Reply to Cheating Scandal Triggering TJ Change

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I keep hearing that some cheating scandal from outside the Beltway was the primary agitator in VDOE and FCPS crackdown on the change at TJ.  Is this true?  Can someone help with recounting what this scandal was that will ultimately lead to the demise of this school?[/quote]

1) It wasn't the primary agitator, but it certainly helped make the case for the previous process being incredibly flawed

2) It won't lead to the demise of the school, it'll just lead to a slightly different group of students being granted admission

FCPS won't throw just anyone with a 3.5 into the lottery. They will want the class of 2025 to succeed and [b]will select for the lottery in accordance[/b] - and there will be plenty of extremely qualified Black and Hispanic students who apply as a consequence. No need to worry.[/quote]

That makes no sense if they are moving to a "lottery" system.  If you are saying there will be thresholds attached to the "making the lottery," then again, you may be creating a situation where blacks and Hispanics are disproportionately affected.  So, you've just moved the target but haven't solved the real problem.  Also, [b]how do you get enough blacks and Hispanics to get to the 3.5 GPA?  Isn't that also part of the problem?[/b]  I honestly see so many ways to game this "lottery" system (e.g., move into one of the Regions where you have the greatest chances of getting in) that it's strange that FCPS or VDOE doesn't see it happening.  They're aligning prepping for the TJ test (most akin to getting some SAT prepbooks and doing that prepping) as 'unfair' but they somehow think that the same parents won't be able to find a workaround.  I could easily get a 6-month lease and move into one of the other Regions of FCPS with my 3.5+ GPA kid (during the last two months of 8th grade) and roll the lottery.  Then if I don't get it, I go back to where I'm from.  And, if I get in, I still move back to where I'm from.  Parents with money won't think twice about spending the saved $$ on a scheme like this.  It's just whacky!  There's no way to seriously control someone from gaming the system, and if that is what is being done anyway, then maybe address the issue in a different manner.  Wouldn't it be easier to start a program for blacks and Hispanics who could be targeted for adminissions into TJ throughout the ES into MS years.  Breed the success, rather than foster an attempt for the gamers to find another way to game the system?[/quote]

Ask anyone at these underrepresented middle schools and they will tell you that there are plenty of TJ-capable Black and Hispanic students who are WELL-above a 3.5 GPA. To assume that these students don't exist is virulently racist.

"But then why are they not applying to TJ?" Just like white and Asian families communicate about their ways to get around admissions processes and create advantages for their kids, parents in these communities talk about how negative the experience is for their kids who do attend - how poorly they are treated by the students, how they are assumed to be products of an affirmative action process that doesn't exist with respect to TJ - that they decide not to apply.

"So what if they don't apply?" They will if they think they have a shot, and that there will be others like them once they get there.[/quote]

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