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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Posted this on another thread, but the one significant change that you're going to see is in the level of incoming advancement in math for the new freshmen class.

[b]They'll be every bit as INTELLIGENT, MOTIVATED, and CAPABLE - they just won't be walking in ready to take Pre-Calc, BC, and beyond on Day 1. Advancement in math does not necessarily indicate interest, intelligence, or aptitude for STEM - what it indicates is usually opportunity and parental ambition.[/b]

This will happen because the admissions process will no longer self-select for students who are this far advanced in math, in part because it does not rely on an exam that significantly favors students who have been exposed to concepts of logic and spatial thinking that are heavily emphasized in a traditional Honors Geometry course.

So you won't see TJ being any less rigorous - you'll just see it slightly less advanced from a pure math perspective.[/quote]

Disagree.  If they're not giving any admissions boost to the kids who passed IAAT and qualified for Algebra in 7th, then they're not going to be as intelligent, motivated, and capable as the kids who did qualify.  Really, IAAT is a pretty low bar.  If a kid doesn't score 91st percentile, that kid isn't particularly bright in math.  If a kid does pass, but chooses to take M7H, then the kid isn't particularly motivated.  The new system will admit a bunch of kids who are mediocre in math and will top out in AP Calc as high school seniors while possibly excluding the kids who are highly gifted in math.  [/quote]

Agree with your assessment.  I think self-selection will kick in over time and those applying will only be those that that can make it.  First couple of years, kids will drop out after freshman year.  once this info. spreads through the grapevine, few will apply.   By the time this all shakes out, it will be another 5-10 years and a more-than-likely more left-leaning school board and county will decide to shut down the school.  Will be good business for the private schools..

Like everyone pointed out, it's the white kids, whose numbers will go up with this approach that will benefit the most.  [b]Unless you are a certified genius/nerd (not using that in a negative way), why would any URM even want to go to TJ?[/b]  Most intelligent to above-average intelligent URM would be better off going to base HS, doing well while having fun and getting into an elite school.

If you look at TJ, only about 50-70 kids get into really elite schools.  These fall into the genius/nerd category with a few extroverted geniuses among them.   Another 50-100 go to UVA and another 100-200 go to equivalent schools.  Most of this group would have done about as well or better at their base high schools.   Why do they go to TJ?  They all think they are elite.  They find out they are not in Sophomore year.  By then it's too late to move to base for a variety of reasons.  [/quote]

The reason is because there is a much, MUCH bigger delta in terms of educational opportunities between their base school (which in many cases will come from the southern and eastern end of the county) and TJ than there is between, say, Langley or McLean or Chantilly and TJ. Right now the biggest reasons that Black and Latinx students do not want to apply to TJ - or accept their offers of admission, because that happens more than you think - are because there aren't enough students there who look like them and because there is plenty of WOM evidence within their communities that the ones who go are treated poorly by their white and Asian colleagues who assume them to be part of a racial affirmative action process that hasn't existed for decades.[/quote]

I don't disagree on most of your reasons as to why they are under-represented at TJ. [b]However, the "observation" about being treated poorly on the premise that they are in due to affirmative action is just a bunch of BS[/b].  All I was alluding to was, what's in it for them?  The really smart among any demographic will shine at TJ.  The really smart among URMs will get the same outcome regardless of which HS they attend.  Which do you think they will choose to attend?  I bet the majority will chose to stay at base.  Heck, if I was guranteed the same outcome at base vs TJ, my DC will not go there!  Too much work for the entire family.[/quote]

A person who genuinely believes the bolded here is outing themselves as either a) a person who has never attended TJ; b) a person who attended but buried their head in the sand; or c) a person who has knowingly or unknowingly actively engaged in this behavior. It's not an observation - it's a thing that happens. The only reason it doesn't happen more is because there are so few Black and Hispanic students in the building.

It's amazing how often people in this forum tell on themselves without realizing it.[/quote]

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