Reply to Who thinks the new TJ admissions proposal will increase URM enrollment?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I predict not. I believe the root of the issue is lack of interest, so a lottery, or even an open admissions policy, won't fix that. [/quote]
What you don't understand is that many highly qualified URMs don't want to attend TJ because they think they won't fit in. DD is a straight A student in AAP at a TJ feeder and she refuses to apply to TJ because she thinks she will not fit into the culture (a culture of cheating, racism, few minorities, few girls, etc...). This is sad considering that she loves STEM and wants to be an engineer. [/quote]

How do we go about convincing people that these perceptions of the culture are incorrect?[/quote]

Change the culture.  The school board is right.

Whether this new admissions process will work is something that we'll find out in the next few years.  Something needed to change though, so it's good that they did this.[/quote]

+1000. The culture at TJ is so toxic that most of the kids and parents there don't even realize it because it's the only thing they know from their feeder middle schools and prep classes.

You see tons of parents posting on this board that they don't believe that it's so toxic, but when you get current students talking to alums from 10-20 years ago, the elders are horrified at what the school has become. Not because of the racial demographics, but because of the narratives that the kids present about what the school is and how they just accept that "that's TJ, that's what you sign up for".

TJ wasn't always insanely competitive. TJ kids didn't always spend every waking hour worrying about college - but the kids still mostly got into the schools they wanted to get into. TJ kids weren't always obsessed with taking every 8th period and trying to cram in another resume-booster or another study period. [/quote]

I went to TJ in the late 90s and it honestly seems the same now as when I went.  Then and now, kids wanted good grades, wanted to get into a good college, felt pressure to take advanced courses...and this is true of top students at most any high school in America. I think there has been a general increase in pressure nationally as there are more students and the same number of elite college spots, and it's easier to apply to lots of colleges with common app and online applications, and this applies to Langley and McLean just as much as TJ.  I think the biggest difference at TJ specifically is increased state graduation requirements (history, epf) have made more summer school seem necessary...so in that one respect there probably is a little more pressure.  But honestly, all of the discussion reads to me like this:

People who have no firsthand experience with TJ:  TJ is so high stress, full of cheaters, preppers, etc.  My kid will never apply.

Multiple people who actually have firsthand experience with TJ: You're wrong.

People who have no firsthand experience:  I don't believe you.

I totally see why many people think the anti-TJ posters either have sour grapes or think their kids won't get in or something.  They refuse to listen to first hand testimony.[/quote]

Was there rampant cheating in the 90s?  [/quote]

No, and I don't believe there is now either.  And I gather surveys have shown that the amount of cheating at TJ isn't any different than at any other schools, but again, anti-TJ posters refuse to listen to that evidence.  From teachers I know, there's tons of cheating at the neighborhood schools in FCPS.  If there is cheating at TJ, it's certainly no different than stories I've heard from McLean, South Lakes, Lake Braddock, etc.[/quote]

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