Cheating Scandal Triggering TJ Change
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Anonymous
Would be a huge mistake, but go ahead and do your thing. |
Anonymous
DP. Agree. Plus: THIS THREAD WAS STARTED FOUR (4) YEARS AGO !! But someone bumped it: WHY?? Seems clear that someone out there has a major grudge against TJ, the Curie test prep center, or both. To that person: please who you are and what your motive is here? |
Anonymous
Not convinced. Plenty of top kids at the top neighborhood schools, especially now, and not the constant battles over who attends, who belongs, who doesn't belong, who cheats, blah blah blah. TJ was special once, years ago, but not so much now. |
Anonymous
Not the person who bumped, but if you were following the recent threads about TJ, people were denying that the test prep companies unethically acquired and distributed quant-q questions in their expensive test prep programs. |
Anonymous
I've been as big a contributor to this discussion as anyone. My intent in initially bringing the matter to light was to highlight the fact that there had been students getting into TJ for years on largely false pretenses. What happened at Curie (and folks, please stop arguing that it didn't happen - you're living in an alternate reality) was designed to create imbalances in the TJ Admissions process, and did so successfully. Worse yet, the flagship course that created these imbalances and provided undeserved advantages: - were available for the low, low price of $5,000; - committed students to 16 months of targeted study specifically to crack the TJ exam, which was supposed to be secured; - appeared based on their published list to be only available to students of South Asian descent. Did Curie do anything wrong? The answer is probably no. But did they expose a massive flaw in the TJ Admissions process that needed to be rectified, creating conditions that led to the adoption of the new admissions process so reviled by the community that they aim to exclusively serve? Yes, yes they did. As I've said many times before, I bear no specific ill will towards Curie, except inasmuch as they are part of the very problematic industry that seeks to create imbalances in elite school admissions processes that favor families with resources. All I ever wanted was for FCPS to adjust the TJ Admissions process so that families would not be directly and obviously rewarded for participating in that industry. And again, I and my people won. Convincingly, resoundingly, and with yet another 12-0 School Board and with the Supreme Court declining to take the case, seemingly permanently. |
Anonymous
Curie has three locations in northern virginia. The placement test is doable if the student is above average. Curie has grown twice in size in the last four years because of its reputation and success in nurturing exceptional middle school talent. |
Anonymous
There's only a handful of locations but their students are overwhelmingly indian and the most noticable increase in TJ students has been indian students as a result of the relatively recently influx of indian families to this area. If you watched the hearings surrounding the change it was distinctly anti-asian but it was spexcifically focused on these 'ravanous' 'opportunity hoard' indians. Some people were just getting used to the notion that east asians were outperforming them. Years ago, everyone attributed the performance gap to cheating by ewast asians. Cheating asians became a racist trope. Now the brown asians are outperforming them too and it really bothers some people that yet another group is outperforming and now it's the brown asians that are outpermforming everyone because they cheat. As an east asian, I think that indians are kicking our ass because they work harder than most of us are willing to make our kids work. People are literally saying these indian families are buying the tests when what they are doing is buying test prep and they have been dominating academically in much the same way asians dominated 10-15 years ago. They are fabricating stories about cheating to make themselves feel better about stealing opportunity from these kids that have earned them. For about 3 years one of the tests was called quant q. It was supposed to be unpreppable but that unpreppability was entirely dependant on 3000 students not discussing the test after they took it. There was a sense that if noone could study for the exam then the exam would lead to proportionate results and it did not. The very first year it was administered, asians dropped to 65% of the entering class from 75% the year before. So there was an effect but they didn't come close to getting the racial balance they were looking for. The black hispanic admits went from 3% of the entering class to 7%. Curie is probably a good program but if your kid puts that much time and effort into ANY program i suspect the result would be similar. The next year it went right back up to the mid 70s. It turns out that the test was very preppable as soon as you found out what sort of questions were being asked. |
Anonymous
Again, saying you "won" is meaningless. Your barometer is in part a 12-0 vote from a school board to support a resolution it created itself - with well-known dubious motives - after its members paid a PR firm to tell themselves what a good idea it was. The school board is a political body, and anyone knows that policies that look like they support equity receive overwhelming popular support, independent of their merit. Nobody's surprised by a unanimous vote from this echo chamber. As to the Suproeme Court, realize that we live in America, where stupid, self-defeating ideas are legal, and hypocrisy isn't illegal up to a point. A failure of the Supreme Court to hear the case should not be interpreted as a success. What you've accomplished is to push forward an unsatisfactory policy in wait of a better one to replace it. Yet you're harming the ability to do so by throwing around silly phrases like "we won". |
Anonymous
While it is true the progressives won another 12-0 Board election (in a non-partisan election), you are wrong to believe your ideas caused that win. The real reason you achieved another monopoly is simple: - pro-choice voters turned out in unusually high numbers to stop Youngkin’s pledge to sign a ban on most abortions after 20 weeks, and those same voters simply voted straight-democrat. Many of these voters don’t even have children. Many more had no idea whatsoever of the issues in favor or against any FCPS school board candidate. These voters simply looked at the “democrat sample ballots” and voted as they were instructed to vote by the Party. THAT is the main reason you “won,” and we are stuck with another ideological monopoly on the Board. A secondary reason was the massive influx of dark-money (mostly from California), primarily into Karl Frisch’s campaign. Frisch amassed over $350,000 for this campaign, compared to nearly every other candidate getting just about $50,000 in comparison, on both sides. West-coast special-interest dark-money bought chairman Frisch’s seat; and - that is an achievement you are proud of? Seriously?? What is wrong with you, PP?? |
Anonymous
Hopefully, the C4TJ deniers will give it a rest and find a new hobby. |
Anonymous
We have heard a lot of great things about Curie, but is the curriculum really that challenging for average students. We are concerned about cost, DC is currently enrolled in low cost Kumon. How does Curie cost compare to that of Kumon for two subjects? Went through fantasy stories in this thread, they are quite entertaining. Needed that laugh. |
Anonymous
we are all entertained 
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Anonymous
Doubtful. It’s election year and they’re going to get more FoxNews time. |
Anonymous
Is this a joke? The GOP candidates were all batsht crazy. Free AR-15s for all! 
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Anonymous
That's what we were led to believe that Curie costs a ton, but found out it's cheaper than Kumon. But the concern is more with their course rigor. If the student likes the challenge with higher math, english, and science, its a good fit, or else it gets very frustrating and they quit. More than half quit midway. |