Reply to ACPS and TJ

Forum Index » Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)

Reply to "ACPS and TJ"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]What ancillaries? And why don't they offer the option without transportation -- make the families figure that out, as they do for private schools? There are plenty of carpools to and from TJ and all of its activities. The cost is not that crazy - like $14k per student I have heard? Far less than strong academic private school. Why not let families apply and pay for it themselves? An argument may be that only the more wealthy can afford these things but the same really is true for private school too. Or make the decision to fund the tuition on the basis of need. If an economically disadvantaged kid from Alexandria can pass the tests I am confident TJ would be happy to have him/her. I say that from the vantage point of a TJ parent. It's a great school. Very hard academically but engaging in both academics and ECs. And not THAT hard to get in if you have the proper base of education from grade school. That may also not be Alexandria's schools forte. [/quote]

I could be wrong, but I don't think anyone is preventing someone from outside Fairfax County from applying and paying their own tuition.

But ACPS will never agree to pay $14,000 a year to send a handful of kids and have its own marginal test scores fall further as part of the bargain. Are you kidding me?[/quote]

I think it's a fallacy to think allowing a handful of students attend TJ would hurt test scores in ACPS.  Right now no one in ACPS is aspiring to attend TJ because it's not an option.  So ACPS loses many families with high-achieving kids to Arlington and Fairfax, and achievement in ACPS ends up depressed.

Allow those kids to attend to TJ and you start getting more kids working harder in elementary and middle school.  Even if they don't get into TJ, those kids don't stop working hard and taking advantage of the available opportunities.  
[/quote]

Be that as it may, it's still not going to happen. You're wasting your breath. ACPS isn't oriented to serve high achievers. Period.[/quote]

Every year TC Williams graduates kids who have taken multiple APs and been admitted to top schools.  So I don't think this it's accurate to say that ACPS doesn't serve high achievers.  It just doesn't graduate as many of those kids as it could.  [/quote]

I didn't say TC doesn't serve high achievers. I said it's not oriented to serve them. They're not a priority.

Yes, there's always a handful of kids who graduate and go on to good colleges. But it's not really a high-achievement culture at TC. To get that experience, you sort of have to segregate from the masses, and the demographics of who is in that segregated group make claims of diversity look less virtuous.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics