Washington Post Slams FCPS for Racist Magnet School

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I guess Amazon didn't come to Arlington based on the available supply of worker-drones from TJ. Who knew?

I suppose you are implying in a smart-alecky way that WaPo article was "approved" by Jeff Bezos who decided to expand in the DC area and also owns WaPo AND there WaPo has no editorial independence..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s often people who claim they couldn’t care less who are actually the most invested in perpetuating the current state of affairs at TJ. Have to wonder whether the Post coordinated this editorial with the state officials who are about to impose changes on the school.

The state education officials and the school board can't hold their d**ks and pee without getting their hands, pants and feet wet. They are already dealing with a major issue - Covid (in case you have forgotten). This is the last thing on their minds.. When you wake up you'll realize that you were just having a dream

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:The thing that I find interesting is that there are almost NO white females at TJ.

One mom said that there probably about 20-25 per grade and many are from LCPS. So very VERY few white females within FCPS are offered admission. Given that white females are not underrepresented in the applicant pool or in FCPS AAP, I think this bears examination. There is clearly something going on that disadvantages white females from being accepted.

+1

And this has been a relatively recent phenomenon. (Unlike the black/Hispanic numbers.) But it has gotten almost no attention. Why?

White females do not apply to the school in large numbers.

They do apply. They just are not admitted.

They do apply. Just not in large numbers.

- someone who knows these things

Source?

Would be interesting to see stats on this. I personally know of 7 white females in my son's social circle/group texts that applied. I think 5 or so made it to the second round. None of them was admitted. Two of these girls are clearly more focused and smart than my son and I'm shocked that they were not admitted. One of the moms said that the math teacher had a conversation with her urging her not have her DD apply because of the quite difficult culture for white females.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The thing that I find interesting is that there are almost NO white females at TJ.

One mom said that there probably about 20-25 per grade and many are from LCPS. So very VERY few white females within FCPS are offered admission. Given that white females are not underrepresented in the applicant pool or in FCPS AAP, I think this bears examination. There is clearly something going on that disadvantages white females from being accepted.

+1

And this has been a relatively recent phenomenon. (Unlike the black/Hispanic numbers.) But it has gotten almost no attention. Why?

White females do not apply to the school in large numbers.

They do apply. They just are not admitted.

They do apply. Just not in large numbers.

- someone who knows these things

Source?

Would be interesting to see stats on this. I personally know of 7 white females in my son's social circle/group texts that applied. I think 5 or so made it to the second round. None of them was admitted. Two of these girls are clearly more focused and smart than my son and I'm shocked that they were not admitted. One of the moms said that the math teacher had a conversation with her urging her not have her DD apply because of the quite difficult culture for white females.

What exactly does that mean??? Do they get trafficked?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The thing that I find interesting is that there are almost NO white females at TJ.

One mom said that there probably about 20-25 per grade and many are from LCPS. So very VERY few white females within FCPS are offered admission. Given that white females are not underrepresented in the applicant pool or in FCPS AAP, I think this bears examination. There is clearly something going on that disadvantages white females from being accepted.

+1

And this has been a relatively recent phenomenon. (Unlike the black/Hispanic numbers.) But it has gotten almost no attention. Why?

White females do not apply to the school in large numbers.

They do apply. They just are not admitted.

They do apply. Just not in large numbers.

- someone who knows these things

Source?

Would be interesting to see stats on this. I personally know of 7 white females in my son's social circle/group texts that applied. I think 5 or so made it to the second round. None of them was admitted. Two of these girls are clearly more focused and smart than my son and I'm shocked that they were not admitted. One of the moms said that the math teacher had a conversation with her urging her not have her DD apply because of the quite difficult culture for white females.

The application numbers are not published with that level of granularity, so there's no source to draw on here. About 20% of the applicant pool every year is white, and about 40% of the applicant pool every year is female. Given an average pool of 3000 students, you could probably extrapolate that there would be about 200 white female applicants year-over-year. That number pretty much tracks with what I'm drawing on and isn't a large number when you consider the other demographic factors at play.

White families are additionally far less likely to streamline their child's experiences to favor the TJ admissions process than families from other cultures. They may be every bit as smart, or smarter, than the kids who eventually get in, but the application process favors the kid who "proves" their commitment to STEM through their parents signing them up for Science Olympiad, Vex Robotics, and MATHCOUNTS.

And that's why the admissions process and priorities need to change. TJ should not be something that you can begin preparing for when you're eight years old.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The thing that I find interesting is that there are almost NO white females at TJ.

One mom said that there probably about 20-25 per grade and many are from LCPS. So very VERY few white females within FCPS are offered admission. Given that white females are not underrepresented in the applicant pool or in FCPS AAP, I think this bears examination. There is clearly something going on that disadvantages white females from being accepted.

+1

And this has been a relatively recent phenomenon. (Unlike the black/Hispanic numbers.) But it has gotten almost no attention. Why?

White females do not apply to the school in large numbers.

They do apply. They just are not admitted.

They do apply. Just not in large numbers.

- someone who knows these things

Source?

Would be interesting to see stats on this. I personally know of 7 white females in my son's social circle/group texts that applied. I think 5 or so made it to the second round. None of them was admitted. Two of these girls are clearly more focused and smart than my son and I'm shocked that they were not admitted. One of the moms said that the math teacher had a conversation with her urging her not have her DD apply because of the quite difficult culture for white females.

What exactly does that mean??? Do they get trafficked?

They don't get trafficked, but there are too few of them to develop many social groups of their own and they are segregated out of the social groups that other females belong to. Oddly enough, the social groups for boys are much more diverse. But walk through a TJ hallway during lunch and you will see a lot of single-race and single-sex groups that eat together. There are exceptions, to be sure, but they are just that - exceptions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is amazing to me how little people actually know about this topic.

The reason why the TJ admissions process advantages Asian students is because, generally and culturally speaking, our parents prioritize prestige in education (note - there's a difference between prestige in education and quality in education, and they value the former to a MUCH greater extent) - therefore we are willing to make sacrifices in order to maximize the opportunity to attain that prestige. If FCPS wants to solve this problem (and they should), they need to minimize the influence of PARENTS in the admissions process.

Asian students are not inherently smarter than anyone else, and they do not work harder than anyone else - to suggest otherwise is blatantly and unforgivably racist. But the TJ admissions process limits the idea of "merit" to grades, GPA, exam performance, STEM extracurriculars, and well-written teacher recommendations from specific schools that major in getting kids into TJ. Asian families know this, and are far more willing as a group to streamline our childrens' elementary and middle school careers to optimize their chances for admission.

FCPS needs to have a serious conversation about what constitutes merit. The culture within the school is toxic and hyper-competitive, which has now led to a second suicide in the past couple of years, and it is so because there are too many students who all took the same path to get to TJ in the first place. The fact that most of them are Asian is not to blame - what is to blame is an admissions process that rewards families who are willing to pre-determine their children's futures before they turn ten years old.

Most students at TJ are Asian because TJ is more important to Asian parents. The application numbers bear this out. Having parents who care about TJ from an early age is a privilege for students, and FCPS needs to reduce the influence of that privilege in the admissions process.

+ a million. The fact that Fairfax can't seem to produce black, Latino and/or poor kids who are accepted to TJ at measurable rates is 100 percent a failing of the school system.

(PP) I would just amend this to say - FCPS produces plenty of Black and Latinx students, and FARMS students, who could and would thrive at TJ if the culture there weren't actively hostile to them. It would be great if the students who do make it had plenty of others who looked like them, and if they didn't hear from white and Asian students on a daily basis that they were admitted only because of their race. But even the top students in those demographics are largely uninterested in TJ because they know that the culture there is poisonous and hostile to them.

And the other students at TJ have a lesser education as a consequence because they haven't been exposed to those different voices and perspectives in the educational process - and they become the tone-deaf posters that you see on sites like this.

+1

[Anonymous]

I currently supervise people who went to TJ. I went to public school in a crappy state. 1 went to MIT. I went to a state school. TJ is not the end all be all. Who cares. Let the Asians have their thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I currently supervise people who went to TJ. I went to public school in a crappy state. 1 went to MIT. I went to a state school. TJ is not the end all be all. Who cares. Let the Asians have their thing.

I agree that it's not the end-all-be-all, but it is a vast improvement over several of the public schools that the underrepresented groups are currently siloed into.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I currently supervise people who went to TJ. I went to public school in a crappy state. 1 went to MIT. I went to a state school. TJ is not the end all be all. Who cares. Let the Asians have their thing.

I agree that it's not the end-all-be-all, but it is a vast improvement over several of the public schools that the underrepresented groups are currently siloed into.

The difference between TJ and Langley, McLean, Oakton, Woodson, and to a lesser extent Chantilly is much smaller than the difference between TJ and John Lewis (formerly Lee), Edison, Justice, Falls Church, etc. And the kids with parents who have resources, if they don't get into TJ, will frequently choose high-end academic privates like Potomac School, Sidwell, St. Albans, etc that can provide comparable educational experiences.

[Anonymous]

Here's a tangentially relevant question. How different is say, something like college admissions, for your middle of the road TJ kid, from that of your say, top 25% in any FCPS kid? Isn't it better to be a big fish in a small pond than a small fish in a big pond? If the goal is to make sure that URM kids have a fair shot at a good education, then wouldn't it be better to focus efforts on ensuring that they get additional support at their schools, instead of trying to somehow funnel them into TJ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's a tangentially relevant question. How different is say, something like college admissions, for your middle of the road TJ kid, from that of your say, top 25% in any FCPS kid? Isn't it better to be a big fish in a small pond than a small fish in a big pond? If the goal is to make sure that URM kids have a fair shot at a good education, then wouldn't it be better to focus efforts on ensuring that they get additional support at their schools, instead of trying to somehow funnel them into TJ?

look at the college numbers from TJ, compare that to top 25% of most FCPS school and middle of the road TJ is going to be far superior especially compared to struggling high schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's a tangentially relevant question. How different is say, something like college admissions, for your middle of the road TJ kid, from that of your say, top 25% in any FCPS kid? Isn't it better to be a big fish in a small pond than a small fish in a big pond? If the goal is to make sure that URM kids have a fair shot at a good education, then wouldn't it be better to focus efforts on ensuring that they get additional support at their schools, instead of trying to somehow funnel them into TJ?

It's tangentially relevant, I suppose.

Again, it's important to note that a top 25% kid at Langley is very different in terms of profile from a top 25% kid at, say Mt. Vernon.

And the goal is to expose these students to a high-caliber education as early as possible, not to see college admissions as the alpha and omega.

It's also a false choice to suggest that we need to "focus efforts" on one thing or the other. We should be doing all of the above to ensure that FCPS actually delivers on its promise of a top-notch education for all students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's a tangentially relevant question. How different is say, something like college admissions, for your middle of the road TJ kid, from that of your say, top 25% in any FCPS kid? Isn't it better to be a big fish in a small pond than a small fish in a big pond? If the goal is to make sure that URM kids have a fair shot at a good education, then wouldn't it be better to focus efforts on ensuring that they get additional support at their schools, instead of trying to somehow funnel them into TJ?

look at the college numbers from TJ, compare that to top 25% of most FCPS school and middle of the road TJ is going to be far superior especially compared to struggling high schools.

Where is this data found?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
It's also a false choice to suggest that we need to "focus efforts" on one thing or the other. We should be doing all of the above to ensure that FCPS actually delivers on its promise of a top-notch education for all students.

TJ's unique course offering

Multivariable Calculus Linear Algebra
Differential Equations Complex Variables Probability Theory
Concrete Math
Advanced Math Techniques
FCPS Grading Scale
Electrodynamics Neurobiology
Intro to Organic Chemistry Artificial Intelligence 1 & 2 Parallel Computing 1 & 2 Computer Vision 1 & 2 Mobile/Web Applications

so you see any press to add any of those to the majority of FCPS high schools? If you want equity, either find a way or distribute TJs resources across the county