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]

here is what the school says:

"The mission of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology is to provide students with a challenging learning environment focused on math, science, and technology, to inspire joy at the prospect of discovery, and to foster a culture of innovation based on ethical behavior and the shared interests of humanity."

I don't see anything about selectivity [/quote]

Now read the VDOE page on Governor's Schools.
https://www.doe.virginia.gov/instruction/governors_school_programs/

"The Virginia Governor's School Program has been designed to assist divisions as they [b]meet the needs of a small population of students whose learning levels are remarkably different from their age-level peers[/b]. The foundation of the Virginia Governor's School Program centers on best practices in the field of [b]gifted education[/b] and the presentation of advanced content to able learners."

[/quote]

I'm not trying to advocate resource hoarding.  I just think that the nebulous selection methods and very low ceiling selection methods are not going to work in any meaningful way.  There are plenty of talented Black kids in FCPS who easily have TJ-worthy stats.  I'd almost prefer a system that used the old TJ tests + essays, and then allocated slots to TJ proportional to the racial representation for each group over whatever absurd thing they're doing now.  The goal should be to stretch out the top few percent, so the brilliant kids rise to the top and are easily identified.  It shouldn't be to condense the top 30%, so you can't even distinguish between a highly gifted child and a garden variety bright upper middle class child.

This won't do anything to increase the FARMS rate of kids at TJ, which is quite low.  The only solution to that is to prioritize early interventions and focus on these groups a lot in ES and MS.  Addressing it at the high school level is simply too late and is more likely to sabotage bright FARMS kids than it is to help them.  [/quote]

Those interventions will be much more successful in the early stages if those kids have people in their community who have attended and been successful at a place like TJ. You can't imagine what a world of difference just a few of those kids makes for the hundreds beneath them.[/quote]

DP, but it's so clear this is premised on declaring that TJ students drawn from certain areas are "success stories" who will inspire those "beneath them" to greatness.

Never mind that it remains to be seen whether students who couldn't handle TJ today will succeed there or whether TJ will be less demanding precisely so a less qualified cohort can be deemed to "thrive" there.  Most expect the latter.

And of course if higher achieving kids inspires those "beneath them," then you're basically pulling out kids who might have been role models at schools like Lewis and Mount Vernon and sending them to a school - TJ - that fewer students from their communities will attend.

It's tokenism run amok to make the sillies like Ricardy Anderson look good because a few kids from Holmes and Poe will be attending TJ. [/quote]

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