Reply to Reasons why one would not accept TJ offer?

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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]Does Curie offer Summer classes?[/quote]
Yes, Curie offers a wide range of summer STEM courses.  We are enrolled at Curie during the year for academics, and DC wants to continue challenge during the summer as well, but do something more interesting.  We enrolled in Robotics & Arduinos last summer, and this summer looking forward to Product Design STEM Camp.  There is also the Creative Writing Bootcamp, where as part of final project DC wrote an amazing story about visiting Galapagos Islands with their favorite Marvel characters.  [/quote]
Thank you we will look into those classes right way. DC is a hard core marvel fan too. lol.  [/quote]
We are very happy with Curie, but almost every Curie class is full. Please be considerate to existing students and don't make it more crowded. Please consider other enrichment centers.  [/quote]

About how many total kids go to Curie?

About 20[/quote]
times hundred.  Hundreds start off over their upper elementary/middle school years, but far less than a quarter complete the entire program due to fit, fast pace, and advanced curriculum. It's mostly math until trig/early precalc, applied stem science, and english. [/quote]

It's honestly too bad these options aren't provided by the school system. Clearly there are kids who are interested.[/quote]

Or parents who are interested. I know that some of the kids in enrichment programs are there because they want it and enjoy it. I also know a good number who are there because their parents require it and they don't particularly enjoy it. I have chatted with some of the parents of kids in DS RSM class and they have said that their kid was there because it was important but the kid hated it. There are kids who are choosing to attend enrichment, kids who go because their parents make them and are ok with it, and kids who go because their parents make them and hate it.

I know people don't want to hear this but there kids who are not accepted into TJ because their essays are "I don't want to go to TJ" and not because of random lottery picks. They have done great in all the enrichment and accelerated math but they were not there by choice. The kids know that they can not answer the essay question, flub the essay intentionally, or write that they don't want to attend TJ and that their parents will never know. I saw this first hand grading AP exams and the like.

It is easier for the kids to let parents be outraged that their child wasn't selected for whatever reason the parent can conjure then it is to tell their parents that they don't want to go to TJ.

Heck, at this moment there is a parent asking for suggestions for daily tutoring for their 6th grader so that they can do well in pre-algebra or maybe skip straight to algebra in 7th grade on this forum. [/quote]
parents asking for daily tutor suggestions insist and even force their kids to attend school everyday, where as parents who don't care are the ones causing chronic absenteeism problems for their innocent child.  To make it worse, that child is being lied to that they'll do great at TJ, when in reality they suffer miserablly with Cs, Ds, and Fs, when they could be somewhat successful at their base school.

So let's appreciate the parent who forces their kid to attend to school matters starting from elementary school so that they are better qualified to attend TJ.  [/quote]

You think the kids who are struggling with math at TJ are kids who have chronic absenteeism or parents who are not involved? A kid who is chronically absent is not going to be taking honors courses in MS and ending up with a minimum of a 3.5 GPA. TJ applicants have to have a 3.5 GPA, take honors math and science in 7th and 8th grade, take one other honors core class (LA or Social Studies), and complete Algebra 1 Honors by the end of 8th grade. These are not kids who are missing school. They are also not kids whose parents are checked out.

I would agree that the math requirement for acceptance at TJ is not rigorous enough. I think kids should have completed Geometry H by 8th grade and that kids should have to have an A in both math and science to apply. But that is a different issue then attendance or uninvolved parents.

Kids attending TJ should not have to have attended outside enrichment to be able to attend TJ. Plenty of kids have attended outside enrichment, which has strengthened their math foundations and makes the pace at TJ more manageable. That does not mean that the math at TJ is outside the bounds of kids who have not attended outside enrichment, plenty of people on this site have mentioned having kids who are doing just fine at TJ who did no outside math.

Finally, I doubt any child is being lied to about what TJ is and what TJ entails. It is a small pool of kids at each school that is eligible. They have opportunities to interact with Counselors from TJ before applying or accepting an offer. They have open houses and chances to talk to TJ students to learn about the school before applying or accepting an offer.

I think that you are a parent who wants to go back to the old system and acting like you are defending kids who would not have the opportunity to attend TJ with the old test and requirements. You are the person who acts like they want the best for "that child is being lied to that they'll do great at TJ, when in reality they suffer miserablly with Cs, Ds, and Fs, when they could be somewhat successful at their base school" because the kids who have been accepted to TJ should be doing the same in their LA and Social Studies classes as they would be doing at their base school and might be struggling with the faster pace of the math and science at TJ, meaning that they need additional help to adjust to TJs pace or move back to their base school. [/quote]

Fortunately, there is very little difference between the kids being admitted before or after the changes in terms of preparedness.  It's mostly a less toxic environment now which seems like a positive change.[/quote]

In the old TJ, you still had students who struggled mightily. The difference was that those kids were, in many cases, getting that support from outside of the school building by hiring tutors, getting extra help, and the like. The old TJ under Glazer and Kosatka had an extreme "sink or swim" mindset where if students were struggling, the focus on the conversation was whether or not the kid belonged at TJ at all rather than how the school could support that student.

The new admissions process has brought in some students for whom the gap between middle school and high school is a little larger than it has historically been. The school under Dr. Bonitatibus has become much more friendly to the idea of helping students to navigate TJ, rather than expecting them to sink or swim on their own without any internal support. [i]And that's a good thing.[/i]

There are still students for whom it's not the right fit, and that's fine. Some of them filter out and are replaced by a froshmore cohort that has been pretty strong year-over-year. But in the end, you have students that are getting an opportunity to be exposed to TJ that never were in years past. And that's a good thing too. Gatekeeping a educational opportunity like TJ in such a way that results in virtually zero economically disadvantaged students having access was an embarrassment to the county.[/quote]

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