Why is there always some kind of issue/concern/problem with TJ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The time for TJ had passed. Just shut it down.

Have to agree. The constant squabbling is tiresome. Equally despise the Coalition for TJ and the TJ Alumni Action Group people. They have far more in common with each other than they care to admit. Shutting down TJHSST might avoid creating another generation of preening narcissists.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BECAUSE Asian Americans are collateral damage for the benefit of preferred minority group.

This victimhood narrative is so tiresome.

You deserve credit for recognizing that there was a market inefficiency in elite college admissions - standardized test scores. They were overvalued by many of the most prestigious institutions both in your countries of origin and here in the US for many years, and so you designed your parenting and educational philosophy around taking advantage of that market inefficiency.

Institutions like Caltech - through years of research - have determined that standardized test scores are NOT a predictive measure of future success or competency and can indeed be an occluding factor in a selection process, and so they've moved away from using that metric. This advancement in research has removed an advantage for you and your community as a consequence.

That does NOT equate to collateral damage. And it does NOT equate to discrimination of any kind. We're just not using the metric that you're best at anymore because it selects the wrong kids.

Of all the funniest things posted on this forum, the suggestion that FCPS - an overwhelmed, declining school system - can bring the same analytical rigor to bear as an institution like CalTech when trying to evaluate applications without the benefit of objective metrics - may be the most hilarious.

You just want to discriminate against Asians and find a way to justify it. The joke will be on you, however, as those very kids whose families you resent so much for their commitment to education are the ones that led to TJ's top ranking. Without them, TJ's reputation will decline and it will simply be a better alternative for kids attending the county's worst high schools and an increasingly unattractive option for those attending the county's handful of remaining high-quality high schools.

Ehh. I don't resent them for their commitment to education at all. Far from it.

What I resent is their persistent belief that they have a monopoly on a commitment to education and the very narrow view that they have of what in the educational process is actually important to creating adults who are prepared to contribute to society. I reject the idea that test-taking ability is of some great value for any endeavor other than school admissions, and I strongly reject the notion that only students who are excellent test-takers belong in outstanding educational environments.

Test-taking is a skill - one that I learned at a very early age and that is largely responsible for my admission to TJ. It isn't that hard to learn how to be good at taking tests without necessarily having the content knowledge to succeed on them. But it does not have relevance to the real world outside of the process of getting admitted to selective schools or other institutions.

Where I will agree with you is that those same students are absolutely responsible for TJ's high rankings over the years - explicitly because of an inappropriate over-reliance on test scores in high school ranking algorithms. Those algorithms did nothing to determine whether or not a school was doing anything to educate its students - they merely determined how good the school was at cobbling together a core group of great test takers. Asians prioritize the development of test taking skills because they know that it used to be the secret to educational prestige through presenting students as more gifted/bright/intelligent than they actually were.

Unfortunately your argument completely falls apart when you consider that the Asians you are referring to are literally the core group of people at the cutting edge of research into science, tech, and engineering. Yep, it's that group of people that companies can't find enough of and need to do whatever it takes to pull to the US to fill these jobs, all because most people in this country aren't even remotely close to being qualified. So if you really want to go there and talk about "presenting students as more gifted/bright/intelligent than they actually were", please go take a look at any research or engineering positions and tell us who is filling the overwhelming majority of those spots.

I think the poster to whom you're responded also perfected the skill of making arguments that appeal to those on the left who simply want to diversify TJ for the sake of diversification and need someone to come up with rationales that sound superficially sophisticated for doing so. That's why they loaded up their posts with references to terms like "market inefficiencies" and implied that scoring high on tests is overwhelmingly an acquired skill that's not in any way related to real-life demands. Thanks for exposing the sophistry.

It is. I know because I acquired it.

I'm sure your self-loathing puts you in good stead with the anti-merit brigade. For everyone else, it's rather tiring.

How does buying test answers equate to merit?

Nobody bought the test answers. It has been explained ad nauseam to you, and yet you keep spewing the same garbage on every thread. You're also most likely the "backdoor" poster on the AAP threads. Either you're a troll, or you're a complete idiot. Just stop and go away. The adults here want to have a productive discussion that isn't constantly interrupted by your nonsense.

Hey PP, I believe she is now known on this Board as "TestBuyingKaren." Shows up in every thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BECAUSE Asian Americans are collateral damage for the benefit of preferred minority group.

This victimhood narrative is so tiresome.

You deserve credit for recognizing that there was a market inefficiency in elite college admissions - standardized test scores. They were overvalued by many of the most prestigious institutions both in your countries of origin and here in the US for many years, and so you designed your parenting and educational philosophy around taking advantage of that market inefficiency.

Institutions like Caltech - through years of research - have determined that standardized test scores are NOT a predictive measure of future success or competency and can indeed be an occluding factor in a selection process, and so they've moved away from using that metric. This advancement in research has removed an advantage for you and your community as a consequence.

That does NOT equate to collateral damage. And it does NOT equate to discrimination of any kind. We're just not using the metric that you're best at anymore because it selects the wrong kids.

Of all the funniest things posted on this forum, the suggestion that FCPS - an overwhelmed, declining school system - can bring the same analytical rigor to bear as an institution like CalTech when trying to evaluate applications without the benefit of objective metrics - may be the most hilarious.

You just want to discriminate against Asians and find a way to justify it. The joke will be on you, however, as those very kids whose families you resent so much for their commitment to education are the ones that led to TJ's top ranking. Without them, TJ's reputation will decline and it will simply be a better alternative for kids attending the county's worst high schools and an increasingly unattractive option for those attending the county's handful of remaining high-quality high schools.

Ehh. I don't resent them for their commitment to education at all. Far from it.

What I resent is their persistent belief that they have a monopoly on a commitment to education and the very narrow view that they have of what in the educational process is actually important to creating adults who are prepared to contribute to society. I reject the idea that test-taking ability is of some great value for any endeavor other than school admissions, and I strongly reject the notion that only students who are excellent test-takers belong in outstanding educational environments.

Test-taking is a skill - one that I learned at a very early age and that is largely responsible for my admission to TJ. It isn't that hard to learn how to be good at taking tests without necessarily having the content knowledge to succeed on them. But it does not have relevance to the real world outside of the process of getting admitted to selective schools or other institutions.

Where I will agree with you is that those same students are absolutely responsible for TJ's high rankings over the years - explicitly because of an inappropriate over-reliance on test scores in high school ranking algorithms. Those algorithms did nothing to determine whether or not a school was doing anything to educate its students - they merely determined how good the school was at cobbling together a core group of great test takers. Asians prioritize the development of test taking skills because they know that it used to be the secret to educational prestige through presenting students as more gifted/bright/intelligent than they actually were.

Unfortunately your argument completely falls apart when you consider that the Asians you are referring to are literally the core group of people at the cutting edge of research into science, tech, and engineering. Yep, it's that group of people that companies can't find enough of and need to do whatever it takes to pull to the US to fill these jobs, all because most people in this country aren't even remotely close to being qualified. So if you really want to go there and talk about "presenting students as more gifted/bright/intelligent than they actually were", please go take a look at any research or engineering positions and tell us who is filling the overwhelming majority of those spots.

I think the poster to whom you're responded also perfected the skill of making arguments that appeal to those on the left who simply want to diversify TJ for the sake of diversification and need someone to come up with rationales that sound superficially sophisticated for doing so. That's why they loaded up their posts with references to terms like "market inefficiencies" and implied that scoring high on tests is overwhelmingly an acquired skill that's not in any way related to real-life demands. Thanks for exposing the sophistry.

It is. I know because I acquired it.

I'm sure your self-loathing puts you in good stead with the anti-merit brigade. For everyone else, it's rather tiring.

How does buying test answers equate to merit?

Nobody bought the test answers. It has been explained ad nauseam to you, and yet you keep spewing the same garbage on every thread. You're also most likely the "backdoor" poster on the AAP threads. Either you're a troll, or you're a complete idiot. Just stop and go away. The adults here want to have a productive discussion that isn't constantly interrupted by your nonsense.

Hey PP, I believe she is now known on this Board as "TestBuyingKaren." Shows up in every thread.

I’d rather call her “BackdoorKaren”.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People will constantly kvetch that someone else has an unfair advantage when it comes to getting into TJ.

One group will complain about test-prepped kids and the need for “equity.”

Another will point out the absurdity of funneling the most advanced kids into AAP centers and then treating non-AAP centers the same as AAP centers when allocating TJ seats.

Reid is big on saying “imagine the possibilities” and the one many of us would like to imagine is a school system that wasn’t so preoccupied with one school in a county with 200 schools.

They're not treated the same. They would be if the 1.5% allocation took up the entire student population, but it does not. That's why Carson still gets 40 kids in.

That being said, I'd like to see it dropped to 1%, which would probably take about 100 of the seats and convert them from allocated to unallocated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The time for TJ had passed. Just shut it down.

Have to agree. The constant squabbling is tiresome. Equally despise the Coalition for TJ and the TJ Alumni Action Group people. They have far more in common with each other than they care to admit. Shutting down TJHSST might avoid creating another generation of preening narcissists.

TJ is not going to get shut down, and it's not going to be converted to an academy. It's especially tiresome to keep hearing these two things being brought up because neither of them is going to happen. It's just people pretending to be superior y being above the fray.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BECAUSE Asian Americans are collateral damage for the benefit of preferred minority group.

This victimhood narrative is so tiresome.

You deserve credit for recognizing that there was a market inefficiency in elite college admissions - standardized test scores. They were overvalued by many of the most prestigious institutions both in your countries of origin and here in the US for many years, and so you designed your parenting and educational philosophy around taking advantage of that market inefficiency.

Institutions like Caltech - through years of research - have determined that standardized test scores are NOT a predictive measure of future success or competency and can indeed be an occluding factor in a selection process, and so they've moved away from using that metric. This advancement in research has removed an advantage for you and your community as a consequence.

That does NOT equate to collateral damage. And it does NOT equate to discrimination of any kind. We're just not using the metric that you're best at anymore because it selects the wrong kids.

Of all the funniest things posted on this forum, the suggestion that FCPS - an overwhelmed, declining school system - can bring the same analytical rigor to bear as an institution like CalTech when trying to evaluate applications without the benefit of objective metrics - may be the most hilarious.

You just want to discriminate against Asians and find a way to justify it. The joke will be on you, however, as those very kids whose families you resent so much for their commitment to education are the ones that led to TJ's top ranking. Without them, TJ's reputation will decline and it will simply be a better alternative for kids attending the county's worst high schools and an increasingly unattractive option for those attending the county's handful of remaining high-quality high schools.

Ehh. I don't resent them for their commitment to education at all. Far from it.

What I resent is their persistent belief that they have a monopoly on a commitment to education and the very narrow view that they have of what in the educational process is actually important to creating adults who are prepared to contribute to society. I reject the idea that test-taking ability is of some great value for any endeavor other than school admissions, and I strongly reject the notion that only students who are excellent test-takers belong in outstanding educational environments.

Test-taking is a skill - one that I learned at a very early age and that is largely responsible for my admission to TJ. It isn't that hard to learn how to be good at taking tests without necessarily having the content knowledge to succeed on them. But it does not have relevance to the real world outside of the process of getting admitted to selective schools or other institutions.

Where I will agree with you is that those same students are absolutely responsible for TJ's high rankings over the years - explicitly because of an inappropriate over-reliance on test scores in high school ranking algorithms. Those algorithms did nothing to determine whether or not a school was doing anything to educate its students - they merely determined how good the school was at cobbling together a core group of great test takers. Asians prioritize the development of test taking skills because they know that it used to be the secret to educational prestige through presenting students as more gifted/bright/intelligent than they actually were.

Unfortunately your argument completely falls apart when you consider that the Asians you are referring to are literally the core group of people at the cutting edge of research into science, tech, and engineering. Yep, it's that group of people that companies can't find enough of and need to do whatever it takes to pull to the US to fill these jobs, all because most people in this country aren't even remotely close to being qualified. So if you really want to go there and talk about "presenting students as more gifted/bright/intelligent than they actually were", please go take a look at any research or engineering positions and tell us who is filling the overwhelming majority of those spots.

I think the poster to whom you're responded also perfected the skill of making arguments that appeal to those on the left who simply want to diversify TJ for the sake of diversification and need someone to come up with rationales that sound superficially sophisticated for doing so. That's why they loaded up their posts with references to terms like "market inefficiencies" and implied that scoring high on tests is overwhelmingly an acquired skill that's not in any way related to real-life demands. Thanks for exposing the sophistry.

It is. I know because I acquired it.

I'm sure your self-loathing puts you in good stead with the anti-merit brigade. For everyone else, it's rather tiring.

How does buying test answers equate to merit?

Nobody bought the test answers. It has been explained ad nauseam to you, and yet you keep spewing the same garbage on every thread. You're also most likely the "backdoor" poster on the AAP threads. Either you're a troll, or you're a complete idiot. Just stop and go away. The adults here want to have a productive discussion that isn't constantly interrupted by your nonsense.

Hey PP, I believe she is now known on this Board as "TestBuyingKaren." Shows up in every thread.

I’d rather call her “BackdoorKaren”.

I know about the test buying but what's the backdoor?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People will constantly kvetch that someone else has an unfair advantage when it comes to getting into TJ.

One group will complain about test-prepped kids and the need for “equity.”

Another will point out the absurdity of funneling the most advanced kids into AAP centers and then treating non-AAP centers the same as AAP centers when allocating TJ seats.

Reid is big on saying “imagine the possibilities” and the one many of us would like to imagine is a school system that wasn’t so preoccupied with one school in a county with 200 schools.

They're not treated the same. They would be if the 1.5% allocation took up the entire student population, but it does not. That's why Carson still gets 40 kids in.

That being said, I'd like to see it dropped to 1%, which would probably take about 100 of the seats and convert them from allocated to unallocated.

The point is about the kids going to the AAP centers from a different school. They are not being admitted as part of their base school's 1.5% quota, but instead have to compete against all these top kids from other schools with the same 1.5% quota.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BECAUSE Asian Americans are collateral damage for the benefit of preferred minority group.

This victimhood narrative is so tiresome.

You deserve credit for recognizing that there was a market inefficiency in elite college admissions - standardized test scores. They were overvalued by many of the most prestigious institutions both in your countries of origin and here in the US for many years, and so you designed your parenting and educational philosophy around taking advantage of that market inefficiency.

Institutions like Caltech - through years of research - have determined that standardized test scores are NOT a predictive measure of future success or competency and can indeed be an occluding factor in a selection process, and so they've moved away from using that metric. This advancement in research has removed an advantage for you and your community as a consequence.

That does NOT equate to collateral damage. And it does NOT equate to discrimination of any kind. We're just not using the metric that you're best at anymore because it selects the wrong kids.

Of all the funniest things posted on this forum, the suggestion that FCPS - an overwhelmed, declining school system - can bring the same analytical rigor to bear as an institution like CalTech when trying to evaluate applications without the benefit of objective metrics - may be the most hilarious.

You just want to discriminate against Asians and find a way to justify it. The joke will be on you, however, as those very kids whose families you resent so much for their commitment to education are the ones that led to TJ's top ranking. Without them, TJ's reputation will decline and it will simply be a better alternative for kids attending the county's worst high schools and an increasingly unattractive option for those attending the county's handful of remaining high-quality high schools.

Ehh. I don't resent them for their commitment to education at all. Far from it.

What I resent is their persistent belief that they have a monopoly on a commitment to education and the very narrow view that they have of what in the educational process is actually important to creating adults who are prepared to contribute to society. I reject the idea that test-taking ability is of some great value for any endeavor other than school admissions, and I strongly reject the notion that only students who are excellent test-takers belong in outstanding educational environments.

Test-taking is a skill - one that I learned at a very early age and that is largely responsible for my admission to TJ. It isn't that hard to learn how to be good at taking tests without necessarily having the content knowledge to succeed on them. But it does not have relevance to the real world outside of the process of getting admitted to selective schools or other institutions.

Where I will agree with you is that those same students are absolutely responsible for TJ's high rankings over the years - explicitly because of an inappropriate over-reliance on test scores in high school ranking algorithms. Those algorithms did nothing to determine whether or not a school was doing anything to educate its students - they merely determined how good the school was at cobbling together a core group of great test takers. Asians prioritize the development of test taking skills because they know that it used to be the secret to educational prestige through presenting students as more gifted/bright/intelligent than they actually were.

Unfortunately your argument completely falls apart when you consider that the Asians you are referring to are literally the core group of people at the cutting edge of research into science, tech, and engineering. Yep, it's that group of people that companies can't find enough of and need to do whatever it takes to pull to the US to fill these jobs, all because most people in this country aren't even remotely close to being qualified. So if you really want to go there and talk about "presenting students as more gifted/bright/intelligent than they actually were", please go take a look at any research or engineering positions and tell us who is filling the overwhelming majority of those spots.

I think the poster to whom you're responded also perfected the skill of making arguments that appeal to those on the left who simply want to diversify TJ for the sake of diversification and need someone to come up with rationales that sound superficially sophisticated for doing so. That's why they loaded up their posts with references to terms like "market inefficiencies" and implied that scoring high on tests is overwhelmingly an acquired skill that's not in any way related to real-life demands. Thanks for exposing the sophistry.

It is. I know because I acquired it.

haha touche!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BECAUSE Asian Americans are collateral damage for the benefit of preferred minority group.

This victimhood narrative is so tiresome.

You deserve credit for recognizing that there was a market inefficiency in elite college admissions - standardized test scores. They were overvalued by many of the most prestigious institutions both in your countries of origin and here in the US for many years, and so you designed your parenting and educational philosophy around taking advantage of that market inefficiency.

Institutions like Caltech - through years of research - have determined that standardized test scores are NOT a predictive measure of future success or competency and can indeed be an occluding factor in a selection process, and so they've moved away from using that metric. This advancement in research has removed an advantage for you and your community as a consequence.

That does NOT equate to collateral damage. And it does NOT equate to discrimination of any kind. We're just not using the metric that you're best at anymore because it selects the wrong kids.

Of all the funniest things posted on this forum, the suggestion that FCPS - an overwhelmed, declining school system - can bring the same analytical rigor to bear as an institution like CalTech when trying to evaluate applications without the benefit of objective metrics - may be the most hilarious.

You just want to discriminate against Asians and find a way to justify it. The joke will be on you, however, as those very kids whose families you resent so much for their commitment to education are the ones that led to TJ's top ranking. Without them, TJ's reputation will decline and it will simply be a better alternative for kids attending the county's worst high schools and an increasingly unattractive option for those attending the county's handful of remaining high-quality high schools.

Ehh. I don't resent them for their commitment to education at all. Far from it.

What I resent is their persistent belief that they have a monopoly on a commitment to education and the very narrow view that they have of what in the educational process is actually important to creating adults who are prepared to contribute to society. I reject the idea that test-taking ability is of some great value for any endeavor other than school admissions, and I strongly reject the notion that only students who are excellent test-takers belong in outstanding educational environments.

Test-taking is a skill - one that I learned at a very early age and that is largely responsible for my admission to TJ. It isn't that hard to learn how to be good at taking tests without necessarily having the content knowledge to succeed on them. But it does not have relevance to the real world outside of the process of getting admitted to selective schools or other institutions.

Where I will agree with you is that those same students are absolutely responsible for TJ's high rankings over the years - explicitly because of an inappropriate over-reliance on test scores in high school ranking algorithms. Those algorithms did nothing to determine whether or not a school was doing anything to educate its students - they merely determined how good the school was at cobbling together a core group of great test takers. Asians prioritize the development of test taking skills because they know that it used to be the secret to educational prestige through presenting students as more gifted/bright/intelligent than they actually were.

Unfortunately your argument completely falls apart when you consider that the Asians you are referring to are literally the core group of people at the cutting edge of research into science, tech, and engineering. Yep, it's that group of people that companies can't find enough of and need to do whatever it takes to pull to the US to fill these jobs, all because most people in this country aren't even remotely close to being qualified. So if you really want to go there and talk about "presenting students as more gifted/bright/intelligent than they actually were", please go take a look at any research or engineering positions and tell us who is filling the overwhelming majority of those spots.

I think the poster to whom you're responded also perfected the skill of making arguments that appeal to those on the left who simply want to diversify TJ for the sake of diversification and need someone to come up with rationales that sound superficially sophisticated for doing so. That's why they loaded up their posts with references to terms like "market inefficiencies" and implied that scoring high on tests is overwhelmingly an acquired skill that's not in any way related to real-life demands. Thanks for exposing the sophistry.

It is. I know because I acquired it.

I'm sure your self-loathing puts you in good stead with the anti-merit brigade. For everyone else, it's rather tiring.

How does buying test answers equate to merit?

Nobody bought the test answers. It has been explained ad nauseam to you, and yet you keep spewing the same garbage on every thread. You're also most likely the "backdoor" poster on the AAP threads. Either you're a troll, or you're a complete idiot. Just stop and go away. The adults here want to have a productive discussion that isn't constantly interrupted by your nonsense.

Hey PP, I believe she is now known on this Board as "TestBuyingKaren." Shows up in every thread.

I’d rather call her “BackdoorKaren”.

I know about the test buying but what's the backdoor?

Someone keeps posting on the AAP threads that half of the kids get in through the "backdoor" due to "purchasing a gifted diagnosis." I'm pretty sure it's the same person as the one who is always posting about buying the TJ test answers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BECAUSE Asian Americans are collateral damage for the benefit of preferred minority group.

This victimhood narrative is so tiresome.

You deserve credit for recognizing that there was a market inefficiency in elite college admissions - standardized test scores. They were overvalued by many of the most prestigious institutions both in your countries of origin and here in the US for many years, and so you designed your parenting and educational philosophy around taking advantage of that market inefficiency.

Institutions like Caltech - through years of research - have determined that standardized test scores are NOT a predictive measure of future success or competency and can indeed be an occluding factor in a selection process, and so they've moved away from using that metric. This advancement in research has removed an advantage for you and your community as a consequence.

That does NOT equate to collateral damage. And it does NOT equate to discrimination of any kind. We're just not using the metric that you're best at anymore because it selects the wrong kids.

Of all the funniest things posted on this forum, the suggestion that FCPS - an overwhelmed, declining school system - can bring the same analytical rigor to bear as an institution like CalTech when trying to evaluate applications without the benefit of objective metrics - may be the most hilarious.

You just want to discriminate against Asians and find a way to justify it. The joke will be on you, however, as those very kids whose families you resent so much for their commitment to education are the ones that led to TJ's top ranking. Without them, TJ's reputation will decline and it will simply be a better alternative for kids attending the county's worst high schools and an increasingly unattractive option for those attending the county's handful of remaining high-quality high schools.

Ehh. I don't resent them for their commitment to education at all. Far from it.

What I resent is their persistent belief that they have a monopoly on a commitment to education and the very narrow view that they have of what in the educational process is actually important to creating adults who are prepared to contribute to society. I reject the idea that test-taking ability is of some great value for any endeavor other than school admissions, and I strongly reject the notion that only students who are excellent test-takers belong in outstanding educational environments.

Test-taking is a skill - one that I learned at a very early age and that is largely responsible for my admission to TJ. It isn't that hard to learn how to be good at taking tests without necessarily having the content knowledge to succeed on them. But it does not have relevance to the real world outside of the process of getting admitted to selective schools or other institutions.

Where I will agree with you is that those same students are absolutely responsible for TJ's high rankings over the years - explicitly because of an inappropriate over-reliance on test scores in high school ranking algorithms. Those algorithms did nothing to determine whether or not a school was doing anything to educate its students - they merely determined how good the school was at cobbling together a core group of great test takers. Asians prioritize the development of test taking skills because they know that it used to be the secret to educational prestige through presenting students as more gifted/bright/intelligent than they actually were.

Unfortunately your argument completely falls apart when you consider that the Asians you are referring to are literally the core group of people at the cutting edge of research into science, tech, and engineering. Yep, it's that group of people that companies can't find enough of and need to do whatever it takes to pull to the US to fill these jobs, all because most people in this country aren't even remotely close to being qualified. So if you really want to go there and talk about "presenting students as more gifted/bright/intelligent than they actually were", please go take a look at any research or engineering positions and tell us who is filling the overwhelming majority of those spots.

I think the poster to whom you're responded also perfected the skill of making arguments that appeal to those on the left who simply want to diversify TJ for the sake of diversification and need someone to come up with rationales that sound superficially sophisticated for doing so. That's why they loaded up their posts with references to terms like "market inefficiencies" and implied that scoring high on tests is overwhelmingly an acquired skill that's not in any way related to real-life demands. Thanks for exposing the sophistry.

It is. I know because I acquired it.

I'm sure your self-loathing puts you in good stead with the anti-merit brigade. For everyone else, it's rather tiring.

How does buying test answers equate to merit?

Nobody bought the test answers. It has been explained ad nauseam to you, and yet you keep spewing the same garbage on every thread. You're also most likely the "backdoor" poster on the AAP threads. Either you're a troll, or you're a complete idiot. Just stop and go away. The adults here want to have a productive discussion that isn't constantly interrupted by your nonsense.

Hey PP, I believe she is now known on this Board as "TestBuyingKaren." Shows up in every thread.

I’d rather call her “BackdoorKaren”.

All of the parents willing to do ANYTHING to get their kids in are BackdoorKaren.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BECAUSE Asian Americans are collateral damage for the benefit of preferred minority group.

This victimhood narrative is so tiresome.

You deserve credit for recognizing that there was a market inefficiency in elite college admissions - standardized test scores. They were overvalued by many of the most prestigious institutions both in your countries of origin and here in the US for many years, and so you designed your parenting and educational philosophy around taking advantage of that market inefficiency.

Institutions like Caltech - through years of research - have determined that standardized test scores are NOT a predictive measure of future success or competency and can indeed be an occluding factor in a selection process, and so they've moved away from using that metric. This advancement in research has removed an advantage for you and your community as a consequence.

That does NOT equate to collateral damage. And it does NOT equate to discrimination of any kind. We're just not using the metric that you're best at anymore because it selects the wrong kids.

Of all the funniest things posted on this forum, the suggestion that FCPS - an overwhelmed, declining school system - can bring the same analytical rigor to bear as an institution like CalTech when trying to evaluate applications without the benefit of objective metrics - may be the most hilarious.

You just want to discriminate against Asians and find a way to justify it. The joke will be on you, however, as those very kids whose families you resent so much for their commitment to education are the ones that led to TJ's top ranking. Without them, TJ's reputation will decline and it will simply be a better alternative for kids attending the county's worst high schools and an increasingly unattractive option for those attending the county's handful of remaining high-quality high schools.

Ehh. I don't resent them for their commitment to education at all. Far from it.

What I resent is their persistent belief that they have a monopoly on a commitment to education and the very narrow view that they have of what in the educational process is actually important to creating adults who are prepared to contribute to society. I reject the idea that test-taking ability is of some great value for any endeavor other than school admissions, and I strongly reject the notion that only students who are excellent test-takers belong in outstanding educational environments.

Test-taking is a skill - one that I learned at a very early age and that is largely responsible for my admission to TJ. It isn't that hard to learn how to be good at taking tests without necessarily having the content knowledge to succeed on them. But it does not have relevance to the real world outside of the process of getting admitted to selective schools or other institutions.

Where I will agree with you is that those same students are absolutely responsible for TJ's high rankings over the years - explicitly because of an inappropriate over-reliance on test scores in high school ranking algorithms. Those algorithms did nothing to determine whether or not a school was doing anything to educate its students - they merely determined how good the school was at cobbling together a core group of great test takers. Asians prioritize the development of test taking skills because they know that it used to be the secret to educational prestige through presenting students as more gifted/bright/intelligent than they actually were.

Unfortunately your argument completely falls apart when you consider that the Asians you are referring to are literally the core group of people at the cutting edge of research into science, tech, and engineering. Yep, it's that group of people that companies can't find enough of and need to do whatever it takes to pull to the US to fill these jobs, all because most people in this country aren't even remotely close to being qualified. So if you really want to go there and talk about "presenting students as more gifted/bright/intelligent than they actually were", please go take a look at any research or engineering positions and tell us who is filling the overwhelming majority of those spots.

I think the poster to whom you're responded also perfected the skill of making arguments that appeal to those on the left who simply want to diversify TJ for the sake of diversification and need someone to come up with rationales that sound superficially sophisticated for doing so. That's why they loaded up their posts with references to terms like "market inefficiencies" and implied that scoring high on tests is overwhelmingly an acquired skill that's not in any way related to real-life demands. Thanks for exposing the sophistry.

It is. I know because I acquired it.

I'm sure your self-loathing puts you in good stead with the anti-merit brigade. For everyone else, it's rather tiring.

How does buying test answers equate to merit?

Nobody bought the test answers. It has been explained ad nauseam to you, and yet you keep spewing the same garbage on every thread. You're also most likely the "backdoor" poster on the AAP threads. Either you're a troll, or you're a complete idiot. Just stop and go away. The adults here want to have a productive discussion that isn't constantly interrupted by your nonsense.

Hey PP, I believe she is now known on this Board as "TestBuyingKaren." Shows up in every thread.

I’d rather call her “BackdoorKaren”.

All of the parents willing to do ANYTHING to get their kids in are BackdoorKaren.

lol #BackdoorKaren

[Anonymous]

The TJ folks are certifiably insane. Between the parents accusing each other of threatening each other's physical safety, receiving loads of "dark money," or being agents of the North Korean government, etc, that place has gone absolutely nuts.

I know PTA battles are legendary for getting out of hand, but I've never seen another school where the alumni and parents are so totally bonkers. If it was toxic before, it's radioactive now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People will constantly kvetch that someone else has an unfair advantage when it comes to getting into TJ.

One group will complain about test-prepped kids and the need for “equity.”

Another will point out the absurdity of funneling the most advanced kids into AAP centers and then treating non-AAP centers the same as AAP centers when allocating TJ seats.

Reid is big on saying “imagine the possibilities” and the one many of us would like to imagine is a school system that wasn’t so preoccupied with one school in a county with 200 schools.

They're not treated the same. They would be if the 1.5% allocation took up the entire student population, but it does not. That's why Carson still gets 40 kids in.

That being said, I'd like to see it dropped to 1%, which would probably take about 100 of the seats and convert them from allocated to unallocated.

The point is about the kids going to the AAP centers from a different school. They are not being admitted as part of their base school's 1.5% quota, but instead have to compete against all these top kids from other schools with the same 1.5% quota.

So?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BECAUSE Asian Americans are collateral damage for the benefit of preferred minority group.

This victimhood narrative is so tiresome.

You deserve credit for recognizing that there was a market inefficiency in elite college admissions - standardized test scores. They were overvalued by many of the most prestigious institutions both in your countries of origin and here in the US for many years, and so you designed your parenting and educational philosophy around taking advantage of that market inefficiency.

Institutions like Caltech - through years of research - have determined that standardized test scores are NOT a predictive measure of future success or competency and can indeed be an occluding factor in a selection process, and so they've moved away from using that metric. This advancement in research has removed an advantage for you and your community as a consequence.

That does NOT equate to collateral damage. And it does NOT equate to discrimination of any kind. We're just not using the metric that you're best at anymore because it selects the wrong kids.

Of all the funniest things posted on this forum, the suggestion that FCPS - an overwhelmed, declining school system - can bring the same analytical rigor to bear as an institution like CalTech when trying to evaluate applications without the benefit of objective metrics - may be the most hilarious.

You just want to discriminate against Asians and find a way to justify it. The joke will be on you, however, as those very kids whose families you resent so much for their commitment to education are the ones that led to TJ's top ranking. Without them, TJ's reputation will decline and it will simply be a better alternative for kids attending the county's worst high schools and an increasingly unattractive option for those attending the county's handful of remaining high-quality high schools.

Ehh. I don't resent them for their commitment to education at all. Far from it.

What I resent is their persistent belief that they have a monopoly on a commitment to education and the very narrow view that they have of what in the educational process is actually important to creating adults who are prepared to contribute to society. I reject the idea that test-taking ability is of some great value for any endeavor other than school admissions, and I strongly reject the notion that only students who are excellent test-takers belong in outstanding educational environments.

Test-taking is a skill - one that I learned at a very early age and that is largely responsible for my admission to TJ. It isn't that hard to learn how to be good at taking tests without necessarily having the content knowledge to succeed on them. But it does not have relevance to the real world outside of the process of getting admitted to selective schools or other institutions.

Where I will agree with you is that those same students are absolutely responsible for TJ's high rankings over the years - explicitly because of an inappropriate over-reliance on test scores in high school ranking algorithms. Those algorithms did nothing to determine whether or not a school was doing anything to educate its students - they merely determined how good the school was at cobbling together a core group of great test takers. Asians prioritize the development of test taking skills because they know that it used to be the secret to educational prestige through presenting students as more gifted/bright/intelligent than they actually were.

Unfortunately your argument completely falls apart when you consider that the Asians you are referring to are literally the core group of people at the cutting edge of research into science, tech, and engineering. Yep, it's that group of people that companies can't find enough of and need to do whatever it takes to pull to the US to fill these jobs, all because most people in this country aren't even remotely close to being qualified. So if you really want to go there and talk about "presenting students as more gifted/bright/intelligent than they actually were", please go take a look at any research or engineering positions and tell us who is filling the overwhelming majority of those spots.

I think the poster to whom you're responded also perfected the skill of making arguments that appeal to those on the left who simply want to diversify TJ for the sake of diversification and need someone to come up with rationales that sound superficially sophisticated for doing so. That's why they loaded up their posts with references to terms like "market inefficiencies" and implied that scoring high on tests is overwhelmingly an acquired skill that's not in any way related to real-life demands. Thanks for exposing the sophistry.

It is. I know because I acquired it.

I'm sure your self-loathing puts you in good stead with the anti-merit brigade. For everyone else, it's rather tiring.

How does buying test answers equate to merit?

Nobody bought the test answers. It has been explained ad nauseam to you, and yet you keep spewing the same garbage on every thread. You're also most likely the "backdoor" poster on the AAP threads. Either you're a troll, or you're a complete idiot. Just stop and go away. The adults here want to have a productive discussion that isn't constantly interrupted by your nonsense.

Hey PP, I believe she is now known on this Board as "TestBuyingKaren." Shows up in every thread.

I’d rather call her “BackdoorKaren”.

I know about the test buying but what's the backdoor?

Someone keeps posting on the AAP threads that half of the kids get in through the "backdoor" due to "purchasing a gifted diagnosis." I'm pretty sure it's the same person as the one who is always posting about buying the TJ test answers.

Let's make sure that we're not conflating the person who is talking about "buying the test answers" (which is at the very least disingenuous and overstates the issue)...

...with the people who are rightly pointing out that the Curie situation, where parents were spending thousands of dollars and the kids were spending hundreds of hours getting preparation for an exam that was designed to be taken without preparation, was extremely problematic. It's an extremely bad look when a prep company claims 28% of an incoming class, and according to the first and last names of the kids that it posts publicly, appears to serve exclusively South Asian clients.

Don't minimize this major issue by making light of people who are not comprehending the situation properly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The TJ folks are certifiably insane. Between the parents accusing each other of threatening each other's physical safety, receiving loads of "dark money," or being agents of the North Korean government, etc, that place has gone absolutely nuts.

I know PTA battles are legendary for getting out of hand, but I've never seen another school where the alumni and parents are so totally bonkers. If it was toxic before, it's radioactive now.

To be fair, it's a very small number of those people who are actually still connected with TJ. Margulies and Jackson, for example, are active parents at the school (or step-parents, anyway).