Reply to How does one prep place account for 25% of TJ Admissions?

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Reply to "How does one prep place account for 25% of TJ Admissions?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Many schools had moved away from the SAT to the ACT and were starting to drop both tests before the COVID pandemic. I would expect that more schools will stop asking for SAT or ACT scores after the Pandemic. Everyone is well aware of the prep options and how the tests can be cheated. There is too much evidence that the tests are not testing what they claim to be testing and that they are easily prepared for so the scores are artificially inflated.

While there is free prep material for pretty much every test, that still requires knowledge of a program and some encouragement for most people, especially kids who are in Middle School. Realistically speaking, kids in Title I schools and near Title I schools are less likely to have knowledge that TJ exists or what they need to do to attend TJ. Their parents are likely to not be as informed or have an idea about what resources exist, free or paid.

There is a ton of anecdotal evidence and research that shows that the academic focus of Asian families, from pretty much every area of Asia, leads to parents who emphasis education, regardless of income, and seeking out opportunities for their kids. There is a long cultural history of valuing education and examples of how education, and tests, led to families changing their fortunes. This historical, cultural valuation of education seems to be unique to many Asian cultures. I am not a historian but have never had a Professor lecture on the use of merit based tests to hire people into government positions in Europe, South American, North American, or African cultures. The classes I took on Chinese History spent a lot of time discussing this subject.

There is nothing wrong with valuing education, that is a great thing. I totally get why the exam is important to folks.

What we need to do is find a way to reach out to kids in lesser performing schools and provide STEM opportunities that might engage a kid and help them decide that it makes sense to focus on school. Free after school robotics programs or coding programs that are 1-2 hours long in the ES. The parents will see them as free child care and it could help provide a more engaging introduction into STEM. Maybe have 2 days were the extra curricular are sports based and 3 days were the offerings are STEM based. Parents would have an incentive for their kids to participate, child care, and maybe it triggers some interest and drive in the kids.

Realistically, we are not going to be able to do much about this problem as long as parents are not engaged in their kids education. For many poor parents there is little time to put into their kids education because of the number of jobs being worked and other stressors. For many immigrant families, the basic education at FCPS is going to be massively better then what their kid would have received in their home country. There are systemic factors at play that are hard to fix. [/quote

Define "many schools."  I do not believe that is accurate of the pre-Covid landscape.[/quote]

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