How does TJ admissions figure out the top 1.5 percent?

[Anonymous]

Here the term "equity kids" is used to describe students of "all" racial backgrounds who are under-qualified, meaning they lack the middle school preparation typically required for admission but are still admitted to fulfill the predetermined needs of an equity pie chart.

Useful idiots have been told not to deny the existence of equity pie chart, and to refrain from using the word equity and the dreaded word merit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here the term "equity kids" is used to describe students of "all" racial backgrounds who are under-qualified, meaning they lack the middle school preparation typically required for admission but are still admitted to fulfill the predetermined needs of an equity pie chart.

Useful idiots have been told not to deny the existence of equity pie chart, and to refrain from using the word equity and the dreaded word merit.

How are these equity students doing with the junior year courses? Some tough classes like Physics and Calculus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here the term "equity kids" is used to describe students of "all" racial backgrounds who are under-qualified, meaning they lack the middle school preparation typically required for admission but are still admitted to fulfill the predetermined needs of an equity pie chart.

Useful idiots have been told not to deny the existence of equity pie chart, and to refrain from using the word equity and the dreaded word merit.

But the point is that you don't know who they are. You're just casting a big net out there and assuming that these kids somehow exist just because you don't like the new admissions process.

And you're using the term as a pejorative even though you don't know who they are.

I can distill your point as follows: "There are kids who don't belong at TJ because of the new admissions process! I don't know who they are, but I know they're out there and I'm against them! And I'm going to assume that any kid who struggles is doing so because they're equity kids!!!"

Equity is not a pejorative term to be assigned to an individual. It is a goal to be achieved through working to ensure that equal opportunities are available for deserving students regardless of their background, race, socioeconomic status, or the hopes, dreams, and motivations of their parents.

There are plenty of kids out there who are undeserving - who have not made the most of the opportunities afforded to them. Those kids don't belong at TJ, and quite honestly there are fewer of them at TJ now than there used to be. TJ used to be populated - especially when it was mostly white kids, if I'm honest - with a ton of kids who had every opportunity to be successful and just rode their privilege to a mediocre academic career. And they existed in recent years, too, with students who believed that they had a birthright to go to TJ because they came from Carson or Longfellow or Rocky Run or Nysmith.

The biggest difference I see with the kids getting admitted nowadays is that they're genuinely appreciative of the experience. And my guess is that part of that comes from the students earning their opportunity through their own efforts and not through the efforts of their parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here the term "equity kids" is used to describe students of "all" racial backgrounds who are under-qualified, meaning they lack the middle school preparation typically required for admission but are still admitted to fulfill the predetermined needs of an equity pie chart.

Useful idiots have been told not to deny the existence of equity pie chart, and to refrain from using the word equity and the dreaded word merit.

How are these equity students doing with the junior year courses? Some tough classes like Physics and Calculus.

This is a difficult question to answer because no one knows which students fall under that designation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here the term "equity kids" is used to describe students of "all" racial backgrounds who are under-qualified, meaning they lack the middle school preparation typically required for admission but are still admitted to fulfill the predetermined needs of an equity pie chart.

Useful idiots have been told not to deny the existence of equity pie chart, and to refrain from using the word equity and the dreaded word merit.

But the point is that you don't know who they are. You're just casting a big net out there and assuming that these kids somehow exist just because you don't like the new admissions process.

And you're using the term as a pejorative even though you don't know who they are.

I can distill your point as follows: "There are kids who don't belong at TJ because of the new admissions process! I don't know who they are, but I know they're out there and I'm against them! And I'm going to assume that any kid who struggles is doing so because they're equity kids!!!"

Equity is not a pejorative term to be assigned to an individual. It is a goal to be achieved through working to ensure that equal opportunities are available for deserving students regardless of their background, race, socioeconomic status, or the hopes, dreams, and motivations of their parents.

There are plenty of kids out there who are undeserving - who have not made the most of the opportunities afforded to them. Those kids don't belong at TJ, and quite honestly there are fewer of them at TJ now than there used to be. TJ used to be populated - especially when it was mostly white kids, if I'm honest - with a ton of kids who had every opportunity to be successful and just rode their privilege to a mediocre academic career. And they existed in recent years, too, with students who believed that they had a birthright to go to TJ because they came from Carson or Longfellow or Rocky Run or Nysmith.

The biggest difference I see with the kids getting admitted nowadays is that they're genuinely appreciative of the experience. And my guess is that part of that comes from the students earning their opportunity through their own efforts and not through the efforts of their parents.

Different poster. Good points, except the last paragraph. How are able to come to this conclusion?

I am coming from another angle: kids that I know who would be exceptionally well served by TJ and not able to get in with the admissions changes. I know 3 such kids. All got in sophomore round.

Why take away recommendation letters? This is a massive negative compared to the past.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here the term "equity kids" is used to describe students of "all" racial backgrounds who are under-qualified, meaning they lack the middle school preparation typically required for admission but are still admitted to fulfill the predetermined needs of an equity pie chart.

Useful idiots have been told not to deny the existence of equity pie chart, and to refrain from using the word equity and the dreaded word merit.

But the point is that you don't know who they are. You're just casting a big net out there and assuming that these kids somehow exist just because you don't like the new admissions process.

And you're using the term as a pejorative even though you don't know who they are.

I can distill your point as follows: "There are kids who don't belong at TJ because of the new admissions process! I don't know who they are, but I know they're out there and I'm against them! And I'm going to assume that any kid who struggles is doing so because they're equity kids!!!"

Equity is not a pejorative term to be assigned to an individual. It is a goal to be achieved through working to ensure that equal opportunities are available for deserving students regardless of their background, race, socioeconomic status, or the hopes, dreams, and motivations of their parents.

There are plenty of kids out there who are undeserving - who have not made the most of the opportunities afforded to them. Those kids don't belong at TJ, and quite honestly there are fewer of them at TJ now than there used to be. TJ used to be populated - especially when it was mostly white kids, if I'm honest - with a ton of kids who had every opportunity to be successful and just rode their privilege to a mediocre academic career. And they existed in recent years, too, with students who believed that they had a birthright to go to TJ because they came from Carson or Longfellow or Rocky Run or Nysmith.

The biggest difference I see with the kids getting admitted nowadays is that they're genuinely appreciative of the experience. And my guess is that part of that comes from the students earning their opportunity through their own efforts and not through the efforts of their parents.

Different poster. Good points, except the last paragraph. How are able to come to this conclusion?

I am coming from another angle: kids that I know who would be exceptionally well served by TJ and not able to get in with the admissions changes. I know 3 such kids. All got in sophomore round.

Why take away recommendation letters? This is a massive negative compared to the past.

Been around TJ and TJ students for a long time.

And I 100% agree with you on the recommendation letters. It is not too difficult to design a form that would allow teachers to compare their own students to one another and to identify any racial biases - you simply have to make it less writing-based and more scale-based.

If we're trying to identify the most deserving students at an individual school, the best people to help in that process are teachers and folks in the student services department. Not using their insight is silly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here the term "equity kids" is used to describe students of "all" racial backgrounds who are under-qualified, meaning they lack the middle school preparation typically required for admission but are still admitted to fulfill the predetermined needs of an equity pie chart.

Useful idiots have been told not to deny the existence of equity pie chart, and to refrain from using the word equity and the dreaded word merit.

But the point is that you don't know who they are. You're just casting a big net out there and assuming that these kids somehow exist just because you don't like the new admissions process.

And you're using the term as a pejorative even though you don't know who they are.

I can distill your point as follows: "There are kids who don't belong at TJ because of the new admissions process! I don't know who they are, but I know they're out there and I'm against them! And I'm going to assume that any kid who struggles is doing so because they're equity kids!!!"

Equity is not a pejorative term to be assigned to an individual. It is a goal to be achieved through working to ensure that equal opportunities are available for deserving students regardless of their background, race, socioeconomic status, or the hopes, dreams, and motivations of their parents.

There are plenty of kids out there who are undeserving - who have not made the most of the opportunities afforded to them. Those kids don't belong at TJ, and quite honestly there are fewer of them at TJ now than there used to be. TJ used to be populated - especially when it was mostly white kids, if I'm honest - with a ton of kids who had every opportunity to be successful and just rode their privilege to a mediocre academic career. And they existed in recent years, too, with students who believed that they had a birthright to go to TJ because they came from Carson or Longfellow or Rocky Run or Nysmith.

The biggest difference I see with the kids getting admitted nowadays is that they're genuinely appreciative of the experience. And my guess is that part of that comes from the students earning their opportunity through their own efforts and not through the efforts of their parents.

Different poster. Good points, except the last paragraph. How are able to come to this conclusion?

I am coming from another angle: kids that I know who would be exceptionally well served by TJ and not able to get in with the admissions changes. I know 3 such kids. All got in sophomore round.

Why take away recommendation letters? This is a massive negative compared to the past.

Thankfully, there isn't nearly as big a difference between what's available at TJ versus base schools in the freshmen year as there is in later years. Congrats to those kids on getting in - their experience will be excellent, I'm sure!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How does TJ figure out whether a child is o within the top 1.5% in a specific middle school? Is it based on the 7th grade GPA?

Good question. Fair or unfair, the current admission policy is not transparent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does TJ figure out whether a child is o within the top 1.5% in a specific middle school? Is it based on the 7th grade GPA?

Good question. Fair or unfair, the current admission policy is not transparent.

Nor was the previous one. Nor is basically any admissions process or hiring process anywhere in America.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here the term "equity kids" is used to describe students of "all" racial backgrounds who are under-qualified, meaning they lack the middle school preparation typically required for admission but are still admitted to fulfill the predetermined needs of an equity pie chart.

Useful idiots have been told not to deny the existence of equity pie chart, and to refrain from using the word equity and the dreaded word merit.

How are these equity students doing with the junior year courses? Some tough classes like Physics and Calculus.

The lower-performing segment of the class does the bare minimum required for graduation, Calc AB. However, since the next level, Calc BC, is a prereq/coreq for AP Physics, they end up taking standard Physics instead. The high and mid performing students take Calc BC, and depending on their preference do AP Physics, AP Chemistry, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does TJ figure out whether a child is o within the top 1.5% in a specific middle school? Is it based on the 7th grade GPA?

I don’t know how they are figuring it out. I know they are getting it wrong at Longfellow. My kid was not in the 1.5%. Fine. Perfect GPA but I can believe that there were many in this situation and they came up with some process to select. I can accept my kid didn’t make the cut. But there are kids in my child’s math and science classes at McLean that absolutely should have been at the county STEM magnet. If these kids are not top 1.5%, nobody is.

It doesn’t matter though. Lots of great opportunities at the base school and hopefully kids for whom the TJ offerings are critical will get a chance to experience it.

You are witnessing the effects of equity politics in public schools.
If selection were objective and based on merit based criteria, then students with advanced academic abilities in math & science would have been selected for TJ. Since selection shifted to a namesake essay evaluation with concealed subjective ranking, there is no way for FCPS to know who they are selecting and which qualified student is left behind. Yet, this subjective selection has a targeted purpose, which is to claim achievement of predetermined diversity mix, even it means excluding a qualified student due to color of their skin and including an under qualifed student based on their different skin color.

Parent of kid from Cooper here. My kid didn’t apply to TJ but he had friends who absolutely belong at TJ. I’m not sure who is picking the kids or how the top 1.5% is being calculated but something is definitely wrong. The kids we knew who did not get in are Asian.

Two tiers of students at TJ - holistic and equity. Hollistic kids enroll in advanced courses, engage in sports and extracurriculars, and have time for TJ peer tutoring. Equity kids are in remedial or getting tutored by hollistic kids, who entered TJ with solid middle school preparation.

No basis in reality here.

It's true. I know many equity kids are struggling.

I sincerely doubt that… but many kids have struggled in every year of TJ’s existence, especially in their freshmen and sophomore years. Pretending that it’s somehow different now because of the changes in the admissions process betrays a lack of familiarity with TJ’s history.

And the use of the term “equity kids” is especially crappy because you have absolutely no idea who those kids are. There have always been a few Black kids, Latino kids, Prince William kids, and poor kids at TJ. You have no idea which ones would have gotten in under the old process.

Very simple.
1. You came from a tedious school like Whitman middle school
2. You are taking the lower-level classes
3. You are struggling

Then, you are most likely the equity kid.

[Anonymous]

Let's vote off these liberals in the upcoming election.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here the term "equity kids" is used to describe students of "all" racial backgrounds who are under-qualified, meaning they lack the middle school preparation typically required for admission but are still admitted to fulfill the predetermined needs of an equity pie chart.

Useful idiots have been told not to deny the existence of equity pie chart, and to refrain from using the word equity and the dreaded word merit.

But the point is that you don't know who they are. You're just casting a big net out there and assuming that these kids somehow exist just because you don't like the new admissions process.

And you're using the term as a pejorative even though you don't know who they are.

I can distill your point as follows: "There are kids who don't belong at TJ because of the new admissions process! I don't know who they are, but I know they're out there and I'm against them! And I'm going to assume that any kid who struggles is doing so because they're equity kids!!!"

Equity is not a pejorative term to be assigned to an individual. It is a goal to be achieved through working to ensure that equal opportunities are available for deserving students regardless of their background, race, socioeconomic status, or the hopes, dreams, and motivations of their parents.

There are plenty of kids out there who are undeserving - who have not made the most of the opportunities afforded to them. Those kids don't belong at TJ, and quite honestly there are fewer of them at TJ now than there used to be. TJ used to be populated - especially when it was mostly white kids, if I'm honest - with a ton of kids who had every opportunity to be successful and just rode their privilege to a mediocre academic career. And they existed in recent years, too, with students who believed that they had a birthright to go to TJ because they came from Carson or Longfellow or Rocky Run or Nysmith.

The biggest difference I see with the kids getting admitted nowadays is that they're genuinely appreciative of the experience. And my guess is that part of that comes from the students earning their opportunity through their own efforts and not through the efforts of their parents.

Different poster. Good points, except the last paragraph. How are able to come to this conclusion?

I am coming from another angle: kids that I know who would be exceptionally well served by TJ and not able to get in with the admissions changes. I know 3 such kids. All got in sophomore round.

Why take away recommendation letters? This is a massive negative compared to the past.

Do you know how the 3 kids are doing? Are they class of 2025/26? Just seeing if it is worth even considering TJ admission as sophomore after getting comfortable at the base HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here the term "equity kids" is used to describe students of "all" racial backgrounds who are under-qualified, meaning they lack the middle school preparation typically required for admission but are still admitted to fulfill the predetermined needs of an equity pie chart.

Useful idiots have been told not to deny the existence of equity pie chart, and to refrain from using the word equity and the dreaded word merit.

But the point is that you don't know who they are. You're just casting a big net out there and assuming that these kids somehow exist just because you don't like the new admissions process.

And you're using the term as a pejorative even though you don't know who they are.

I can distill your point as follows: "There are kids who don't belong at TJ because of the new admissions process! I don't know who they are, but I know they're out there and I'm against them! And I'm going to assume that any kid who struggles is doing so because they're equity kids!!!"

Equity is not a pejorative term to be assigned to an individual. It is a goal to be achieved through working to ensure that equal opportunities are available for deserving students regardless of their background, race, socioeconomic status, or the hopes, dreams, and motivations of their parents.

There are plenty of kids out there who are undeserving - who have not made the most of the opportunities afforded to them. Those kids don't belong at TJ, and quite honestly there are fewer of them at TJ now than there used to be. TJ used to be populated - especially when it was mostly white kids, if I'm honest - with a ton of kids who had every opportunity to be successful and just rode their privilege to a mediocre academic career. And they existed in recent years, too, with students who believed that they had a birthright to go to TJ because they came from Carson or Longfellow or Rocky Run or Nysmith.

The biggest difference I see with the kids getting admitted nowadays is that they're genuinely appreciative of the experience. And my guess is that part of that comes from the students earning their opportunity through their own efforts and not through the efforts of their parents.

Different poster. Good points, except the last paragraph. How are able to come to this conclusion?

I am coming from another angle: kids that I know who would be exceptionally well served by TJ and not able to get in with the admissions changes. I know 3 such kids. All got in sophomore round.

Why take away recommendation letters? This is a massive negative compared to the past.

Do you know how the 3 kids are doing? Are they class of 2025/26? Just seeing if it is worth even considering TJ admission as sophomore after getting comfortable at the base HS.

They are doing really well. Each one is very happy with the choice to move to TJ.

I would suggest applying, as teachers do a great job of selecting the students who are going to be successful at TJ. The sophomore process is very robust. If your child gets admission, you can be pretty certain that your child is going to do very well at TJ.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let's vote off these liberals in the upcoming election.

Let’s decline to host a Governor’s school.