Reply to New TJ Lawsuit Filed 3/10/21 by Pacific Legal Foundation

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The Pacific Legal Foundation filed a lawsuit against Brabrand and the School Board today in federal district court on behalf of a primarily Asian advocacy group alleging the changes to the TJ admissions process were racially motivated and violate the Equal Protection Clause.

https://pacificlegal.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Coalition-for-TJ-v.-Fairfax-County-School-Board.pdf

This one will require more resources to defend than the one filed in local court.  Why is Brabrand subjecting FCPS to such litigation risk over and over again?  He got hired saying "the main thing was the main thing."  People naively thought he meant academics; instead, it's turned out to be "equity" initiatives that invite judicial challenges.  [/quote]

This, like the other lawsuits, is going absolutely nowhere. The families of the eighth graders are not going to get their injunctive relief - it was already denied in another case - and once the die is cast in the admissions process and students are admitted, they will almost certainly remove their names from the lawsuit. (By the way, several of the litigants are almost certain to gain admission.)

FCPS is many things, but one thing they're not is willing to put themselves at risk of litigation. The entire reason this process took so long was because Brabrand was ironing out any possibility of legal challenge. By far the most effective department in FCPS is Legal, and it has to be because of nonsense like this.

I'd like to ask this question: [b]Why is admission to TJ so important to these communities?[/b][/quote]

Education was seen as a way to escape extreme poverty? In imperial china anyone who passed a series of exams could join the civil service and gain wealth and power for a period of 2000 years. It was the first and longest lasting meritocracy. These people were known as scholars.

I'm not familiar enough with indian History to answer your question.

In both communities STEM is viewed as a more respectful occupation than in other cultures. For example you will find that many government officials in east asia have a stem background rather than a law background. Also in both societies they have a national examination system, and as such you have to test in to certain schools. Test scores are everything rather than the "balanced" student US universities and high school look for.

At least in east asia this testing system exists for public high schools as well. Everyone wants to be in the best high school so they are better prepared for entry to the best college.[/quote]

Tests are not necessarily the best way to show “merit.” Tests are limited in how much they can reveal about a person, they only give information about one day in a person's life, and they are easily gamed.

It is worthwhile to utilize an admissions process that is based on more factors and on a variety of information that develops a fuller picture of the candidate, rather than one that assigns a high value to a test. 
[/quote]

True, but FCPS took the most revealing of those other factors away, the teacher recs and course rigor. They replaced it with a nebulous portrait of a graduate test, which just screams subjectivity and discrimination. Also, when you're dealing with a small group of people, I agree that standardized tests aren't necessarily the best way to determine merit, but once you get to the point of thousands of people that need to be assessed, a more individualized assessment becomes impractical. Practicality and limited time and resources will dictate making preliminary cuts based on simple quantifiable factors in order to get it down to a manageable review size. Now, gpa is the only way to do this, yet that varies so widely based on teacher, school and course rigor. Those with lower gpa's will never have a shot, regardless of their intellect or potential.[/quote]

You make a good point. It would be almost impossible to holistically review 5000+ applications in a meaningful and objective way.[/quote]

Is this sarcasm? Many colleges holistically review more than 5000 applications every year. [b]When that’s your job, that’s what you do. [/b]
[/quote]

FCPS lacks to manpower. Look at level IV, a quick glance and a quick vote is all the have time for. Do you want TJ to have similar results where if the application lands on a permissive table, the kid is in and if it lands on a strict table, the kid isn't? Colleges sort and then have discussions about borderline kids- Fcps doesn't have the bandwidth for that [/quote]

This is correct. The TJ Admissions Office has 2.5 full-time employees. They should have at least 4, like they did years ago.

A relatively quick review should be able to tell you if a student can thrive at TJ. It would take a more substantive and comparative review to determine which candidates would contribute most to a positive overall academic environment.[/quote]

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