Reply to student admissions and TJ lawsuit

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
Children cannot choose their parents. Kids should not get a leg up in admissions because  they happened to be born to parents who started thinking about TJ and how to best position their child to be accepted there from the time their child entered elementary school. 
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You're inventing kids who simply don't exist in FCPS.  The brilliant, poor kids born to families that don't prioritize education, but who still absolutely belong at TJ would have had to:

-Somehow not be placed in Young Scholar and not get the mentorship and enrichment from that.  My kids' school had special field trips, summer camps, pull outs, and other programs for Young Scholars

-Perform poorly on the NNAT and CogAT, noting that completely unprepped, gifted kids ought to get high scores, and noting that it often only takes a 120-ish score to get into AAP from lower SES schools.

-Fail to impress any teachers anywhere in grades K-6.  If they had impressed teachers, they would have been flagged for advanced services, a teacher would have referred them for AAP, or the like.

-Fail to qualify for Algebra in 7th, even though IAAT is pretty basic, and study materials are readily available.

-Fail to do any of the STEM extracurriculars, even though at least some are offered for free at every single FCPS middle school.

FCPS casts a very wide net and certainly isn't failing to identify and support gifted, lower income students.  At some point, though, the kids have to show some initiative.  They're 14 and not babies.  If they want to go to a school like TJ, they can sign up for STEM extracurriculars and try to distinguish themselves in some way.  [/quote]

I disagree. It would be very easy for poor but brilliant kids to be excluded from TJ.

1-FCPS hires local elementary school teachers to do “stem” Young Scholars programs for summer and after school. It’s simply an extra check for the kids teachers. I know a few of these teachers. They admit they don’t understand math and science. They take the students to water parks and do other “non-stem” activities all summer and during the year.  The “science” they do is kindergarten level. This is NOT the equivalent of the students getting an AOPS summer class, ect.
2- FCPS could hire teachers with STEM degrees to teach the Young Scholars classes (like high school stem teachers). FCPS doesn’t on purpose. Young Scholars is a “look we did something” while not actually doing anything.  FCPS was sued in 2012 by the NAACP and Young Scholars was set up as a response. Wouldn’t want the “poors” to actually be competitive.

3- The NNAT is a visual test. The 2nd grade Cogat is visual. Both tests are known for being confusing. The smarter the kid is, the more likely problems come in with the student responses. Example: one year 2nd grade Cogat had a picture of a tea cup where the kid was to pick the correct descriptive word. Out of the four responses: one was delicate, another was small, and another was dainty. Child was supposed to pick delicate, yet the others are technically correct. 
Example: NNAT typically has the black and white dot patterns. One year, one question showed only two dots: one black dot, then one white dot, then the student was asked- what comes next? But…it takes being shown at least three dots to establish a pattern. With being shown only two dots, one black and one white….it is really 50/50 as to what is next, but if the kid didn’t assume black they got it wrong.
 I had my kid do the 3rd grade Cogat in 2nd grade just to avoid such nonsense. How many other parents who are busy know you can elect to have your kid take the 3rd grade Cogat instead?

4- I can see where a child could be brilliant and not “impress” the needed middle school teachers for a TJ recommend, especially if the student had a 504/IEP. Many FCPS teachers and parents openly speak about they feel justified tanking these kids as “they would be taking up a spot a kid who didn’t need accommodations could have.” 
There are more 504/IEPs in poorer schools for many reasons. Some of these kids are brilliant and could excel at TJ.

5- After school stem programs in FCPS middle schools aren’t of even quality in all the middle schools. For instance, Longfellow Middle School parents pay for a second Science Olympiad teacher each year. Elementary schools are terribly uneven to non-existent at some schools. Hard to check the box for “experience”  when your applying to be on the middle school MathCounts team when your elementary school didn’t even have a 6th grade team.

6- Some elementary schools will test and allow 6th and even 5th grade students to take Algevra 1. Others won’t. It makes a huge difference later if your one of these brilliant kids.

7- My own kids 6th grade teacher was terrible at math and made frequent grading mistakes. My kid would come home wanting to scream after a day of listening to her incorrectly state basic math. It’s not even correct instruction at all schools and it does unfairly effect outcomes.

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