Supreme Court Is Asked to Hear a New Admissions Case on Race

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The fact that TJ students are now going to exist in such an environment from an earlier age is deeply frightening to parents - and to conservative politicians - who are dependent on the narrative that their race is superior because of their priorities and parenting styles. And you see that conversation peppered around this board as justification for why there were more Asian students admitted to the Class of 2024 than there had been Black students admitted in TJ's 33-year history to that point. Because "Black kids are lazy", "Black parents don't care about education", "Black people spend all their money on bling and shoes and video games", etc etc etc.

I saw a stem activity at our school, more than 50 kids every year. Number of blacks 0 or 1. This was when the fee for participating was $0.

Good for your school. Our kids' MS has only one even remotely stem activity- math club. That sounds great, except it's where students who are behind can go to get tutored by a staff member. I guess our kids deserve blame for not participating in more STEM clubs even though they don't exist

NP, but the point that the PP was trying to make was that demand for STEM varies across demographics, so "lack of opportunity" may not be the driver of low URM applicants to TJ.

I do think that there are plenty of bright young scholars across all of fairfax's elementary schools. But if these kids' families don't value (or have time for) STEM activities, many of them will be lagging in demonstrative STEM abilities that other kids will have when TJ applications come due.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The fact that TJ students are now going to exist in such an environment from an earlier age is deeply frightening to parents - and to conservative politicians - who are dependent on the narrative that their race is superior because of their priorities and parenting styles. And you see that conversation peppered around this board as justification for why there were more Asian students admitted to the Class of 2024 than there had been Black students admitted in TJ's 33-year history to that point. Because "Black kids are lazy", "Black parents don't care about education", "Black people spend all their money on bling and shoes and video games", etc etc etc.

I saw a stem activity at our school, more than 50 kids every year. Number of blacks 0 or 1. This was when the fee for participating was $0.

Good for your school. Our kids' MS has only one even remotely stem activity- math club. That sounds great, except it's where students who are behind can go to get tutored by a staff member. I guess our kids deserve blame for not participating in more STEM clubs even though they don't exist

NP, but the point that the PP was trying to make was that demand for STEM varies across demographics, so "lack of opportunity" may not be the driver of low URM applicants to TJ.

I do think that there are plenty of bright young scholars across all of fairfax's elementary schools. But if these kids' families don't value (or have time for) STEM activities, many of them will be lagging in demonstrative STEM abilities that other kids will have when TJ applications come due.

Why are you blaming parents for lack of stem clubs at our school? It's not like parents are running these stem clubs at those other schools. We already up to our necks being helecopter parents with one travel sport.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The fact that TJ students are now going to exist in such an environment from an earlier age is deeply frightening to parents - and to conservative politicians - who are dependent on the narrative that their race is superior because of their priorities and parenting styles. And you see that conversation peppered around this board as justification for why there were more Asian students admitted to the Class of 2024 than there had been Black students admitted in TJ's 33-year history to that point. Because "Black kids are lazy", "Black parents don't care about education", "Black people spend all their money on bling and shoes and video games", etc etc etc.

I saw a stem activity at our school, more than 50 kids every year. Number of blacks 0 or 1. This was when the fee for participating was $0.

So what? Literally what is your point?

People are saying this is about not having the money to access opportunities, and it appears to be a lack of interest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The fact that TJ students are now going to exist in such an environment from an earlier age is deeply frightening to parents - and to conservative politicians - who are dependent on the narrative that their race is superior because of their priorities and parenting styles. And you see that conversation peppered around this board as justification for why there were more Asian students admitted to the Class of 2024 than there had been Black students admitted in TJ's 33-year history to that point. Because "Black kids are lazy", "Black parents don't care about education", "Black people spend all their money on bling and shoes and video games", etc etc etc.

I saw a stem activity at our school, more than 50 kids every year. Number of blacks 0 or 1. This was when the fee for participating was $0.

Good for your school. Our kids' MS has only one even remotely stem activity- math club. That sounds great, except it's where students who are behind can go to get tutored by a staff member. I guess our kids deserve blame for not participating in more STEM clubs even though they don't exist

NP, but the point that the PP was trying to make was that demand for STEM varies across demographics, so "lack of opportunity" may not be the driver of low URM applicants to TJ.

I do think that there are plenty of bright young scholars across all of fairfax's elementary schools. But if these kids' families don't value (or have time for) STEM activities, many of them will be lagging in demonstrative STEM abilities that other kids will have when TJ applications come due.

Why are you blaming parents for lack of stem clubs at our school? It's not like parents are running these stem clubs at those other schools. We already up to our necks being helecopter parents with one travel sport.

Parents are running stem clubs at other schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The fact that TJ students are now going to exist in such an environment from an earlier age is deeply frightening to parents - and to conservative politicians - who are dependent on the narrative that their race is superior because of their priorities and parenting styles. And you see that conversation peppered around this board as justification for why there were more Asian students admitted to the Class of 2024 than there had been Black students admitted in TJ's 33-year history to that point. Because "Black kids are lazy", "Black parents don't care about education", "Black people spend all their money on bling and shoes and video games", etc etc etc.

I saw a stem activity at our school, more than 50 kids every year. Number of blacks 0 or 1. This was when the fee for participating was $0.

Good for your school. Our kids' MS has only one even remotely stem activity- math club. That sounds great, except it's where students who are behind can go to get tutored by a staff member. I guess our kids deserve blame for not participating in more STEM clubs even though they don't exist

NP, but the point that the PP was trying to make was that demand for STEM varies across demographics, so "lack of opportunity" may not be the driver of low URM applicants to TJ.

I do think that there are plenty of bright young scholars across all of fairfax's elementary schools. But if these kids' families don't value (or have time for) STEM activities, many of them will be lagging in demonstrative STEM abilities that other kids will have when TJ applications come due.

Why are you blaming parents for lack of stem clubs at our school? It's not like parents are running these stem clubs at those other schools. We already up to our necks being helecopter parents with one travel sport.

Parents are running stem clubs at other schools.

+1. It's all about the PTA. And if enough parents ask, the school may pay for the entry fee. They just need volunteer coaches. There's the rub.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The fact that TJ students are now going to exist in such an environment from an earlier age is deeply frightening to parents - and to conservative politicians - who are dependent on the narrative that their race is superior because of their priorities and parenting styles. And you see that conversation peppered around this board as justification for why there were more Asian students admitted to the Class of 2024 than there had been Black students admitted in TJ's 33-year history to that point. Because "Black kids are lazy", "Black parents don't care about education", "Black people spend all their money on bling and shoes and video games", etc etc etc.

I saw a stem activity at our school, more than 50 kids every year. Number of blacks 0 or 1. This was when the fee for participating was $0.

Good for your school. Our kids' MS has only one even remotely stem activity- math club. That sounds great, except it's where students who are behind can go to get tutored by a staff member. I guess our kids deserve blame for not participating in more STEM clubs even though they don't exist

NP, but the point that the PP was trying to make was that demand for STEM varies across demographics, so "lack of opportunity" may not be the driver of low URM applicants to TJ.

I do think that there are plenty of bright young scholars across all of fairfax's elementary schools. But if these kids' families don't value (or have time for) STEM activities, many of them will be lagging in demonstrative STEM abilities that other kids will have when TJ applications come due.

Low numbers of applicants from underrepresented groups can historically be attributed to a few things:

1) Lack of awareness of TJ within the community. There are communities in Northern Virginia where families attend TJ open houses and information sessions in the early stages of pregnancy. Because very few students from underrepresented groups have ever attended TJ in the past, there isn't any institutional knowledge about how to best prepare your child for the TJ application process.

2) A persistent narrative - propagated by some of the more pernicious individuals on fora like this one - that TJ is only for Asian and white kids. TJ was hard enough for me as the only kid from my middle school - I can't imagine what it would have been like if I were the only kid from my middle school AND there wasn't anyone there who looked anything like me or shared any of my experiences.

3) Implicit bias from local school employees submitting to the idea that if you don't look like kids who have historically gone to TJ, you shouldn't be encouraged to view it as an option or to be identified as capable of advanced studies.

4) The cost to the family of going to a school like TJ. If you're going to get the full experience at TJ, that generally means that you are staying after school with some regularity to participate in TJ's phenomenal extracurriculars that are not captured by the 8th period program, meaning someone is driving you home after school. The new admissions process has, out of thin air, created carpools to areas of the county where none existed previously, which greatly lowers the level of sacrifice that individual families have to bear to send their kids to TJ - sacrifices that are harder to make when you are economically disadvantaged.

There are many drivers of low application numbers to TJ from underrepresented groups - they are not a monolith. I believe that the greatest driver is the underlying narrative that TJ isn't for them - and now that narrative is being smashed to bits. While we didn't see application numbers by demographic in the last admissions cycle, the hope is that we'll actually see representative numbers of applications from all demographic groups and that as a result, the total applicant pool will only grow stronger.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The fact that TJ students are now going to exist in such an environment from an earlier age is deeply frightening to parents - and to conservative politicians - who are dependent on the narrative that their race is superior because of their priorities and parenting styles. And you see that conversation peppered around this board as justification for why there were more Asian students admitted to the Class of 2024 than there had been Black students admitted in TJ's 33-year history to that point. Because "Black kids are lazy", "Black parents don't care about education", "Black people spend all their money on bling and shoes and video games", etc etc etc.

I saw a stem activity at our school, more than 50 kids every year. Number of blacks 0 or 1. This was when the fee for participating was $0.

Good for your school. Our kids' MS has only one even remotely stem activity- math club. That sounds great, except it's where students who are behind can go to get tutored by a staff member. I guess our kids deserve blame for not participating in more STEM clubs even though they don't exist

NP, but the point that the PP was trying to make was that demand for STEM varies across demographics, so "lack of opportunity" may not be the driver of low URM applicants to TJ.

I do think that there are plenty of bright young scholars across all of fairfax's elementary schools. But if these kids' families don't value (or have time for) STEM activities, many of them will be lagging in demonstrative STEM abilities that other kids will have when TJ applications come due.

Why are you blaming parents for lack of stem clubs at our school? It's not like parents are running these stem clubs at those other schools. We already up to our necks being helecopter parents with one travel sport.

Parents are running stem clubs at other schools.

+1. It's all about the PTA. And if enough parents ask, the school may pay for the entry fee. They just need volunteer coaches. There's the rub.

+1 - and frequently those "volunteer coaches" are volunteering solely to ensure access to competitive opportunities for their own children and other members of their community. It's not altogether unlike the "dad coach" in youth sports.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The fact that TJ students are now going to exist in such an environment from an earlier age is deeply frightening to parents - and to conservative politicians - who are dependent on the narrative that their race is superior because of their priorities and parenting styles. And you see that conversation peppered around this board as justification for why there were more Asian students admitted to the Class of 2024 than there had been Black students admitted in TJ's 33-year history to that point. Because "Black kids are lazy", "Black parents don't care about education", "Black people spend all their money on bling and shoes and video games", etc etc etc.

I saw a stem activity at our school, more than 50 kids every year. Number of blacks 0 or 1. This was when the fee for participating was $0.

So what? Literally what is your point?

People are saying this is about not having the money to access opportunities, and it appears to be a lack of interest.

It also may be a lack of transportation, or even of lack of parental support to access the opportunity.

There are many people who believe that if your parents don't have the ability to provide the necessary support to the student, that student simply shouldn't attend TJ. Don't be one of those people - you sound gross.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The fact that TJ students are now going to exist in such an environment from an earlier age is deeply frightening to parents - and to conservative politicians - who are dependent on the narrative that their race is superior because of their priorities and parenting styles. And you see that conversation peppered around this board as justification for why there were more Asian students admitted to the Class of 2024 than there had been Black students admitted in TJ's 33-year history to that point. Because "Black kids are lazy", "Black parents don't care about education", "Black people spend all their money on bling and shoes and video games", etc etc etc.

I saw a stem activity at our school, more than 50 kids every year. Number of blacks 0 or 1. This was when the fee for participating was $0.

So what? Literally what is your point?

People are saying this is about not having the money to access opportunities, and it appears to be a lack of interest.

It also may be a lack of transportation, or even of lack of parental support to access the opportunity.

There are many people who believe that if your parents don't have the ability to provide the necessary support to the student, that student simply shouldn't attend TJ. Don't be one of those people - you sound gross.

The school provides after school transportation. That's the point. 'Lack of parental support', the parents do not push the kids towards these things.
There was a minority kid, took geometry in 7th grade out of state. Came in September after school started for 8th grade. No pushback from parents after he was placed in prealgebra.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The fact that TJ students are now going to exist in such an environment from an earlier age is deeply frightening to parents - and to conservative politicians - who are dependent on the narrative that their race is superior because of their priorities and parenting styles. And you see that conversation peppered around this board as justification for why there were more Asian students admitted to the Class of 2024 than there had been Black students admitted in TJ's 33-year history to that point. Because "Black kids are lazy", "Black parents don't care about education", "Black people spend all their money on bling and shoes and video games", etc etc etc.

I saw a stem activity at our school, more than 50 kids every year. Number of blacks 0 or 1. This was when the fee for participating was $0.

So what? Literally what is your point?

People are saying this is about not having the money to access opportunities, and it appears to be a lack of interest.

It also may be a lack of transportation, or even of lack of parental support to access the opportunity.

There are many people who believe that if your parents don't have the ability to provide the necessary support to the student, that student simply shouldn't attend TJ. Don't be one of those people - you sound gross.

The school provides after school transportation. That's the point. 'Lack of parental support', the parents do not push the kids towards these things.
There was a minority kid, took geometry in 7th grade out of state. Came in September after school started for 8th grade. No pushback from parents after he was placed in prealgebra.

Individual anecdotes are not evidence against systemic issues.

You're talking about one event at one school where we don't know the other dynamics that are at play. That's not an argument any more than "I saw a Black guy rob a 7-eleven once" is an argument in favor of police brutality.

Access to exceptional education opportunities needs to be decoupled from parental efforts to optimize the application process. Kids should not be punished because for whatever reason their parents don't know how or don't want to optimize the system. Those kids have enough difficulties as it is.

And that speaks to another issue that I have where admission to elite schools like TJ frequently becomes congratulated within certain communities not as an achievement of the student, but rather as an achievement of the parents. Equally gross.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The fact that TJ students are now going to exist in such an environment from an earlier age is deeply frightening to parents - and to conservative politicians - who are dependent on the narrative that their race is superior because of their priorities and parenting styles. And you see that conversation peppered around this board as justification for why there were more Asian students admitted to the Class of 2024 than there had been Black students admitted in TJ's 33-year history to that point. Because "Black kids are lazy", "Black parents don't care about education", "Black people spend all their money on bling and shoes and video games", etc etc etc.

I saw a stem activity at our school, more than 50 kids every year. Number of blacks 0 or 1. This was when the fee for participating was $0.

So what? Literally what is your point?

People are saying this is about not having the money to access opportunities, and it appears to be a lack of interest.

It also may be a lack of transportation, or even of lack of parental support to access the opportunity.

There are many people who believe that if your parents don't have the ability to provide the necessary support to the student, that student simply shouldn't attend TJ. Don't be one of those people - you sound gross.

The school provides after school transportation. That's the point. 'Lack of parental support', the parents do not push the kids towards these things.
There was a minority kid, took geometry in 7th grade out of state. Came in September after school started for 8th grade. No pushback from parents after he was placed in prealgebra.

Individual anecdotes are not evidence against systemic issues.

You're talking about one event at one school where we don't know the other dynamics that are at play. That's not an argument any more than "I saw a Black guy rob a 7-eleven once" is an argument in favor of police brutality.

Access to exceptional education opportunities needs to be decoupled from parental efforts to optimize the application process. Kids should not be punished because for whatever reason their parents don't know how or don't want to optimize the system. Those kids have enough difficulties as it is.

And that speaks to another issue that I have where admission to elite schools like TJ frequently becomes congratulated within certain communities not as an achievement of the student, but rather as an achievement of the parents. Equally gross.

You have no idea what gross is pleb.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The fact that TJ students are now going to exist in such an environment from an earlier age is deeply frightening to parents - and to conservative politicians - who are dependent on the narrative that their race is superior because of their priorities and parenting styles. And you see that conversation peppered around this board as justification for why there were more Asian students admitted to the Class of 2024 than there had been Black students admitted in TJ's 33-year history to that point. Because "Black kids are lazy", "Black parents don't care about education", "Black people spend all their money on bling and shoes and video games", etc etc etc.

I saw a stem activity at our school, more than 50 kids every year. Number of blacks 0 or 1. This was when the fee for participating was $0.

So what? Literally what is your point?

People are saying this is about not having the money to access opportunities, and it appears to be a lack of interest.

It also may be a lack of transportation, or even of lack of parental support to access the opportunity.

There are many people who believe that if your parents don't have the ability to provide the necessary support to the student, that student simply shouldn't attend TJ. Don't be one of those people - you sound gross.

The school provides after school transportation. That's the point. 'Lack of parental support', the parents do not push the kids towards these things.
There was a minority kid, took geometry in 7th grade out of state. Came in September after school started for 8th grade. No pushback from parents after he was placed in prealgebra.

Individual anecdotes are not evidence against systemic issues.

You're talking about one event at one school where we don't know the other dynamics that are at play. That's not an argument any more than "I saw a Black guy rob a 7-eleven once" is an argument in favor of police brutality.

Access to exceptional education opportunities needs to be decoupled from parental efforts to optimize the application process. Kids should not be punished because for whatever reason their parents don't know how or don't want to optimize the system. Those kids have enough difficulties as it is.

And that speaks to another issue that I have where admission to elite schools like TJ frequently becomes congratulated within certain communities not as an achievement of the student, but rather as an achievement of the parents. Equally gross.

You have no idea what gross is pleb.

*chuckle* Ok Harry. Enjoy your lawsuits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The fact that TJ students are now going to exist in such an environment from an earlier age is deeply frightening to parents - and to conservative politicians - who are dependent on the narrative that their race is superior because of their priorities and parenting styles. And you see that conversation peppered around this board as justification for why there were more Asian students admitted to the Class of 2024 than there had been Black students admitted in TJ's 33-year history to that point. Because "Black kids are lazy", "Black parents don't care about education", "Black people spend all their money on bling and shoes and video games", etc etc etc.

I saw a stem activity at our school, more than 50 kids every year. Number of blacks 0 or 1. This was when the fee for participating was $0.

Good for your school. Our kids' MS has only one even remotely stem activity- math club. That sounds great, except it's where students who are behind can go to get tutored by a staff member. I guess our kids deserve blame for not participating in more STEM clubs even though they don't exist

NP, but the point that the PP was trying to make was that demand for STEM varies across demographics, so "lack of opportunity" may not be the driver of low URM applicants to TJ.

I do think that there are plenty of bright young scholars across all of fairfax's elementary schools. But if these kids' families don't value (or have time for) STEM activities, many of them will be lagging in demonstrative STEM abilities that other kids will have when TJ applications come due.

Low numbers of applicants from underrepresented groups can historically be attributed to a few things:

1) Lack of awareness of TJ within the community. There are communities in Northern Virginia where families attend TJ open houses and information sessions in the early stages of pregnancy. Because very few students from underrepresented groups have ever attended TJ in the past, there isn't any institutional knowledge about how to best prepare your child for the TJ application process.

2) A persistent narrative - propagated by some of the more pernicious individuals on fora like this one - that TJ is only for Asian and white kids. TJ was hard enough for me as the only kid from my middle school - I can't imagine what it would have been like if I were the only kid from my middle school AND there wasn't anyone there who looked anything like me or shared any of my experiences.

3) Implicit bias from local school employees submitting to the idea that if you don't look like kids who have historically gone to TJ, you shouldn't be encouraged to view it as an option or to be identified as capable of advanced studies.

4) The cost to the family of going to a school like TJ. If you're going to get the full experience at TJ, that generally means that you are staying after school with some regularity to participate in TJ's phenomenal extracurriculars that are not captured by the 8th period program, meaning someone is driving you home after school. The new admissions process has, out of thin air, created carpools to areas of the county where none existed previously, which greatly lowers the level of sacrifice that individual families have to bear to send their kids to TJ - sacrifices that are harder to make when you are economically disadvantaged.

There are many drivers of low application numbers to TJ from underrepresented groups - they are not a monolith. I believe that the greatest driver is the underlying narrative that TJ isn't for them - and now that narrative is being smashed to bits. While we didn't see application numbers by demographic in the last admissions cycle, the hope is that we'll actually see representative numbers of applications from all demographic groups and that as a result, the total applicant pool will only grow stronger.

The extended naval-gazing on display in this post is why many fervently wish FCPS will one day come to its senses and do away with a “special” magnet school, which increasingly seems to exist primarily so certain TJHSST alumni can feel good about themselves, and focus instead on meeting the needs of all FCPS kids, including the 96% or so of high school students who don’t attend TJ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The fact that TJ students are now going to exist in such an environment from an earlier age is deeply frightening to parents - and to conservative politicians - who are dependent on the narrative that their race is superior because of their priorities and parenting styles. And you see that conversation peppered around this board as justification for why there were more Asian students admitted to the Class of 2024 than there had been Black students admitted in TJ's 33-year history to that point. Because "Black kids are lazy", "Black parents don't care about education", "Black people spend all their money on bling and shoes and video games", etc etc etc.

I saw a stem activity at our school, more than 50 kids every year. Number of blacks 0 or 1. This was when the fee for participating was $0.

Good for your school. Our kids' MS has only one even remotely stem activity- math club. That sounds great, except it's where students who are behind can go to get tutored by a staff member. I guess our kids deserve blame for not participating in more STEM clubs even though they don't exist

NP, but the point that the PP was trying to make was that demand for STEM varies across demographics, so "lack of opportunity" may not be the driver of low URM applicants to TJ.

I do think that there are plenty of bright young scholars across all of fairfax's elementary schools. But if these kids' families don't value (or have time for) STEM activities, many of them will be lagging in demonstrative STEM abilities that other kids will have when TJ applications come due.

Low numbers of applicants from underrepresented groups can historically be attributed to a few things:

1) Lack of awareness of TJ within the community. There are communities in Northern Virginia where families attend TJ open houses and information sessions in the early stages of pregnancy. Because very few students from underrepresented groups have ever attended TJ in the past, there isn't any institutional knowledge about how to best prepare your child for the TJ application process.

2) A persistent narrative - propagated by some of the more pernicious individuals on fora like this one - that TJ is only for Asian and white kids. TJ was hard enough for me as the only kid from my middle school - I can't imagine what it would have been like if I were the only kid from my middle school AND there wasn't anyone there who looked anything like me or shared any of my experiences.

3) Implicit bias from local school employees submitting to the idea that if you don't look like kids who have historically gone to TJ, you shouldn't be encouraged to view it as an option or to be identified as capable of advanced studies.

4) The cost to the family of going to a school like TJ. If you're going to get the full experience at TJ, that generally means that you are staying after school with some regularity to participate in TJ's phenomenal extracurriculars that are not captured by the 8th period program, meaning someone is driving you home after school. The new admissions process has, out of thin air, created carpools to areas of the county where none existed previously, which greatly lowers the level of sacrifice that individual families have to bear to send their kids to TJ - sacrifices that are harder to make when you are economically disadvantaged.

There are many drivers of low application numbers to TJ from underrepresented groups - they are not a monolith. I believe that the greatest driver is the underlying narrative that TJ isn't for them - and now that narrative is being smashed to bits. While we didn't see application numbers by demographic in the last admissions cycle, the hope is that we'll actually see representative numbers of applications from all demographic groups and that as a result, the total applicant pool will only grow stronger.

The extended naval-gazing on display in this post is why many fervently wish FCPS will one day come to its senses and do away with a “special” magnet school, which increasingly seems to exist primarily so certain TJHSST alumni can feel good about themselves, and focus instead on meeting the needs of all FCPS kids, including the 96% or so of high school students who don’t attend TJ.

False choice. Want to talk about navel-gazing (which is the actual phrase)… try continually dreaming about a school system shutting down its flagship and in the process pissing off thousands of people in multiple jurisdictions and creating myriad logistical issues out of thin air - all while doing incalculable damage to the general prestige of living in Northern Virginia.

Hilarious if it weren’t pathetic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The fact that TJ students are now going to exist in such an environment from an earlier age is deeply frightening to parents - and to conservative politicians - who are dependent on the narrative that their race is superior because of their priorities and parenting styles. And you see that conversation peppered around this board as justification for why there were more Asian students admitted to the Class of 2024 than there had been Black students admitted in TJ's 33-year history to that point. Because "Black kids are lazy", "Black parents don't care about education", "Black people spend all their money on bling and shoes and video games", etc etc etc.

I saw a stem activity at our school, more than 50 kids every year. Number of blacks 0 or 1. This was when the fee for participating was $0.

Good for your school. Our kids' MS has only one even remotely stem activity- math club. That sounds great, except it's where students who are behind can go to get tutored by a staff member. I guess our kids deserve blame for not participating in more STEM clubs even though they don't exist

NP, but the point that the PP was trying to make was that demand for STEM varies across demographics, so "lack of opportunity" may not be the driver of low URM applicants to TJ.

I do think that there are plenty of bright young scholars across all of fairfax's elementary schools. But if these kids' families don't value (or have time for) STEM activities, many of them will be lagging in demonstrative STEM abilities that other kids will have when TJ applications come due.

Why are you blaming parents for lack of stem clubs at our school? It's not like parents are running these stem clubs at those other schools. We already up to our necks being helecopter parents with one travel sport.

The error in this post tells you everything you need to know about why some pyramids are stronger than others.