they are all capable) and stay at TJ. If the curriculum does get diluted a bit, I think everyone benefits.

The other aspect of success at TJ is parent involvement. If parents cannot spend the time to shuttle their kids back and forth for ECs or sports they will not be able to leverage TJ to the fullest extent. Hopefully the school mitigates that through transportation arrangements.

Good luck to all the kids!

+1. There are very few truly gifted students even at TJ. Plenty of hardworking kids will do really well.

I resemble this remark.
-alumus

*cough* alumnus *cough*.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid (Indian) just graduated from TJ and is in college. I certainly wish the school had been more diverse. Reflecting the demographics of the local area will likely happen only if forced but more diversity is possible.

While the "typical kid" may not have gotten in this year, most kids admitted year are still qualified to be at TJ. Most negative comments assume otherwise.

I don't think TJ has to dilute anything to cater to this cohort. However, the curriculum is no cakewalk for even the highly prepped+gifted kids let alone the kids who are not as gifted (a good chunk of the kids at TJ are not gifted, just above-average). Hopefully the new cohort is motivated enough to keep up (they are all capable) and stay at TJ. If the curriculum does get diluted a bit, I think everyone benefits.

The other aspect of success at TJ is parent involvement. If parents cannot spend the time to shuttle their kids back and forth for ECs or sports they will not be able to leverage TJ to the fullest extent. Hopefully the school mitigates that through transportation arrangements.

Good luck to all the kids!

+1. There are very few truly gifted students even at TJ. Plenty of hardworking kids will do really well.

I resemble this remark.
-alumus

TJ isn't a gifted school though, is it? It's just a STEM school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:More inclusive, less prestigious. That’s the choice they made.

It's possible this may be the case in the short term, but in the long term, the investment should pay off in the form of greater interest from a wider pool of applicants. It doesn't speak highly of TJ's real prestige that significantly fewer students applied for the Class of, say, 2024 than the Class of 2004. Most elite academic schools look for their application numbers to increase so that their school becomes MORE selective - not less. It's amusing to me that folks on this board feel like TJ is super-prestigious when entire segments of the population had no interest in applying for such a long time.

When you finally start seeing TJ's application numbers grow with the population of its catchment areas, you'll know that the school is becoming more prestigious.

A lot of people buy lottery tickets, too, but that doesn't mean the people with the winning ticket are highly respected.

And is it really a good thing to encourage the kids who might be the role models at a Justice or Lewis to apply to TJ instead?

The lottery analogy is irrelevant as there is no lottery aspect to the adopted process that was used to put together the Class of 2025. The obviously more relevant analogy would be to elite schools that attract a high number of applications.

And yes, of course it's a good thing, because once they get to and succeed at TJ they will be the role models for the kids at Whitman and Key and Poe and Glasgow and wherever. For all that the status-quo clowns pretend to care about the pipeline and building from the ground up, having role models to look up to is one of the best ways to achieve that goal.

It technically may not be a lottery, but there is a randomness introduced by the fact that less qualified kids will now be admitted to TJ because they happen to live in areas that haven't sent many kids to TJ in the past.

And the importance of role models arguably is much more important in a high school environment than in a middle school environment.

But maybe that's OK. This has always been mostly about making TJ alumni feel better about attending a school that had gotten "too Asian" for their friend groups, and satisfying some School Board members and their cronies that they were getting their fair share of the TJ pork. Calling the school environment "toxic" and demonizing the Asian kids who were working harder was a small price to pay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

TJ isn't a gifted school though, is it? It's just a STEM school.

TJ is a Governor's School. From the VDOE website:
Purpose of the Governor's Schools
Governor's Schools give gifted students academic and visual and performing arts opportunities beyond those normally available in the students' home schools. Students are able to focus on a specific area of intellectual or artistic strength and interest and to study in a way that best suits the gifted learner's needs.
https://www.doe.virginia.gov/instruction/governors_school_programs/index.shtml

So, technically TJ is a gifted school.