TJ admissions now verifying free and reduced price meal status for successful 2026 applicants

[Anonymous]

PP was right when they suggested TJ should be a full-time Academy. Let it only offer courses not available at base schools and start by allocating classroom slots proportionate to each base high school’s enrollment.

What they are doing now is an abomination and the constant fighting and second-guessing ought to embarrass the hell out of Gatehouse and the School Board.

[Anonymous]

TJ was doing well before the new admission was adopted. The school board is guilty to the community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With the same logic, it's also unfair that some kids have higher IQ than others. Eventually the only solution that can make you satisfied is to make TJ admission a lottery.

Better nobody studies and nobody works. We all stay at home waiting for the god send us food. As long we study and work, there will be differences. Somebody who's smarter and works harder will have a better performance and therefore it is unfair.

No. Just don’t prep for certain tests that you shouldn’t prep for.

It’s not that hard.

It actually is that hard. You can't force other people to refrain from prepping. Even if the test is supposed to be secure, people will find a way to prep. Your only choices are
1. Bury your head in the sand and keep insisting that people just shouldn't prep. Wring your hands when half of them ignore you and prep anyway.
2. Help everyone prep, so everyone is on a more equal footing. Recognize that the absolute scores are not valid, but the scores relative to the other preppers are useful.
3. Eliminate standardized testing and instead rely on more subjective, more easily gamed, and/or more random selection criteria.

Option 2 is the best to me.

Yes, obviously some parents will cheat no matter what.

Just because people are doing it doesn’t mean that prepping for cognitive tests is ok.

Go ask any gifted coordinator/education psychologist and see what they say about prepping.

Well, duh. The norming group for the tests is formed of kids who didn't prep. Your solution, though, is to keep wagging your finger and tsk-ing at people who are going to ignore you and continue prepping? That's going to work.

Any gifted coordinator or education psychologist would be annoyed that some people prep, but would prefer drawing conclusions from a group where everyone prepped than one where half the kids did, half didn't, and the psychologist isn't being told which kids are which.

No, the solution is FCPS drops the tests if too many people are cheating.

Quant-Q is gone. Is CogAT next? Or maybe they just won’t value it as much.

Cheaters ruining it for the rest of us.

Dropping all tests means that the selection would become fairly random and would likely over-select for privileged people with tutors while under identifying kids who are actually gifted. Keep in mind that a gifted but poor kid will likely score 98th or 99th percentile on a test that is normed for un-prepped kids, while a non-gifted, highly prepped kid can still only increase his score so much. By eliminating tests, they're cutting off an avenue for gifted lower and middle class kids who were previously flying under the radar to be identified.

The best practices in gifted education are to holistically consider aptitude tests, achievement tests, teacher recommendations, work samples, accomplishments, and extensive essays. TJ instead has a couple trivial essays, mildly weighted GPA, and bonus points based on politics rather than aptitude. They're not even close to best practices for identifying kids who need a more rigorous environment than what is provided at their zoned school.

If the TJ admissions panels are supposed to somehow ferret out the hidden gems from rather vague essays, they surely could do an even better job by holistically reviewing a much more comprehensive application.

Honestly, I like the idea of a lottery with an allotment from each MS. Maybe give each center a few extra seats.

I'm the quoted PP, and I'm not specifically opposed to a lottery. The main problem with a lottery is that if you don't water down the classes, you end up with high attrition. It's difficult to say whether it's better to give a lot of kids the chance to rise to the occasion, or whether it's better to protect kids from being put in an environment where they'll likely wash out of the program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With the same logic, it's also unfair that some kids have higher IQ than others. Eventually the only solution that can make you satisfied is to make TJ admission a lottery.

Better nobody studies and nobody works. We all stay at home waiting for the god send us food. As long we study and work, there will be differences. Somebody who's smarter and works harder will have a better performance and therefore it is unfair.

No. Just don’t prep for certain tests that you shouldn’t prep for.

It’s not that hard.

It actually is that hard. You can't force other people to refrain from prepping. Even if the test is supposed to be secure, people will find a way to prep. Your only choices are
1. Bury your head in the sand and keep insisting that people just shouldn't prep. Wring your hands when half of them ignore you and prep anyway.
2. Help everyone prep, so everyone is on a more equal footing. Recognize that the absolute scores are not valid, but the scores relative to the other preppers are useful.
3. Eliminate standardized testing and instead rely on more subjective, more easily gamed, and/or more random selection criteria.

Option 2 is the best to me.

Yes, obviously some parents will cheat no matter what.

Just because people are doing it doesn’t mean that prepping for cognitive tests is ok.

Go ask any gifted coordinator/education psychologist and see what they say about prepping.

Well, duh. The norming group for the tests is formed of kids who didn't prep. Your solution, though, is to keep wagging your finger and tsk-ing at people who are going to ignore you and continue prepping? That's going to work.

Any gifted coordinator or education psychologist would be annoyed that some people prep, but would prefer drawing conclusions from a group where everyone prepped than one where half the kids did, half didn't, and the psychologist isn't being told which kids are which.

No, the solution is FCPS drops the tests if too many people are cheating.

Quant-Q is gone. Is CogAT next? Or maybe they just won’t value it as much.

Cheaters ruining it for the rest of us.

Dropping all tests means that the selection would become fairly random and would likely over-select for privileged people with tutors while under identifying kids who are actually gifted. Keep in mind that a gifted but poor kid will likely score 98th or 99th percentile on a test that is normed for un-prepped kids, while a non-gifted, highly prepped kid can still only increase his score so much. By eliminating tests, they're cutting off an avenue for gifted lower and middle class kids who were previously flying under the radar to be identified.

The best practices in gifted education are to holistically consider aptitude tests, achievement tests, teacher recommendations, work samples, accomplishments, and extensive essays. TJ instead has a couple trivial essays, mildly weighted GPA, and bonus points based on politics rather than aptitude. They're not even close to best practices for identifying kids who need a more rigorous environment than what is provided at their zoned school.

If the TJ admissions panels are supposed to somehow ferret out the hidden gems from rather vague essays, they surely could do an even better job by holistically reviewing a much more comprehensive application.

Honestly, I like the idea of a lottery with an allotment from each MS. Maybe give each center a few extra seats.

I'm the quoted PP, and I'm not specifically opposed to a lottery. The main problem with a lottery is that if you don't water down the classes, you end up with high attrition. It's difficult to say whether it's better to give a lot of kids the chance to rise to the occasion, or whether it's better to protect kids from being put in an environment where they'll likely wash out of the program.

Sorry. I should have said a lottery of qualified applicants.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With the same logic, it's also unfair that some kids have higher IQ than others. Eventually the only solution that can make you satisfied is to make TJ admission a lottery.

Better nobody studies and nobody works. We all stay at home waiting for the god send us food. As long we study and work, there will be differences. Somebody who's smarter and works harder will have a better performance and therefore it is unfair.

No. Just don’t prep for certain tests that you shouldn’t prep for.

It’s not that hard.

It actually is that hard. You can't force other people to refrain from prepping. Even if the test is supposed to be secure, people will find a way to prep. Your only choices are
1. Bury your head in the sand and keep insisting that people just shouldn't prep. Wring your hands when half of them ignore you and prep anyway.
2. Help everyone prep, so everyone is on a more equal footing. Recognize that the absolute scores are not valid, but the scores relative to the other preppers are useful.
3. Eliminate standardized testing and instead rely on more subjective, more easily gamed, and/or more random selection criteria.

Option 2 is the best to me.

Yes, obviously some parents will cheat no matter what.

Just because people are doing it doesn’t mean that prepping for cognitive tests is ok.

Go ask any gifted coordinator/education psychologist and see what they say about prepping.

Well, duh. The norming group for the tests is formed of kids who didn't prep. Your solution, though, is to keep wagging your finger and tsk-ing at people who are going to ignore you and continue prepping? That's going to work.

Any gifted coordinator or education psychologist would be annoyed that some people prep, but would prefer drawing conclusions from a group where everyone prepped than one where half the kids did, half didn't, and the psychologist isn't being told which kids are which.

No, the solution is FCPS drops the tests if too many people are cheating.

Quant-Q is gone. Is CogAT next? Or maybe they just won’t value it as much.

Cheaters ruining it for the rest of us.

Dropping all tests means that the selection would become fairly random and would likely over-select for privileged people with tutors while under identifying kids who are actually gifted. Keep in mind that a gifted but poor kid will likely score 98th or 99th percentile on a test that is normed for un-prepped kids, while a non-gifted, highly prepped kid can still only increase his score so much. By eliminating tests, they're cutting off an avenue for gifted lower and middle class kids who were previously flying under the radar to be identified.

The best practices in gifted education are to holistically consider aptitude tests, achievement tests, teacher recommendations, work samples, accomplishments, and extensive essays. TJ instead has a couple trivial essays, mildly weighted GPA, and bonus points based on politics rather than aptitude. They're not even close to best practices for identifying kids who need a more rigorous environment than what is provided at their zoned school.

If the TJ admissions panels are supposed to somehow ferret out the hidden gems from rather vague essays, they surely could do an even better job by holistically reviewing a much more comprehensive application.

Honestly, I like the idea of a lottery with an allotment from each MS. Maybe give each center a few extra seats.

I'm the quoted PP, and I'm not specifically opposed to a lottery. The main problem with a lottery is that if you don't water down the classes, you end up with high attrition. It's difficult to say whether it's better to give a lot of kids the chance to rise to the occasion, or whether it's better to protect kids from being put in an environment where they'll likely wash out of the program.

Sorry. I should have said a lottery of qualified applicants.

Then you'd have to raise the qualification bar by a lot. Algebra I in 8th and a 3.5 GPA and 3 honors classes/year is a recipe for disaster at TJ. This bar is low enough that like 40% of FCPS kids would qualify. If you want to lottery slots among all kids with a 3.8+ GPA, Geometry or higher in 8th, and honors in all 4 core classes, these kids would be fine at TJ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With the same logic, it's also unfair that some kids have higher IQ than others. Eventually the only solution that can make you satisfied is to make TJ admission a lottery.

Better nobody studies and nobody works. We all stay at home waiting for the god send us food. As long we study and work, there will be differences. Somebody who's smarter and works harder will have a better performance and therefore it is unfair.

No. Just don’t prep for certain tests that you shouldn’t prep for.

It’s not that hard.

It actually is that hard. You can't force other people to refrain from prepping. Even if the test is supposed to be secure, people will find a way to prep. Your only choices are
1. Bury your head in the sand and keep insisting that people just shouldn't prep. Wring your hands when half of them ignore you and prep anyway.
2. Help everyone prep, so everyone is on a more equal footing. Recognize that the absolute scores are not valid, but the scores relative to the other preppers are useful.
3. Eliminate standardized testing and instead rely on more subjective, more easily gamed, and/or more random selection criteria.

Option 2 is the best to me.

Yes, obviously some parents will cheat no matter what.

Just because people are doing it doesn’t mean that prepping for cognitive tests is ok.

Go ask any gifted coordinator/education psychologist and see what they say about prepping.

Well, duh. The norming group for the tests is formed of kids who didn't prep. Your solution, though, is to keep wagging your finger and tsk-ing at people who are going to ignore you and continue prepping? That's going to work.

Any gifted coordinator or education psychologist would be annoyed that some people prep, but would prefer drawing conclusions from a group where everyone prepped than one where half the kids did, half didn't, and the psychologist isn't being told which kids are which.

No, the solution is FCPS drops the tests if too many people are cheating.

Quant-Q is gone. Is CogAT next? Or maybe they just won’t value it as much.

Cheaters ruining it for the rest of us.

Dropping all tests means that the selection would become fairly random and would likely over-select for privileged people with tutors while under identifying kids who are actually gifted. Keep in mind that a gifted but poor kid will likely score 98th or 99th percentile on a test that is normed for un-prepped kids, while a non-gifted, highly prepped kid can still only increase his score so much. By eliminating tests, they're cutting off an avenue for gifted lower and middle class kids who were previously flying under the radar to be identified.

The best practices in gifted education are to holistically consider aptitude tests, achievement tests, teacher recommendations, work samples, accomplishments, and extensive essays. TJ instead has a couple trivial essays, mildly weighted GPA, and bonus points based on politics rather than aptitude. They're not even close to best practices for identifying kids who need a more rigorous environment than what is provided at their zoned school.

If the TJ admissions panels are supposed to somehow ferret out the hidden gems from rather vague essays, they surely could do an even better job by holistically reviewing a much more comprehensive application.

Honestly, I like the idea of a lottery with an allotment from each MS. Maybe give each center a few extra seats.

I'm the quoted PP, and I'm not specifically opposed to a lottery. The main problem with a lottery is that if you don't water down the classes, you end up with high attrition. It's difficult to say whether it's better to give a lot of kids the chance to rise to the occasion, or whether it's better to protect kids from being put in an environment where they'll likely wash out of the program.

Sorry. I should have said a lottery of qualified applicants.

Then you'd have to raise the qualification bar by a lot. Algebra I in 8th and a 3.5 GPA and 3 honors classes/year is a recipe for disaster at TJ. This bar is low enough that like 40% of FCPS kids would qualify. If you want to lottery slots among all kids with a 3.8+ GPA, Geometry or higher in 8th, and honors in all 4 core classes, these kids would be fine at TJ.

Those won't give the proper diversity that the wokesters and NAACP folks want, not happening until there is a new school board

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With the same logic, it's also unfair that some kids have higher IQ than others. Eventually the only solution that can make you satisfied is to make TJ admission a lottery.

Better nobody studies and nobody works. We all stay at home waiting for the god send us food. As long we study and work, there will be differences. Somebody who's smarter and works harder will have a better performance and therefore it is unfair.

No. Just don’t prep for certain tests that you shouldn’t prep for.

It’s not that hard.

It actually is that hard. You can't force other people to refrain from prepping. Even if the test is supposed to be secure, people will find a way to prep. Your only choices are
1. Bury your head in the sand and keep insisting that people just shouldn't prep. Wring your hands when half of them ignore you and prep anyway.
2. Help everyone prep, so everyone is on a more equal footing. Recognize that the absolute scores are not valid, but the scores relative to the other preppers are useful.
3. Eliminate standardized testing and instead rely on more subjective, more easily gamed, and/or more random selection criteria.

Option 2 is the best to me.

Yes, obviously some parents will cheat no matter what.

Just because people are doing it doesn’t mean that prepping for cognitive tests is ok.

Go ask any gifted coordinator/education psychologist and see what they say about prepping.

Well, duh. The norming group for the tests is formed of kids who didn't prep. Your solution, though, is to keep wagging your finger and tsk-ing at people who are going to ignore you and continue prepping? That's going to work.

Any gifted coordinator or education psychologist would be annoyed that some people prep, but would prefer drawing conclusions from a group where everyone prepped than one where half the kids did, half didn't, and the psychologist isn't being told which kids are which.

No, the solution is FCPS drops the tests if too many people are cheating.

Quant-Q is gone. Is CogAT next? Or maybe they just won’t value it as much.

Cheaters ruining it for the rest of us.

Dropping all tests means that the selection would become fairly random and would likely over-select for privileged people with tutors while under identifying kids who are actually gifted. Keep in mind that a gifted but poor kid will likely score 98th or 99th percentile on a test that is normed for un-prepped kids, while a non-gifted, highly prepped kid can still only increase his score so much. By eliminating tests, they're cutting off an avenue for gifted lower and middle class kids who were previously flying under the radar to be identified.

The best practices in gifted education are to holistically consider aptitude tests, achievement tests, teacher recommendations, work samples, accomplishments, and extensive essays. TJ instead has a couple trivial essays, mildly weighted GPA, and bonus points based on politics rather than aptitude. They're not even close to best practices for identifying kids who need a more rigorous environment than what is provided at their zoned school.

If the TJ admissions panels are supposed to somehow ferret out the hidden gems from rather vague essays, they surely could do an even better job by holistically reviewing a much more comprehensive application.

Honestly, I like the idea of a lottery with an allotment from each MS. Maybe give each center a few extra seats.

I'm the quoted PP, and I'm not specifically opposed to a lottery. The main problem with a lottery is that if you don't water down the classes, you end up with high attrition. It's difficult to say whether it's better to give a lot of kids the chance to rise to the occasion, or whether it's better to protect kids from being put in an environment where they'll likely wash out of the program.

Sorry. I should have said a lottery of qualified applicants.

Then you'd have to raise the qualification bar by a lot. Algebra I in 8th and a 3.5 GPA and 3 honors classes/year is a recipe for disaster at TJ. This bar is low enough that like 40% of FCPS kids would qualify. If you want to lottery slots among all kids with a 3.8+ GPA, Geometry or higher in 8th, and honors in all 4 core classes, these kids would be fine at TJ.

Those won't give the proper diversity that the wokesters and NAACP folks want, not happening until there is a new school board

why we cannot impeach this school board?

[Anonymous]

VA allows the school board to be recalled: https://ballotpedia.org/States_that_allow_school_board_recalls

C4TJ can have a new goal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:VA allows the school board to be recalled: https://ballotpedia.org/States_that_allow_school_board_recalls

C4TJ can have a new goal.

Aren’t they focused on Johnny Depp now?

[Anonymous]

So now you guys are mad that your kids are getting in trouble for lying about being poor?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So now you guys are mad that your kids are getting in trouble for lying about being poor?

Nobody is in trouble. You did not read that some parent dropped off the FARM application form in a a Porsche Taycan. Problem solved.

The more rules and hoops FCPS put in, the more sophisticated parents how to use it to their advantage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So now you guys are mad that your kids are getting in trouble for lying about being poor?

Nobody is in trouble. You did not read that some parent dropped off the FARM application form in a a Porsche Taycan. Problem solved.

The more rules and hoops FCPS put in, the more sophisticated parents how to use it to their advantage.

Yup. Just do a lottery of qualified applicants since parents can’t behave.

[Anonymous]

improve the qualification bar then:

minimum requirement: Geometry HN, weighted GPA 3.8+
give extra credits for national awards, state awards and regional awards
use teacher's recommendation (better let the teacher mark a recommendation score to make it easier for calculation)
remove geographic quota. let's be fair. It's all about academic merit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP was right when they suggested TJ should be a full-time Academy. Let it only offer courses not available at base schools and start by allocating classroom slots proportionate to each base high school’s enrollment.

What they are doing now is an abomination and the constant fighting and second-guessing ought to embarrass the hell out of Gatehouse and the School Board.

But I bought my kid $20k in merit from a prep center so they deserve this!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:improve the qualification bar then:

minimum requirement: Geometry HN, weighted GPA 3.8+
give extra credits for national awards, state awards and regional awards
use teacher's recommendation (better let the teacher mark a recommendation score to make it easier for calculation)
remove geographic quota. let's be fair. It's all about academic merit.

Even better

HN Geometry req
Use Unweighted GPA from STEM classes
Do Not use teacher recs they are unreliable and have shown to be racially biased
Add hard geographic quotas proportional to the region's population