Reply to TJ Falls to 14th in the Nation Per US News

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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]It amazes me how many people think FCPS just used a racial quota for TJ admissions. Everyone — including the farthest-left member of the school board — knows that would be racist and illegal, so why does anyone think FCPS would give it a second thought?[/quote]

Clearly you haven’t read the emails between the two “farthest left” memebers of the school board who referenced EXACTLY this and how the percentage of Asian students would certainly be reduced by the criteria they were supporting.
They knew that it would.
That was fine with them.
It read as if they were laughing about it and thought it was funny.

So yeah—they don’t care because “white adjacent” I guess?[/quote]

So, those emails were about a different proposed but not adopted admissions process...[/quote]

The entire reason to redo admissions was to increase blacks and lower the amount of Asians. [/quote]

One of the main reasons to change admissions was to increase the number of Black students.  They increased the overall class size in order to not lower the number of Asian students.

They succeeded at both - without quotas or race used in the admissions process.  [/quote]

They absolutely reduced the number of Asians, as they wanted to. [/quote]

Went from 74% Asian to 61.64% Asians. They absolutely did reduce the number of Asians by increasing blacks and Hispanics, which was exactly the goal of changing admissions.[/quote]

The number of Asians stayed about the same, since they increased the class size to accommodate the increased numbers of URMs.  You are referring to percentage.  Why?  Look at numbers.  [/quote]

I’m not sure where that info is. The info I found and can see is that in the class of 2024, there were 57 kids from Longfellow and 33 kids from Cooper and for the class of 2027, there were 30 kids from Longfellow and only 16 kids from Cooper. I don’t think the kids from McLean are becoming less qualified for TJ but there is a significant drop in spots for kids from McLean.[/quote]

There was another thread showing the decline of Asian students. This year’s class is only 57%. That is quite a drop. So the drop in rankings is a direct reflection of admission changes. Many people were saying that only the last class was based on the new admissions model, which isn’t true.

https://www.fcps.edu/news/offers-extended-thomas-jefferson-high-school-science-and-technology-class-2028

Merit Test based Admissions:
Class of 2019, Asian American students received 70.20%
Class of 2020, Asian American students received 71.34%
Class of 2021, Asian American students received 74.90%
Class of 2023, Asian American students received 72.87%
Class of 2024, Asian American students received 73.05%

Admissions changed to Essay based, and increased enrollment of 8th grade algebra1 students:
Class of 2025, Asian American students received 54.36%
Class of 2026, Asian American students received 59.82%
Class of 2027, Asian American students received 61.64%.
Class of 2028, Asian American students received 57.27%
[/quote]
This is not the sole factor for decline; there are two additional aspects. Firstly, the caliber of Asian students admitted has decreased. Previously, the merit-based admission test in math, science, and English ensured that the 315 admitted asian students from a pool of 1500 asian applicants were all proficient, advanced, and top-notch. However, the current lottery process makes random selections from the 1500 asian applicant pool, leading to a wide variety of math levels and proficiencies among the selected Asian students. Secondly, while there were previously only 20+ Algebra 1 students admitted before the admission changes, there are now approximately 150 Algebra 1 students admitted into each class. However, these lower level math admissions have taken seats that were previously offered to two year advanced math students from Longfellow, Oakton, etc.
[/quote]

I have a freshman at Langley and he knows several kids who really should be at TJ. It is ridiculous that a kid in remedial math is at TJ while kids who are two grades ahead in math and winning science and math competitions did not get in.[/quote]

That happened in many schools. The new admissions dropped important information from the test and teachers’ recommendations, so winning STEM competition awards doesn’t mean anything. Without the information, they can no longer identify students who are capable and motivated. Within each MS, TJ admissions has become a lottery. Well-deserved kids got rejected, mediocre/lay-back kids got offered. Even the group of admitted Asian students now is understandably weaker than Asian students in the old system.[/quote]

There is anecdotal evidence that FCPS reduced the number of truly superstar kids at TJ and tried to make more of the kids "really good" but not great.  But that will not be really clear until the National Merit Semifinalists (NMS) are awarded next year. Based on rumored pre-PSAT scores from current juniors, TJ's NMS will fall dramatically from its usual 150 or so per year. We will know in a year, but with remedial math, top teachers resigning, rumored discipline problems, etc., things are not looking good for TJ's long term reputation. [/quote]

So, TJ stopped selecting students based on standardized test performance. I would fully expect that there will be a drop in NMS for those classes since it is based on (gasp!) standardized test performance.  Doesn’t really say anything about the quality of the students. Unless you think psat scores are the be all/end all. And please tell us about the “disciplinary problems.”  The worst one I know involved a racist student (and there are a few of these fueled by the parents perpetuating this idea that black and Hispanic students are somehow inferior) harassing a black student. Otherwise , food delivery violations and leaving campus to get Starbucks. Give me a break. [/quote]

Obviously ranking, psat, math, and science none of those matters to those who don’t deserve it.[/quote]

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