Reply to TJ Falls to 14th in the Nation Per US News

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]In regards to the struggling students mentioned above, TJ used to counsel out struggling students, one reason they were able to keep their stats high. Is TJ still counseling out students?[/quote]
The fact that the cohort that failed the SOL in 10th grade is similarly sized to the cohort that failed it the next year in 11th grade suggests otherwise. That makes sense as counseling out might undermine the demographic shift that the admissions changes were designed to achieve. In the period you reference where counseling out occurred, Asian students made up roughly 70-75% of the incoming freshman class but accounted for roughly 85% of the class by senior year following the net outflow/inflow of students during high school. That may explain why FCPS/TJ changed both 9th and 10th grade admissions policies simultaneously, to minimize the chance of demographic drift occurring during high school.[/quote]

There demographic shift in admissions seems pretty negligible. Sure, instead of 3% of a URM group there's now 4% which is a big improvement I guess.[/quote]
The first class of the new admissions was 25% FARMs. That’s not negligible. [/quote]

Yes, I  had read low-income Asians were the largest beneficiary of the changes.[/quote]
Correct. Given bonus points, Asians will over perform compared to their peer groups. Just like medium and high income Asians. Doesn’t mean they were the most deserving students, just means, as expected poor Asians perform better than other poor demographics just like rich Asians and middle income asians. It’s not about the money. Honestly TJ should have more Asians if it were merit based.[/quote]

It is merit based. You just want them to use a metric that can be easily gamed.[/quote]
DP If it were merit-based, they wouldn't make the sophomore admissions process test optional. Doing so could lead to the admission of students without requisite foundational skills, to the detriment of the students. [/quote]

But they "highly recommend" taking the PSAT.  I mean, how many kids get in without the PSAT?[/quote]
That would be a question for TJ. Their requirements have evolved. For 2020-21, PSAT/SAT was required for sophomore applications. For 2021-22 and 2022-23, PSAT/SAT was optional and SOL reading failures emerged. For 2023-24 and 2024-25, TJ shifted to saying PSAT/SAT was optional but recommended. (I don't see "highly recommend". Where do you see that?)

So it appears that TJ began to partially rethink its PSAT/SAT optional policy around the time that SOL reading failures emerged, as they shifted from optional to optional but recommended. However, if PSAT/SAT is recommended, why not just require PSAT/SAT for sophomore applications as they did previously and as they currently do for junior applications?

Sophomore Application
2020-21 PSAT/SAT required https://web.archive.org/web/20200501070914/https://www.fcps.edu/registration/thomas-jefferson-admissions/sophomore-application-process
2021-22 PSAT/SAT optional https://web.archive.org/web/20210429231119/https://www.fcps.edu/registration/thomas-jefferson-admissions/sophomore-application-process
2022-23 PSAT/SAT optional https://web.archive.org/web/20220512103310/https://www.fcps.edu/registration/thomas-jefferson-admissions/sophomore-application-process
2023-24 PSAT/SAT optional but recommended https://web.archive.org/web/20230530140324/https://www.fcps.edu/registration/thomas-jefferson-admissions/sophomore-application-process
2024-25 PSAT/SAT optional but recommended https://web.archive.org/web/20240306125734/https://www.fcps.edu/registration/thomas-jefferson-admissions/sophomore-application-process[/quote]

The pandemic had a big impact on many schools including TJ.[/quote]

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