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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]https://www.fcps.edu/news/offers-extended-thomas-jefferson-high-school-science-and-technology-class-2029

Offers made to "academically wealthy feeders" (schools with most advanced STEM students):
    Carson Middle School - 48
    Cooper Middle School - 25
    Longfellow Middle School - 48
    Rocky Run Middle School - 22

The term “academically wealthy feeders” is used by certain posters on this forum, with a tone of envy, to describe top-ranked middle schools that consistently produce a large number of hardworking, advanced STEM students, and FCPS proudly mentions them in the TJ offers news releases.  [/quote]

My kid attends Carson and will be applying for TJ next year. We are upper middle class and have been able to provide them with math competition classes, STEM extra curriculars, and STEM camps because they enjoy them. I would expect that their STEM resume looks better than a FARMs kid from Poe who is interested in STEM and a strong student but does not have the same access to extra-curricular activities. I don't have a problem with the new admission system making sure that kid from Poe has a chance to attend TJ even if he is starting with less of a STEM base then my kid. The kid from Poe shouldn't be penalized because his parents couldn't afford the same opportunities we could.

There are ways to tweak the current admissions process that would improve the selection process. Increase the GPA to 3.75 and require all Honors classes. Math classes should be given a weight. 1 point for Algebra 2, .5 points for Geometry. That would mean that the more advanced math kids at schools like Carson, Cooper, Longfellow, and Rocky Run would be more likely to be in the top 1.5% and at the top of the general pool while not penalizing the kid at Poe who didn't have the same opportunities to accelerate in math.

But TJ is a public school that should be available to all the kids in our area if they meet the criteria. The old system favored kids whose parents could pay for enrichment. Adding the quota for each school opens the school to additional kids and there is nothing wrong with that.

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Agreed. Also: the old system required parents to pay $100 to even take the exam. $100 is a lot of money for people to pay for an application to a high school they probably won’t get into. That’s where a lot of people will say: you were able to buy the test- because you were able to not just buy sample test questions or enrich, the test itself was expensive to begin with.

When the new system rolled out, they were going to make it a lottery, which I completely opposed and argued against on this forum. After they modified it, I have been advocating for them to keep it because it isn’t based on race. It is based on geography and merit. Raising the GPA is a good idea but the current system now is still way better than the old system. The same number of Asians are going into the school. And now we have more kids going to Princeton than in years before.

I would also like to mention that the new Principal is also Asian and seems to truly care about making sure the kids aren’t burning out and having the parents trust the process- while raising the schools academic index. So it seems to me that a lot of the parents who are complaining about the new system are of the same vein as our AG Miyares or just haven’t been really looking at the data. [/quote]

Removing the $100 fee was a great idea,  everything else was stupid and racist.

The first class under the new system saw a 120 point drop in PSAT score.  The drop in student quality is not imagined.  The reason for the change was racially driven [/quote]

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