Northam’s “Anti-Asian, Anti-Immigrant” School Initiative

[Anonymous]

I will organize Asian Americans in the northern Virginia to vote out SB members who will vote for the new admissions system and convince them to vote for Republicans. They make up a significant voting percentage in NoVa.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I will organize Asian Americans in the northern Virginia to vote out SB members who will vote for the new admissions system and convince them to vote for Republicans. They make up a significant voting percentage in NoVa.

Unless you do a recall, you will have to wait two years.

Some of us tried to tell you. You didn't listen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I will organize Asian Americans in the northern Virginia to vote out SB members who will vote for the new admissions system and convince them to vote for Republicans. They make up a significant voting percentage in NoVa.

I thought they were going to move?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The question is not whether the current State and county admin are racist and anti-asian (They obviously are).

The real question is are they neglecting black and Latino populations (also true).

The problem is with uneven quality of elementary schools in the poorer (and thus black/Latino) areas. TJ is just a symptom, not the problem. Dumbing down TJ solves nothing.

They need to up the standards and increase consistency and equity in elementary schools in all areas by bringing UP the lower performing schools, not by bringing down the higher performing schools.

No. The real question is what is done in FCPS curriculum from K-8. There should be no need for a Curie , Saturday school, or any of the tutor /test prep companies. From class of 2010 to 2024 white applicants for TJ decreased by about 740. Yet on various threads some choose to call ut this FCPS endeavor as an effort to increase white enrollment. Maybe it is for some base schools like Sandburg etc. FCPS used to have some middle schools with HS bio 1 - worked out well but TJ IBET drove away that engine for the vast majority of good students in grade 8.

Now they'll remove the tJ application fee and plan to hire more staff. In this pandemic these people need to be recalled. That site should be a 1/2 day academy co-located with a base school so students can use the labs that taxpayers have paid to put all in one place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I will organize Asian Americans in the northern Virginia to vote out SB members who will vote for the new admissions system and convince them to vote for Republicans. They make up a significant voting percentage in NoVa.

So intimidating...not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not a TJ supporter.
I have no problem if School Board decides to get rid of TJ.

I do have a problem calling TJ a select school while the SB eliminates what makes it "select."

Here are some questions for the School Board:

What is the purpose of TJ?

Is it to provide an exceptional education to kids who are motivated and have the background to need little prodding to move forward. Kids who quickly grasp concepts that are difficult for others?

Is it to provide an environment to encourage STEM careers for above average, but not exceptional learners?

Do you understand that TJ being one of the top--and, maybe, the top--school in the nation is a draw for some businesses?

Do you understand that changing the standards for admission is likely to result in eliminating TJ's top ranking?

Will these companies who have contributed to TJ continue to do so?

Do you really think that changing the admission requirements will achieve the results you wish?

The current admissions process is perverse. Do you realize that 28% of the recently admitted students attended one specific TJ Prep program?

Whats wrong with that? They also happen to be a large number of students from one particular county, which also has a large demographic that is dominant in science and technology.

[Anonymous]

I love how the TJ crowd claimed over and over again FCPS would never embrace change to admissions at TJ because of some arbitrary ranking, only to be proven totally wrong.

For a bunch of supposedly smart people, they aren’t very bright.

Now they can take turns claiming they are all going to leave or instead planning to stick around for years to vote out certain School Board members in 2023. Hilarious.

[Anonymous]

We should all hopefully be able to recognize the good intentions behind trying to promote underrepresented minority participation in TJ/AAP programs. The main problem I see with it is that using an approach which undermines merit will have the unintended effect of defeating the internal consistency of any minority rights argument.

In any society, some group or groups will be minorities, due to the fact that neither perfect homogeneity nor perfect heterogeneity are possible. In any democracy, a minority is at a disadvantage due to the simple fact that a minority, by definition, has less representation than other groups. Being at a disadvantage is thus, not in and of itself the problem. The real reason we care about minority rights is that the majority of the population may be able to take certain rights or benefits for granted, whereas minorities may be left out of what everyone else has, for no good reason. In this case, the simple participation in advanced programs raises expectations and level of performance in ways which significantly influences the success of not just one person, but a whole group of people, in the future. It's a problem if a minority is completely left out of that kind of advantage, because it will unnaturally multiply over time. So it's perfectly reasonable to say "we want more minorities."

The real problem is how we go about doing it. If we do it by trying to defeat the merit system which keeps people out, while at the same time denying entry to 1-percenters to open extra spots in the program (we've already started to see this happen under the "holistic" process used for AAP, which is immune to scrutiny), then we have two problems. First, we're granting privileges to minority groups which the population at large never got to enjoy. Second, if we're leaving out 1-percenters to make ends meet, then we've broken the claim that minorities are just getting the same opportunities that everyone else already has - those 1-percenters more often than not didn't get to where they are by bending standards. Either way, we've defeated our reason for claiming that minorities deserve these opportunities.

Maybe the exceptional measures are justified because minorities need the benefit of these opportunities to pay off past transgressions from less tolerant times. But if that's true, isn't a bit cynical that the kids who are footing the bill for these past transgressions are by-and-large Asians and eastern Europeans, groups who were never a historically significant part of the African slave trade?

[Anonymous]

Define minority. According to census of Northern Virginia, Asians(10%) are minority compared to Blacks(11%) or Hispanics(16%). This is a race blind admissions process. So are we defining minority as minority in education, minority in sports etc.

[Anonymous]

Maybe I missed something but would truly disadvantaged students (of any race) be able to realistically attend TJ if they don’t live within walking distance of a bus stop depot or the school itself? I know FCPS provides bus stop “depots” but unless one is within walking distance the student or their family would need access to reliable transportation to get to and from the depot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe I missed something but would truly disadvantaged students (of any race) be able to realistically attend TJ if they don’t live within walking distance of a bus stop depot or the school itself? I know FCPS provides bus stop “depots” but unless one is within walking distance the student or their family would need access to reliable transportation to get to and from the depot.

Yes, the transportation is complicated so another reason applications of black/Hispanic students will not increase significantly.

[Anonymous]

Is FCPS working on getting Asian students into competitive sports as well? Don't know many Asians going to college as recruited athletes .

[Anonymous]

I am okay with them taking away the $100 fee.

I am also okay with them taking away the test.

But making it a random lottery for anyone in algebra with a 3.5 GPA? Why 3.5? Make it 3.8 for crying out loud.

They need to show that they really want to go there. A great essay sounds like a good start. Maybe they could take the SCAT and do well too.

Random is never representative. Will they promise to not “cream” the students and ask kids who are failing to leave? No. This is going to end up being like BASIS in AZ.

[Anonymous]

Also, the other issue at hand is that a lot of blacks and Hispanics take jobs in high school to help their parents out with the bills.

They just won’t apply.

This is to help white people. Which is fine. My kids are white.

But it’s another step towards racism against asian people.

FYI- my kids are asian too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am okay with them taking away the $100 fee.

I am also okay with them taking away the test.

But making it a random lottery for anyone in algebra with a 3.5 GPA? Why 3.5? Make it 3.8 for crying out loud.

They need to show that they really want to go there. A great essay sounds like a good start. Maybe they could take the SCAT and do well too.

Random is never representative. Will they promise to not “cream” the students and ask kids who are failing to leave? No. This is going to end up being like BASIS in AZ.

Well, there are two approaches:
1. Keep TJ incredibly rigorous, and let people wash out who don't belong. After a few years, kids will stop applying if they look like they will fail out of the program. Froshmore admissions will drastically increase.
2. Lower the standards to help make everyone who is admitted be "successful" in the program.

Honestly, I'd prefer choice 1 of the two choices. Even if TJ reverts to being mostly Asian, it's more palatable to say that everyone has equal opportunity to attend, and beyond that, success or failure is on the kid's shoulders.