Why is there always some kind of issue/concern/problem with TJ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why has there never been a serious discussion about changing TJ to an Academy where any student can take classes?

Or even follow the LCPS model of 1/2 base school and 1/2 magnet program? It makes so much more sense to spread out a limited resource.

The class size has been expanded. But TJ is a magnet high school, not an academy.

This is a very weak argument. It is a magnet high school because it is a magnet high school.

Okay.

The other governor's school that I know of is Maggie Walker. Do you want to turn it into an Academy? No, that wouldn't work. Nor would it work for TJ.

So you've heard of one other Governors school and that's the reason? There are 19 governors schools and not all are magnets. I guess it's ok if TJ is converted to an academy now.

[Anonymous]

BECAUSE Asian Americans are collateral damage for the benefit of preferred minority group.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why has there never been a serious discussion about changing TJ to an Academy where any student can take classes?

Or even follow the LCPS model of 1/2 base school and 1/2 magnet program? It makes so much more sense to spread out a limited resource.

The class size has been expanded. But TJ is a magnet high school, not an academy.

This is a very weak argument. It is a magnet high school because it is a magnet high school.

Okay.

The other governor's school that I know of is Maggie Walker. Do you want to turn it into an Academy? No, that wouldn't work. Nor would it work for TJ.

So you've heard of one other Governors school and that's the reason? There are 19 governors schools and not all are magnets. I guess it's ok if TJ is converted to an academy now.

You haven't given any reason at all.

[Anonymous]

Because TJ is basically Precious Snowflake University.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why has there never been a serious discussion about changing TJ to an Academy where any student can take classes?

Or even follow the LCPS model of 1/2 base school and 1/2 magnet program? It makes so much more sense to spread out a limited resource.

Because changing it to an Academy would only serve a larger number of students if you rebuilt about 2/3 of the present school building at an enormous cost.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why has there never been a serious discussion about changing TJ to an Academy where any student can take classes?

Or even follow the LCPS model of 1/2 base school and 1/2 magnet program? It makes so much more sense to spread out a limited resource.

Because changing it to an Academy would only serve a larger number of students if you rebuilt about 2/3 of the present school building at an enormous cost.

This seems like a made up assertion. Even if, for example, kids weren’t taking gym at an Academy program, the gym could still be retained and made available for local community use.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:BECAUSE Asian Americans are collateral damage for the benefit of preferred minority group.

Can you explain? They seem to enjoy favored status since they make up the majority of the program despite being a small minority of the population.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why has there never been a serious discussion about changing TJ to an Academy where any student can take classes?

Or even follow the LCPS model of 1/2 base school and 1/2 magnet program? It makes so much more sense to spread out a limited resource.

How would that help exactly?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why has there never been a serious discussion about changing TJ to an Academy where any student can take classes?

Or even follow the LCPS model of 1/2 base school and 1/2 magnet program? It makes so much more sense to spread out a limited resource.

Because changing it to an Academy would only serve a larger number of students if you rebuilt about 2/3 of the present school building at an enormous cost.

This seems like a made up assertion. Even if, for example, kids weren’t taking gym at an Academy program, the gym could still be retained and made available for local community use.

Maybe but wish they'd go back to the older process where we could just buy access to the admission test. It was so much better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why has there never been a serious discussion about changing TJ to an Academy where any student can take classes?

Or even follow the LCPS model of 1/2 base school and 1/2 magnet program? It makes so much more sense to spread out a limited resource.

Because changing it to an Academy would only serve a larger number of students if you rebuilt about 2/3 of the present school building at an enormous cost.

This seems like a made up assertion. Even if, for example, kids weren’t taking gym at an Academy program, the gym could still be retained and made available for local community use.

If TJ became an academy, it would only house STEM classes - so if you had an A/B schedule where the students were at their base school for their non-STEM classes, they'd come in and take math, science, some sort of tech class (D&T or CS or something) and then perhaps an elective.

The purpose-built STEM classrooms that exist currently at TJ are full - it's not like they're sitting empty for any significant period of time during the day except maybe an occasional one. Many are shared between two teachers so that capacity can be maximized, especially since the class size was increased with the new admissions process.

The only STEM topic that most of the current non-STEM classrooms could actually support is math, because they were built so small. You'd have to tear those down and re-size and re-outfit most of those rooms in order to convert them into additional biology, chemistry, physics, design and tech rooms or senior techlabs. You can't just take Mr. Struck's old history classroom and put Robotics in there.

This is why the Academy conversation is a non-starter. The time to make that change was before they completely renovated the school at a cost of over $100M to the taxpayers.

TJ is what it is, the school's physical plant cannot support any other type of school (including a neighborhood school) without massive additional renovations, and people need to get used to it and stop trying to change what it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why has there never been a serious discussion about changing TJ to an Academy where any student can take classes?

Or even follow the LCPS model of 1/2 base school and 1/2 magnet program? It makes so much more sense to spread out a limited resource.

Because changing it to an Academy would only serve a larger number of students if you rebuilt about 2/3 of the present school building at an enormous cost.

This seems like a made up assertion. Even if, for example, kids weren’t taking gym at an Academy program, the gym could still be retained and made available for local community use.

Maybe but wish they'd go back to the older process where we could just buy access to the admission test. It was so much better.

Do you have any evidence that anyone could buy TJ evidence? Can you point to an article?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why has there never been a serious discussion about changing TJ to an Academy where any student can take classes?

Or even follow the LCPS model of 1/2 base school and 1/2 magnet program? It makes so much more sense to spread out a limited resource.

Because changing it to an Academy would only serve a larger number of students if you rebuilt about 2/3 of the present school building at an enormous cost.

This seems like a made up assertion. Even if, for example, kids weren’t taking gym at an Academy program, the gym could still be retained and made available for local community use.

Maybe but wish they'd go back to the older process where we could just buy access to the admission test. It was so much better.

Do you have any evidence that anyone could buy TJ test in past? Can you point to an article?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:BECAUSE Asian Americans are collateral damage for the benefit of preferred minority group.

You mean Asian Americans are collateral damage to themselves? Since they are the "preferred minority" group, you know the "model minority" group.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why has there never been a serious discussion about changing TJ to an Academy where any student can take classes?

Or even follow the LCPS model of 1/2 base school and 1/2 magnet program? It makes so much more sense to spread out a limited resource.

Because changing it to an Academy would only serve a larger number of students if you rebuilt about 2/3 of the present school building at an enormous cost.

This seems like a made up assertion. Even if, for example, kids weren’t taking gym at an Academy program, the gym could still be retained and made available for local community use.

Maybe but wish they'd go back to the older process where we could just buy access to the admission test. It was so much better.

Do you have any evidence that anyone could buy TJ test in past? Can you point to an article?

DP but you have heard of Curie, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why has there never been a serious discussion about changing TJ to an Academy where any student can take classes?

Or even follow the LCPS model of 1/2 base school and 1/2 magnet program? It makes so much more sense to spread out a limited resource.

Because changing it to an Academy would only serve a larger number of students if you rebuilt about 2/3 of the present school building at an enormous cost.

This seems like a made up assertion. Even if, for example, kids weren’t taking gym at an Academy program, the gym could still be retained and made available for local community use.

Maybe but wish they'd go back to the older process where we could just buy access to the admission test. It was so much better.

Do you have any evidence that anyone could buy TJ evidence? Can you point to an article?

DP. TJ students from Curie have confirmed that they recognized exact problems (NOT the entire exam) that were on their Quant-Q exam from their previous studies with Curie. That's not up for debate or discussion anymore among serious people. Because the flagship Curie TJ Prep course used to cost about $5,000 and apparently afforded students access to questions that were repeated from one year to the next, that's the reason for the slightly inaccurate "buying access to the test" narrative.

It's understood at this point that some of Curie's students in TJ's Class of 2022 and perhaps 2023 probably reported back to Curie after having taken the exam on as many of the problems as they can remember, allowing Curie to build a curriculum designed to beat the Quant-Q, which is a problem-solving exam where speed is essential. Like any standardized exam, the Quant-Q uses multiple forms and a question bank where some questions are recycled from year to year. Unlike most exams, the Quant-Q requires anyone who sees it to sign an NDA agreeing not to discuss it with anyone - because the entire value of the exam is in testing students' ability to solve problem types that they've never seen before.

Although Curie was not cited by name by FCPS, its apparent effectiveness and that of similar prep courses was certainly a major factor in FCPS' decision to abandon standardized testing in the TJ Admissions process.