Reasons why one would not accept TJ offer?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Firstly, most texas universities have 60 to 80% acceptance rates. The 10% rule does play a major role in competitive stem programs at competitive school like UT Austin. Students simply get to choose an easy major. Specifically, there is no comparable situation over there like TJ where an under qualifed math student is "required" to achieve a higher level math beyond their capability to meet minimum graduation, and forced to accept a C or D as normal. That's the inhumane part that's unacceptable.

This is such a bizarre view of a magnet school. Just baffling.

Also you are really mischaracterizing the effect, both positive and negative, of the Texas rule. That's fine, since you obviously don't live in Texas - but if you aren't familiar with how it has changed the UT system and impacted students all over the state, maybe you shouldn't post about it.

Being objective and citing facts should be easy to do! When none exist, desperation forces one to get personal!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Oh the imaginary race based admissions again. TJ admissions are race-blind. Further, the majority of the county believes that the more equitable process that allowed all residents to participate not just those that can afford to drop $20k for test answers was a good thing.

$20k for Curie? Hard to believe. May be a private tutor that comes home, but Curie cant be costing more than Kumon. Does it?

The poster knows it is false. Been called on it many times. Curie is around 5k but that is not dramatic enough for the poster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Oh the imaginary race based admissions again. TJ admissions are race-blind. Further, the majority of the county believes that the more equitable process that allowed all residents to participate not just those that can afford to drop $20k for test answers was a good thing.

Imaginary?

"FCPS created a race-based affirmative action program to admit more black and Hispanic students. The program was in effect for the admissions process for the graduating classes of 1997 through 2002; the county ended it because of legal challenges to similar programs. Following the end of this program, the share of black and Hispanic students at the school decreased from 9.4 percent in 1997–98 to 3.5 percent in 2003–04."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson_High_School_for_Science_and_Technology

Using local norms to ensure that all schools participate in these programs does not equate to race-based. In fact, it's considered a best-practice in gifted education since not doing this often results in these programs being dominated by schools where parents can afford outside enrichment to the detriment of everyone else.

Not related to what FCPS did in the 90s. The school based norms is recommended for in school gifted programs, not a county wide program, which would then be recommended to select based off county-wide scores rather than a national percentile cutoff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Oh the imaginary race based admissions again. TJ admissions are race-blind. Further, the majority of the county believes that the more equitable process that allowed all residents to participate not just those that can afford to drop $20k for test answers was a good thing.

$20k for Curie? Hard to believe. May be a private tutor that comes home, but Curie cant be costing more than Kumon. Does it?

It's like $5k per class and many start as early as first grade so $20k is just the tip of the iceberg, but it's still a bargain compared to private.

What Curie center does you kid go to? We dont pay anywhere near that amount. Our Curie center charges less than Kumon for two subjects.

This person does not have kids in Curie. They just want to post '$20k or more spent on prep' regardless of facts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Colleges care ONLY about GPA.

If you think your child cannot land in the top half of the TJ class AND get a 4.0 (w) or above GPA - then avoid TJ.

The overall curriculum at TJ is same as any base HS - they all cover mostly the same courses such as AP Stats, AP Cal A/B or B/C, AP Physics.

This is total nonsense. You're not taking multiple semester courses in Bioinformatics or AI or Oceanography at a base school, to say nothing of the senior Techlab experience.

Oceanography, marine bio, etc ...are non rigorous, easy A courses, with no AP prereqs. Thankfully they can slightly mitigate a C or D in other core courses.

Can you convince us? Otherwise this is quite a giant claim to swallow without an ounce of proof.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Oh the imaginary race based admissions again. TJ admissions are race-blind. Further, the majority of the county believes that the more equitable process that allowed all residents to participate not just those that can afford to drop $20k for test answers was a good thing.

$20k for Curie? Hard to believe. May be a private tutor that comes home, but Curie cant be costing more than Kumon. Does it?

The poster knows it is false. Been called on it many times. Curie is around 5k but that is not dramatic enough for the poster.

Even $5k is ridiculous. Are you sure your child is enrolled in Curie? We dont pay anywhere near. A family in our neighborhood requested help, and Curie cut their fee to almost nothing. So make sure you take advantage of financial relief they provide. DC really likes their rigorous math and college level english writing. It's tough but advanced kids in 7th and 8th would really like their precalculus curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Oh the imaginary race based admissions again. TJ admissions are race-blind. Further, the majority of the county believes that the more equitable process that allowed all residents to participate not just those that can afford to drop $20k for test answers was a good thing.

$20k for Curie? Hard to believe. May be a private tutor that comes home, but Curie cant be costing more than Kumon. Does it?

The poster knows it is false. Been called on it many times. Curie is around 5k but that is not dramatic enough for the poster.

Even $5k is ridiculous. Are you sure your child is enrolled in Curie? We dont pay anywhere near. A family in our neighborhood requested help, and Curie cut their fee to almost nothing. So make sure you take advantage of financial relief they provide. DC really likes their rigorous math and college level english writing. It's tough but advanced kids in 7th and 8th would really like their precalculus curriculum.

Thank you for confirming. We have heard about Curie but from dropouts complaining about their tough syllabus. Hope they come out with an easier syllabus offering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Oh the imaginary race based admissions again. TJ admissions are race-blind. Further, the majority of the county believes that the more equitable process that allowed all residents to participate not just those that can afford to drop $20k for test answers was a good thing.

$20k for Curie? Hard to believe. May be a private tutor that comes home, but Curie cant be costing more than Kumon. Does it?

The poster knows it is false. Been called on it many times. Curie is around 5k but that is not dramatic enough for the poster.

Except it makes perfect sense and is completely aligned with well established fact.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Oh the imaginary race based admissions again. TJ admissions are race-blind. Further, the majority of the county believes that the more equitable process that allowed all residents to participate not just those that can afford to drop $20k for test answers was a good thing.

$20k for Curie? Hard to believe. May be a private tutor that comes home, but Curie cant be costing more than Kumon. Does it?

The poster knows it is false. Been called on it many times. Curie is around 5k but that is not dramatic enough for the poster.

Even $5k is ridiculous. Are you sure your child is enrolled in Curie? We dont pay anywhere near. A family in our neighborhood requested help, and Curie cut their fee to almost nothing. So make sure you take advantage of financial relief they provide. DC really likes their rigorous math and college level english writing. It's tough but advanced kids in 7th and 8th would really like their precalculus curriculum.

Thank you for confirming. We have heard about Curie but from dropouts complaining about their tough syllabus. Hope they come out with an easier syllabus offering.

The courses run from early ES like grade 1 through 8 and typically run around 5k so over the course of years some might drop $40k+

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Oh the imaginary race based admissions again. TJ admissions are race-blind. Further, the majority of the county believes that the more equitable process that allowed all residents to participate not just those that can afford to drop $20k for test answers was a good thing.

$20k for Curie? Hard to believe. May be a private tutor that comes home, but Curie cant be costing more than Kumon. Does it?

The poster knows it is false. Been called on it many times. Curie is around 5k but that is not dramatic enough for the poster.

Even $5k is ridiculous. Are you sure your child is enrolled in Curie? We dont pay anywhere near. A family in our neighborhood requested help, and Curie cut their fee to almost nothing. So make sure you take advantage of financial relief they provide. DC really likes their rigorous math and college level english writing. It's tough but advanced kids in 7th and 8th would really like their precalculus curriculum.

Thank you for confirming. We have heard about Curie but from dropouts complaining about their tough syllabus. Hope they come out with an easier syllabus offering.

The courses run from early ES like grade 1 through 8 and typically run around 5k so over the course of years some might drop $40k+

you are funny. what courses does Curie offer for grade 1 students? do they pickup from school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Colleges care ONLY about GPA.

If you think your child cannot land in the top half of the TJ class AND get a 4.0 (w) or above GPA - then avoid TJ.

The overall curriculum at TJ is same as any base HS - they all cover mostly the same courses such as AP Stats, AP Cal A/B or B/C, AP Physics.

Well TJ has been forcefully transformed into being more of a base HS, while the original intent was for it have a much higher curriculum than that of base HS's.

As originally designed, TJ historically drew the attention of exceptional students because those students saw it as their only public school choice to get access to advanced curriculum that went beyond AP levels. These students were not coming to TJ to finish at AP level, but start there and progress further. For instance with math, an academically advanced TJ student historically expected to complete AP calculus BC in freshman/sophomore, MultiVariable & Linear in sophomore/junior, differential & discrete in junior/senior, and adv math techniques & scientific math in senior year. While these courses still exist currently, the enrollment in these courses is very low due to the caliber of admitted class. The middle schools in the past have supported and nurtured exceptional students by providing access to precalculus courses in the middle school itself, allowing them to go far beyond AP level if they chose TJ.

Over the past two decades, the rise of equity and diversity politics in FCPS and other feeder county schools has created roadblocks for these exceptional students in achieving precalculus or calculus by the end of middle school. The maximum access they now have is for Algebra 2 Trig, and even this requires numerous approvals and summer course enrollment. As a result, the pool of top talent entering TJ with trig and, at most, precalculus credits from middle school has been drastically reduced to less than a fifth of the new class. Currently, fewer than a hundred students in a TJ class enroll in courses beyond Multivariable/Linear.

are exceptional students being discouraged from joining TJ to make room for more algebra 1 students? why do they even offer algebra 1 at TJ when so many other fcps schools already offer that course?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Oh the imaginary race based admissions again. TJ admissions are race-blind. Further, the majority of the county believes that the more equitable process that allowed all residents to participate not just those that can afford to drop $20k for test answers was a good thing.

Imaginary?

"FCPS created a race-based affirmative action program to admit more black and Hispanic students. The program was in effect for the admissions process for the graduating classes of 1997 through 2002; the county ended it because of legal challenges to similar programs. Following the end of this program, the share of black and Hispanic students at the school decreased from 9.4 percent in 1997–98 to 3.5 percent in 2003–04."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson_High_School_for_Science_and_Technology

Using local norms to ensure that all schools participate in these programs does not equate to race-based. In fact, it's considered a best-practice in gifted education since not doing this often results in these programs being dominated by schools where parents can afford outside enrichment to the detriment of everyone else.

It's illegal to use race as criteria selection for public schools programs. The 4TJ crowd tried to get the SCOTUS to look at this but their case got laughed out of court even by those far-right nutjobs.

Yep, even scotus wouldn't touch their case. It has 0 merit.

I remember even SCOTUS wouldn't touch C4TJ's fake discrimination case which speaks volumes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Oh the imaginary race based admissions again. TJ admissions are race-blind. Further, the majority of the county believes that the more equitable process that allowed all residents to participate not just those that can afford to drop $20k for test answers was a good thing.

$20k for Curie? Hard to believe. May be a private tutor that comes home, but Curie cant be costing more than Kumon. Does it?

The poster knows it is false. Been called on it many times. Curie is around 5k but that is not dramatic enough for the poster.

Even $5k is ridiculous. Are you sure your child is enrolled in Curie? We dont pay anywhere near. A family in our neighborhood requested help, and Curie cut their fee to almost nothing. So make sure you take advantage of financial relief they provide. DC really likes their rigorous math and college level english writing. It's tough but advanced kids in 7th and 8th would really like their precalculus curriculum.

Thank you for confirming. We have heard about Curie but from dropouts complaining about their tough syllabus. Hope they come out with an easier syllabus offering.

The courses run from early ES like grade 1 through 8 and typically run around 5k so over the course of years some might drop $40k+

you are funny. what courses does Curie offer for grade 1 students? do they pickup from school?

It's funny you should say that. In MoCo there's a afterschool shuttle to their Curie equivalent from the ES with the highest Asian population.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Oh the imaginary race based admissions again. TJ admissions are race-blind. Further, the majority of the county believes that the more equitable process that allowed all residents to participate not just those that can afford to drop $20k for test answers was a good thing.

$20k for Curie? Hard to believe. May be a private tutor that comes home, but Curie cant be costing more than Kumon. Does it?

The poster knows it is false. Been called on it many times. Curie is around 5k but that is not dramatic enough for the poster.

Even $5k is ridiculous. Are you sure your child is enrolled in Curie? We dont pay anywhere near. A family in our neighborhood requested help, and Curie cut their fee to almost nothing. So make sure you take advantage of financial relief they provide. DC really likes their rigorous math and college level english writing. It's tough but advanced kids in 7th and 8th would really like their precalculus curriculum.

Thank you for confirming. We have heard about Curie but from dropouts complaining about their tough syllabus. Hope they come out with an easier syllabus offering.

The courses run from early ES like grade 1 through 8 and typically run around 5k so over the course of years some might drop $40k+

you are funny. what courses does Curie offer for grade 1 students? do they pickup from school?

It's funny you should say that. In MoCo there's a afterschool shuttle to their Curie equivalent from the ES with the highest Asian population.

racist

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Colleges care ONLY about GPA.

If you think your child cannot land in the top half of the TJ class AND get a 4.0 (w) or above GPA - then avoid TJ.

The overall curriculum at TJ is same as any base HS - they all cover mostly the same courses such as AP Stats, AP Cal A/B or B/C, AP Physics.

Well TJ has been forcefully transformed into being more of a base HS, while the original intent was for it have a much higher curriculum than that of base HS's.

As originally designed, TJ historically drew the attention of exceptional students because those students saw it as their only public school choice to get access to advanced curriculum that went beyond AP levels. These students were not coming to TJ to finish at AP level, but start there and progress further. For instance with math, an academically advanced TJ student historically expected to complete AP calculus BC in freshman/sophomore, MultiVariable & Linear in sophomore/junior, differential & discrete in junior/senior, and adv math techniques & scientific math in senior year. While these courses still exist currently, the enrollment in these courses is very low due to the caliber of admitted class. The middle schools in the past have supported and nurtured exceptional students by providing access to precalculus courses in the middle school itself, allowing them to go far beyond AP level if they chose TJ.

Over the past two decades, the rise of equity and diversity politics in FCPS and other feeder county schools has created roadblocks for these exceptional students in achieving precalculus or calculus by the end of middle school. The maximum access they now have is for Algebra 2 Trig, and even this requires numerous approvals and summer course enrollment. As a result, the pool of top talent entering TJ with trig and, at most, precalculus credits from middle school has been drastically reduced to less than a fifth of the new class. Currently, fewer than a hundred students in a TJ class enroll in courses beyond Multivariable/Linear.

When was this? (From you post, apparently this was 3-4 decades ago. As an FCPS alum myself, I'm not sure I can agree with you on this.)

FWIW, "equity and diversity politics" have only been around for the past 5 years or so. That is not why middle schools do not offer precal classes. (At TJ, 00 freshmen have completed trig/precal and go straight to calculus? Are they all from Loudoun County?)

If you're unaware of FCPS's history of racial quota-based admissions to TJ dating back to the mid-'90s, you were probably not yet born or likely in preschool. Many younger activists are manipulated into thinking they are starting this equity battle anew, to have you take ownership of it, and work for free. Politicians define the battle to their benefit. Activist is merely a pawn in their battle.

There is no such history since it's always been illegal. This is just misinformation spread by some bitter parents with an axe to grind.

"FCPS created a race-based affirmative action program to admit more black and Hispanic students. The program was in effect for the admissions process for the graduating classes of 1997 through 2002; the county ended it because of legal challenges to similar programs. Following the end of this program, the share of black and Hispanic students at the school decreased from 9.4 percent in 1997–98 to 3.5 percent in 2003–04."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson_High_School_for_Science_and_Technology

Vividly recall this. If not for then Principal Elizabeth Lodal being honest, and parents being persistent to end it, that racial quota based admissions of late 90s would have continued.