TJ admissions now verifying free and reduced price meal status for successful 2026 applicants
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Anonymous
Perhaps you are correct and I think about that a lot because I truly do not want to be racist. I would venture that most people on this thread are racist: the white people think the Asian people are formulaic, the Asians think the white folks are lazy and dumb and many folks (white and Asian?) seem to think the URM are underrepresented at TJ because they simply don’t want to do the work and that poverty and the like doesn’t matter. We should all look at our biases, I 100% agree. I will say, I think the culture at TJ is toxic. I think white kids grade grub and cheat, too. It’s a shame because it is meant to be a place for kids who like STEM to learn but it has become a hyper competitive nightmare, as has AAP. People push and scheme to get their 8 year olds into AAP, which let’s be honest, is not that special. Most of the other kids in the grade could do the AAP work if they had the opportunity. Yet these kids are taught from third grade on that they are somehow better than everyone else and they are expected to achieve great things. It creates a weird sense of arrogance, combined with fear of not living up to the expectations. My kid hated AAP and was so grateful to get out, not because she hates learning but because of the atmosphere. Math, science and everything fun turned into winning competitions (AMC, Math Counts, Science Olympiad, etc). What could be amazing is totally polluted with an emphasis on getting perfect grades and winning instead of learning and exploring. Racist? Probably. I think we all are racist in our own way. I will work on being introspective about that, but I ask you to take an honest look at the TJ culture and tell me honestly whether you think it’s healthy and conducive to higher learning and creative thought. |
Anonymous
And the civil war was about states’ rights - really it was. It so happened that some citizens of a certain race were impacted. I was not about them. It was all about preserving the federal nature of the union. Just ask the African Americans how they felt. P.S. ~ don’t be tone deaf. Listen to your Asian neighbors. If they feel wronged then maybe this reform had something to do with it? See what happened in San Francisco with the school board. Have your listening years on and you will be a more effective and impactful reformer. |
Anonymous
90%+ of eligible blacks applied? What is the acceptance rate for black? |
Anonymous
Here's a recent book by liberal prof types. profiled on NPR and all that. has some good insights. Not TJ specific. https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/R/bo149570065.html Race at the Top Asian Americans and Whites in Pursuit of the American Dream in Suburban Schools Natasha Warikoo An illuminating, in-depth look at competition in suburban high schools with growing numbers of Asian Americans, where white parents are determined to ensure that their children remain at the head of the class. |
Anonymous
Another aspect of it is that reformers saw TJ as a simple success-granting resource. They wagered that if they simply threw Blacks and Hispanics at TJ en masse, it would solve problems and they'd get rewarded for being woke heroes. Great if it really works like that, but if it doesn't, you'll end up creating rigid social tiers within TJ because of the admissions changes. They never considered the possibility that the causation might also go in the other direction - that TJ is success-granting because of its students. If you provide a sanctuary for gifted students, it will pay off in the form of the economic success it brings to the community. It's a similar phenomenon to how, if you make a community handicap-accessible, it pays off over time in the form of improvements in practical, day-to-day life. Gifted students come in all races, and do have a need for challenge. If they're in a class that doesn't meet their academic needs, they'll get frustrated and disillusioned. If you're talking about URMs in an underprivileged community, I'd hazard that it's worse - first because it means you'd be more likely to be grouped with problem students and lose interest in school, and second because racial biases might make it less likely your talents would be recognized. It seems to me that if you care about the academic success of URMs, you want merit to be part of the picture, precisely because you want to do a better job of spotting gifted minorities, and also because you want to be able to credibly promote minority role models. The one advantage I can see to dropping merit from admissions is that it could create a larger URM social footprint within TJ so that minorities don't feel "alone" when they're there. The risk is that minority communities in TJ will develop they stigma that they're only there because of BS criteria. Kids aren't dumb and they know what happened to the admissions process. If TJ itself remains what it is, that might self-correct over time; URMs would become more competitive and merit will be reintroduced as appropriate. In the worst case, though, TJ's quality will dissolve from a disregard for merit, and no action will be taken to fix it. People will continue to fight over TJ as a status-symbol of yesteryear. The reformers who wanted to leverage TJ as a success-granting resource will end up killing their golden goose. If reformers continue to |
Anonymous
Maybe you should listen to your black neighbors. |
Anonymous
What about the Asians who support reform? https://www.advancingjustice-aajc.org/press-release/civil-rights-groups-submit-amicus-brief-support-race-neutral-admissions-policy-thomas Why is it that you think only one subset of the population should have a voice? What about everyone else? |
Anonymous
“Success granting resource”? That’s what you think of TJ? Not everyone is obsessed with TH prestige. |
Anonymous
+1 
Is this demand for more blacks and Hispanics driven from the top? |
Anonymous
We looked at 2010/11 since that was the most recent data we had on eligibility (course enrollment). Admit rates: Black 3% Hispanic 6% White 12% Asian 20% Details: https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/615/1039775.page |
Anonymous
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DP, but it’s clear that the School Board did view TJ as a “success-granting resource,” which essentially means about the same thing as pixie dust. They just decided that it was politically expedient to spread it over a larger area.
It was classic pork-barrel politics, like making sure there is something in an appropriations bill for every district. Whether the money was spent wisely, or the pixie dust might lose its magical powers over time, don’t appear to be things they spent much time considering. |
Anonymous
This is well said. Sadly, I think there is racism involved on all sides of the TJ admissions discussions. |
Anonymous
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Race at the Top
Asian Americans and Whites in Pursuit of the American Dream in Suburban Schools Natasha Warikoo An illuminating, in-depth look at competition in suburban high schools with growing numbers of Asian Americans, where white parents are determined to ensure that their children remain at the head of the class. The American suburb conjures an image of picturesque privilege: manicured lawns, quiet streets, and—most important to parents—high-quality schools. These elite enclaves are also historically white, allowing many white Americans to safeguard their privileges by using public schools to help their children enter top colleges. That’s changing, however, as Asian American professionals increasingly move into wealthy suburban areas to give their kids that same leg up for their college applications and future careers. As Natasha Warikoo shows in Race at the Top, white and Asian parents alike will do anything to help their children get to the top of the achievement pile. She takes us into the affluent suburban East Coast school she calls “Woodcrest High,” with a student body about one-half white and one-third Asian American. As increasing numbers of Woodcrest’s Asian American students earn star-pupil status, many whites feel displaced from the top of the academic hierarchy, and their frustrations grow. To maintain their children’s edge, some white parents complain to the school that schoolwork has become too rigorous. They also emphasize excellence in extracurriculars like sports and theater, which maintains their children’s advantage. Warikoo reveals how, even when they are bested, white families in Woodcrest work to change the rules in their favor so they can remain the winners of the meritocracy game. Along the way, Warikoo explores urgent issues of racial and economic inequality that play out in affluent suburban American high schools. Caught in a race for power and privilege at the very top of society, what families in towns like Woodcrest fail to see is that everyone in their race is getting a medal—the children who actually lose are those living beyond their town’s boundaries. READ LESSABOUT RACE AT THE TOP 240 pages | 4 tables | 6 x 9 | © 2022 Asian Studies: GENERAL ASIAN STUDIES Education: EDUCATION--GENERAL STUDIES, PRE-SCHOOL, ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION Sociology: RACE, ETHNIC, AND MINORITY RELATIONS, SOCIAL ORGANIZATION--STRATIFICATION, MOBILITY REVIEWS TABLE OF CONTENTS EXCERPT GALLERY AWARDS AUTHOR EVENTS RELATED TITLES REVIEWS BACK TO TOPBack to top TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface Introduction: Good Parenting in an Age of Migration Chapter 1: Chasing Excellence in the Suburbs Chapter 2: Tensions over the “Right” Way to Achieve Academic Excellence Chapter 3: The Racial Divides of Extracurricular Excellence Chapter 4: Emotional Well-Being: Happiness and Status Chapter 5: The “Right” Way to Parent Conclusion: The Anxieties of Parenting and the American Dream Acknowledgments Appendix A: Research Methods Appendix B: Student and Parent Interview Questions Notes References Index EXCERPT Preface Sabrina is forty-five and white, a mother of three. Her house looks like picture-perfect suburban wealth—a broad, shimmering lawn, tall trees, big windows—close, but not too close, to the quant main street of her town. Street parking is not allowed. Sabrina brewed coffee for us while I sat on a barstool at the island in her kitchen. She wore stylish boots, fitted pants, a dress shirt. It was quiet: her kids were at school, her husband at work. She told me that she and her family moved to the town when her oldest was about to start kindergarten so that the children could attend the town’s highly regarded schools. From the moment Sabrina started speaking, it was clear that her days were filled with supporting her kids and their schools. Achievement and happiness were a full- time job; the skills required were numerous. When Sabrina’s son Michael was not placed in the math level she felt he deserved in eighth grade, she and her husband met with Michael’s teacher. “Can you help us understand why this is the recommendation?”2 She recounted their conversation with the teacher. “My son is devastated that this is his level.” The school relented, and moved him up. I found myself stiffening as she told me this story— I knew that this was the kind of behavior that perpetuates educational inequality, even if Sabrina didn’t realize it and was simply thinking of the best for her son, like all parents do. Beyond academics, Sabrina supported Michael’s aspirations in sports, too, especially soccer and lacrosse. Sabrina’s cultivation of Mi-chael’s athletic skills when he was young seemed to be paying off. He had previously played with an elite town soccer team—more elite than the usual town and travel teams—but quit that team to join an even more elite private “club” lacrosse team “in anticipation of going to high school and trying to make the team.” Club teams in her area typically cost thousands of dollars every year, and provide, among other things, a paid professional coach and game locations well- beyond the usual maximum hour- long drive for travel teams. Weekend tournaments and costly hotel stays are common. Again, I found myself feeling uneasy, partly for the implications for inequality and partly, I have to admit, because the conversation was beginning to make me worry about my own parenting, which was feeling more lax by the minute. The phrase “intensive parenting” kept coming to mind as she shared her kids’ ac-complishments and problem-solved their difficulties. Sabrina also was adamant about the importance of racial diversity. She particularly appreciated her town’s busing program that brought a small number of students—mostly Black and Latinx—from the urban school district near her children’s schools. In fact, Sabrina’s family volunteered to be the local contact for a child in the program for a number of years, frequently having that child over to their house. Beyond the busing program, the number of Asian immigrants was growing in her town—in fact, Michael was one of only three white students in his class. She gave me her take on those changes: When I look at his kindergarten picture, it looks like the UN, which we love. Diversity is important to us, something we embrace. And it was about 15 percent [students of color] when we moved in. And now I think we have, at least within the school age population, close to 40 percent. So that is a huge change in ten years. . . . I’m delighted we’re preparing our kids for a flat world. But as she gushed about diversity, a sense of dismay crept into our con-versation. She hesitated, uneasy, before describing the growing diversity as also having “some very meaningful implications on life in this town.” Sabrina was frustrated at how other families’ decisions some-times negatively affected her own children. She got most visibly upset when she described how her children sometimes lose out to kids whose parents do things differently. Sabrina particularly resented Michael’s Asian American peers who improved their math skills by taking supplementary classes outside of school. In fact, she blamed Michael’s initial eighth- grade math placement on those classes. Michael told his mom that eighteen of the twenty- one students in his class had a supplementary math class out-side of school— he was one of the three who did not. Given the match-ing numbers, I guessed that the other two white kids in class were the other two who did not do supplementary math. Sabrina’s liberal identity may have prevented her from naming their ethnicities explicitly, but the association was implicit. I felt myself getting defensive at Sabrina’s disapproval. Those other parents could have been my own Indian immigrant parents a genera-tion ago. If there had been supplementary math classes in my western Pennsylvania town, I am certain my parents would have signed me up. Instead, they assigned me pages of a math workbook every day during summer vacation before they went off to work— and I did them. While I hated those assignments—mostly, I think, because my red- headed best friend across the street never had any summer work, and so it added another reason for me to feel different in my predominantly white town— as an adult I have more empathy for my parents’ choices. Still, after talking with parents like Sabrina I was happy that I did not live in a town like hers. I even felt a newfound appreciation for the gentle pace of my own children’s schools— fewer demanding parents, less pressure. I wondered if I too would come to resent the parents Sabrina described if I lived in her town and felt my kids would need to sign up for a supplemental course if I wanted them to take honors math. Sabrina lamented the impact of this intensive parenting on Michael’s self- esteem and self- confidence: “So my son is being compared to kids who are doing the supplemental math and he’s suffering in his estimation of himself because of it.” Sabrina labeled the impact of supple-mental math on kids who do not participate “comparative distress,” claiming that it had led her child to think he wasn’t good at math. These kids, she shook her head, “think they’re stupid.” She made her view clear: “I think it’s a problem. And I think it’s creating some of the stress and the tension and the anxiety.” The message— like so many things in her town—was implicit but clear. Asian parenting choices make white children like her own feel less competent and miss out on advantages to which they feel they are entitled. She loved racial diversity and the prospect of a “flat world,” but when these things threatened her son’s academic position, that love seemed to sour. |
Anonymous
who? the Nigerian kids with doctor parents who are the equity beneficiaries? |
Anonymous
Thank you for the information. I guess the board is trying to improve two of these numbers by accepting less qualified (but still within acceptance standards) students. I'm ok with that. However, for this year, some overly qualified top students who would thrive at TJ got rejected. |