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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I don’t get why people think that kids that struggle at TJ would be superstars at top of base school.  They probably would do better at base, but the difference in rigor isn’t so great to drastically impact their performance.[/quote]

I think that parents expect that their kid will be at a school with less pressure, which can help some kds perform better. They will be with kids that  they have known all through school, which relieves some of the social pressure they might have been feeling. And they expect that their kid is going to be able to handle a work load geared towards kids with a wider range of abilities to be more manageable.

I suspect that what really matters is what school is the base school. A kid returning to McLean, Langley, Oakton, Chantilly is returning to a school where a lot of kids applied for TJ, were qualified for TJ, but were not admitted. The environment is going to change that much because the student body is closer to TJs anyway. The middle HS, Lake Braddock, Robinson, Madison, Marshall, and the like are probably easier for a TJ returnee to shine at but not easy. There are plenty of smart kids who didn’t apply or were not accepted. The pressure level is probably different so that could help.

Fifteen MSs had fewer than 10 kids admitted to TJ, I would guess that the HS those MS feed into are potentially easier for a TJ kid to shine at if they return to their base school. I would expect a TJ kid to have an easier time at Herndon, Annandale, Lewis, Mt. Vernon and the like. There is a far smaller cohort and there is more support for the students at the school

But it depends on how the kid rebounds from changing schools and why the kid moved. Was it feeling isolated because they didn’t know others? Were they academically in over their head? [/quote]

So much goes into how kids would end up performing but that really isn’t the idea behind this comment. TJ parents think their kids would be at the top of the base schools because they believe their kids are the brightest in fcps. [/quote]

If they were the brightest in FCPS why would they struggle so much at TJ.  [/quote]

Why do the kids who are great at math in 6th grade struggle with A1H in 7th grade? They got high grades, passed the SOL Advanced, and had a high percentage on the IAAT but some struggle with A1H in 7th grade.

Different kids respond to acceleration and pressure differently. Different kids might not be ready for the level of academic competition at TJ. They can be bright and advanced and appear to be a great fit but when they find themselves in classes with other kids who are equally bright and advanced something happens and they fold.

The reality is most of the kids at TJ do well at TJ. They might not be straight A students, but that is a limited definition of success. They are encouraged to take challenging classes that push them and are surrounded by an entire cohort of bright, advanced kids. They might "only" earn a B but they are probably absorbing more then that that B would indicate. A small percentage of kids leave TJ because they find it to be a bad fit, either socially or academically. [b]You have to maintain a B to stay at TJ so I doubt there are that many C's on the report cards of kids who are graduating. [/b]

My kid was accepted this year. I do think he is bright. I don't know how he distinguished himself from kids who have the same grades and scores that he has. I know that he has participated in competitive STEM clubs and that he does very well in those competitions. He challenges himself outside of school. I think he will do well at TJ. I don't think he is brighter then the other kids who applied and were not selected or the kids that chose not to apply. I think TJ will be a great fit for him because he will be challenged and I think he will rise to the occassion. If he struggles, we will talk about what is happening and help him figure it out.

It really is a small percentage of people who think their kid is superior to other people. I sometimes think that people want to label any parent of a kid in AAP or at TJ or similar type experiences as all thining their kid is gods gift to the world but most people are not like that. It might be a touch of jealousy on some folks part, they are latching on to the minority portion of the group that do act like idiots because their kid is in AAP or at TJ and want to characterize others to be the same. 
[/quote]

Under the previous principal (Bonitatibus), there was a strong push for kids not to go back to their base school.  They wanted their graduating class to look like their incoming class and not only granted waivers from the 3.0 requirement liberally, she tried to raise the mini9mum grades.  If you look on Naviance there are about half a dozen weighted GPAs under 3.0 and maybe 50 under 3.5 (significant because almost all TJ classes are honors with a +0.5 weighting).  The data is from multiple years.

THe new prioncipal has been enforcing the 3.0 standard .[/quote]

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