Washington Post Article On Freshmen Admitted Under New Admissions Process

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:25% low income? Oof, this is going to shift the schools budget from academics to social and welfare needs, you want to avoid schools with farms in the double digits.

So the kids who have the interest and the aptitude to attend TJ but lack the external supports from their schools and parents should be regulated to attending high schools with over 25% FARMs students because you are worried about having them at TJ? Do you even read what you are posting?

The kids in the article all commented that the test was a barrier but as soon it was gone they thought that they would apply. They are enjoying their experience at TJ, especially the STEM type classes, and are happy to be there.

Regardless of how kids are admitted to TJ, capable people are excluded. There were kids with high test scores that were not accepted at TJ when the test existed. There are not enough seats for all of the kids who are interested and qualified.

I have no idea what budget you think has to be shifted for the higher percentage of FARMs kids. There are more kids who will get free or reduced price meals. They all qualified based on meeting the pre reqs that TJ set out for applying so it is not like they need different classes.

It is kind of gross that your concern is that the school now needs to change how it meets the social and welfare needs of its students because they have increased the number of qualified kids who come from impoverished backgrounds.

It will go downhill, the kids don't have the means to do after school tutoring support etc that prior tj students do. The school is going to have a mess on their hands when test scores come out

TJ has peer tutoring. The kids know that the courses are difficult, and help each other out.

Oh, and peer tutoring is FREE.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:25% low income? Oof, this is going to shift the schools budget from academics to social and welfare needs, you want to avoid schools with farms in the double digits.

So the kids who have the interest and the aptitude to attend TJ but lack the external supports from their schools and parents should be regulated to attending high schools with over 25% FARMs students because you are worried about having them at TJ? Do you even read what you are posting?

The kids in the article all commented that the test was a barrier but as soon it was gone they thought that they would apply. They are enjoying their experience at TJ, especially the STEM type classes, and are happy to be there.

Regardless of how kids are admitted to TJ, capable people are excluded. There were kids with high test scores that were not accepted at TJ when the test existed. There are not enough seats for all of the kids who are interested and qualified.

I have no idea what budget you think has to be shifted for the higher percentage of FARMs kids. There are more kids who will get free or reduced price meals. They all qualified based on meeting the pre reqs that TJ set out for applying so it is not like they need different classes.

It is kind of gross that your concern is that the school now needs to change how it meets the social and welfare needs of its students because they have increased the number of qualified kids who come from impoverished backgrounds.

It will go downhill, the kids don't have the means to do after school tutoring support etc that prior tj students do. The school is going to have a mess on their hands when test scores come out

Are you saying that the reason why most kids at TJ are successful is because they are paying for additional tutoring? That is a problem. The classes shouldn’t be so hard that tutoring is common place. Just like the test shouldn’t be set so that kids who take specific prep classes have an advantage. The classes and admittance requirements should be developed so that kids can succeed with the materials provided at the school.

If the kids who have had success at TJ have had success because they are paying for tutoring, then maybe those kids didn’t belong at TJ.

Newsflash all the parents of good schools do this

I used tutors when I was struggling with my LDs in ES. I didn’t use tutors in HS or college or grad school. I managed to earn my PhD without tutors. I guess I did it or wrong or I was capable of excelling without tutors.

Tutors are fine, they help a kid who is struggling to understand the material. But they should not be something required to do well in school. I would expect that the students at TJ are able to excel with limited help from tutors. Just like I think they should be able to do well on the Quant test without prepping. I am less impressed to hear that kids need tutoring to do well at TJ.

Sure torturing isn’t “required”, but extra help is always great, even for high performing kids who want more help. Who are you to say when tutoring is appropriate? My oldest kid is in a PhD program—who cares if you never asked for help in yours. Asking for help isn’t a weakness, it’s a strength.

GTFOH

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I loved this article

To the parents who are frustrated at the number of mods who could handle TJ work but were turned away, wouldn’t it make more sense to lobby for creating another high school that has this level of challenge so all the capable kids can get the best possible public school education rather than figuring out who to deny this to? I’d love to see more schools raise their expectations so kids can get as far as they can go.

Yeah sure but we can’t even get a renovation for Mclean HS. A new HS will do nothing to help the very capable students who were rejected this year.

If they are capable of being successful at TJ, they will be successful wherever they go.

This.

There have always been capable student not accepted to TJ. Every year there are more applications then spots. And every year the kids who are not accepted attend their base schools or move to a private school. You are all acting like this is a new thing, it's not. You just don't like not getting a spot because a smart kid from a high FARMs school was accepted and your kid was not. And now you are bemoaning that there FARMs kids at TJ and how they won't be able to keep up because they don't have the money for tutoring.

doubtful, if you put them all in the same bucket, they would not get into TJ, the new process discriminates if you live in a certain area that has higher test scores and more motivated families with support.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/05/31/thomas-jefferson-high-school-freshmen-admissions/

I get that these are just four kids and may not represent all the new admits under the new systems, but it was really nice to hear. They are working hard and generally enjoying the experience. They had zero shot of getting in with the old system and seem to be doing more than fine academically at TJ. I am really proud of them. I love that they are not paying attention to all the hate, they are just doing their thing. Go on, Ms. Rocket Scientist! Love that gal!

Good luck to the new class: https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/05/25/tj-class-of-2026-data/. Head up. We believe in you.

What a great article! I'm so glad to see these children really flourish at TJ!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:25% low income? Oof, this is going to shift the schools budget from academics to social and welfare needs, you want to avoid schools with farms in the double digits.

So the kids who have the interest and the aptitude to attend TJ but lack the external supports from their schools and parents should be regulated to attending high schools with over 25% FARMs students because you are worried about having them at TJ? Do you even read what you are posting?

The kids in the article all commented that the test was a barrier but as soon it was gone they thought that they would apply. They are enjoying their experience at TJ, especially the STEM type classes, and are happy to be there.

Regardless of how kids are admitted to TJ, capable people are excluded. There were kids with high test scores that were not accepted at TJ when the test existed. There are not enough seats for all of the kids who are interested and qualified.

I have no idea what budget you think has to be shifted for the higher percentage of FARMs kids. There are more kids who will get free or reduced price meals. They all qualified based on meeting the pre reqs that TJ set out for applying so it is not like they need different classes.

It is kind of gross that your concern is that the school now needs to change how it meets the social and welfare needs of its students because they have increased the number of qualified kids who come from impoverished backgrounds.

It will go downhill, the kids don't have the means to do after school tutoring support etc that prior tj students do. The school is going to have a mess on their hands when test scores come out

Are you saying that the reason why most kids at TJ are successful is because they are paying for additional tutoring? That is a problem. The classes shouldn’t be so hard that tutoring is common place. Just like the test shouldn’t be set so that kids who take specific prep classes have an advantage. The classes and admittance requirements should be developed so that kids can succeed with the materials provided at the school.

If the kids who have had success at TJ have had success because they are paying for tutoring, then maybe those kids didn’t belong at TJ.

Newsflash all the parents of good schools do this

I used tutors when I was struggling with my LDs in ES. I didn’t use tutors in HS or college or grad school. I managed to earn my PhD without tutors. I guess I did it or wrong or I was capable of excelling without tutors.

Tutors are fine, they help a kid who is struggling to understand the material. But they should not be something required to do well in school. I would expect that the students at TJ are able to excel with limited help from tutors. Just like I think they should be able to do well on the Quant test without prepping. I am less impressed to hear that kids need tutoring to do well at TJ.

Sure torturing isn’t “required”, but extra help is always great, even for high performing kids who want more help. Who are you to say when tutoring is appropriate? My oldest kid is in a PhD program—who cares if you never asked for help in yours. Asking for help isn’t a weakness, it’s a strength.

GTFOH

I ask for help. We all participated in peer review of each others work, we studied together, we had weekly presentations where we critiqued each others work. I went to office hours when I needed help with stats or some other subject. All perfectly normal and very useful. Also very different then hiring someone to work through your assignments with you. I don't know of any one of my peers who hired a tutor in grad school and it was a top program.

There is nothing wrong with tutoring, it is incredibly helpful. But to claim that students who are attending a school for "the gifted" shouldn't be there because they can't pay for tutors is silly. I would expect that students at TJ are able to study together and visit Teachers for office hours. I would hope that the students that are attending a school and taking the advanced courses are capable of doing the work with help from peers and their Teachers, while helping others in their stronger areas, and not needing to hire tutors to get them through classes. Or pretake the classes in the summer.

But don't claim that kids from higher SES schools are more deserving of acceptance because they can pay for tutoring while FARMs kids are going to be an issue because they cannot pay for tutoring. All that tells me is that you see TJ as a school only for those who can pay for classes to prepare for tests, or take a class in the summer, or hire a tutor to succeed and not as a school for the gifted or advanced. A gifted or advanced kid would not likely need tutoring or prep or pretaking classes to keep up. They might need to ask for help but they don't need a hand up to appear brilliant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I loved this article

To the parents who are frustrated at the number of mods who could handle TJ work but were turned away, wouldn’t it make more sense to lobby for creating another high school that has this level of challenge so all the capable kids can get the best possible public school education rather than figuring out who to deny this to? I’d love to see more schools raise their expectations so kids can get as far as they can go.

Yeah sure but we can’t even get a renovation for Mclean HS. A new HS will do nothing to help the very capable students who were rejected this year.

If they are capable of being successful at TJ, they will be successful wherever they go.

This.

There have always been capable student not accepted to TJ. Every year there are more applications then spots. And every year the kids who are not accepted attend their base schools or move to a private school. You are all acting like this is a new thing, it's not. You just don't like not getting a spot because a smart kid from a high FARMs school was accepted and your kid was not. And now you are bemoaning that there FARMs kids at TJ and how they won't be able to keep up because they don't have the money for tutoring.

doubtful, if you put them all in the same bucket, they would not get into TJ, the new process discriminates if you live in a certain area that has higher test scores and more motivated families with support.

You need to understand the nuances of normalization of scores. The world doesn't work in absolutes. A GPA of 3.85 from an imaginary first-generation child at Whitman can potentially be far more impressive than a 4.0 GPA from Carson if you take into account the poverty and family hardships that the Whitman student hypothetically endured and still somehow has earned a 3.85. Recognizing that achievements of the poverty class are relatively equivalent to the wealthy isn't discrimination against certain zip codes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I loved this article

To the parents who are frustrated at the number of mods who could handle TJ work but were turned away, wouldn’t it make more sense to lobby for creating another high school that has this level of challenge so all the capable kids can get the best possible public school education rather than figuring out who to deny this to? I’d love to see more schools raise their expectations so kids can get as far as they can go.

Yeah sure but we can’t even get a renovation for Mclean HS. A new HS will do nothing to help the very capable students who were rejected this year.

If they are capable of being successful at TJ, they will be successful wherever they go.

This.

There have always been capable student not accepted to TJ. Every year there are more applications then spots. And every year the kids who are not accepted attend their base schools or move to a private school. You are all acting like this is a new thing, it's not. You just don't like not getting a spot because a smart kid from a high FARMs school was accepted and your kid was not. And now you are bemoaning that there FARMs kids at TJ and how they won't be able to keep up because they don't have the money for tutoring.

doubtful, if you put them all in the same bucket, they would not get into TJ, the new process discriminates if you live in a certain area that has higher test scores and more motivated families with support.

I love how people will come up with twisted arguments all because they want to preserve an exclusive magnet, just one they can slap a rainbow on because they think it's good PR.

You need to understand the nuances of normalization of scores. The world doesn't work in absolutes. A GPA of 3.85 from an imaginary first-generation child at Whitman can potentially be far more impressive than a 4.0 GPA from Carson if you take into account the poverty and family hardships that the Whitman student hypothetically endured and still somehow has earned a 3.85. Recognizing that achievements of the poverty class are relatively equivalent to the wealthy isn't discrimination against certain zip codes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Congrats to these kids. There are always good kids who don't make it. Question was never about minorities in the school. It was about purging one minority for the other to assuage guilt for the majority while also helping the majority. There were better ways of doing it without cruelly targeting just one group, with intent. which is why the court said the new process was not legal.

Absolutely! Racism is not a solution for race disparity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Congrats to these kids. There are always good kids who don't make it. Question was never about minorities in the school. It was about purging one minority for the other to assuage guilt for the majority while also helping the majority. There were better ways of doing it without cruelly targeting just one group, with intent. which is why the court said the new process was not legal.

Absolutely! Racism is not a solution for race disparity.

I agree racism is a problem, but that doesn't fit the facts. Admissions were race-blind, and one group that was affected still has more seats than all other groups combined so just not seeing it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I loved this article

To the parents who are frustrated at the number of mods who could handle TJ work but were turned away, wouldn’t it make more sense to lobby for creating another high school that has this level of challenge so all the capable kids can get the best possible public school education rather than figuring out who to deny this to? I’d love to see more schools raise their expectations so kids can get as far as they can go.

Yeah sure but we can’t even get a renovation for Mclean HS. A new HS will do nothing to help the very capable students who were rejected this year.

If they are capable of being successful at TJ, they will be successful wherever they go.

This.

There have always been capable student not accepted to TJ. Every year there are more applications then spots. And every year the kids who are not accepted attend their base schools or move to a private school. You are all acting like this is a new thing, it's not. You just don't like not getting a spot because a smart kid from a high FARMs school was accepted and your kid was not. And now you are bemoaning that there FARMs kids at TJ and how they won't be able to keep up because they don't have the money for tutoring.

doubtful, if you put them all in the same bucket, they would not get into TJ, the new process discriminates if you live in a certain area that has higher test scores and more motivated families with support.

You need to understand the nuances of normalization of scores. The world doesn't work in absolutes. A GPA of 3.85 from an imaginary first-generation child at Whitman can potentially be far more impressive than a 4.0 GPA from Carson if you take into account the poverty and family hardships that the Whitman student hypothetically endured and still somehow has earned a 3.85. Recognizing that achievements of the poverty class are relatively equivalent to the wealthy isn't discrimination against certain zip codes.

Agree completely! Also, this will have a huge impact on the trajectory of their lives whereas the 4.0 student with affluent parents will likely do well anywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Congrats to these kids. There are always good kids who don't make it. Question was never about minorities in the school. It was about purging one minority for the other to assuage guilt for the majority while also helping the majority. There were better ways of doing it without cruelly targeting just one group, with intent. which is why the court said the new process was not legal.

Absolutely! Racism is not a solution for race disparity.

I agree racism is a problem, but that doesn't fit the facts. Admissions were race-blind, and one group that was affected still has more seats than all other groups combined so just not seeing it.

why do you lie to yourself so much?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Congrats to these kids. There are always good kids who don't make it. Question was never about minorities in the school. It was about purging one minority for the other to assuage guilt for the majority while also helping the majority. There were better ways of doing it without cruelly targeting just one group, with intent. which is why the court said the new process was not legal.

Absolutely! Racism is not a solution for race disparity.

I agree racism is a problem, but that doesn't fit the facts. Admissions were race-blind, and one group that was affected still has more seats than all other groups combined so just not seeing it.

They aren’t the right Asians though. Not the wealthy, entitled Asians from a handful of “acceptable” schools.

[Anonymous]

the spelling bee is happening. I hear this year's winner prepped a lot while last year's winner never prepped.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Congrats to these kids. There are always good kids who don't make it. Question was never about minorities in the school. It was about purging one minority for the other to assuage guilt for the majority while also helping the majority. There were better ways of doing it without cruelly targeting just one group, with intent. which is why the court said the new process was not legal.

Absolutely! Racism is not a solution for race disparity.

I agree racism is a problem, but that doesn't fit the facts. Admissions were race-blind, and one group that was affected still has more seats than all other groups combined so just not seeing it.

They aren’t the right Asians though. Not the wealthy, entitled Asians from a handful of “acceptable” schools.

Very good. what else would you like to consider in your social engineering metrics?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:25% low income? Oof, this is going to shift the schools budget from academics to social and welfare needs, you want to avoid schools with farms in the double digits.

Wow. Didn’t even hesitate to say that out loud.

You should stay away from TJ. And any other FCPS school.

No good fcps school has farms of 25% or higher

BS. Stop sh1tting on schools with 10%+ FRL.

Then name one good high school in FCPS with a farms rate above 25%

Which schools >25% - or 10% - aren’t “good”?