Admissions to change at Thomas Jefferson High, and others

[Anonymous]

Nothing less than closing the TJ magnet, reclaiming the school for the local community, and county-wide redistricting is acceptable. Either FCPS cares about equity or it does not. TJ does not mitigate pre-existing advantages of parental wealth and education; it magnifies them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If AOPS, kumon, etc are so worthless in admission to TJ and success there then why do people pay for those programs? I’ll wait.

My Asian kid did none of those and I bought him SAT workbook to practice and that was it as far as preparing for the TJ admission. I don’t know anyone who does those activities in middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nothing less than closing the TJ magnet, reclaiming the school for the local community, and county-wide redistricting is acceptable. Either FCPS cares about equity or it does not. TJ does not mitigate pre-existing advantages of parental wealth and education; it magnifies them.

Okay, so you're on board with a countywide redistricting to have equity in base schools to mitigate the pre-existing advantages of parental wealth and education, too. Got it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If AOPS, kumon, etc are so worthless in admission to TJ and success there then why do people pay for those programs? I’ll wait.

Umm, because their kids like math? Especially AoPS is great for mathy kids.

My kids love math but we didn't have money for or inclination for outside classes. But my kids did use the AOPS website (free portion) and Khan Academy to explore the things they were interested in. They loved it! They're both at TJ and neither did a prep course to gain admittance. Oh, and (gasp!), we are Asian!

Kumon starts at age 3- not many 3 year olds are super motivated

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do urm even want to attend TJ? I know I didn't because my interests was in the arts. And I knew a lot of super smart minorities and they had no interest in TJ either.

My Hispanic DD who attends a TJ feeder school, has straight As in all of her AAP classes and has a very strong interest in STEM, has ZERO interest in attending TJ. Why go someplace where she will be a minority race-wise and gender-wise?

Yet, some irrational people in NOVA want to almost force your kid to attend TJ.

that's a good post to wrap it up on. Who exactly thinks there are problems at TJ again.... is it actual black and Hispanic people.... no once again it is stupid mostly white woke morons who have no concept of TJ and no intention of sending their kids there, all on the altar of some huge white guilt. Get a grip and take out your guilt somewhere else.

No, what it means if that TJ would be more interesting to the PP's daughter if there were more Hispanic girls who attended. So if there were more kids like her, DD would htink about TJ. Which is exactly the reason people think that there needs to be some type of change.

This exactly!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing less than closing the TJ magnet, reclaiming the school for the local community, and county-wide redistricting is acceptable. Either FCPS cares about equity or it does not. TJ does not mitigate pre-existing advantages of parental wealth and education; it magnifies them.

Okay, so you're on board with a countywide redistricting to have equity in base schools to mitigate the pre-existing advantages of parental wealth and education, too. Got it.

If they had another neighborhood school, it would require boundary changes and create redistributing opportunities not otherwise available.

TJ, of course, has turned out to be a uniquely self-inflicted wound by FCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do urm even want to attend TJ? I know I didn't because my interests was in the arts. And I knew a lot of super smart minorities and they had no interest in TJ either.

My Hispanic DD who attends a TJ feeder school, has straight As in all of her AAP classes and has a very strong interest in STEM, has ZERO interest in attending TJ. Why go someplace where she will be a minority race-wise and gender-wise?

Yet, some irrational people in NOVA want to almost force your kid to attend TJ.

that's a good post to wrap it up on. Who exactly thinks there are problems at TJ again.... is it actual black and Hispanic people.... no once again it is stupid mostly white woke morons who have no concept of TJ and no intention of sending their kids there, all on the altar of some huge white guilt. Get a grip and take out your guilt somewhere else.

No, what it means if that TJ would be more interesting to the PP's daughter if there were more Hispanic girls who attended. So if there were more kids like her, DD would htink about TJ. Which is exactly the reason people think that there needs to be some type of change.

This exactly!

No pain no gain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do urm even want to attend TJ? I know I didn't because my interests was in the arts. And I knew a lot of super smart minorities and they had no interest in TJ either.

My Hispanic DD who attends a TJ feeder school, has straight As in all of her AAP classes and has a very strong interest in STEM, has ZERO interest in attending TJ. Why go someplace where she will be a minority race-wise and gender-wise?

I don't blame her at all for not wanting to go. It's a sad state of affairs that Hispanic students are so poorly represented that she would have no interest. But we have to start somewhere, and there are plenty who do want to go.

If you are passionate about STEM, why would you care about the colour of the skin of the kids around you? You will be surrounded by people who have the same passion that you have.

Um, because they're teenagers?

Teenagers that go to TJ care about STEM not the races of their classmates.

If the race of a classmate would prevent one from going, then no one wants their racist and xenophobic presence there anyway.

Wow that’s ignorant of you PP. The whole point is that these kids worry they will be victims of racism. But you must be white so you wouldn’t understand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing less than closing the TJ magnet, reclaiming the school for the local community, and county-wide redistricting is acceptable. Either FCPS cares about equity or it does not. TJ does not mitigate pre-existing advantages of parental wealth and education; it magnifies them.

Okay, so you're on board with a countywide redistricting to have equity in base schools to mitigate the pre-existing advantages of parental wealth and education, too. Got it.

If they had another neighborhood school, it would require boundary changes and create redistributing opportunities not otherwise available.

TJ, of course, has turned out to be a uniquely self-inflicted wound by FCPS.

No. I think fcps is proud to have the best high school in the country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing less than closing the TJ magnet, reclaiming the school for the local community, and county-wide redistricting is acceptable. Either FCPS cares about equity or it does not. TJ does not mitigate pre-existing advantages of parental wealth and education; it magnifies them.

Okay, so you're on board with a countywide redistricting to have equity in base schools to mitigate the pre-existing advantages of parental wealth and education, too. Got it.

If they had another neighborhood school, it would require boundary changes and create redistributing opportunities not otherwise available.

TJ, of course, has turned out to be a uniquely self-inflicted wound by FCPS.

You can make all sorts of boundary changes and redistributing opportunities possible if there is a priority of mitigating "pre-existing advantages of parental wealth and education," as that PP expresses is of concern to her. So, no need to just focus on the neighborhood around TJ -- do it countywide. I am 100% certain that none of the posters on here so outraged about TJ demographics would support such a thing. It's hypocrisy and it's based, in part, on anti-Asian racism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is no need to reinvent the wheel here. There are plenty of ways to level the playing field while continuing to nurture rare talent - in fact, there are ways to ensure that TJ is serving the most talented rather than the best prepared.

To improve the pipeline:

* Get rid of external evaluations for AAP admissions. Parents should not be able to buy their way into the program on appeals with a privately-funded intelligence test.

* Invest in top talent at every middle school, including by funding Math Counts or whatever where needed.

To find talent outside a handful of feeder schools:

* Fill a certain number of seats with the "top" candidates from each sending middle school. Not the whole class, but some sub-section of the class will be the top 5 kids or whatever from each middle school in the TJ admissions zone.

To make the admissions process more fair

* Get rid of any at-home components of the application. No at-home essay, no parent statement, nothing.

* Lower the weight of extracurriculars, as they mainly demonstrate parent engagement, not student capacity or potential

This is pretty good, except for a couple of things:

- There are about 70 middle schools that TJ draws from, so you'd be accounting for 350 kids right there, which is probably too many. Now if you limit that to Fairfax County Public Schools, then it's more like 150, and now we're talking. Still, five apiece may be too many.

- There are no at-home components of the application as it currently exists.

- You're right about extracurriculars, but there is no direct weighting for them in the current version of the process - there used to be, but no longer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do urm even want to attend TJ? I know I didn't because my interests was in the arts. And I knew a lot of super smart minorities and they had no interest in TJ either.

My Hispanic DD who attends a TJ feeder school, has straight As in all of her AAP classes and has a very strong interest in STEM, has ZERO interest in attending TJ. Why go someplace where she will be a minority race-wise and gender-wise?

I don't blame her at all for not wanting to go. It's a sad state of affairs that Hispanic students are so poorly represented that she would have no interest. But we have to start somewhere, and there are plenty who do want to go.

If you are passionate about STEM, why would you care about the colour of the skin of the kids around you? You will be surrounded by people who have the same passion that you have.

Um, because they're teenagers?

Teenagers that go to TJ care about STEM not the races of their classmates.

If the race of a classmate would prevent one from going, then no one wants their racist and xenophobic presence there anyway.

Wow that’s ignorant of you PP. The whole point is that these kids worry they will be victims of racism. But you must be white so you wouldn’t understand.

There is far less bullying, crimes, drug use, sex, partying, social pressures, discrimination etc. at TJ compared to base schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing less than closing the TJ magnet, reclaiming the school for the local community, and county-wide redistricting is acceptable. Either FCPS cares about equity or it does not. TJ does not mitigate pre-existing advantages of parental wealth and education; it magnifies them.

Okay, so you're on board with a countywide redistricting to have equity in base schools to mitigate the pre-existing advantages of parental wealth and education, too. Got it.

If they had another neighborhood school, it would require boundary changes and create redistributing opportunities not otherwise available.

TJ, of course, has turned out to be a uniquely self-inflicted wound by FCPS.

You can make all sorts of boundary changes and redistributing opportunities possible if there is a priority of mitigating "pre-existing advantages of parental wealth and education," as that PP expresses is of concern to her. So, no need to just focus on the neighborhood around TJ -- do it countywide. I am 100% certain that none of the posters on here so outraged about TJ demographics would support such a thing. It's hypocrisy and it's based, in part, on anti-Asian racism.

I'm zoned for MVHS, so I'd be fine with it. District zinging creates have's and have nots, the nots are a lot less likely to have problems with change

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing less than closing the TJ magnet, reclaiming the school for the local community, and county-wide redistricting is acceptable. Either FCPS cares about equity or it does not. TJ does not mitigate pre-existing advantages of parental wealth and education; it magnifies them.

Okay, so you're on board with a countywide redistricting to have equity in base schools to mitigate the pre-existing advantages of parental wealth and education, too. Got it.

If they had another neighborhood school, it would require boundary changes and create redistributing opportunities not otherwise available.

TJ, of course, has turned out to be a uniquely self-inflicted wound by FCPS.

You can make all sorts of boundary changes and redistributing opportunities possible if there is a priority of mitigating "pre-existing advantages of parental wealth and education," as that PP expresses is of concern to her. So, no need to just focus on the neighborhood around TJ -- do it countywide. I am 100% certain that none of the posters on here so outraged about TJ demographics would support such a thing. It's hypocrisy and it's based, in part, on anti-Asian racism.

TJ is unique as the only magnet high school in FCPS, and raises distinct equity issues, both in terms of their magnitude and in terms of FCPS’s ability to address them Tho

The “anti-Asian” claim is a red herring advanced as often as not by White parents whose own kids attend or attended TJ and who are perfectly fine with the decades-long near-total exclusion of Black and Hispanic kids. Of course, there are some Asians posting on this thread who also enjoy their kids’ privileged status within FCPS and are indifferent to TJ’s negative impact on other FCPS students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:If disparate impact still mattered, TJ would have been subject to a court order years ago.

it takes someone caring enough to take it to court. the local NAACP seems to be close to that point

Langley and McLean do not represent the county demographics so they should be closed down or busing should be instituted.

McLean’s boundaries are gerrymandered to include a Title I feeder closer to Falls Church and Marshall than McLean.

What has FCPS done to ensure diversity at TJ?

Why can’t the black and Hispanic kids just study harder?

Because they know no matter how hard they study, a$$holes like you will always question whether they belong in the school.