New TJ Lawsuit Filed 3/10/21 by Pacific Legal Foundation

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:TJ has a series of private sponsors that provide funding and materials for some of the labs at the school. I believe that TJ receives the same amount of money per student as every other school in FCPS.

This is pretty much spot on. FCPS did spend a little more on the renovation than they might have for a regular school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TJ has a series of private sponsors that provide funding and materials for some of the labs at the school. I believe that TJ receives the same amount of money per student as every other school in FCPS.

This is pretty much spot on. FCPS did spend a little more on the renovation than they might have for a regular school.

yep, of course, the board is free to say that the infusion of outside money creates inequity and decline the donations

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TJ has a series of private sponsors that provide funding and materials for some of the labs at the school. I believe that TJ receives the same amount of money per student as every other school in FCPS.

This is pretty much spot on. FCPS did spend a little more on the renovation than they might have for a regular school.

yep, of course, the board is free to say that the infusion of outside money creates inequity and decline the donations

+1 ... then all schools are equal and no manipulation in admissions or prepping..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TJ has a series of private sponsors that provide funding and materials for some of the labs at the school. I believe that TJ receives the same amount of money per student as every other school in FCPS.

This is pretty much spot on. FCPS did spend a little more on the renovation than they might have for a regular school.

yep, of course, the board is free to say that the infusion of outside money creates inequity and decline the donations

What would be the point of that? The point is not to make everyone equal - it's to make one school more accessible and therefore more interesting to a wider demographic of talented individuals. Increasing the level of interest in TJ will only make the student body stronger in the long run.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curie got 50ish kids in for the class of 2022, 70ish kids for the class of 2023 and a whopping 133 kids in for the class of 2024. They published first and last names of the kids on their FB page.

The prep industry in NVa is a very competitive market. Curie has been around a long time. Jumping from 50 to 133 admissions in two years raises some eyebrows. Then add to that with multiple current TJ students stating in public forums (including the FB group TJ vents) that they had a copy of the test.

I personally am not against prep and giving your child the best possible shot. But the above severely undercuts the “merit” arguments.

The increase in numbers could be self-selecting kids being attracted to Curie's success and thereby increasing their numbers.

On the spectrum or zero prep to full-on 3 year prep, we fall in the low-prep category. We considered Curie and found the methods distasteful (the teacher yelling at kids, calling them fools for now knowing answers to some questions, etc.) and did not go with them. DC was not interested in any prep after seeing these classes but with some summer classes offered by FCPS and online books, got into TJ.

Having read DCUM around that time, I was waiting for all the 'prepped robots" that join TJ to fail. To the contrary, it was my DC that was having trouble with the sudden, new rigor and struggled Freshman year before he found ins hearings. All the prepped kids who made it were well prepared for the rigor and once Freshman year passed, everyone adapted and the rigor became part of their life.

Remember, only a certain percentage of the kids that prep make it into TJ. The vast majority of them would have gotten in anyways. The minority that are on the border (kids that might not have made it without prep) still learn how to handle course rigor at TJ. Don't have specific numbers but I'd say about 2/3rd of the kids at these schools don't get into TJ.

Same goes for all the schools - Curie, MyTJPrep, Sunshine (Mostly Chinese kids), Kate Dalby (mostly White kids. DCUM calls that "enrichment" because, you know, only Asians "prep" and White kids "enrich") and a whole bunch of other schools. The subtle racism here is staggering.

Here's a challenge for anyone here hiding behind anonymity and casting aspersions on an entire community. If you have the bal*s, please write an op-ed somewhere, anywhere, with your name on it accusing Curie of "test-fixing". Please! Please! I want to see your ass slapped with a big lawsuit. If not, STFU and slink away, losers.

In all seriousness, what would be the point of writing such an op-ed? I and others have already said many times that while what they did was highly immoral and rightly contributed to the end of the TJ exam, none of it was illegal. There's no investigation to be had and the only impact of it would be to make even MORE public the names of the kids who were assisted by their methods.

We are winning. We don't need to publish op-eds or file lawsuits.

What's going on now is just slander by cowardly, anonymous voices who are too afraid to put their names to the accusation because if they do, they will be slapped with a lawsuit. THAT would be the point. Don't worry about having the kids' name exposed even more. They don't care, nor do their parents.

Would be interesting to see how this year's admissions turn out. I honestly hope all the admitted kids succeed. At the end of the day, all deserving kids need a school like TJ to be available. What pisses me off is the accusation that some kids are not, just because they belong to a certain group and put in the effort to be better prepared.

You didn't answer the question. What would be the motivation for someone like me to put an op-ed in the paper at this point? All of the people who need to know about what happened at Curie already know it and the die has been cast. I have nothing to gain from doing so. The only reason to continue to bring it up is to show how problematic the old admissions process - which had an exam graded on a curve as a barrier to entry - was because people insist on continuing to defend it.

When people stop defending it, I'll shut up about it.

We know why you WON't do it. You are scared and a coward. Even if the outcome hadn't been what ended up happening I bet you wouldn't have put your name behind the accusation in public.

No one is defending Curie. Go ahead and burn down their building and I could care less. What I'm taking offense to is the characterization of an entire subset of people negatively.

Long term, this does not matter. However, every URM kid coming out of TJ and other higher institutions of learning will be looked upon with suspicion as to their credentials and will have to prove themselves over and over. It is so unfair, but that's their cross to bear thanks to people like you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An exam graded on a curve as a barrier to entry is a bad idea?

Yes, if the curve is manipulated by families paying $4-5K for privileged access to secured materials.

You didn't include the manipulation with cheating in your previous post.

Did you mean the FCPS school board cheating kids out of their rightful seats by gaming the system to get the outcomes they want? Yep. We should keep bringing that up and keep it live in people's minds, at least until the next school board elections.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An exam graded on a curve as a barrier to entry is a bad idea?

Yes, if the curve is manipulated by families paying $4-5K for privileged access to secured materials.

You didn't include the manipulation with cheating in your previous post.

Did you mean the FCPS school board cheating kids out of their rightful seats by gaming the system to get the outcomes they want? Yep. We should keep bringing that up and keep it live in people's minds, at least until the next school board elections.

I mean, do you even hear yourself?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An exam graded on a curve as a barrier to entry is a bad idea?

Yes, if the curve is manipulated by families paying $4-5K for privileged access to secured materials.

You didn't include the manipulation with cheating in your previous post.

Did you mean the FCPS school board cheating kids out of their rightful seats by gaming the system to get the outcomes they want? Yep. We should keep bringing that up and keep it live in people's minds, at least until the next school board elections.

since when is anyone entitled to a seat at TJ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An exam graded on a curve as a barrier to entry is a bad idea?

Yes, if the curve is manipulated by families paying $4-5K for privileged access to secured materials.

You didn't include the manipulation with cheating in your previous post.

Did you mean the FCPS school board cheating kids out of their rightful seats by gaming the system to get the outcomes they want? Yep. We should keep bringing that up and keep it live in people's minds, at least until the next school board elections.

Here's the main problem: some people believe that they have "rightful seats" to TJ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An exam graded on a curve as a barrier to entry is a bad idea?

Yes, if the curve is manipulated by families paying $4-5K for privileged access to secured materials.

You didn't include the manipulation with cheating in your previous post.

Did you mean the FCPS school board cheating kids out of their rightful seats by gaming the system to get the outcomes they want? Yep. We should keep bringing that up and keep it live in people's minds, at least until the next school board elections.

Here's the main problem: some people believe that they have "rightful seats" to TJ.

Yes. And they are gaming the system through a lottery process to get to them. See how this can be played both ways?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TJ has a series of private sponsors that provide funding and materials for some of the labs at the school. I believe that TJ receives the same amount of money per student as every other school in FCPS.

This is pretty much spot on. FCPS did spend a little more on the renovation than they might have for a regular school.

yep, of course, the board is free to say that the infusion of outside money creates inequity and decline the donations

What would be the point of that? The point is not to make everyone equal - it's to make one school more accessible and therefore more interesting to a wider demographic of talented individuals. Increasing the level of interest in TJ will only make the student body stronger in the long run.

Why only TJ , it is toooo far from our area of talent ? Increasing the level of interest (Manipulation) in TJ by extra funding from private / Govt., then What is wrong if parents put extra money into kids education/activities to increase / decrease level of interest and prep for TJ, SAT, ACT etc..?

Eventually it comes down to financial imbalance ..

If TJ Increases the level of interest of low grade kids, it makes sense ... I believe private sponsors would want help low income families or low grade kids .. and school board wants the same. Lets make TJ accessible to low grade kids instead of high grade .. 1.5% of Top talent or 3.5 GPA is not needed..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TJ has a series of private sponsors that provide funding and materials for some of the labs at the school. I believe that TJ receives the same amount of money per student as every other school in FCPS.

This is pretty much spot on. FCPS did spend a little more on the renovation than they might have for a regular school.

yep, of course, the board is free to say that the infusion of outside money creates inequity and decline the donations

What would be the point of that? The point is not to make everyone equal - it's to make one school more accessible and therefore more interesting to a wider demographic of talented individuals. Increasing the level of interest in TJ will only make the student body stronger in the long run.

Why only TJ , it is toooo far from our area of talent ? Increasing the level of interest (Manipulation) in TJ by extra funding from private / Govt., then What is wrong if parents put extra money into kids education/activities to increase / decrease level of interest and prep for TJ, SAT, ACT etc..?

Eventually it comes down to financial imbalance ..

If TJ Increases the level of interest of low grade kids, it makes sense ... I believe private sponsors would want help low income families or low grade kids .. and school board wants the same. Lets make TJ accessible to low grade kids instead of high grade .. 1.5% of Top talent or 3.5 GPA is not needed..

that is an interesting jumble of words, but it's hard to pick out any coherent thought

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An exam graded on a curve as a barrier to entry is a bad idea?

Yes, if the curve is manipulated by families paying $4-5K for privileged access to secured materials.

You didn't include the manipulation with cheating in your previous post.

Did you mean the FCPS school board cheating kids out of their rightful seats by gaming the system to get the outcomes they want? Yep. We should keep bringing that up and keep it live in people's minds, at least until the next school board elections.

Said the quiet part out loud here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curie got 50ish kids in for the class of 2022, 70ish kids for the class of 2023 and a whopping 133 kids in for the class of 2024. They published first and last names of the kids on their FB page.

The prep industry in NVa is a very competitive market. Curie has been around a long time. Jumping from 50 to 133 admissions in two years raises some eyebrows. Then add to that with multiple current TJ students stating in public forums (including the FB group TJ vents) that they had a copy of the test.

I personally am not against prep and giving your child the best possible shot. But the above severely undercuts the “merit” arguments.

The increase in numbers could be self-selecting kids being attracted to Curie's success and thereby increasing their numbers.

On the spectrum or zero prep to full-on 3 year prep, we fall in the low-prep category. We considered Curie and found the methods distasteful (the teacher yelling at kids, calling them fools for now knowing answers to some questions, etc.) and did not go with them. DC was not interested in any prep after seeing these classes but with some summer classes offered by FCPS and online books, got into TJ.

Having read DCUM around that time, I was waiting for all the 'prepped robots" that join TJ to fail. To the contrary, it was my DC that was having trouble with the sudden, new rigor and struggled Freshman year before he found ins hearings. All the prepped kids who made it were well prepared for the rigor and once Freshman year passed, everyone adapted and the rigor became part of their life.

Remember, only a certain percentage of the kids that prep make it into TJ. The vast majority of them would have gotten in anyways. The minority that are on the border (kids that might not have made it without prep) still learn how to handle course rigor at TJ. Don't have specific numbers but I'd say about 2/3rd of the kids at these schools don't get into TJ.

Same goes for all the schools - Curie, MyTJPrep, Sunshine (Mostly Chinese kids), Kate Dalby (mostly White kids. DCUM calls that "enrichment" because, you know, only Asians "prep" and White kids "enrich") and a whole bunch of other schools. The subtle racism here is staggering.

Here's a challenge for anyone here hiding behind anonymity and casting aspersions on an entire community. If you have the bal*s, please write an op-ed somewhere, anywhere, with your name on it accusing Curie of "test-fixing". Please! Please! I want to see your ass slapped with a big lawsuit. If not, STFU and slink away, losers.

In all seriousness, what would be the point of writing such an op-ed? I and others have already said many times that while what they did was highly immoral and rightly contributed to the end of the TJ exam, none of it was illegal. There's no investigation to be had and the only impact of it would be to make even MORE public the names of the kids who were assisted by their methods.

We are winning. We don't need to publish op-eds or file lawsuits.

What's going on now is just slander by cowardly, anonymous voices who are too afraid to put their names to the accusation because if they do, they will be slapped with a lawsuit. THAT would be the point. Don't worry about having the kids' name exposed even more. They don't care, nor do their parents.

Would be interesting to see how this year's admissions turn out. I honestly hope all the admitted kids succeed. At the end of the day, all deserving kids need a school like TJ to be available. What pisses me off is the accusation that some kids are not, just because they belong to a certain group and put in the effort to be better prepared.

You didn't answer the question. What would be the motivation for someone like me to put an op-ed in the paper at this point? All of the people who need to know about what happened at Curie already know it and the die has been cast. I have nothing to gain from doing so. The only reason to continue to bring it up is to show how problematic the old admissions process - which had an exam graded on a curve as a barrier to entry - was because people insist on continuing to defend it.

When people stop defending it, I'll shut up about it.

We know why you WON't do it. You are scared and a coward. Even if the outcome hadn't been what ended up happening I bet you wouldn't have put your name behind the accusation in public.

No one is defending Curie. Go ahead and burn down their building and I could care less. What I'm taking offense to is the characterization of an entire subset of people negatively.

Long term, this does not matter. However, every URM kid coming out of TJ and other higher institutions of learning will be looked upon with suspicion as to their credentials and will have to prove themselves over and over. It is so unfair, but that's their cross to bear thanks to people like you.

This is pretty laughable when folks on this board spend years claiming that kids from underrepresented groups won't be able to hack it at TJ.

We're all anonymous here. People come to this board for honest feedback on things because of the anonymity. Don't claim to sit on some high horse just because I am too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An exam graded on a curve as a barrier to entry is a bad idea?

Yes, if the curve is manipulated by families paying $4-5K for privileged access to secured materials.

You didn't include the manipulation with cheating in your previous post.

Did you mean the FCPS school board cheating kids out of their rightful seats by gaming the system to get the outcomes they want? Yep. We should keep bringing that up and keep it live in people's minds, at least until the next school board elections.

since when is anyone entitled to a seat at TJ?

Ya it's more like the opposite. The old system was so easily gamed by preppers whereas the new system favors actual ability not prep.