Thomas Jefferson HS National Merit Semifinalist decrease

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm very surprised at the constant threads on TJ, trying to cut it down. It's a high school, a good one. Can't everyone just leave it at that and move on?

Because the new admissions process was borne of racism and has had racist effects.

Please try again...

* Selection is race blind
* Asian enrollment is currently at an all time historic high
* Largest beneficiary of selection changes were low-income Asians

* selection is supposed to be race blind, but it is clearly race-aware. Applicant is required to provide race information, when it is not needed until student registration. FCPS TJ admissions news release touts race based distribution of offers, with merit selection criteria removed.
* Asian enrollment has been brought down from historic high of 73.4% for 2024 class to now 57.27% for 2028 class, with no participation in expanded class size.
* Among the low-income applicants, the essay lottery selection process unfairly excludes those who may have stronger merit qualification.

Stop spreading misinformation.

The admissions team does NOT have race info.

ask yourself: how does FCPS consistently achieve a reduced and restricted representation of the one race group over the last four years, especially when the thirty years prior to change has shown steady organic growth of that group when merit instead of racial proxies was used?

For crying out loud, before the changes TJ was a whopping 72% (!) Asian despite Asians being only: 19% of FCPS, 25% of LCPS, 9% of Arlington, and 10% of PWCS. How much higher do you think it needed to be - 100%??

Well said!!!!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm very surprised at the constant threads on TJ, trying to cut it down. It's a high school, a good one. Can't everyone just leave it at that and move on?

Because the new admissions process was borne of racism and has had racist effects.

Please try again...

* Selection is race blind
* Asian enrollment is currently at an all time historic high
* Largest beneficiary of selection changes were low-income Asians

* selection is supposed to be race blind, but it is clearly race-aware. Applicant is required to provide race information, when it is not needed until student registration. FCPS TJ admissions news release touts race based distribution of offers, with merit selection criteria removed.
* Asian enrollment has been brought down from historic high of 73.4% for 2024 class to now 57.27% for 2028 class, with no participation in expanded class size.
* Among the low-income applicants, the essay lottery selection process unfairly excludes those who may have stronger merit qualification.

Ability to write coherently and well is a measure of academic merit. An applicant who can’t write well does not actually have stronger merit qualification and is missing a crucial ability for those who want careers in STEM fields.

TJ is looking for kids who have the whole package. Lots of kids have math and science skills; TJ wants kids who have math, science, and writing abilities.

You're making a lot of very incorrect assumptions.
1. The essays are really fluffy, short paragraphs about Portrait of a Graduate skills. They're not exactly rhetorical analysis or anything profound. I would hope that almost every 8th grade honors student can throw together a few coherent sentences about a time they advocated for themselves, a time they showed some leadership, the famous person they admire most, etc. Some kids are likely uncomfortable with bragging about themselves and understate any achievements. Others assume that they won't be fact checked and lie.

2. You're assuming that writing ability is being evaluated, rather than content. You're also assuming that the evaluation of the content isn't incredibly subjective. For example, let's imagine that the kids are given the prompt: "You're sure that the teacher graded your exam incorrectly. How would you advocate for yourself?" Some graders might decide that the best answer is to approach the teacher and try to explain why your solution is correct. Others might decide that the kid who answers that they would let it go, but study harder for the next test to ensure that their grades remain high is showing some resilience or something.

But most importantly:
3. You're assuming that there's some huge gap between the writing abilities of the kids who are admitted and those who aren't. At a school like Longfellow, it's likely that there are 100 kids who all have 4.0s and are strong writers. Both the slightly above average privileged kids and the outliers will all look the same and will all be bunched at the top of the scoring range. It's likely that the selection of the kids at the TJ feeders is more based on the biases of the person who graded the essay and less based on the actual merits of the kid. The margins are so slim that even a tiny difference in essay grading is the difference between being admitted and being far down the waitlist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm very surprised at the constant threads on TJ, trying to cut it down. It's a high school, a good one. Can't everyone just leave it at that and move on?

Because the new admissions process was borne of racism and has had racist effects.

Please try again...

* Selection is race blind
* Asian enrollment is currently at an all time historic high
* Largest beneficiary of selection changes were low-income Asians

* selection is supposed to be race blind, but it is clearly race-aware. Applicant is required to provide race information, when it is not needed until student registration. FCPS TJ admissions news release touts race based distribution of offers, with merit selection criteria removed.
* Asian enrollment has been brought down from historic high of 73.4% for 2024 class to now 57.27% for 2028 class, with no participation in expanded class size.
* Among the low-income applicants, the essay lottery selection process unfairly excludes those who may have stronger merit qualification.

Stop spreading misinformation.

The admissions team does NOT have race info.

ask yourself: how does FCPS consistently achieve a reduced and restricted representation of the one race group over the last four years, especially when the thirty years prior to change has shown steady organic growth of that group when merit instead of racial proxies was used?

For crying out loud, before the changes TJ was a whopping 72% (!) Asian despite Asians being only: 19% of FCPS, 25% of LCPS, 9% of Arlington, and 10% of PWCS. How much higher do you think it needed to be - 100%??

DP and if those are the families kids who want to put all their efforts and time into studying at the expense of other things, then sure, let it be 100%. I am white and don't care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm very surprised at the constant threads on TJ, trying to cut it down. It's a high school, a good one. Can't everyone just leave it at that and move on?

Because the new admissions process was borne of racism and has had racist effects.

Please try again...

* Selection is race blind
* Asian enrollment is currently at an all time historic high
* Largest beneficiary of selection changes were low-income Asians

* selection is supposed to be race blind, but it is clearly race-aware. Applicant is required to provide race information, when it is not needed until student registration. FCPS TJ admissions news release touts race based distribution of offers, with merit selection criteria removed.
* Asian enrollment has been brought down from historic high of 73.4% for 2024 class to now 57.27% for 2028 class, with no participation in expanded class size.
* Among the low-income applicants, the essay lottery selection process unfairly excludes those who may have stronger merit qualification.

Ability to write coherently and well is a measure of academic merit. An applicant who can’t write well does not actually have stronger merit qualification and is missing a crucial ability for those who want careers in STEM fields.

TJ is looking for kids who have the whole package. Lots of kids have math and science skills; TJ wants kids who have math, science, and writing abilities.

You're making a lot of very incorrect assumptions.
1. The essays are really fluffy, short paragraphs about Portrait of a Graduate skills. They're not exactly rhetorical analysis or anything profound. I would hope that almost every 8th grade honors student can throw together a few coherent sentences about a time they advocated for themselves, a time they showed some leadership, the famous person they admire most, etc. Some kids are likely uncomfortable with bragging about themselves and understate any achievements. Others assume that they won't be fact checked and lie.

2. You're assuming that writing ability is being evaluated, rather than content. You're also assuming that the evaluation of the content isn't incredibly subjective. For example, let's imagine that the kids are given the prompt: "You're sure that the teacher graded your exam incorrectly. How would you advocate for yourself?" Some graders might decide that the best answer is to approach the teacher and try to explain why your solution is correct. Others might decide that the kid who answers that they would let it go, but study harder for the next test to ensure that their grades remain high is showing some resilience or something.

But most importantly:
3. You're assuming that there's some huge gap between the writing abilities of the kids who are admitted and those who aren't. At a school like Longfellow, it's likely that there are 100 kids who all have 4.0s and are strong writers. Both the slightly above average privileged kids and the outliers will all look the same and will all be bunched at the top of the scoring range. It's likely that the selection of the kids at the TJ feeders is more based on the biases of the person who graded the essay and less based on the actual merits of the kid. The margins are so slim that even a tiny difference in essay grading is the difference between being admitted and being far down the waitlist.

You are making a number of assumptions here and you appear to not really understand the importance of writing skills and how they are judged. I get that your lack of understanding leads you to think that essay writing is “fluffy” and graded in a way that you fear is subjective.

But here’s the thing: writing is extremely important in STEM fields because many who are talented in STEM subjects are may not have a robust ability to convey their thoughts to others. In other words, it’s not enough to be able to “do the math,” you must be able to write about it as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm very surprised at the constant threads on TJ, trying to cut it down. It's a high school, a good one. Can't everyone just leave it at that and move on?

Because the new admissions process was borne of racism and has had racist effects.

Please try again...

* Selection is race blind
* Asian enrollment is currently at an all time historic high
* Largest beneficiary of selection changes were low-income Asians

* selection is supposed to be race blind, but it is clearly race-aware. Applicant is required to provide race information, when it is not needed until student registration. FCPS TJ admissions news release touts race based distribution of offers, with merit selection criteria removed.
* Asian enrollment has been brought down from historic high of 73.4% for 2024 class to now 57.27% for 2028 class, with no participation in expanded class size.
* Among the low-income applicants, the essay lottery selection process unfairly excludes those who may have stronger merit qualification.

Stop spreading misinformation.

The admissions team does NOT have race info.

ask yourself: how does FCPS consistently achieve a reduced and restricted representation of the one race group over the last four years, especially when the thirty years prior to change has shown steady organic growth of that group when merit instead of racial proxies was used?

I'm on your side but you're barking up the wrong tree. They rigged the admissions process to select from the pool almost at random and that means the selected students are going to look like a cross section of the applicant pool with a few preferences for poor kids, etc. The pool is only like 55% asian. In the past the pool would be 55% asian and end up with an entering class that was 70% asian. Now it more closely reflects the applicant pool.

It is foolish to assume the entire application pool is of same caliber, and applicants should be selected proportionally and randomly. Previously the best were chosen based on merit, irrespective of the applicant pool split by skin color. Now with skin color consideration, it's forced to reflect the applicant pool, while disregarding merit. Hence the decline in academic performance, not due to the pandemic or other nonsensical unrelated reasons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm very surprised at the constant threads on TJ, trying to cut it down. It's a high school, a good one. Can't everyone just leave it at that and move on?

Because the new admissions process was borne of racism and has had racist effects.

Please try again...

* Selection is race blind
* Asian enrollment is currently at an all time historic high
* Largest beneficiary of selection changes were low-income Asians

* selection is supposed to be race blind, but it is clearly race-aware. Applicant is required to provide race information, when it is not needed until student registration. FCPS TJ admissions news release touts race based distribution of offers, with merit selection criteria removed.
* Asian enrollment has been brought down from historic high of 73.4% for 2024 class to now 57.27% for 2028 class, with no participation in expanded class size.
* Among the low-income applicants, the essay lottery selection process unfairly excludes those who may have stronger merit qualification.

Ability to write coherently and well is a measure of academic merit. An applicant who can’t write well does not actually have stronger merit qualification and is missing a crucial ability for those who want careers in STEM fields.

TJ is looking for kids who have the whole package. Lots of kids have math and science skills; TJ wants kids who have math, science, and writing abilities.

Why is TJ admitting kids with inferior math skills to get to predetermined diversity chart? Prior to admission change, there was one TJ Math 1 class with around 17 students. After admissions change, for each of last four years, there are four to five TJ Math 1 sections with around 120 students enrolled in them. Does this have anything to do with the lowered number of NMSF recipients?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm very surprised at the constant threads on TJ, trying to cut it down. It's a high school, a good one. Can't everyone just leave it at that and move on?

Because the new admissions process was borne of racism and has had racist effects.

Please try again...

* Selection is race blind
* Asian enrollment is currently at an all time historic high
* Largest beneficiary of selection changes were low-income Asians

* selection is supposed to be race blind, but it is clearly race-aware. Applicant is required to provide race information, when it is not needed until student registration. FCPS TJ admissions news release touts race based distribution of offers, with merit selection criteria removed.
* Asian enrollment has been brought down from historic high of 73.4% for 2024 class to now 57.27% for 2028 class, with no participation in expanded class size.
* Among the low-income applicants, the essay lottery selection process unfairly excludes those who may have stronger merit qualification.

Ability to write coherently and well is a measure of academic merit. An applicant who can’t write well does not actually have stronger merit qualification and is missing a crucial ability for those who want careers in STEM fields.

TJ is looking for kids who have the whole package. Lots of kids have math and science skills; TJ wants kids who have math, science, and writing abilities.

You're making a lot of very incorrect assumptions.
1. The essays are really fluffy, short paragraphs about Portrait of a Graduate skills. They're not exactly rhetorical analysis or anything profound. I would hope that almost every 8th grade honors student can throw together a few coherent sentences about a time they advocated for themselves, a time they showed some leadership, the famous person they admire most, etc. Some kids are likely uncomfortable with bragging about themselves and understate any achievements. Others assume that they won't be fact checked and lie.

2. You're assuming that writing ability is being evaluated, rather than content. You're also assuming that the evaluation of the content isn't incredibly subjective. For example, let's imagine that the kids are given the prompt: "You're sure that the teacher graded your exam incorrectly. How would you advocate for yourself?" Some graders might decide that the best answer is to approach the teacher and try to explain why your solution is correct. Others might decide that the kid who answers that they would let it go, but study harder for the next test to ensure that their grades remain high is showing some resilience or something.

But most importantly:
3. You're assuming that there's some huge gap between the writing abilities of the kids who are admitted and those who aren't. At a school like Longfellow, it's likely that there are 100 kids who all have 4.0s and are strong writers. Both the slightly above average privileged kids and the outliers will all look the same and will all be bunched at the top of the scoring range. It's likely that the selection of the kids at the TJ feeders is more based on the biases of the person who graded the essay and less based on the actual merits of the kid. The margins are so slim that even a tiny difference in essay grading is the difference between being admitted and being far down the waitlist.

You are making a number of assumptions here and you appear to not really understand the importance of writing skills and how they are judged. I get that your lack of understanding leads you to think that essay writing is “fluffy” and graded in a way that you fear is subjective.

But here’s the thing: writing is extremely important in STEM fields because many who are talented in STEM subjects are may not have a robust ability to convey their thoughts to others. In other words, it’s not enough to be able to “do the math,” you must be able to write about it as well.

I'm sorry that you have such poor reading comprehension that your response wasn't even vaguely responsive to any of the points I made.

Writing marginally and almost indistinguishably better than another kid for canned PoG prompts doesn't show much of anything. A few years ago, when they published some profiles on the new students, a clearly and obviously unqualified girl was admitted because she wrote about how much she loved Michelle Obama. Essays like that are neither indicative of STEM talent nor writing talent, especially when they are so easily coached by the prep companies. If they want to give the kids an AP-like DBQ essay, I'm all for that. At least the kids would need to analyze some texts and provide a much more complex essay, rather than memorizing and regurgitating PoG talking points.

Also, if TJ wants the "whole package," their approach is idiotic since they're doing nothing to ensure that the kid has any real math or science skills.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm very surprised at the constant threads on TJ, trying to cut it down. It's a high school, a good one. Can't everyone just leave it at that and move on?

Because the new admissions process was borne of racism and has had racist effects.

Please try again...

* Selection is race blind
* Asian enrollment is currently at an all time historic high
* Largest beneficiary of selection changes were low-income Asians

* selection is supposed to be race blind, but it is clearly race-aware. Applicant is required to provide race information, when it is not needed until student registration. FCPS TJ admissions news release touts race based distribution of offers, with merit selection criteria removed.
* Asian enrollment has been brought down from historic high of 73.4% for 2024 class to now 57.27% for 2028 class, with no participation in expanded class size.
* Among the low-income applicants, the essay lottery selection process unfairly excludes those who may have stronger merit qualification.

Ability to write coherently and well is a measure of academic merit. An applicant who can’t write well does not actually have stronger merit qualification and is missing a crucial ability for those who want careers in STEM fields.

TJ is looking for kids who have the whole package. Lots of kids have math and science skills; TJ wants kids who have math, science, and writing abilities.

Why is TJ admitting kids with inferior math skills to get to predetermined diversity chart? Prior to admission change, there was one TJ Math 1 class with around 17 students. After admissions change, for each of last four years, there are four to five TJ Math 1 sections with around 120 students enrolled in them. Does this have anything to do with the lowered number of NMSF recipients?

Good to hear. If the admission change has slowed the Road to Nowhere, that's good for everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm very surprised at the constant threads on TJ, trying to cut it down. It's a high school, a good one. Can't everyone just leave it at that and move on?

Because the new admissions process was borne of racism and has had racist effects.

Please try again...

* Selection is race blind
* Asian enrollment is currently at an all time historic high
* Largest beneficiary of selection changes were low-income Asians

* selection is supposed to be race blind, but it is clearly race-aware. Applicant is required to provide race information, when it is not needed until student registration. FCPS TJ admissions news release touts race based distribution of offers, with merit selection criteria removed.
* Asian enrollment has been brought down from historic high of 73.4% for 2024 class to now 57.27% for 2028 class, with no participation in expanded class size.
* Among the low-income applicants, the essay lottery selection process unfairly excludes those who may have stronger merit qualification.

Ability to write coherently and well is a measure of academic merit. An applicant who can’t write well does not actually have stronger merit qualification and is missing a crucial ability for those who want careers in STEM fields.

TJ is looking for kids who have the whole package. Lots of kids have math and science skills; TJ wants kids who have math, science, and writing abilities.

You're making a lot of very incorrect assumptions.
1. The essays are really fluffy, short paragraphs about Portrait of a Graduate skills. They're not exactly rhetorical analysis or anything profound. I would hope that almost every 8th grade honors student can throw together a few coherent sentences about a time they advocated for themselves, a time they showed some leadership, the famous person they admire most, etc. Some kids are likely uncomfortable with bragging about themselves and understate any achievements. Others assume that they won't be fact checked and lie.

2. You're assuming that writing ability is being evaluated, rather than content. You're also assuming that the evaluation of the content isn't incredibly subjective. For example, let's imagine that the kids are given the prompt: "You're sure that the teacher graded your exam incorrectly. How would you advocate for yourself?" Some graders might decide that the best answer is to approach the teacher and try to explain why your solution is correct. Others might decide that the kid who answers that they would let it go, but study harder for the next test to ensure that their grades remain high is showing some resilience or something.

But most importantly:
3. You're assuming that there's some huge gap between the writing abilities of the kids who are admitted and those who aren't. At a school like Longfellow, it's likely that there are 100 kids who all have 4.0s and are strong writers. Both the slightly above average privileged kids and the outliers will all look the same and will all be bunched at the top of the scoring range. It's likely that the selection of the kids at the TJ feeders is more based on the biases of the person who graded the essay and less based on the actual merits of the kid. The margins are so slim that even a tiny difference in essay grading is the difference between being admitted and being far down the waitlist.

You are making a number of assumptions here and you appear to not really understand the importance of writing skills and how they are judged. I get that your lack of understanding leads you to think that essay writing is “fluffy” and graded in a way that you fear is subjective.

But here’s the thing: writing is extremely important in STEM fields because many who are talented in STEM subjects are may not have a robust ability to convey their thoughts to others. In other words, it’s not enough to be able to “do the math,” you must be able to write about it as well.

I'm sorry that you have such poor reading comprehension that your response wasn't even vaguely responsive to any of the points I made.

Writing marginally and almost indistinguishably better than another kid for canned PoG prompts doesn't show much of anything. A few years ago, when they published some profiles on the new students, a clearly and obviously unqualified girl was admitted because she wrote about how much she loved Michelle Obama. Essays like that are neither indicative of STEM talent nor writing talent, especially when they are so easily coached by the prep companies. If they want to give the kids an AP-like DBQ essay, I'm all for that. At least the kids would need to analyze some texts and provide a much more complex essay, rather than memorizing and regurgitating PoG talking points.

Also, if TJ wants the "whole package," their approach is idiotic since they're doing nothing to ensure that the kid has any real math or science skills.

Your answer further demonstrates your lack of understanding of the importance of writing and your fears as to how the essays are graded. More importantly, your answer reveals your obvious agenda.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm very surprised at the constant threads on TJ, trying to cut it down. It's a high school, a good one. Can't everyone just leave it at that and move on?

Because the new admissions process was borne of racism and has had racist effects.

Please try again...

* Selection is race blind
* Asian enrollment is currently at an all time historic high
* Largest beneficiary of selection changes were low-income Asians

* selection is supposed to be race blind, but it is clearly race-aware. Applicant is required to provide race information, when it is not needed until student registration. FCPS TJ admissions news release touts race based distribution of offers, with merit selection criteria removed.
* Asian enrollment has been brought down from historic high of 73.4% for 2024 class to now 57.27% for 2028 class, with no participation in expanded class size.
* Among the low-income applicants, the essay lottery selection process unfairly excludes those who may have stronger merit qualification.

Ability to write coherently and well is a measure of academic merit. An applicant who can’t write well does not actually have stronger merit qualification and is missing a crucial ability for those who want careers in STEM fields.

TJ is looking for kids who have the whole package. Lots of kids have math and science skills; TJ wants kids who have math, science, and writing abilities.

You're making a lot of very incorrect assumptions.
1. The essays are really fluffy, short paragraphs about Portrait of a Graduate skills. They're not exactly rhetorical analysis or anything profound. I would hope that almost every 8th grade honors student can throw together a few coherent sentences about a time they advocated for themselves, a time they showed some leadership, the famous person they admire most, etc. Some kids are likely uncomfortable with bragging about themselves and understate any achievements. Others assume that they won't be fact checked and lie.

2. You're assuming that writing ability is being evaluated, rather than content. You're also assuming that the evaluation of the content isn't incredibly subjective. For example, let's imagine that the kids are given the prompt: "You're sure that the teacher graded your exam incorrectly. How would you advocate for yourself?" Some graders might decide that the best answer is to approach the teacher and try to explain why your solution is correct. Others might decide that the kid who answers that they would let it go, but study harder for the next test to ensure that their grades remain high is showing some resilience or something.

But most importantly:
3. You're assuming that there's some huge gap between the writing abilities of the kids who are admitted and those who aren't. At a school like Longfellow, it's likely that there are 100 kids who all have 4.0s and are strong writers. Both the slightly above average privileged kids and the outliers will all look the same and will all be bunched at the top of the scoring range. It's likely that the selection of the kids at the TJ feeders is more based on the biases of the person who graded the essay and less based on the actual merits of the kid. The margins are so slim that even a tiny difference in essay grading is the difference between being admitted and being far down the waitlist.

You are making a number of assumptions here and you appear to not really understand the importance of writing skills and how they are judged. I get that your lack of understanding leads you to think that essay writing is “fluffy” and graded in a way that you fear is subjective.

But here’s the thing: writing is extremely important in STEM fields because many who are talented in STEM subjects are may not have a robust ability to convey their thoughts to others. In other words, it’s not enough to be able to “do the math,” you must be able to write about it as well.

I'm sorry that you have such poor reading comprehension that your response wasn't even vaguely responsive to any of the points I made.

Writing marginally and almost indistinguishably better than another kid for canned PoG prompts doesn't show much of anything. A few years ago, when they published some profiles on the new students, a clearly and obviously unqualified girl was admitted because she wrote about how much she loved Michelle Obama. Essays like that are neither indicative of STEM talent nor writing talent, especially when they are so easily coached by the prep companies. If they want to give the kids an AP-like DBQ essay, I'm all for that. At least the kids would need to analyze some texts and provide a much more complex essay, rather than memorizing and regurgitating PoG talking points.

Also, if TJ wants the "whole package," their approach is idiotic since they're doing nothing to ensure that the kid has any real math or science skills.

Your answer further demonstrates your lack of understanding of the importance of writing and your fears as to how the essays are graded. More importantly, your answer reveals your obvious agenda.

Since you're obviously the most brilliant person in the room, please explain to everyone how my posts demonstrate any of that. You've provided attacks and generic, non-responsive statements twice. Please dazzle all of us with your intellectual prowess as to the immense depth of the PoG essays and how they are so perfectly predictive of math and writing aptitude.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm very surprised at the constant threads on TJ, trying to cut it down. It's a high school, a good one. Can't everyone just leave it at that and move on?

Because the new admissions process was borne of racism and has had racist effects.

Please try again...

* Selection is race blind
* Asian enrollment is currently at an all time historic high
* Largest beneficiary of selection changes were low-income Asians

* selection is supposed to be race blind, but it is clearly race-aware. Applicant is required to provide race information, when it is not needed until student registration. FCPS TJ admissions news release touts race based distribution of offers, with merit selection criteria removed.
* Asian enrollment has been brought down from historic high of 73.4% for 2024 class to now 57.27% for 2028 class, with no participation in expanded class size.
* Among the low-income applicants, the essay lottery selection process unfairly excludes those who may have stronger merit qualification.

Ability to write coherently and well is a measure of academic merit. An applicant who can’t write well does not actually have stronger merit qualification and is missing a crucial ability for those who want careers in STEM fields.

TJ is looking for kids who have the whole package. Lots of kids have math and science skills; TJ wants kids who have math, science, and writing abilities.

You're making a lot of very incorrect assumptions.
1. The essays are really fluffy, short paragraphs about Portrait of a Graduate skills. They're not exactly rhetorical analysis or anything profound. I would hope that almost every 8th grade honors student can throw together a few coherent sentences about a time they advocated for themselves, a time they showed some leadership, the famous person they admire most, etc. Some kids are likely uncomfortable with bragging about themselves and understate any achievements. Others assume that they won't be fact checked and lie.

2. You're assuming that writing ability is being evaluated, rather than content. You're also assuming that the evaluation of the content isn't incredibly subjective. For example, let's imagine that the kids are given the prompt: "You're sure that the teacher graded your exam incorrectly. How would you advocate for yourself?" Some graders might decide that the best answer is to approach the teacher and try to explain why your solution is correct. Others might decide that the kid who answers that they would let it go, but study harder for the next test to ensure that their grades remain high is showing some resilience or something.

But most importantly:
3. You're assuming that there's some huge gap between the writing abilities of the kids who are admitted and those who aren't. At a school like Longfellow, it's likely that there are 100 kids who all have 4.0s and are strong writers. Both the slightly above average privileged kids and the outliers will all look the same and will all be bunched at the top of the scoring range. It's likely that the selection of the kids at the TJ feeders is more based on the biases of the person who graded the essay and less based on the actual merits of the kid. The margins are so slim that even a tiny difference in essay grading is the difference between being admitted and being far down the waitlist.

You are making a number of assumptions here and you appear to not really understand the importance of writing skills and how they are judged. I get that your lack of understanding leads you to think that essay writing is “fluffy” and graded in a way that you fear is subjective.

But here’s the thing: writing is extremely important in STEM fields because many who are talented in STEM subjects are may not have a robust ability to convey their thoughts to others. In other words, it’s not enough to be able to “do the math,” you must be able to write about it as well.

I'm sorry that you have such poor reading comprehension that your response wasn't even vaguely responsive to any of the points I made.

Writing marginally and almost indistinguishably better than another kid for canned PoG prompts doesn't show much of anything. A few years ago, when they published some profiles on the new students, a clearly and obviously unqualified girl was admitted because she wrote about how much she loved Michelle Obama. Essays like that are neither indicative of STEM talent nor writing talent, especially when they are so easily coached by the prep companies. If they want to give the kids an AP-like DBQ essay, I'm all for that. At least the kids would need to analyze some texts and provide a much more complex essay, rather than memorizing and regurgitating PoG talking points.

Also, if TJ wants the "whole package," their approach is idiotic since they're doing nothing to ensure that the kid has any real math or science skills.

Your answer further demonstrates your lack of understanding of the importance of writing and your fears as to how the essays are graded. More importantly, your answer reveals your obvious agenda.

Since you're obviously the most brilliant person in the room, please explain to everyone how my posts demonstrate any of that. You've provided attacks and generic, non-responsive statements twice. Please dazzle all of us with your intellectual prowess as to the immense depth of the PoG essays and how they are so perfectly predictive of math and writing aptitude.

You seem very triggered by someone calling out your agenda. Interesting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm very surprised at the constant threads on TJ, trying to cut it down. It's a high school, a good one. Can't everyone just leave it at that and move on?

Because the new admissions process was borne of racism and has had racist effects.

Please try again...

* Selection is race blind
* Asian enrollment is currently at an all time historic high
* Largest beneficiary of selection changes were low-income Asians

* selection is supposed to be race blind, but it is clearly race-aware. Applicant is required to provide race information, when it is not needed until student registration. FCPS TJ admissions news release touts race based distribution of offers, with merit selection criteria removed.
* Asian enrollment has been brought down from historic high of 73.4% for 2024 class to now 57.27% for 2028 class, with no participation in expanded class size.
* Among the low-income applicants, the essay lottery selection process unfairly excludes those who may have stronger merit qualification.

Ability to write coherently and well is a measure of academic merit. An applicant who can’t write well does not actually have stronger merit qualification and is missing a crucial ability for those who want careers in STEM fields.

TJ is looking for kids who have the whole package. Lots of kids have math and science skills; TJ wants kids who have math, science, and writing abilities.

Why is TJ admitting kids with inferior math skills to get to predetermined diversity chart? Prior to admission change, there was one TJ Math 1 class with around 17 students. After admissions change, for each of last four years, there are four to five TJ Math 1 sections with around 120 students enrolled in them. Does this have anything to do with the lowered number of NMSF recipients?

Good to hear. If the admission change has slowed the Road to Nowhere, that's good for everyone.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm very surprised at the constant threads on TJ, trying to cut it down. It's a high school, a good one. Can't everyone just leave it at that and move on?

Because the new admissions process was borne of racism and has had racist effects.

Please try again...

* Selection is race blind
* Asian enrollment is currently at an all time historic high
* Largest beneficiary of selection changes were low-income Asians

* selection is supposed to be race blind, but it is clearly race-aware. Applicant is required to provide race information, when it is not needed until student registration. FCPS TJ admissions news release touts race based distribution of offers, with merit selection criteria removed.
* Asian enrollment has been brought down from historic high of 73.4% for 2024 class to now 57.27% for 2028 class, with no participation in expanded class size.
* Among the low-income applicants, the essay lottery selection process unfairly excludes those who may have stronger merit qualification.

Stop spreading misinformation.

The admissions team does NOT have race info.

ask yourself: how does FCPS consistently achieve a reduced and restricted representation of the one race group over the last four years, especially when the thirty years prior to change has shown steady organic growth of that group when merit instead of racial proxies was used?

“AsK yOuRsElF”

We don’t need any q-anon conspiracy theories. GTFO.

They opened up spots to all middle schools. Not just a handful of affluent schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm very surprised at the constant threads on TJ, trying to cut it down. It's a high school, a good one. Can't everyone just leave it at that and move on?

Because the new admissions process was borne of racism and has had racist effects.

The court found there was no discrimination.

It’s an election year so Rs will whine about anything they can.

Pretty sure the complaints have been going on since the racists changed the admissions policy in 2020.

The admission policy is race blind.

When you have RWNJ, Koch-affiliated orgs like PDE pushing hard you know it’s election time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm very surprised at the constant threads on TJ, trying to cut it down. It's a high school, a good one. Can't everyone just leave it at that and move on?

Because the new admissions process was borne of racism and has had racist effects.

Please try again...

* Selection is race blind
* Asian enrollment is currently at an all time historic high
* Largest beneficiary of selection changes were low-income Asians

* selection is supposed to be race blind, but it is clearly race-aware. Applicant is required to provide race information, when it is not needed until student registration. FCPS TJ admissions news release touts race based distribution of offers, with merit selection criteria removed.
* Asian enrollment has been brought down from historic high of 73.4% for 2024 class to now 57.27% for 2028 class, with no participation in expanded class size.
* Among the low-income applicants, the essay lottery selection process unfairly excludes those who may have stronger merit qualification.

Ability to write coherently and well is a measure of academic merit. An applicant who can’t write well does not actually have stronger merit qualification and is missing a crucial ability for those who want careers in STEM fields.

TJ is looking for kids who have the whole package. Lots of kids have math and science skills; TJ wants kids who have math, science, and writing abilities.

You're making a lot of very incorrect assumptions.
1. The essays are really fluffy, short paragraphs about Portrait of a Graduate skills. They're not exactly rhetorical analysis or anything profound. I would hope that almost every 8th grade honors student can throw together a few coherent sentences about a time they advocated for themselves, a time they showed some leadership, the famous person they admire most, etc. Some kids are likely uncomfortable with bragging about themselves and understate any achievements. Others assume that they won't be fact checked and lie.

2. You're assuming that writing ability is being evaluated, rather than content. You're also assuming that the evaluation of the content isn't incredibly subjective. For example, let's imagine that the kids are given the prompt: "You're sure that the teacher graded your exam incorrectly. How would you advocate for yourself?" Some graders might decide that the best answer is to approach the teacher and try to explain why your solution is correct. Others might decide that the kid who answers that they would let it go, but study harder for the next test to ensure that their grades remain high is showing some resilience or something.

But most importantly:
3. You're assuming that there's some huge gap between the writing abilities of the kids who are admitted and those who aren't. At a school like Longfellow, it's likely that there are 100 kids who all have 4.0s and are strong writers. Both the slightly above average privileged kids and the outliers will all look the same and will all be bunched at the top of the scoring range. It's likely that the selection of the kids at the TJ feeders is more based on the biases of the person who graded the essay and less based on the actual merits of the kid. The margins are so slim that even a tiny difference in essay grading is the difference between being admitted and being far down the waitlist.

You are making a number of assumptions here and you appear to not really understand the importance of writing skills and how they are judged. I get that your lack of understanding leads you to think that essay writing is “fluffy” and graded in a way that you fear is subjective.

But here’s the thing: writing is extremely important in STEM fields because many who are talented in STEM subjects are may not have a robust ability to convey their thoughts to others. In other words, it’s not enough to be able to “do the math,” you must be able to write about it as well.

I'm sorry that you have such poor reading comprehension that your response wasn't even vaguely responsive to any of the points I made.

Writing marginally and almost indistinguishably better than another kid for canned PoG prompts doesn't show much of anything. A few years ago, when they published some profiles on the new students, a clearly and obviously unqualified girl was admitted because she wrote about how much she loved Michelle Obama. Essays like that are neither indicative of STEM talent nor writing talent, especially when they are so easily coached by the prep companies. If they want to give the kids an AP-like DBQ essay, I'm all for that. At least the kids would need to analyze some texts and provide a much more complex essay, rather than memorizing and regurgitating PoG talking points.

Also, if TJ wants the "whole package," their approach is idiotic since they're doing nothing to ensure that the kid has any real math or science skills.

Your answer further demonstrates your lack of understanding of the importance of writing and your fears as to how the essays are graded. More importantly, your answer reveals your obvious agenda.

Since you're obviously the most brilliant person in the room, please explain to everyone how my posts demonstrate any of that. You've provided attacks and generic, non-responsive statements twice. Please dazzle all of us with your intellectual prowess as to the immense depth of the PoG essays and how they are so perfectly predictive of math and writing aptitude.

You seem very triggered by someone calling out your agenda. Interesting.

I don't have an agenda. I think selecting students for an elite STEM school primarily through generic PoG essays is idiotic. I also think that schools like Longfellow will have 100+ kids with nearly the same score, making it impossible to differentiate between the brilliant kids and the pretty run of the mill privileged kids. Why are you so triggered that you start hurling insults, accusing people of an agenda, and refusing to address any posted arguments the moment anyone criticized the TJ admissions process?