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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]More inclusive means, "We lower our standards so as to appease the Diversity gestapo.  Mediocrity over Merit!" [/quote]

I think it reflects an overall crackdown on school admissions 'cheating'. Cheating is not merit.[/quote]

There is no cheating scandal.  FCPS has not raised this once in either lawsuit when defending the admission changes.  This is just sour grapes and cognitive dissonance from parents whose snowflakes didn't do well enough on the admissions test to get to the semifinals.  [/quote]

"Cheating" is a poor word for what has been established to have happened. What happened is that FCPS realized that an exam that was supposed to be secured was not in fact secured and that certain prep companies skirted the rules in order to gain an advantage for their students.

It's appropriate to call it a "pay for play" scandal - it's not appropriate to call it a cheating scandal. [/quote]

I agree. Why isn't FCPS at fault for this? Why isn't anyone holding them accountable for the leaked exam which resulted in this mess?[/quote]

Because the exam wasn't leaked.  Fake news.[/quote]

Correct. The exam itself was not leaked, but questions from previous exams were inappropriately brought back to prep centers who then used them to justify a $4-5K prep course that captured nearly a third of TJ's Class of 2024. FCPS had no role in that process.[/quote]

So mostly students from affluent were able to secure admissions at the expense of those who didn't plop down $5k in order to access an appropriate public education funded by tax dollars. [/quote]

Bingo[/quote]

But that's the point, FCPS privatized the testing portion of the admission! So our tax dollars went toward inequality. They should have provided equal access to everyone, but they did not. One either makes all the material available to everyone, which invalidates a lot of the prep advantage, OR they make the test unpreppable by changing what they test. So instead of testing basic word problems using algebra, they create a new scenario each year where students have to learn something as part of the test, then solve some problems using what they just learned during the test. I believe this was a point that a large TJ student/parent group suggested as one way to really test problem solving ability.[/quote]

I mean, you're not wrong, but outsourcing the testing portion of an admissions process is pretty standard. It's really rare to come across a school that does their own testing, and for a public school to do it, they'd be opening themselves up to no end of legal issues that would actually have to potential to have standing (unlike the nuisance lawsuits that are currently being shepherded by the Pacific Legal Foundation).

FCPS would be better served and would learn more about students by putting together a revamped teacher recommendation process. The teachers know the kids and know which kids are genuinely bright and which ones are grade grubbers being passed off as bright.[/quote]

Agreed, they should have done more research and found a solution that doesn't include secrecy. It just flies in the face of everything they say they do about reducing inequity and increasing access.[/quote]

That's a complicated issue. To be honest, the process really has to be fairly opaque, because if it isn't you create a huge advantage for parents who are willing to sell out to optimize their child's candidacy.[/quote]

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