Reply to 693 FCPS Students Named National Merit Commended Scholars in 2024

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Reply to "693 FCPS Students Named National Merit Commended Scholars in 2024"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]“Kids should be evaluated holistically and much more comprehensively than the current process allows, but the evaluation absolutely should be relative to the offerings of the kid's zoned school and their abilities relative to the other kids at their school. Picking the top 1% or 1.5% at each school is appropriate, as long as the process is comprehensive enough to get the correct top kids.”

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Absolutely. The by MS process needs adjusted so it can find the best kids at that specific school. Right now that is not necessarily the case - fix that and that corrects most of the issue with the new approach. [/quote]

I’m as pro-reform as you can get and I agree with the above as well. It’s the one concern that I have with the new process, that it’s not identifying the right kids from the non-feeder schools. Deeper analysis is needed that is not available to us, but it does need to be done.[/quote]

Agree. Adding a look at SOLs seems like a fair way of evaluating applicants. 
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They will never do that.  
In 2023-2024, the number of URM getting advanced pass in geometry SOL is 904.
46 of them were low income
472 of them were asian (31 of them were low income)
22 were black (3 of them were low income)
37 were hispanic (5 of them were low income)
402 were white (7 of them were low income)

So using SOL advance pass as a filter would mostly just increase the number of white students who are not low income.  [/quote]

How about algebra? 
[/quote]
DP It would be useful to consider 7th grade SOL scores in TJ admissions decisions as an objective measure of content mastery. Given the SOL's use of computer adaptive testing, FCPS might not want to use an absolute threshold, but rather one in the near vicinity of a set threshold. For illustrative purposes, here is the breakdown of pass advanced totals for all FCPS 7th grade students taking SOLs in 2023-24 - e.g. SOL for Math 7, Math 8, Algebra 1, and Geometry. (There were too few Algebra 2 scores to report race breakdowns.)

Number of FCPS 7th graders scoring SOL Pass Advanced (2023-24)
Asian: Math 7--23 , Math 8--237, Algebra 1--623, Geometry--24
Black: Math 7--3, Math 8--34, Algebra 1--37, Geometry--0
Hispanic: Math 7--7, Math 8--86, Algebra 1--56, Geometry--<
White:Math 7--55, Math 8--422, Algebra 1--428, Geometry--<
Mixed Race, non-Hispanic: Math7--5, Math 8--78, Algebra 1--96, Geometry--<

All FCPS 7th graders scoring SOL Pass Advanced (2023-24): 2,214
Asian: 907, Black: 74, Hispanic: 149, White: 905, Mixed Race, non-Hispanic: 179

Not all of those students would apply to TJ, so a slightly lower SOL score threshold could be used to ensure the overall applicant pool meets a minimum size.[/quote]

But students taking Math 7 wouldn't be eligible to apply so it would have been 2,122 for kids received a pass advanced in Math 8+.

You could extend the eligibility to the kids who received a pass proficient for Algebra 1+. That would make it 2,709 eligible students from FCPS, keeping in mind that a large % of the eligible white and Hispanic kids won't apply.

Some of the test numbers are shocking. More than half of the Hispanic kids fail their math SOL in 7th grade. :| 
 
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Students can move from Math 7 in 7th grade to Algebra 1 or Algebra 1 HN in 8th grade. The latter two courses have a prerequisite of either Math 7 and/or Pre-Algebra. 
https://insys.fcps.edu/CourseCatOnline/courselist/1042/10/1/1/1/1

TJ's admissions criteria includes being enrolled in Algebra 1 honors in 8th grade or Algebra 1 in 8th grade if their school doesn't offer the honors version. So a student taking Math 7 in 7th grade and either Algebra 1 (in some cases) or Algebra 1 honors in 8th grade meets the admission requirements.
"[i]To be eligible for consideration, when the application window opens, applicants must: (1) have completed a full-year course of Algebra 1, or be currently enrolled in a full-year course of honors-level Algebra 1; applicants attending schools whose curricular programs do not include “honors” Algebra 1 courses must have completed or be enrolled in a full-year course of the highest level of Algebra 1 available at their school[/i]"  https://www.fcps.edu/registration/thomas-jefferson-admissions/eligibility-requirements[/quote]

Interesting. I didn't realize they could go straight from Math 7. 
[/quote]

A student can enroll in Algebra 1 H in 7th grade regardless of their IOWA or SOL score. those are used to filter out kids but parents can insist on a student being enrolled in Algebra 1 H in 7th grade without even taking the IOWA or SOL. It is not advertised but it is an option. Is it a good option? Who knows but it is there.

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