Expanded High school electives at TJ

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ohhhh Japanese is back. Awesome! That could be good for my kid if they are accepted this year.

I really like that this new Principal is doing things to make TJ academically excellent rather than engaging in social engineering.

By making TJ like any other high school?

+1
I like the guy (and I liked Dr B too) but this is my sr TJ kid's complaint. They've been stripping out some of the things that makes it different.

Like what?

The entire culture at TJ has become very negative and toxic and this all a result of Mukai's lack of leadership. He doesn't respect his teachers and has shut them out and even the division leaders out of actual collaboration. Instead of coming in and getting to know the staff and the students first, he has dictated everything without any clear vision or justification. He flip-flops constantly to the point that teachers cannot trust anything he says and he bullies any teachers who question anything he says or does.

All I have heard is that the culture at TJ has been negative and toxic in the 8 years I have been on this board. It doesn’t seem to matter who the Principal is or what they are doing, it is bad.

The anti-bonitatubus sentiment was the salty asians that were big mad about her racism.
The anti-Mukai sentiment is mostly the woke DEI crowd being salty that Bonitatibus is gone and has been replaced by a principal that is more concerned about the school's academic profile than racial profile. But some of them are just anti-asian.
Mukai doesn't try to convince struggling freshmen to stick it out at TJ instead of returning to the ir base school where they would probably be better off.
He backfills with froshmores that are selected on a merit based process.

This makes the sophomore class at TJ look less URM/FEGLI but the students are more academically adept.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ohhhh Japanese is back. Awesome! That could be good for my kid if they are accepted this year.

I really like that this new Principal is doing things to make TJ academically excellent rather than engaging in social engineering.

What exactly is your definition of academically excellent? By adding all those new AP classes, the kids will stop taking a balanced course load of TJ-specific classes created and taught by experts. That's why we picked TJ--this is a shame. Every kid is going to look exactly the same on paper and they'll all be burned out. There's literally nothing special about it anymore. Watch all the amazing teachers leave now that their programs are gone.

The AP classes are a boon. Your kid was going to take pre-calculus at an AP level of rigor anyway. Now the class will be weighted as an AP class.
Your kid was going to take most of these classes at an AP level of rigor, now they get AP credit for it.
And the number of electives hasn't really changed. My kid can still take all the same electives he planned on taking when he was a freshman.

What programs are gone?

NP. I think what people advocating for more AP classes don't realize is that when an AP is offered in direct competition with a TJ-specific class and they both fulfil a requirement, the large majority will pick the AP class simply because it offers the extra weighting. When no kids choose the TJ-specific class anymore, it gets cut and the teacher who taught it gets assigned to teach something else, probably the AP. The AP then becomes the standard, which sounds nice on the surface, but it just raises that standard for all the kids, making it the status quo and ultimately not helping anyone. So while those TJ-specific electives are still listed--for now--in a year or two, as the APs take over, a lot of the electives will be gone, kids will have less opportunity to differentiate themselves, and colleges will have a harder time choosing who to admit--from TJ AND between TJ and base schools. If they all look the same, there is no benefit.

Stupid question here. I have a kid applying to TJ so I am learning.

Can’t they teach the TJ specific biology class in a class called AP Bio? They need to make sure they cover all that content, but don’t they cover that in the TJ specific class? I have read that the TJ classes move more quickly and cover more material because they expect the kids to be able to do more. Maybe an AP Bio accelerated?

What I think a lot of people want is for heir kids to be able to take the AP exams in the different subjects to get the class credit and I was under the impression that the TJ specific classes required self study for the AP exams.

TJ has always had AP classes and they have always had a higher level of rigor than required by the AP curriculum. The non-AP classes at TJ also had higher levels of rigor than the AP curriculum. All this did was slap an AP tag on the TJ class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ohhhh Japanese is back. Awesome! That could be good for my kid if they are accepted this year.

I really like that this new Principal is doing things to make TJ academically excellent rather than engaging in social engineering.

What exactly is your definition of academically excellent? By adding all those new AP classes, the kids will stop taking a balanced course load of TJ-specific classes created and taught by experts. That's why we picked TJ--this is a shame. Every kid is going to look exactly the same on paper and they'll all be burned out. There's literally nothing special about it anymore. Watch all the amazing teachers leave now that their programs are gone.

The AP classes are a boon. Your kid was going to take pre-calculus at an AP level of rigor anyway. Now the class will be weighted as an AP class.
Your kid was going to take most of these classes at an AP level of rigor, now they get AP credit for it.
And the number of electives hasn't really changed. My kid can still take all the same electives he planned on taking when he was a freshman.

What programs are gone?

Everyone else at TJ would also get the AP precalc weighting, so it's a wash.

You are compared to your peers at TJ but not ONLY to your peers at TJ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ohhhh Japanese is back. Awesome! That could be good for my kid if they are accepted this year.

I really like that this new Principal is doing things to make TJ academically excellent rather than engaging in social engineering.

What exactly is your definition of academically excellent? By adding all those new AP classes, the kids will stop taking a balanced course load of TJ-specific classes created and taught by experts. That's why we picked TJ--this is a shame. Every kid is going to look exactly the same on paper and they'll all be burned out. There's literally nothing special about it anymore. Watch all the amazing teachers leave now that their programs are gone.

The AP classes are a boon. Your kid was going to take pre-calculus at an AP level of rigor anyway. Now the class will be weighted as an AP class.
Your kid was going to take most of these classes at an AP level of rigor, now they get AP credit for it.
And the number of electives hasn't really changed. My kid can still take all the same electives he planned on taking when he was a freshman.

What programs are gone?

NP. I think what people advocating for more AP classes don't realize is that when an AP is offered in direct competition with a TJ-specific class and they both fulfil a requirement, the large majority will pick the AP class simply because it offers the extra weighting. When no kids choose the TJ-specific class anymore, it gets cut and the teacher who taught it gets assigned to teach something else, probably the AP. The AP then becomes the standard, which sounds nice on the surface, but it just raises that standard for all the kids, making it the status quo and ultimately not helping anyone. So while those TJ-specific electives are still listed--for now--in a year or two, as the APs take over, a lot of the electives will be gone, kids will have less opportunity to differentiate themselves, and colleges will have a harder time choosing who to admit--from TJ AND between TJ and base schools. If they all look the same, there is no benefit.

Stupid question here. I have a kid applying to TJ so I am learning.

Can’t they teach the TJ specific biology class in a class called AP Bio? They need to make sure they cover all that content, but don’t they cover that in the TJ specific class? I have read that the TJ classes move more quickly and cover more material because they expect the kids to be able to do more. Maybe an AP Bio accelerated?

What I think a lot of people want is for heir kids to be able to take the AP exams in the different subjects to get the class credit and I was under the impression that the TJ specific classes required self study for the AP exams.

TJ has always had AP classes and they have always had a higher level of rigor than required by the AP curriculum. The non-AP classes at TJ also had higher levels of rigor than the AP curriculum. All this did was slap an AP tag on the TJ class.

So what is the issue? If the AP classes were there and the TJ electives, it sounds like kids were choosing the TJ elective classes over the AP classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ohhhh Japanese is back. Awesome! That could be good for my kid if they are accepted this year.

I really like that this new Principal is doing things to make TJ academically excellent rather than engaging in social engineering.

By making TJ like any other high school?

+1
I like the guy (and I liked Dr B too) but this is my sr TJ kid's complaint. They've been stripping out some of the things that makes it different.

Like what?

The entire culture at TJ has become very negative and toxic and this all a result of Mukai's lack of leadership. He doesn't respect his teachers and has shut them out and even the division leaders out of actual collaboration. Instead of coming in and getting to know the staff and the students first, he has dictated everything without any clear vision or justification. He flip-flops constantly to the point that teachers cannot trust anything he says and he bullies any teachers who question anything he says or does.

All I have heard is that the culture at TJ has been negative and toxic in the 8 years I have been on this board. It doesn’t seem to matter who the Principal is or what they are doing, it is bad.

The anti-bonitatubus sentiment was the salty asians that were big mad about her racism.
The anti-Mukai sentiment is mostly the woke DEI crowd being salty that Bonitatibus is gone and has been replaced by a principal that is more concerned about the school's academic profile than racial profile. But some of them are just anti-asian.
Mukai doesn't try to convince struggling freshmen to stick it out at TJ instead of returning to the ir base school where they would probably be better off.
He backfills with froshmores that are selected on a merit based process.

This makes the sophomore class at TJ look less URM/FEGLI but the students are more academically adept.

Dr. Bonitatibus had plenty of flaws herself and I was not personally a fan. You are throwing out some wild assumptions without any basis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ohhhh Japanese is back. Awesome! That could be good for my kid if they are accepted this year.

I really like that this new Principal is doing things to make TJ academically excellent rather than engaging in social engineering.

It's funny ironic that you would say that since the last principal brought TJ to its highest rankings ever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ohhhh Japanese is back. Awesome! That could be good for my kid if they are accepted this year.

I really like that this new Principal is doing things to make TJ academically excellent rather than engaging in social engineering.

By making TJ like any other high school?

+1
I like the guy (and I liked Dr B too) but this is my sr TJ kid's complaint. They've been stripping out some of the things that makes it different.

Like what?

The entire culture at TJ has become very negative and toxic and this all a result of Mukai's lack of leadership. He doesn't respect his teachers and has shut them out and even the division leaders out of actual collaboration. Instead of coming in and getting to know the staff and the students first, he has dictated everything without any clear vision or justification. He flip-flops constantly to the point that teachers cannot trust anything he says and he bullies any teachers who question anything he says or does.

All I have heard is that the culture at TJ has been negative and toxic in the 8 years I have been on this board. It doesn’t seem to matter who the Principal is or what they are doing, it is bad.

The anti-bonitatubus sentiment was the salty asians that were big mad about her racism.
The anti-Mukai sentiment is mostly the woke DEI crowd being salty that Bonitatibus is gone and has been replaced by a principal that is more concerned about the school's academic profile than racial profile. But some of them are just anti-asian.
Mukai doesn't try to convince struggling freshmen to stick it out at TJ instead of returning to the ir base school where they would probably be better off.
He backfills with froshmores that are selected on a merit based process.

This makes the sophomore class at TJ look less URM/FEGLI but the students are more academically adept.

Dr. Bonitatibus had plenty of flaws herself and I was not personally a fan. You are throwing out some wild assumptions without any basis.

It was mostly fake news. The negative sentiment was from some parents who were angry that they couldn't get admissions as easily as before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ohhhh Japanese is back. Awesome! That could be good for my kid if they are accepted this year.

I really like that this new Principal is doing things to make TJ academically excellent rather than engaging in social engineering.

By making TJ like any other high school?

+1
I like the guy (and I liked Dr B too) but this is my sr TJ kid's complaint. They've been stripping out some of the things that makes it different.

Like what?

The entire culture at TJ has become very negative and toxic and this all a result of Mukai's lack of leadership. He doesn't respect his teachers and has shut them out and even the division leaders out of actual collaboration. Instead of coming in and getting to know the staff and the students first, he has dictated everything without any clear vision or justification. He flip-flops constantly to the point that teachers cannot trust anything he says and he bullies any teachers who question anything he says or does.

I’ve heard this as well.

Are you current parents or teachers? Where did you hear all this?

I know this from direct experience.

Do you have firsthand data that the "negative and toxic" school environment is affecting students? Is the teacher exodus also true?

Teacher exodus? In this economy? GTFOH.
There are people upset about working for Donald Trump and THEy aren't leaving, they are not upset about working for Mukai.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ohhhh Japanese is back. Awesome! That could be good for my kid if they are accepted this year.

I really like that this new Principal is doing things to make TJ academically excellent rather than engaging in social engineering.

By making TJ like any other high school?

+1
I like the guy (and I liked Dr B too) but this is my sr TJ kid's complaint. They've been stripping out some of the things that makes it different.

Like what?

The entire culture at TJ has become very negative and toxic and this all a result of Mukai's lack of leadership. He doesn't respect his teachers and has shut them out and even the division leaders out of actual collaboration. Instead of coming in and getting to know the staff and the students first, he has dictated everything without any clear vision or justification. He flip-flops constantly to the point that teachers cannot trust anything he says and he bullies any teachers who question anything he says or does.

I’ve heard this as well.

Are you current parents or teachers? Where did you hear all this?

I know this from direct experience.

So, no?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ohhhh Japanese is back. Awesome! That could be good for my kid if they are accepted this year.

I really like that this new Principal is doing things to make TJ academically excellent rather than engaging in social engineering.

By making TJ like any other high school?

How is he making TJ like any other high school?

One of the things that TJ has been known for and what distinguishes it from other high schools in the area is the emphasis on interdisciplinary and team-taught courses. Several of those options were cut this year, with more cut next year. It has been very clear that Mukai does not care about interdisciplinary courses and only cares about AP numbers.

Which interdisciplinary classes were cut?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ohhhh Japanese is back. Awesome! That could be good for my kid if they are accepted this year.

I really like that this new Principal is doing things to make TJ academically excellent rather than engaging in social engineering.

By making TJ like any other high school?

+1
I like the guy (and I liked Dr B too) but this is my sr TJ kid's complaint. They've been stripping out some of the things that makes it different.

Like what?

The entire culture at TJ has become very negative and toxic and this all a result of Mukai's lack of leadership. He doesn't respect his teachers and has shut them out and even the division leaders out of actual collaboration. Instead of coming in and getting to know the staff and the students first, he has dictated everything without any clear vision or justification. He flip-flops constantly to the point that teachers cannot trust anything he says and he bullies any teachers who question anything he says or does.

Any specific examples?
Because Mukai has held more useful parent zoom calls in the first year than Bonitatibus did her entire tenure.
He seems significantly more engaged with the parents. I can't comment on his dynamic with the teachers but I have heard good things from the teachers at his old high school. Why would his management style have changed so drastically for the worse?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ohhhh Japanese is back. Awesome! That could be good for my kid if they are accepted this year.

I really like that this new Principal is doing things to make TJ academically excellent rather than engaging in social engineering.

By making TJ like any other high school?

+1
I like the guy (and I liked Dr B too) but this is my sr TJ kid's complaint. They've been stripping out some of the things that makes it different.

Like what?

The entire culture at TJ has become very negative and toxic and this all a result of Mukai's lack of leadership. He doesn't respect his teachers and has shut them out and even the division leaders out of actual collaboration. Instead of coming in and getting to know the staff and the students first, he has dictated everything without any clear vision or justification. He flip-flops constantly to the point that teachers cannot trust anything he says and he bullies any teachers who question anything he says or does.

I’ve heard this as well.

Are you current parents or teachers? Where did you hear all this?

I know this from direct experience.

Do you have firsthand data that the "negative and toxic" school environment is affecting students? Is the teacher exodus also true?

Teacher exodus? In this economy? GTFOH.
There are people upset about working for Donald Trump and THEy aren't leaving, they are not upset about working for Mukai.

If that last part is true, then why won't Mukai release the staff climate survey data from the end of last year like all of his predecessors? Why does he actively avoid meeting with staff one on one or with departments?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ohhhh Japanese is back. Awesome! That could be good for my kid if they are accepted this year.

I really like that this new Principal is doing things to make TJ academically excellent rather than engaging in social engineering.

What exactly is your definition of academically excellent? By adding all those new AP classes, the kids will stop taking a balanced course load of TJ-specific classes created and taught by experts. That's why we picked TJ--this is a shame. Every kid is going to look exactly the same on paper and they'll all be burned out. There's literally nothing special about it anymore. Watch all the amazing teachers leave now that their programs are gone.

The AP classes are a boon. Your kid was going to take pre-calculus at an AP level of rigor anyway. Now the class will be weighted as an AP class.
Your kid was going to take most of these classes at an AP level of rigor, now they get AP credit for it.
And the number of electives hasn't really changed. My kid can still take all the same electives he planned on taking when he was a freshman.

What programs are gone?

NP. I think what people advocating for more AP classes don't realize is that when an AP is offered in direct competition with a TJ-specific class and they both fulfil a requirement, the large majority will pick the AP class simply because it offers the extra weighting. When no kids choose the TJ-specific class anymore, it gets cut and the teacher who taught it gets assigned to teach something else, probably the AP. The AP then becomes the standard, which sounds nice on the surface, but it just raises that standard for all the kids, making it the status quo and ultimately not helping anyone. So while those TJ-specific electives are still listed--for now--in a year or two, as the APs take over, a lot of the electives will be gone, kids will have less opportunity to differentiate themselves, and colleges will have a harder time choosing who to admit--from TJ AND between TJ and base schools. If they all look the same, there is no benefit.

The AP class is basically the TJ class with a few tweaks to meet the AP curriculum. It's basically the same class. So the Honors TJ Pre-Calc teacher is now teaching Ap pre-calc with largely the same syllabus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ohhhh Japanese is back. Awesome! That could be good for my kid if they are accepted this year.

I really like that this new Principal is doing things to make TJ academically excellent rather than engaging in social engineering.

By making TJ like any other high school?

+1
I like the guy (and I liked Dr B too) but this is my sr TJ kid's complaint. They've been stripping out some of the things that makes it different.

Like what?

The entire culture at TJ has become very negative and toxic and this all a result of Mukai's lack of leadership. He doesn't respect his teachers and has shut them out and even the division leaders out of actual collaboration. Instead of coming in and getting to know the staff and the students first, he has dictated everything without any clear vision or justification. He flip-flops constantly to the point that teachers cannot trust anything he says and he bullies any teachers who question anything he says or does.

^^^ this.

He only cares about medals and achievements. He berated the parents at a meeting earlier this year for their kids missing one question on the PSAT and missing being national merit.

So he is having meetings with parents but he is not getting to know the parents?

And when did he berate parents? You're just lying.
He mentioned that several students missed the cutoff by a few points to point out that while the NMSF numbers seem low compared to prior years, there was a large population of kids just under the cutoff. He was trying to put lipstick on the TJ admissions process consequences for NMSF.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ohhhh Japanese is back. Awesome! That could be good for my kid if they are accepted this year.

I really like that this new Principal is doing things to make TJ academically excellent rather than engaging in social engineering.

By making TJ like any other high school?

+1
I like the guy (and I liked Dr B too) but this is my sr TJ kid's complaint. They've been stripping out some of the things that makes it different.

Like what?

The entire culture at TJ has become very negative and toxic and this all a result of Mukai's lack of leadership. He doesn't respect his teachers and has shut them out and even the division leaders out of actual collaboration. Instead of coming in and getting to know the staff and the students first, he has dictated everything without any clear vision or justification. He flip-flops constantly to the point that teachers cannot trust anything he says and he bullies any teachers who question anything he says or does.

Any specific examples?
Because Mukai has held more useful parent zoom calls in the first year than Bonitatibus did her entire tenure.
He seems significantly more engaged with the parents. I can't comment on his dynamic with the teachers but I have heard good things from the teachers at his old high school. Why would his management style have changed so drastically for the worse?

Not sure how he is when speaking to parents, but he is a terrible public speaker with staff on the rare occasions he actually addresses staff. He just talks in circles with the occasional buzz word thrown in, but teachers can see through his BS. He has no clear vision and has thrown additional tasks onto teachers without any explanation about why they they are doing this or who this is for.