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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I’m in Loudoun. My child and all his friends were admitted to TJ. Some of these kids were waitlisted on Loudoun’s Academy of Loudoun (AOL). It seems TJ was easier to get in than AOL, at least for them. I was actually very surprised. Quite a few kids from Loudoun will decline due to the long commute. [/quote]

Congratulations. The new admission system guarantee the top1.5% students from each middle school to be admitted. So as long as the kids are the top 1.5% of their school, they will get a seat.

In the past, given TJ is STEM school, it is strictly testing score plus other academic achievements, such as math count , science Olympia etc. the strong schools who provide better academic education win big, such as Carson and Longfellow, and schools outside Fairfax and FCPS middle schools without AAP centers don’t have too much chances due to weaker STEM and math education.

For those admitted students from non traditional TJ middle schools, the major factor to be considered is whether the kids can advance very fast and undergo high pressure environments. Regardless how TJ is admitting students, inside TJ, it is still test score based student performance system. In the past two years, more  students admitted from non traditional TJ middle schools due to diversity objective, however they performed mediocre or poorly at TJ compared to traditional TJ middle schools. This makes it easier for students from strong middle schools to stand out with the new admission system. Before admission rule changes, Carson + Longfellow often have 150-200 students get admitted to TJ, now they probably decrease to 50-80[/quote]

So instead of taking the top performers across the county they take it from each school, even if the school has dumber students?[/quote]

The good news is no school has dumber students just students who may lack the advantages of weather areas.[/quote]

Oh come on. It’s not that a school has dumber students but it’s accurate to say that 100% under this new quote policy, it becomes, in part, not about obtaining the best of the best but obtaining the best of those who apply from each school. Higher performing kids from places like Cooper will be booted out while very possibly lower performing kids from a lower SES school will be admitted. That’s bc of the quota system. It is NOT about the best kids in the area. [/quote]

Except for 1 PP who keeps trying to argue otherwise, most people understand this. It’s just a difference of opinion about whether that change is a good thing or not. On my view I think it is so a small handful of MSs aren’t getting the overwhelming share of seats still. [/quote]

You mean the 1 poster who pushes this elitist narrative by sock puppets their own posts? Most of us are aware that intelligence isn't limited to the wealthiest schools but the privilege is...[/quote]

DP.  I think a lot of us realize that you constantly push a very one-sided narrative for political reasons that have little to do with which students have the most STEM aptitude.  It’s all clowns like Scott Surovell, Ricardy Anderson, and Karen Corbett Sanders have ever brought to the table - they do nothing to improve the other schools in their districts, but they’re great at stoking class-based resentment and anti-Asian bias. [/quote]

Even more of us realize you've been constantly pushing this narrative to stoke grievances based on false assumptions. Believing that the best and brightest are only at the most affluent schools is nonsense. If left to you, advantaged students would gain outsized access to these programs because money matters more than merit.[/quote]

The record shows that School Board members openly talked about “redefining merit” to get the results they felt would best serve their political agendas.  [/quote]

They talked about redefining merit because the existing definition of merit, in Northern Virginia, tracked too closely with wealth and privilege.

There is this pernicious idea out there that standardized exams somehow measure merit on a completely race and demographic-blind basis, and they simply don't.

The new admissions process has a long way to go to get right - starting with eliminating the scored rubric in favor of an ACTUAL holistic evaluation and the reintroduction of teacher recommendations as a part of the process - but it is absolutely a step in the right direction based on the slowly improving climate of the school.[/quote]

The goal is to continue down this path of “redefining merit” until TJ is in essence a typical FCPS high school but can still be called a magnet because kids come from a wider area.

At some point, though, on that road to convergence, TJ may still be a good deal if your alternative is Lewis but no longer worth it if your base school is Langley or Oakton.  You’ll have part of the county looking at TJ as aspirational and another looking at it with growing indifference. [/quote]

This framing deeply underestimates the huge difference between TJ and the top-rated public high schools in the area. There isn't even a comparison in terms of the educational opportunities and connections available.

Sounds a little like sour grapes to me.[/quote]

I liked it better when merit was defined as those who could afford to buy the test answers too.[/quote]

Some of the top math and science students in the state are being rejected in favor of kids who are taking algebra 1 in 8th grade, going to the same school as these top students.[/quote]

LOL those aren't the top students you just need to put down the pipe[/quote]

Yes, they are, and no amount of declaration will make it otherwise.[/quote]

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