Reply to Why is there always some kind of issue/concern/problem with TJ?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]BECAUSE  Asian Americans are collateral damage for the benefit of preferred minority group. [/quote]

This victimhood narrative is so tiresome.

You deserve credit for recognizing that there was a market inefficiency in elite college admissions - standardized test scores. They were overvalued by many of the most prestigious institutions both in your countries of origin and here in the US for many years, and so you designed your parenting and educational philosophy around taking advantage of that market inefficiency.

Institutions like Caltech - through years of research - have determined that standardized test scores are NOT a predictive measure of future success or competency and can indeed be an occluding factor in a selection process, and so they've moved away from using that metric. This advancement in research has removed an advantage for you and your community as a consequence.

That does NOT equate to collateral damage. And it does NOT equate to discrimination of any kind.  We're just not using the metric that you're best at anymore because it selects the wrong kids.[/quote]

Of all the funniest things posted on this forum, the suggestion that FCPS - an overwhelmed, declining school system - can bring the same analytical rigor to bear as an institution like CalTech when trying to evaluate applications without the benefit of objective metrics - may be the most hilarious.

You just want to discriminate against Asians and find a way to justify it.  The joke will be on you, however, as those very kids whose families you resent so much for their commitment to education are the ones that led to TJ's top ranking.  Without them, TJ's reputation will decline and it will simply be a better alternative for kids attending the county's worst high schools and an increasingly unattractive option for those attending the county's handful of remaining high-quality high schools.  [/quote]

Ehh. I don't resent them for their commitment to education at all. Far from it.

What I resent is their persistent belief that they have a monopoly on a commitment to education and the very narrow view that they have of what in the educational process is actually important to creating adults who are prepared to contribute to society. I reject the idea that test-taking ability is of some great value for any endeavor other than school admissions, and I strongly reject the notion that only students who are excellent test-takers belong in outstanding educational environments.

Test-taking is a skill - one that I learned at a very early age and that is largely responsible for my admission to TJ. It isn't that hard to learn how to be good at taking tests without necessarily having the content knowledge to succeed on them. But it does not have relevance to the real world outside of the process of getting admitted to selective schools or other institutions.

Where I will agree with you is that those same students are absolutely responsible for TJ's high rankings over the years - explicitly because of an inappropriate over-reliance on test scores in high school ranking algorithms. Those algorithms did nothing to determine whether or not a school was doing anything to educate its students - they merely determined how good the school was at cobbling together a core group of great test takers. Asians prioritize the development of test taking skills because they know that it used to be the secret to educational prestige through presenting students as more gifted/bright/intelligent than they actually were.[/quote]

This really comes across as if you're exorcising your personal demons at the expense of many others who played by the rules and deserved to be recognized for their achievements, but were turned away because folks like you decided TJ was too intense and had too many Asian kids.

And there's just no acknowledgment of the fact that what is now replacing the tests that you consider so marginal to future success is ripe with the potential for even more abuse in the hands of people incentivized to please their political masters.  [/quote]

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