Reply to 693 FCPS Students Named National Merit Commended Scholars in 2024

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Reply to "693 FCPS Students Named National Merit Commended Scholars in 2024"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
TJ is a public school that should be available to all the MSs in the County, that includes schools with a high poverty level and ELL level. There are smart kids at those schools who have not had the same exposure to math and science as kids from high SES schools. They deserve a chance to be exposed to classes that move at a faster pace and push them just like the kids from higher SES schools.[b] They might not score as high on the SAT but they are better off for being in a school that pushes them and challenges them. They might earn C’s and B’s at TJ but being surrounded by highly motivated peers is a good thing for kids who have never had that type of exposure.[/b]
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The bolded is the tricky part, and it's entirely possible that FCPS is going about this the wrong way.  Exposing underprivileged bright kids to high achieving peers and advanced classes is a huge positive in general.  But, getting Bs and Cs at TJ could really hurt the kid's college prospects.  Likewise, falling back to the base school with terrible grades in 9th from TJ isn't helping anyone.  If the kid isn't academically advanced enough to handle many of the high level STEM classes and is instead almost entirely taking classes that would have been available at the base school, I'm not sure there's a huge point in attending TJ.  I wish the eastern part of the county had a STEM magnet middle school program, so the kids could be exposed to TJ-ish rigor earlier and be able to make a more informed decision.

It will be interesting to compare the college outcomes for kids who attended TJ from high FARMS areas with the kids who remained at the base school and were at the top of the class in their high FARMS school.  [/quote]

Would the URM kids accepted at TJ that would be going to Lewis or Mt. Vernon or Justice would end up in the AP track or staying in school. The URM kids that are FARMs based might not end up in those classes because their peer group are not likely to end up in those classes. The AP/IB track kids at those schools are the small UMC/MC kids that live in the boundaries. A poor URM might choose to take Gen Ed classes because that is where his/her friends are. They might not look at college because their friends are not looking at college. It is more likely then not harder to encourage a smart kid who is poor and URM to stay on the AP/IB path then it is to encourage them to stick with harder classes at a school like TJ.

So many people argue that the cohort in AAP and TJ matters and for a kid who does not have a lot of friends who are taking advanced classes or parents who can support them, a place filled with kids excited about school might be a better fit even if the grades are B’s and C’s.

I do think it would be interesting to compare the FARMs/URM outcomes from TJ to their base school but I think the outcome is going to be different than what you expect. [/quote]

If we want to concoct hypotheticals, let's ask about the next tier of students at Lewis or Mt. Vernon or Justice.  Smart and with potential, but not quite "TJ material" because of various hardships experienced in their lives.  If their slightly better positioned peers had remained at those schools, rather than gained admission to TJ, they might have looked up to those peers and also enrolled in IB courses and more challenging electives.  But now, since those peers now have preferential access to TJ, they no longer serve as role models, and that second tier may be more likely to end up not taking and sticking with harder classes, not looking at college (besides perhaps NVCC), etc.

Do you care about these kids?  Of course not.  You simply wanted to stick it to the highest achieving kids at certain feeders (which you'll always label "wealthy" regardless of whether the students themselves come from wealthy families).  If TJ serves as an engine of social mobility for some kids, by depriving some pyramids of their top kids it may depress performance and outcomes for others (which is much less of a concern at the "top" high schools that still would have had a large number of high-achieving kids under the old system and now have even more).  [/quote]

Summary: Let's opportunity hoard for our in-group by playing victim, while simultaneously shaming the top achievers at Lewis or Mt. Vernon or Justice for abandoning their community, and 
then advocate for excluding them because we are oh-so-virtuously concerned about the academic welfare of other students at their base schools!

Classy.[/quote]

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