TJ Class of 2025 - Estimated Class Rank

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Class of 2025 - how are the GPAs looking, higher or lower than 2024. Class of 2025 was the first batch after the admissions policy change.

Welp, they tried their hardest to keep the GPAs up.

They lowered standards, provided extra support and they still had the worst performance they've ever seen.

The teachers wrote:

"These scores are deeply disappointing, and are the lowest scores we’ve ever seen as Math 4 teachers on a Final Exam."

The math teachers noted that the final exam was “substantially easier” than final exams given to previous classes. The teachers said the students had “unprecedented supports provided to you this semester, including extra practice quizzes, bonus quizzes, practice worksheets, and a practice final exam, all things that were not given to previous students.”

The teachers continued:

"We expected to see scores rise, not drop, with our lowering of standards."

As a solution, the teachers said:

"We will curve the exam by 10 percentage points (which means 7.5 points, out of 75), but you should know that this curve is artificial and not deserved."

They also said:

"This indicates to us that you either didn’t study, or you studied poorly. Even worse, the preponderance of evidence indicates that many of you weren’t willing to change how you learned or studied since the start of Math 4."

They finish with:

"We still believe every single one of you belongs at this school and can succeed"

So the students of the new cohort had standards lowered, extra support and still did worse than ever before. But the teachers still believe in them. This was back in 2022, so maybe they were able to bring up their grades over the next few years. We will see. SAT scores will be published and we will also get some idea of what GPAs look like.

I'm against admitting so many kids with Algebra I in 8th grade. But, this message has nothing to do with the new vs. old cohorts. It happened soon after the covid closures, and was about how virtual schooling made the kids lazy cheaters with very weak math foundations.

They current TJ principal probably wouldn't let teachers send out any messages suggesting that the new cohorts are underperforming.

These were kids that took geometry in 8th grade.

You're pointing to covid as a confounding factor that might be the reason for this issue. If so, then you might expect similarly bad performance at other grade levels or at other schools, I mean covid didn't just affect those kids. I suppose the first year of TJ math might be a unicorn so that the results there don't correlate with results in any other context. But that doesn't really make a ton of sense to me, especially considering the performance of the subsequent classes.

We did.

No we didn't we saw almost all grades IMPROVE between 2021 and 2022. See SOL pass rates at pretty much every school. See SOL advance pass rates at pretty much every school.

https://www.doe.virginia.gov/data-policy-funding/data-reports/statistics-reports/sol-test-pass-rates-other-results

2022 SOLs were demonstrably better than 2021 SOLs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That 2022 chart is senior graduating GPA which generally goes up by .1 or so because of so many APs, post APs and senior lab. This year, I was told that my junior with a 4.3 would likely be in the top 35/40%.

Who gave you this information (top 35/40%)? Do the counselors provide this info?

It was the counselor who gave us this as a rough estimate.

Is that a 4.3 after junior year grades are in?

[Anonymous]

my DC's counselor didn't give us any indication. did you have to ask about where your child stands relative to their classmates?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That 2022 chart is senior graduating GPA which generally goes up by .1 or so because of so many APs, post APs and senior lab. This year, I was told that my junior with a 4.3 would likely be in the top 35/40%.

Who gave you this information (top 35/40%)? Do the counselors provide this info?

It was the counselor who gave us this as a rough estimate.

Is that a 4.3 after junior year grades are in?

Yes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:my DC's counselor didn't give us any indication. did you have to ask about where your child stands relative to their classmates?

Yes. We asked for a rough estimate when we met with counselor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Class of 2025 - how are the GPAs looking, higher or lower than 2024. Class of 2025 was the first batch after the admissions policy change.

Welp, they tried their hardest to keep the GPAs up.

They lowered standards, provided extra support and they still had the worst performance they've ever seen.

The teachers wrote:

"These scores are deeply disappointing, and are the lowest scores we’ve ever seen as Math 4 teachers on a Final Exam."

The math teachers noted that the final exam was “substantially easier” than final exams given to previous classes. The teachers said the students had “unprecedented supports provided to you this semester, including extra practice quizzes, bonus quizzes, practice worksheets, and a practice final exam, all things that were not given to previous students.”

The teachers continued:

"We expected to see scores rise, not drop, with our lowering of standards."

As a solution, the teachers said:

"We will curve the exam by 10 percentage points (which means 7.5 points, out of 75), but you should know that this curve is artificial and not deserved."

They also said:

"This indicates to us that you either didn’t study, or you studied poorly. Even worse, the preponderance of evidence indicates that many of you weren’t willing to change how you learned or studied since the start of Math 4."

They finish with:

"We still believe every single one of you belongs at this school and can succeed"

So the students of the new cohort had standards lowered, extra support and still did worse than ever before. But the teachers still believe in them. This was back in 2022, so maybe they were able to bring up their grades over the next few years. We will see. SAT scores will be published and we will also get some idea of what GPAs look like.

I'm against admitting so many kids with Algebra I in 8th grade. But, this message has nothing to do with the new vs. old cohorts. It happened soon after the covid closures, and was about how virtual schooling made the kids lazy cheaters with very weak math foundations.

They current TJ principal probably wouldn't let teachers send out any messages suggesting that the new cohorts are underperforming.

These were kids that took geometry in 8th grade.

You're pointing to covid as a confounding factor that might be the reason for this issue. If so, then you might expect similarly bad performance at other grade levels or at other schools, I mean covid didn't just affect those kids. I suppose the first year of TJ math might be a unicorn so that the results there don't correlate with results in any other context. But that doesn't really make a ton of sense to me, especially considering the performance of the subsequent classes.

We did.

No we didn't we saw almost all grades IMPROVE between 2021 and 2022. See SOL pass rates at pretty much every school. See SOL advance pass rates at pretty much every school.

https://www.doe.virginia.gov/data-policy-funding/data-reports/statistics-reports/sol-test-pass-rates-other-results

2022 SOLs were demonstrably better than 2021 SOLs.

There is a decent chance that your rank will be higher with lower grades. While there are still a lot of kids getting top grades and test scores the percentage is much smaller than it used to be and the way they are curving the grades, just being a legit TJ admit doing the same amount of work as previous classes probably gets you into the top third of your class. for the class of 2025.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:my DC's counselor didn't give us any indication. did you have to ask about where your child stands relative to their classmates?

Yes. We asked for a rough estimate when we met with counselor.

I think that would be the low end. The counselors are incentivized to make things look competitive at TJ. There is a pretty good chance that your kids is ranked higher.