New TJ principal announced

[Anonymous]

FCPS offers Varsity Tutors for FREE. They have a lot of free SAT prep. You can also buy a practice book on Amazon for not that much money. There are also a ton of free videos on YouTube. It might be easier for someone rich to pay for a SAT prep class than have to look for all of these free resources, but in the end any student is only going to see results if they put in the hard work to learn the concepts, do practice tests, and spend their free time working on SAT review instead of staring at their phone for 7-8 hours a day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am hopeful that the new principal can keep the low stress environment without abandoning rigor.

The previous principal did an excellent job maintaining high standards while reducing the test prep cheaters, which helped with the toxicity.

Test prep is not cheating.
Studying is not cheating.
Nobody believes that it is.
Not even you.
Only cheating is cheating.
You should stop denigrating the hard work and effort of some kids just because you want opportunity for other kids.

I think Bonitatibus was focused on mental health especially in light of the two suicides during her tenure. I think these may be the first suicides at TJ since its inception and it must have weighed heavy on her as it would on any principal.

The test prep has the questions bank, they teach and train your kid strategy on how to answer it, they expose to your kid what the test would similarity be like.
If you don't like the term of 'cheating' I will call it unfair advantage.

I am agree that studying is not cheating.

Well, this is why I think the PSATs would be the best test to use. The "question banks" are publicly available for free.
Test prep is available on khan academy.

+1 That is what they already recommend (but don't require) for sophomore admission.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am hopeful that the new principal can keep the low stress environment without abandoning rigor.

For a change, the new principal has STEM background. Merit is back, beginning with the new principal.

Bonitatibus has a computer science background.

Maybe for a change you can try to post something truthful?

No, moron, she does not:

Bonitatibus holds a bachelor’s degree in communications education from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, a master’s in administration and supervision from McDaniel College and an education doctorate in organizational leadership from the University of Pennsylvania

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am hopeful that the new principal can keep the low stress environment without abandoning rigor.

For a change, the new principal has STEM background. Merit is back, beginning with the new principal.

Bonitatibus has a computer science background.

Maybe for a change you can try to post something truthful?

No, moron, she does not:

Bonitatibus holds a bachelor’s degree in communications education from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, a master’s in administration and supervision from McDaniel College and an education doctorate in organizational leadership from the University of Pennsylvania

You can do STEM and other things.

https://www.tjtoday.org/37454/showcase/principal-ann-bonitatibus-will-teach-ethical-leadership-course/

“With a background in both computer science and communications in college and a master’s in organizational leadership, Bonitatibus has extensive experience in teaching.

“I had a unique teaching experience in that I taught both English and mathematics because of my undergraduate work in college,””


Both studied STEM in college; both went directly into teaching; both taught math in the past. He has more of a STEM background but it’s inaccurate to say she didn’t have one at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The best part is in the email they had to make sure to talk of the former failed principals fake promotion to gatehouse! Lmao "following Dr. Ann Bonitatibus' promotion to a central office position."

Here is a better article calling out how awful the previous tj principal was pushing racial quotas causing TJ to fall form #1 in the nation to 14.


You are spreading RWNJ misinformation.

There are no quotas.

And TJ went from #5 to #14 out of 25,000 schools on the USNWR rankings. It was only #1 twice in the preceding decade.

It was #1 at least two years in a row before the admission change and then fell to #5, and then #14, and we’ll see where it ends up when this years rankings comes out in April. You and your #fakenews

It was #5 using data from before the admissions change.

And rank #20 in some year in the past.

No. The purported #20 ranking in 2017 that you're referencing was a mistake by a poster in another thread who later corrected their error. TJ's actual 2017 ranking was #6. TJ was always in the top ten over the last decade prior to last year.

Yup. That was my error.

2015 #3
2016 #5
2017 #6
2018 #6
2019 #10
2020 #4 (I believe this was first year that utilized data from bonitatibus' term)
2021 #1
2022 #1
2023 #5
2024 #14 (first year that utilized data from the new admissions process)

The rankings are mostly hairsplitting. No doubt TJ will be #1 again soon. I wouldn't give these much weight or read anything into it.

Of course it'll be number 1 again. First step towards return to meritocracy is this new qualified principal.

You're confused. The old system was rigged. People from a handful of wealthy feeders were buying the test questions. The new system uses merit by selecting the top students from each school!

The top students from each school are not the same thing as the top students from the participating jurisdictions. FCPS replaced merit with a spoils system to appease the resentful parents of less qualified applicants.

Parents are in quandry why their students were even offered admissions when the school rigor is a mismatch to student prerequisite skills. The bottom quarter of current class struggles with poor grades and is constantly in discussions about returning to base school, and staff convincing to stay back and accept low grades as normal.

A review of the prerequisites from the FCPS page state:

"applicants must: (1) have completed a full-year course of Algebra 1, or be currently enrolled in a full-year course of honors-level Algebra 1; applicants attending schools whose curricular programs do not include “honors” Algebra 1 courses must have completed or be enrolled in a full-year course of the highest level of Algebra 1 available at their school l; "

That exception alone reflects there are applicants (and admittees) who are not even in Honors Algebra I in eighth grade. While this exception is "more inclusive," we can all agree it is a step downward from the rigor of the prior process.

It is beyond me why the DEI sycophants here keep trying to assert there has not been a decrease in academic attainment of the incoming freshman classes following the admissions reform.

So you think serving all county residents is DEI? All residents pay for these programs and they should be available to all residents. If there is a problem here, it's that all schools aren't offering comparable math education to their students.

Over 95% of FCPS high school students don’t have access to TJ resources. You aren’t arguing for making them available to all students. You simply want them distributed to a different yet still limited population to align with a left-wing political agenda.

That's complete nonsense. Limiting TJ to a few wealthy feeders doesn't serve Fairfax county tax payers.

You’re full of crap. By your own logic limiting access to TJ to 4% of FCPS high school students ought to be equally distressing to taxpayers.

Unless, of course, you’re just angling to improve your own kid’s odds of being in that 4% at the expense of more qualified applicants.

TJ should only be accessible to wealthy feeders because we pay more taxes!

It should be selective based on academic ability and if that means that the admits are no evenly distributed by geography, income or race, then that is fine. If it bothers you, then try to fix the deficiencies in education that are also not evenly distributed by geography, income or race. It would be a lot better to have academically accomplished kids of all race and income levels from all corners of fairfax than to pretend that is the case.

No, there is benefit from adding geographic diversity.

I do think we could add a metric (SOLs) to the criteria, but the MS allotments make sense.

The only benefit from "geographic diversity" (aka "middle school quotas") is political. It doesn't serve any other purpose and it leads to the exclusion of applicants who have demonstrated greater ability and aptitude.

You seems like a bitter woman!

Is she wrong about the "benefits" of geographic diversity?
Is it unreasonable to be a little pissed about excluding kids with greater demonstrated ability for that "benefit"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am hopeful that the new principal can keep the low stress environment without abandoning rigor.

For a change, the new principal has STEM background. Merit is back, beginning with the new principal.

Bonitatibus has a computer science background.

Maybe for a change you can try to post something truthful?

She has a what?

It says she graduated from indiana university of pennsylvania in communications education.

Nothing about computer science, english or math. I'm not saying you need a degree to teach those subjects at the high school level but just saying you have a background in computer science doesn't make it so.

I think she is perfectly well qualified to be a principal of a base school but TJ needs a principal that understands gifted education and why it is not a waste of taxpayer money like so many on DCUM seem to think.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am hopeful that the new principal can keep the low stress environment without abandoning rigor.

The previous principal did an excellent job maintaining high standards while reducing the test prep cheaters, which helped with the toxicity.

Test prep is not cheating.
Studying is not cheating.
Nobody believes that it is.
Not even you.
Only cheating is cheating.
You should stop denigrating the hard work and effort of some kids just because you want opportunity for other kids.

I think Bonitatibus was focused on mental health especially in light of the two suicides during her tenure. I think these may be the first suicides at TJ since its inception and it must have weighed heavy on her as it would on any principal.

The test prep has the questions bank, they teach and train your kid strategy on how to answer it, they expose to your kid what the test would similarity be like.
If you don't like the term of 'cheating' I will call it unfair advantage.

I am agree that studying is not cheating.

Well, this is why I think the PSATs would be the best test to use. The "question banks" are publicly available for free.
Test prep is available on khan academy.

If it is free and the same, nobody will pay $$$ for prep, and the ones that usually do prep is the "wealthy, educated, and understand the game".

You don't understand the game.
Because there is no game, not in the sleazy sense you are talking about.
Just because your kid is stupid doesn't mean the rest of the world is cheating.

Wealthy people pay more for the same thing all the time.
Toyota and a lexus are essentially the same car with different price tags.
A Kohler faucet costs 5 times as much as an off brand facuet made at the exact same factory.
People pay more for things all the time.

Back when people didn't have the internet, in person instruction was the only game in town.
It's what we did, it's what our parents did and we think it's what our kids must do.
For a lot of kids, online learning isn't as good as online learning but the smartest kids adapt well to online learning.
Princeton review and Kaplan doesn't have any secret sauce that khan academy doesn't have access to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am hopeful that the new principal can keep the low stress environment without abandoning rigor.

For a change, the new principal has STEM background. Merit is back, beginning with the new principal.

Bonitatibus has a computer science background.

Maybe for a change you can try to post something truthful?

She has a what?

It says she graduated from indiana university of pennsylvania in communications education.

Nothing about computer science, english or math. I'm not saying you need a degree to teach those subjects at the high school level but just saying you have a background in computer science doesn't make it so.

I think she is perfectly well qualified to be a principal of a base school but TJ needs a principal that understands gifted education and why it is not a waste of taxpayer money like so many on DCUM seem to think.

That is her background. She taught english and math in maryland for 8 years. I have seen no indication that she has any particular expertise in computer science but maybe she taught a class or got some soret of certificate that isn't popping up on a search.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am hopeful that the new principal can keep the low stress environment without abandoning rigor.

For a change, the new principal has STEM background. Merit is back, beginning with the new principal.

Bonitatibus has a computer science background.

Maybe for a change you can try to post something truthful?

She has a what?

It says she graduated from indiana university of pennsylvania in communications education.

Nothing about computer science, english or math. I'm not saying you need a degree to teach those subjects at the high school level but just saying you have a background in computer science doesn't make it so.

I think she is perfectly well qualified to be a principal of a base school but TJ needs a principal that understands gifted education and why it is not a waste of taxpayer money like so many on DCUM seem to think.

If you can say that he “has a STEM background”, then you can say that about her as well.

Both studied STEM in college; both went directly into teaching; both taught math in the past.

He did more STEM in college but that doesn’t mean she did zero.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am hopeful that the new principal can keep the low stress environment without abandoning rigor.

For a change, the new principal has STEM background. Merit is back, beginning with the new principal.

Bonitatibus has a computer science background.

Maybe for a change you can try to post something truthful?

She has a what?

It says she graduated from indiana university of pennsylvania in communications education.

Nothing about computer science, english or math. I'm not saying you need a degree to teach those subjects at the high school level but just saying you have a background in computer science doesn't make it so.

I think she is perfectly well qualified to be a principal of a base school but TJ needs a principal that understands gifted education and why it is not a waste of taxpayer money like so many on DCUM seem to think.

That is her background. She taught english and math in maryland for 8 years. I have seen no indication that she has any particular expertise in computer science but maybe she taught a class or got some soret of certificate that isn't popping up on a search.

What is his “STEM background”? College studies and teaching math/science.

A lot of overlap there with what she did.

If you can claim it for him, then you can claim it for her, even if a lesser degree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am hopeful that the new principal can keep the low stress environment without abandoning rigor.

For a change, the new principal has STEM background. Merit is back, beginning with the new principal.

Bonitatibus has a computer science background.

Maybe for a change you can try to post something truthful?

She has a what?

It says she graduated from indiana university of pennsylvania in communications education.

Nothing about computer science, english or math. I'm not saying you need a degree to teach those subjects at the high school level but just saying you have a background in computer science doesn't make it so.

I think she is perfectly well qualified to be a principal of a base school but TJ needs a principal that understands gifted education and why it is not a waste of taxpayer money like so many on DCUM seem to think.

That is her background. She taught english and math in maryland for 8 years. I have seen no indication that she has any particular expertise in computer science but maybe she taught a class or got some soret of certificate that isn't popping up on a search.

FCPS has removed her from TJ primarily due to academic decline. Apparently, her lack of STEM background has contributed to it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am hopeful that the new principal can keep the low stress environment without abandoning rigor.

The previous principal did an excellent job maintaining high standards while reducing the test prep cheaters, which helped with the toxicity.

Test prep is not cheating.
Studying is not cheating.
Nobody believes that it is.
Not even you.
Only cheating is cheating.
You should stop denigrating the hard work and effort of some kids just because you want opportunity for other kids.

I think Bonitatibus was focused on mental health especially in light of the two suicides during her tenure. I think these may be the first suicides at TJ since its inception and it must have weighed heavy on her as it would on any principal.

The test prep has the questions bank, they teach and train your kid strategy on how to answer it, they expose to your kid what the test would similarity be like.
If you don't like the term of 'cheating' I will call it unfair advantage.

I am agree that studying is not cheating.

Well, this is why I think the PSATs would be the best test to use. The "question banks" are publicly available for free.
Test prep is available on khan academy.

If it is free and the same, nobody will pay $$$ for prep, and the ones that usually do prep is the "wealthy, educated, and understand the game".

You don't understand the game.
Because there is no game, not in the sleazy sense you are talking about.
Just because your kid is stupid doesn't mean the rest of the world is cheating.

Wealthy people pay more for the same thing all the time.
Toyota and a lexus are essentially the same car with different price tags.
A Kohler faucet costs 5 times as much as an off brand facuet made at the exact same factory.
People pay more for things all the time.

Back when people didn't have the internet, in person instruction was the only game in town.
It's what we did, it's what our parents did and we think it's what our kids must do.
For a lot of kids, online learning isn't as good as online learning but the smartest kids adapt well to online learning.
Princeton review and Kaplan doesn't have any secret sauce that khan academy doesn't have access to.

Let’s say you take 300 bright kids:
100 receive 1:1 tutoring twice a week
100 attend in-person, small group courses once a week
100 are given the link to Khan Academy

After 6 months, which group(s) see the biggest gains in test performance?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am hopeful that the new principal can keep the low stress environment without abandoning rigor.

For a change, the new principal has STEM background. Merit is back, beginning with the new principal.

Bonitatibus has a computer science background.

Maybe for a change you can try to post something truthful?

She has a what?

It says she graduated from indiana university of pennsylvania in communications education.

Nothing about computer science, english or math. I'm not saying you need a degree to teach those subjects at the high school level but just saying you have a background in computer science doesn't make it so.

I think she is perfectly well qualified to be a principal of a base school but TJ needs a principal that understands gifted education and why it is not a waste of taxpayer money like so many on DCUM seem to think.

That is her background. She taught english and math in maryland for 8 years. I have seen no indication that she has any particular expertise in computer science but maybe she taught a class or got some soret of certificate that isn't popping up on a search.

FCPS has removed her from TJ primarily due to academic decline. Apparently, her lack of STEM background has contributed to it.

Bullcrap. He’s pretty much the same as her - studied STEM in college and taught math/science many years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am hopeful that the new principal can keep the low stress environment without abandoning rigor.

For a change, the new principal has STEM background. Merit is back, beginning with the new principal.

Bonitatibus has a computer science background.

Maybe for a change you can try to post something truthful?

She has a what?

It says she graduated from indiana university of pennsylvania in communications education.

Nothing about computer science, english or math. I'm not saying you need a degree to teach those subjects at the high school level but just saying you have a background in computer science doesn't make it so.

I think she is perfectly well qualified to be a principal of a base school but TJ needs a principal that understands gifted education and why it is not a waste of taxpayer money like so many on DCUM seem to think.

If you can say that he “has a STEM background”, then you can say that about her as well.

Both studied STEM in college; both went directly into teaching; both taught math in the past.

He did more STEM in college but that doesn’t mean she did zero.

Does a college student who takes a required distributional course in "physics for poets" count as studying STEM in college by your definition?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am hopeful that the new principal can keep the low stress environment without abandoning rigor.

For a change, the new principal has STEM background. Merit is back, beginning with the new principal.

Bonitatibus has a computer science background.

Maybe for a change you can try to post something truthful?

She has a what?

It says she graduated from indiana university of pennsylvania in communications education.

Nothing about computer science, english or math. I'm not saying you need a degree to teach those subjects at the high school level but just saying you have a background in computer science doesn't make it so.

I think she is perfectly well qualified to be a principal of a base school but TJ needs a principal that understands gifted education and why it is not a waste of taxpayer money like so many on DCUM seem to think.

If you can say that he “has a STEM background”, then you can say that about her as well.

Both studied STEM in college; both went directly into teaching; both taught math in the past.

He did more STEM in college but that doesn’t mean she did zero.

Does a college student who takes a required distributional course in "physics for poets" count as studying STEM in college by your definition?

She did enough to be qualified to teach math and has mentioned her background in computer science in college.

Is she the STEMiest person out there? No. But she does have a “STEM background” if we are considering his background to be a “STEM background” (AKA studied and taught STEM topics decades ago).