TJ Falls to 14th in the Nation Per US News

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Congratulations, FCPS board successfully proved to the GIGO concept.

The ranking was based on data from 2022 or earlier so it fell before they fixed the admission process.

Yes, TJ fell to #14 based on data from before the admission changes. That was established earlier in this thread.

The ranking was based on data from 2022 and earlier, so before they fixed admissions, but once they get the updated stats, TJ will be back on top.

This is incorrect. The first class of the new admissions policy took their SOL in 21-22. This is a large reason for the drop.

How could gifted kids fail SOL? SOL is pretty basic stuff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our URM student from Longfellow with Geometry and multiple years of stem contest participation did not receive an offer. It is asinine to suggest we could have increased our TJ chances had we moved back to our previous Whitman Middle neighborhood. Current system is broken, and doesn't work for merit URM students.

There is a rising sophomore at woodson that won the 3M science competition by developing a treatment for skin cancer. He's black. I don't know if he even applied to TJ but there is nothing about the current process that would have ensured that he gets in.

He probably felt unwelcome. Many of the students assume any URM only got in because of fictional quotas.

So he felt more welcome at woodson? Come on now!
There were no quotas under the old system. And there is definitely a quota now. 1.5% from every school.

They probably didn't select the best 1.5% from each school. There is no way the top 1.5% of students from any middle school would fail SOL tests. Some favoritism going on during the selection process. The new admission process gives more power to the school officials. It becomes so corrupted and disgusting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our URM student from Longfellow with Geometry and multiple years of stem contest participation did not receive an offer. It is asinine to suggest we could have increased our TJ chances had we moved back to our previous Whitman Middle neighborhood. Current system is broken, and doesn't work for merit URM students.

There is a rising sophomore at woodson that won the 3M science competition by developing a treatment for skin cancer. He's black. I don't know if he even applied to TJ but there is nothing about the current process that would have ensured that he gets in.

He probably felt unwelcome. Many of the students assume any URM only got in because of fictional quotas.

So he felt more welcome at woodson? Come on now!
There were no quotas under the old system. And there is definitely a quota now. 1.5% from every school.

The culture at TJ is very hostile any URMs. Even people here still constantly go on about fictional quotas or affirmative action that doesn't exist in a race blind process. I can understand why he'd feel more welcome at his base school.

Proof?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The principal in one of the recent emails expressed concerns with significant number of admitted "9th grade students scoring below proficient on the initial Math Inventory", and needing to put them on ALEKS remedial math starting in the third month itself. If admissions was merit based, remedial math should not be needed at the school start.

With a lower caliber student body being admitted using equity instead of merit as the criteria, TJ's ranking continues to decline from 1st in the nation to now 14th nationally.

https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/VAEDUFCPS/bulletins/38d509c

Can you find me where it says there's a "significant number"? All I see is that the School Improvement Plan progress report shows:

By the end of the 2023-2024 school year, 100% of 9th grade students scoring below proficient on the initial Math Inventory will demonstrate proficiency on the end of year Math Inventory assessment.

Progress Report: We are on track to achieve our measurable outcome. Teachers are providing all 9th graders with algebra mastery assignments through ALEKS, a digital resource that provides personalized learning. With the implementation of practice opportunities, freshmen will continue to build on and reinforce their algebra skills.

If they had 2 kids who scored below proficient, wouldn't that be an easy win for the principal to put in the school improvement plan? I don't see anywhere that said there were tons of 9th graders who needed help.

Yeah, there’s no mention of it being a significant number of students, though there’s an argument to be made that no student at TJ should be remedial in Algebra 1 to begin with.

Lots of people make that argument - but I understood TJ to be a STE or M high school, not a STE and M high school. It's for one or more of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, not all of them.

But STE need strong math foundation too. Again, we are talking about Algebra 1, which is pretty basic math material.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our URM student from Longfellow with Geometry and multiple years of stem contest participation did not receive an offer. It is asinine to suggest we could have increased our TJ chances had we moved back to our previous Whitman Middle neighborhood. Current system is broken, and doesn't work for merit URM students.

There is a rising sophomore at woodson that won the 3M science competition by developing a treatment for skin cancer. He's black. I don't know if he even applied to TJ but there is nothing about the current process that would have ensured that he gets in.

He probably felt unwelcome. Many of the students assume any URM only got in because of fictional quotas.

So he felt more welcome at woodson? Come on now!
There were no quotas under the old system. And there is definitely a quota now. 1.5% from every school.

The culture at TJ is very hostile any URMs. Even people here still constantly go on about fictional quotas or affirmative action that doesn't exist in a race blind process. I can understand why he'd feel more welcome at his base school.

You sound like those white folks who still deny there has been racism in the US.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our URM student from Longfellow with Geometry and multiple years of stem contest participation did not receive an offer. It is asinine to suggest we could have increased our TJ chances had we moved back to our previous Whitman Middle neighborhood. Current system is broken, and doesn't work for merit URM students.

There is a rising sophomore at woodson that won the 3M science competition by developing a treatment for skin cancer. He's black. I don't know if he even applied to TJ but there is nothing about the current process that would have ensured that he gets in.

He probably felt unwelcome. Many of the students assume any URM only got in because of fictional quotas.

So he felt more welcome at woodson? Come on now!
There were no quotas under the old system. And there is definitely a quota now. 1.5% from every school.

The culture at TJ is very hostile any URMs. Even people here still constantly go on about fictional quotas or affirmative action that doesn't exist in a race blind process. I can understand why he'd feel more welcome at his base school.

There is absolutely a quota. It is a school based quota. And while schools may be a proxy for race in a school system with high segregation, they are not actually selecting for race. But they aren't selecting for merit either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our URM student from Longfellow with Geometry and multiple years of stem contest participation did not receive an offer. It is asinine to suggest we could have increased our TJ chances had we moved back to our previous Whitman Middle neighborhood. Current system is broken, and doesn't work for merit URM students.

There is a rising sophomore at woodson that won the 3M science competition by developing a treatment for skin cancer. He's black. I don't know if he even applied to TJ but there is nothing about the current process that would have ensured that he gets in.

He probably felt unwelcome. Many of the students assume any URM only got in because of fictional quotas.

So he felt more welcome at woodson? Come on now!
There were no quotas under the old system. And there is definitely a quota now. 1.5% from every school.

They probably didn't select the best 1.5% from each school. There is no way the top 1.5% of students from any middle school would fail SOL tests. Some favoritism going on during the selection process. The new admission process gives more power to the school officials. It becomes so corrupted and disgusting.

How does the new admission process give power to the school officials? I am pretty sure that the applicants are picked at the school district level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Congratulations, FCPS board successfully proved to the GIGO concept.

The ranking was based on data from 2022 or earlier so it fell before they fixed the admission process.

Yes, TJ fell to #14 based on data from before the admission changes. That was established earlier in this thread.

The ranking was based on data from 2022 and earlier, so before they fixed admissions, but once they get the updated stats, TJ will be back on top.

This is incorrect. The first class of the new admissions policy took their SOL in 21-22. This is a large reason for the drop.

How could gifted kids fail SOL? SOL is pretty basic stuff.

I don't know that they failed SOL.
It could just be slightly lower test scores overall. The top of these lists can be very sensitive to small changes.
One of the metrics used is how well the URM students are doing and if you suddenly start bringing in URM students for the sake of bringing in URM students, they are likely to under-perform the URM students at other top schools where students are selected on merit. It's only 10% of the score but like I said, the top of these lists can be sensitive to relatively small changes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Congratulations, FCPS board successfully proved to the GIGO concept.

The ranking was based on data from 2022 or earlier so it fell before they fixed the admission process.

Yes, TJ fell to #14 based on data from before the admission changes. That was established earlier in this thread.

The ranking was based on data from 2022 and earlier, so before they fixed admissions, but once they get the updated stats, TJ will be back on top.

This is incorrect. The first class of the new admissions policy took their SOL in 21-22. This is a large reason for the drop.

How could gifted kids fail SOL? SOL is pretty basic stuff.

Gifted kids fail the SOLs all the time for a variety of reasons:

1. parents have parroted that it's not important
2. kids feel the tests are unimportant/are not interested in them
3. test anxiety
4. accommodations not being met (several gifted kids failed @ my school because of this reason)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our URM student from Longfellow with Geometry and multiple years of stem contest participation did not receive an offer. It is asinine to suggest we could have increased our TJ chances had we moved back to our previous Whitman Middle neighborhood. Current system is broken, and doesn't work for merit URM students.

There is a rising sophomore at woodson that won the 3M science competition by developing a treatment for skin cancer. He's black. I don't know if he even applied to TJ but there is nothing about the current process that would have ensured that he gets in.

He probably felt unwelcome. Many of the students assume any URM only got in because of fictional quotas.

So he felt more welcome at woodson? Come on now!
There were no quotas under the old system. And there is definitely a quota now. 1.5% from every school.

The culture at TJ is very hostile any URMs. Even people here still constantly go on about fictional quotas or affirmative action that doesn't exist in a race blind process. I can understand why he'd feel more welcome at his base school.

There is absolutely a quota. It is a school based quota. And while schools may be a proxy for race in a school system with high segregation, they are not actually selecting for race. But they aren't selecting for merit either.

There is no racial quota. TJ could end up with 100% Asian class with current admissions process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Congratulations, FCPS board successfully proved to the GIGO concept.

The ranking was based on data from 2022 or earlier so it fell before they fixed the admission process.

Yes, TJ fell to #14 based on data from before the admission changes. That was established earlier in this thread.

The ranking was based on data from 2022 and earlier, so before they fixed admissions, but once they get the updated stats, TJ will be back on top.

This is incorrect. The first class of the new admissions policy took their SOL in 21-22. This is a large reason for the drop.

How could gifted kids fail SOL? SOL is pretty basic stuff.

Gifted kids fail the SOLs all the time for a variety of reasons:

1. parents have parroted that it's not important
2. kids feel the tests are unimportant/are not interested in them
3. test anxiety
4. accommodations not being met (several gifted kids failed @ my school because of this reason)

My kid didn’t fail but he also didn’t do great because he opted out of accommodations. He didn’t want to be separated from peers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our URM student from Longfellow with Geometry and multiple years of stem contest participation did not receive an offer. It is asinine to suggest we could have increased our TJ chances had we moved back to our previous Whitman Middle neighborhood. Current system is broken, and doesn't work for merit URM students.

There is a rising sophomore at woodson that won the 3M science competition by developing a treatment for skin cancer. He's black. I don't know if he even applied to TJ but there is nothing about the current process that would have ensured that he gets in.

He probably felt unwelcome. Many of the students assume any URM only got in because of fictional quotas.

So he felt more welcome at woodson? Come on now!
There were no quotas under the old system. And there is definitely a quota now. 1.5% from every school.

The culture at TJ is very hostile any URMs. Even people here still constantly go on about fictional quotas or affirmative action that doesn't exist in a race blind process. I can understand why he'd feel more welcome at his base school.

There is absolutely a quota. It is a school based quota. And while schools may be a proxy for race in a school system with high segregation, they are not actually selecting for race. But they aren't selecting for merit either.

There is no racial quota. TJ could end up with 100% Asian class with current admissions process.

I think you might have trouble understanding what you are reading. The post you are responding to says it is a school based quota. Schools are a proxy for race in many cases.

The entire reason they changed the admissions process in 2021 was race based. If the new admissions process resulted in 100% asians, they would have found a new process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our URM student from Longfellow with Geometry and multiple years of stem contest participation did not receive an offer. It is asinine to suggest we could have increased our TJ chances had we moved back to our previous Whitman Middle neighborhood. Current system is broken, and doesn't work for merit URM students.

There is a rising sophomore at woodson that won the 3M science competition by developing a treatment for skin cancer. He's black. I don't know if he even applied to TJ but there is nothing about the current process that would have ensured that he gets in.

He probably felt unwelcome. Many of the students assume any URM only got in because of fictional quotas.

So he felt more welcome at woodson? Come on now!
There were no quotas under the old system. And there is definitely a quota now. 1.5% from every school.

The culture at TJ is very hostile any URMs. Even people here still constantly go on about fictional quotas or affirmative action that doesn't exist in a race blind process. I can understand why he'd feel more welcome at his base school.

There is absolutely a quota. It is a school based quota. And while schools may be a proxy for race in a school system with high segregation, they are not actually selecting for race. But they aren't selecting for merit either.

Yes, they take the top 1.5% from each school, but the process is race blind. That's a matter of law.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our URM student from Longfellow with Geometry and multiple years of stem contest participation did not receive an offer. It is asinine to suggest we could have increased our TJ chances had we moved back to our previous Whitman Middle neighborhood. Current system is broken, and doesn't work for merit URM students.

There is a rising sophomore at woodson that won the 3M science competition by developing a treatment for skin cancer. He's black. I don't know if he even applied to TJ but there is nothing about the current process that would have ensured that he gets in.

He probably felt unwelcome. Many of the students assume any URM only got in because of fictional quotas.

So he felt more welcome at woodson? Come on now!
There were no quotas under the old system. And there is definitely a quota now. 1.5% from every school.

The culture at TJ is very hostile any URMs. Even people here still constantly go on about fictional quotas or affirmative action that doesn't exist in a race blind process. I can understand why he'd feel more welcome at his base school.

There is absolutely a quota. It is a school based quota. And while schools may be a proxy for race in a school system with high segregation, they are not actually selecting for race. But they aren't selecting for merit either.

There is no racial quota. TJ could end up with 100% Asian class with current admissions process.

I think you might have trouble understanding what you are reading. The post you are responding to says it is a school based quota. Schools are a proxy for race in many cases.

The entire reason they changed the admissions process in 2021 was race based. If the new admissions process resulted in 100% asians, they would have found a new process.

There isn’t a “quota”. There are 1.5% seats allocated for each school for a chance to attend, but the actual number of students per middle school can be lower or higher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our URM student from Longfellow with Geometry and multiple years of stem contest participation did not receive an offer. It is asinine to suggest we could have increased our TJ chances had we moved back to our previous Whitman Middle neighborhood. Current system is broken, and doesn't work for merit URM students.

There is a rising sophomore at woodson that won the 3M science competition by developing a treatment for skin cancer. He's black. I don't know if he even applied to TJ but there is nothing about the current process that would have ensured that he gets in.

He probably felt unwelcome. Many of the students assume any URM only got in because of fictional quotas.

So he felt more welcome at woodson? Come on now!
There were no quotas under the old system. And there is definitely a quota now. 1.5% from every school.

The culture at TJ is very hostile any URMs. Even people here still constantly go on about fictional quotas or affirmative action that doesn't exist in a race blind process. I can understand why he'd feel more welcome at his base school.

There is absolutely a quota. It is a school based quota. And while schools may be a proxy for race in a school system with high segregation, they are not actually selecting for race. But they aren't selecting for merit either.

Yes, they take the top 1.5% from each school, but the process is race blind. That's a matter of law.

They may take 1.5% but it’s not a fixed number - can be more (or much more for “feeders”) or less.