Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Removing teacher recommendations is a massive red flag. The only reason to remove it was to make the process into a lottery.

One student who was caught cheating in Science Olympiad. Our team got penalized for it and that student was removed from the team for the state level competition. That student got in. Teacher recommendation would have been able to eliminate this.

The whole thing is so toxic. They should move to lottery.

Some other counties do have lotteries for magnets. They determine which students are "qualified" and of the qualified students it is a lottery. Seems like a good way to eliminate some of those trying to game the system, while still maintaining high quality.

Or rethink TJ entirely and change it to an Academy. Allow any student to enroll in the post-AP classes that are not offered at the base schools.

Won't happen. It's built as a high school and must continue to function as such. That building was just recently renovated at a cost of over $100M and would make absolutely no sense as an academy.

The only solution that is workable is turning it into a lottery. Too many people want to game admissions. Lottery is the only answer.

Disagree. I am the most vocal pro-reform proponent on this board (apart from the nutjobs) and I reject the notion of a lottery. I believe there are genuinely a group of 50-100 students every year who wouldn't make sense at any high school other than TJ, and as we continue to reform the new admissions process, we need to make sure we are adding enough layers to the process to identify those kids.

But it's pretty obvious to any actual observer of the Northern Virginia academic community - and I mean the ENTIRE community, not just the Western Fairfax and Loudoun self-selected set - that beyond those 50-100, there are probably 1500-2000 kids who would be phenomenal at TJ. Many of those don't even apply, and we have to fix that. But of that additional group, it makes the most sense to have those students come from diverse backgrounds and bring diverse perspectives and talents.

It is important to the functioning of a high school - ESPECIALLY a high-achieving one like TJ - to prevent an environment where all 500 students in the class are trying to accomplish the same goal on the same path. THAT is the reason for the toxicity that has existed in TJ's past, and that LONG predates it becoming majority-Asian.

Read that again - TJ's historic toxicity IS NOT about its racial composition; it is about the fact that for too long there were too many students who all had goals and ambitions that were way too similar.

It matters far less for the strength of the TJ environment to have a few kids who score a few points higher on the SAT or a few kids who are a year more advanced in math than it does to have a few more kids who are invested in making the community a better place to go to school. The kid who creates beautiful art in the school's stairwells or runs for six touchdowns on the football field or can actually speak to what it's like to grow up in poverty does far more for the school than the one who takes us from 20 AIME qualifiers to 21. And that should be obvious to everyone.

At its core, TJ is still a HIGH SCHOOL. And it's fine if you don't understand what makes for a positive, memorable, transformative high school experience - many don't. But you need to get out of the way of those who do.

The 50-100 who truly need a different experience should be in a dual enrollment program at George Mason and TJ should be returned to use as a community school that would naturally end up with the same diversity of talents that you somehow think a third-rate admissions department is going to be able to replicate.

Or, turn TJ into a full-time Academy program that only offers certain courses not available at base schools to a wider number of kids. If it were to function as a program site, rather than as a full-time school, you wouldn’t have to worry about the purported toxicity of the school or student body.

It remains beyond outrageous that the county spends so much time obsessing about the composition of, and environment at, a single high school when FCPS has neglected the needs of so many other schools. In fact, their latest tinkering with TJ will only aggravate the overcrowding at multiple schools.

Every single School Board member who has contributed to this mess needs to be booted out of office next year. They have completely and utterly failed, again and again.

The county does not want to spend all of this time obsessing over the composition of TJ. They wanted to make the necessary changes and be done with them. They are forced to continue the conversation because of the obsessive need for Coalition folks to make their voices heard to protect the small sliver of seats that they feel entitled to and are terrified of losing.

Did you feel this admissions office was third-rate when they were admitting the previous classes? Because it’s been the same folks for about ten years.

It is kind of crazy...

Yeah, they made all the stupid changes in hurry with out much thought about who is getting either unfair advantage (rich kids from non-centers) or disadvantage (ex: AAP center). They didn't really consider anyones input and actively ignored or shutdown all the concerns in the name sake town halls (I and many others attended, expressed concerns but ignored without a comment - as its already decided) Now, they want everyone to forget and move on from the mess! Kids who lost in spite of superior academic strengths will be disappointed for few weeks and then move onto more pressing items as you can't hang onto this thing forever. End of the day, who is losing?

I attended all of the work sessions and town halls that were publicly available.

The "concerns" that were brought up essentially could have been distilled to "we don't want this because it will be harder for our kids to get in for X reason".

Here's who is losing: the prep companies, and the parent base who were desperate for the TJ bumper sticker because of the prestige it offers them in the community.

Here's who isn't losing: TJ, its students, or its academic environment. Sure, the groups of kids coming in now are only as advanced as the groups that were coming in six to eight years ago. And that's fine. But you finally have kids with different backgrounds and different levels of interest - and it makes a huge difference in the academic environment.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Removing teacher recommendations is a massive red flag. The only reason to remove it was to make the process into a lottery.

One student who was caught cheating in Science Olympiad. Our team got penalized for it and that student was removed from the team for the state level competition. That student got in. Teacher recommendation would have been able to eliminate this.

The whole thing is so toxic. They should move to lottery.

Some other counties do have lotteries for magnets. They determine which students are "qualified" and of the qualified students it is a lottery. Seems like a good way to eliminate some of those trying to game the system, while still maintaining high quality.

Or rethink TJ entirely and change it to an Academy. Allow any student to enroll in the post-AP classes that are not offered at the base schools.

Won't happen. It's built as a high school and must continue to function as such. That building was just recently renovated at a cost of over $100M and would make absolutely no sense as an academy.

The only solution that is workable is turning it into a lottery. Too many people want to game admissions. Lottery is the only answer.

Disagree. I am the most vocal pro-reform proponent on this board (apart from the nutjobs) and I reject the notion of a lottery. I believe there are genuinely a group of 50-100 students every year who wouldn't make sense at any high school other than TJ, and as we continue to reform the new admissions process, we need to make sure we are adding enough layers to the process to identify those kids.

But it's pretty obvious to any actual observer of the Northern Virginia academic community - and I mean the ENTIRE community, not just the Western Fairfax and Loudoun self-selected set - that beyond those 50-100, there are probably 1500-2000 kids who would be phenomenal at TJ. Many of those don't even apply, and we have to fix that. But of that additional group, it makes the most sense to have those students come from diverse backgrounds and bring diverse perspectives and talents.

It is important to the functioning of a high school - ESPECIALLY a high-achieving one like TJ - to prevent an environment where all 500 students in the class are trying to accomplish the same goal on the same path. THAT is the reason for the toxicity that has existed in TJ's past, and that LONG predates it becoming majority-Asian.

Read that again - TJ's historic toxicity IS NOT about its racial composition; it is about the fact that for too long there were too many students who all had goals and ambitions that were way too similar.

It matters far less for the strength of the TJ environment to have a few kids who score a few points higher on the SAT or a few kids who are a year more advanced in math than it does to have a few more kids who are invested in making the community a better place to go to school. The kid who creates beautiful art in the school's stairwells or runs for six touchdowns on the football field or can actually speak to what it's like to grow up in poverty does far more for the school than the one who takes us from 20 AIME qualifiers to 21. And that should be obvious to everyone.

At its core, TJ is still a HIGH SCHOOL. And it's fine if you don't understand what makes for a positive, memorable, transformative high school experience - many don't. But you need to get out of the way of those who do.

The 50-100 who truly need a different experience should be in a dual enrollment program at George Mason and TJ should be returned to use as a community school that would naturally end up with the same diversity of talents that you somehow think a third-rate admissions department is going to be able to replicate.

Or, turn TJ into a full-time Academy program that only offers certain courses not available at base schools to a wider number of kids. If it were to function as a program site, rather than as a full-time school, you wouldn’t have to worry about the purported toxicity of the school or student body.

It remains beyond outrageous that the county spends so much time obsessing about the composition of, and environment at, a single high school when FCPS has neglected the needs of so many other schools. In fact, their latest tinkering with TJ will only aggravate the overcrowding at multiple schools.

Every single School Board member who has contributed to this mess needs to be booted out of office next year. They have completely and utterly failed, again and again.

The county does not want to spend all of this time obsessing over the composition of TJ. They wanted to make the necessary changes and be done with them. They are forced to continue the conversation because of the obsessive need for Coalition folks to make their voices heard to protect the small sliver of seats that they feel entitled to and are terrified of losing.

Did you feel this admissions office was third-rate when they were admitting the previous classes? Because it’s been the same folks for about ten years.

It is kind of crazy...

Yeah, they made all the stupid changes in hurry with out much thought about who is getting either unfair advantage (rich kids from non-centers) or disadvantage (ex: AAP center). They didn't really consider anyones input and actively ignored or shutdown all the concerns in the name sake town halls (I and many others attended, expressed concerns but ignored without a comment - as its already decided) Now, they want everyone to forget and move on from the mess! Kids who lost in spite of superior academic strengths will be disappointed for few weeks and then move onto more pressing items as you can't hang onto this thing forever. End of the day, who is losing?

I attended all of the work sessions and town halls that were publicly available.

The "concerns" that were brought up essentially could have been distilled to "we don't want this because it will be harder for our kids to get in for X reason".

Here's who is losing: the prep companies, and the parent base who were desperate for the TJ bumper sticker because of the prestige it offers them in the community.

Here's who isn't losing: TJ, its students, or its academic environment. Sure, the groups of kids coming in now are only as advanced as the groups that were coming in six to eight years ago. And that's fine. But you finally have kids with different backgrounds and different levels of interest - and it makes a huge difference in the academic environment.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Removing teacher recommendations is a massive red flag. The only reason to remove it was to make the process into a lottery.

One student who was caught cheating in Science Olympiad. Our team got penalized for it and that student was removed from the team for the state level competition. That student got in. Teacher recommendation would have been able to eliminate this.

The whole thing is so toxic. They should move to lottery.

Some other counties do have lotteries for magnets. They determine which students are "qualified" and of the qualified students it is a lottery. Seems like a good way to eliminate some of those trying to game the system, while still maintaining high quality.

Or rethink TJ entirely and change it to an Academy. Allow any student to enroll in the post-AP classes that are not offered at the base schools.

Won't happen. It's built as a high school and must continue to function as such. That building was just recently renovated at a cost of over $100M and would make absolutely no sense as an academy.

The only solution that is workable is turning it into a lottery. Too many people want to game admissions. Lottery is the only answer.

Disagree. I am the most vocal pro-reform proponent on this board (apart from the nutjobs) and I reject the notion of a lottery. I believe there are genuinely a group of 50-100 students every year who wouldn't make sense at any high school other than TJ, and as we continue to reform the new admissions process, we need to make sure we are adding enough layers to the process to identify those kids.

But it's pretty obvious to any actual observer of the Northern Virginia academic community - and I mean the ENTIRE community, not just the Western Fairfax and Loudoun self-selected set - that beyond those 50-100, there are probably 1500-2000 kids who would be phenomenal at TJ. Many of those don't even apply, and we have to fix that. But of that additional group, it makes the most sense to have those students come from diverse backgrounds and bring diverse perspectives and talents.

It is important to the functioning of a high school - ESPECIALLY a high-achieving one like TJ - to prevent an environment where all 500 students in the class are trying to accomplish the same goal on the same path. THAT is the reason for the toxicity that has existed in TJ's past, and that LONG predates it becoming majority-Asian.

Read that again - TJ's historic toxicity IS NOT about its racial composition; it is about the fact that for too long there were too many students who all had goals and ambitions that were way too similar.

It matters far less for the strength of the TJ environment to have a few kids who score a few points higher on the SAT or a few kids who are a year more advanced in math than it does to have a few more kids who are invested in making the community a better place to go to school. The kid who creates beautiful art in the school's stairwells or runs for six touchdowns on the football field or can actually speak to what it's like to grow up in poverty does far more for the school than the one who takes us from 20 AIME qualifiers to 21. And that should be obvious to everyone.

At its core, TJ is still a HIGH SCHOOL. And it's fine if you don't understand what makes for a positive, memorable, transformative high school experience - many don't. But you need to get out of the way of those who do.

The 50-100 who truly need a different experience should be in a dual enrollment program at George Mason and TJ should be returned to use as a community school that would naturally end up with the same diversity of talents that you somehow think a third-rate admissions department is going to be able to replicate.

Or, turn TJ into a full-time Academy program that only offers certain courses not available at base schools to a wider number of kids. If it were to function as a program site, rather than as a full-time school, you wouldn’t have to worry about the purported toxicity of the school or student body.

It remains beyond outrageous that the county spends so much time obsessing about the composition of, and environment at, a single high school when FCPS has neglected the needs of so many other schools. In fact, their latest tinkering with TJ will only aggravate the overcrowding at multiple schools.

Every single School Board member who has contributed to this mess needs to be booted out of office next year. They have completely and utterly failed, again and again.

The county does not want to spend all of this time obsessing over the composition of TJ. They wanted to make the necessary changes and be done with them. They are forced to continue the conversation because of the obsessive need for Coalition folks to make their voices heard to protect the small sliver of seats that they feel entitled to and are terrified of losing.

Did you feel this admissions office was third-rate when they were admitting the previous classes? Because it’s been the same folks for about ten years.

It is kind of crazy...

Yeah, they made all the stupid changes in hurry with out much thought about who is getting either unfair advantage (rich kids from non-centers) or disadvantage (ex: AAP center). They didn't really consider anyones input and actively ignored or shutdown all the concerns in the name sake town halls (I and many others attended, expressed concerns but ignored without a comment - as its already decided) Now, they want everyone to forget and move on from the mess! Kids who lost in spite of superior academic strengths will be disappointed for few weeks and then move onto more pressing items as you can't hang onto this thing forever. End of the day, who is losing?

Anonymous wrote:Just disband it in favor of school by school aap

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh, wow. I’ve been away from this board a while. A 90+ page thread because some cheaters screwed things up at TJ again. Why am I not surprised?

How’d this all end? Are the cheaters suing? Might be better off sending their kid to private school. They can afford it.

Spending $20k on prep spread out over 4-5 years isn't comparable to a $40k/year private.

Anonymous wrote:Oh, wow. I’ve been away from this board a while. A 90+ page thread because some cheaters screwed things up at TJ again. Why am I not surprised?

How’d this all end? Are the cheaters suing? Might be better off sending their kid to private school. They can afford it.

Anonymous wrote:Oh, wow. I’ve been away from this board a while. A 90+ page thread because some cheaters screwed things up at TJ again. Why am I not surprised?

How’d this all end? Are the cheaters suing? Might be better off sending their kid to private school. They can afford it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Removing teacher recommendations is a massive red flag. The only reason to remove it was to make the process into a lottery.

One student who was caught cheating in Science Olympiad. Our team got penalized for it and that student was removed from the team for the state level competition. That student got in. Teacher recommendation would have been able to eliminate this.

The whole thing is so toxic. They should move to lottery.

Some other counties do have lotteries for magnets. They determine which students are "qualified" and of the qualified students it is a lottery. Seems like a good way to eliminate some of those trying to game the system, while still maintaining high quality.

Or rethink TJ entirely and change it to an Academy. Allow any student to enroll in the post-AP classes that are not offered at the base schools.

Won't happen. It's built as a high school and must continue to function as such. That building was just recently renovated at a cost of over $100M and would make absolutely no sense as an academy.

The only solution that is workable is turning it into a lottery. Too many people want to game admissions. Lottery is the only answer.

Disagree. I am the most vocal pro-reform proponent on this board (apart from the nutjobs) and I reject the notion of a lottery. I believe there are genuinely a group of 50-100 students every year who wouldn't make sense at any high school other than TJ, and as we continue to reform the new admissions process, we need to make sure we are adding enough layers to the process to identify those kids.

But it's pretty obvious to any actual observer of the Northern Virginia academic community - and I mean the ENTIRE community, not just the Western Fairfax and Loudoun self-selected set - that beyond those 50-100, there are probably 1500-2000 kids who would be phenomenal at TJ. Many of those don't even apply, and we have to fix that. But of that additional group, it makes the most sense to have those students come from diverse backgrounds and bring diverse perspectives and talents.

It is important to the functioning of a high school - ESPECIALLY a high-achieving one like TJ - to prevent an environment where all 500 students in the class are trying to accomplish the same goal on the same path. THAT is the reason for the toxicity that has existed in TJ's past, and that LONG predates it becoming majority-Asian.

Read that again - TJ's historic toxicity IS NOT about its racial composition; it is about the fact that for too long there were too many students who all had goals and ambitions that were way too similar.

It matters far less for the strength of the TJ environment to have a few kids who score a few points higher on the SAT or a few kids who are a year more advanced in math than it does to have a few more kids who are invested in making the community a better place to go to school. The kid who creates beautiful art in the school's stairwells or runs for six touchdowns on the football field or can actually speak to what it's like to grow up in poverty does far more for the school than the one who takes us from 20 AIME qualifiers to 21. And that should be obvious to everyone.

At its core, TJ is still a HIGH SCHOOL. And it's fine if you don't understand what makes for a positive, memorable, transformative high school experience - many don't. But you need to get out of the way of those who do.

The 50-100 who truly need a different experience should be in a dual enrollment program at George Mason and TJ should be returned to use as a community school that would naturally end up with the same diversity of talents that you somehow think a third-rate admissions department is going to be able to replicate.

Or, turn TJ into a full-time Academy program that only offers certain courses not available at base schools to a wider number of kids. If it were to function as a program site, rather than as a full-time school, you wouldn’t have to worry about the purported toxicity of the school or student body.

It remains beyond outrageous that the county spends so much time obsessing about the composition of, and environment at, a single high school when FCPS has neglected the needs of so many other schools. In fact, their latest tinkering with TJ will only aggravate the overcrowding at multiple schools.

Every single School Board member who has contributed to this mess needs to be booted out of office next year. They have completely and utterly failed, again and again.

The county does not want to spend all of this time obsessing over the composition of TJ. They wanted to make the necessary changes and be done with them. They are forced to continue the conversation because of the obsessive need for Coalition folks to make their voices heard to protect the small sliver of seats that they feel entitled to and are terrified of losing.

Did you feel this admissions office was third-rate when they were admitting the previous classes? Because it’s been the same folks for about ten years.

It is kind of crazy...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Removing teacher recommendations is a massive red flag. The only reason to remove it was to make the process into a lottery.

One student who was caught cheating in Science Olympiad. Our team got penalized for it and that student was removed from the team for the state level competition. That student got in. Teacher recommendation would have been able to eliminate this.

The whole thing is so toxic. They should move to lottery.

Some other counties do have lotteries for magnets. They determine which students are "qualified" and of the qualified students it is a lottery. Seems like a good way to eliminate some of those trying to game the system, while still maintaining high quality.

Or rethink TJ entirely and change it to an Academy. Allow any student to enroll in the post-AP classes that are not offered at the base schools.

Won't happen. It's built as a high school and must continue to function as such. That building was just recently renovated at a cost of over $100M and would make absolutely no sense as an academy.

The only solution that is workable is turning it into a lottery. Too many people want to game admissions. Lottery is the only answer.

Disagree. I am the most vocal pro-reform proponent on this board (apart from the nutjobs) and I reject the notion of a lottery. I believe there are genuinely a group of 50-100 students every year who wouldn't make sense at any high school other than TJ, and as we continue to reform the new admissions process, we need to make sure we are adding enough layers to the process to identify those kids.

But it's pretty obvious to any actual observer of the Northern Virginia academic community - and I mean the ENTIRE community, not just the Western Fairfax and Loudoun self-selected set - that beyond those 50-100, there are probably 1500-2000 kids who would be phenomenal at TJ. Many of those don't even apply, and we have to fix that. But of that additional group, it makes the most sense to have those students come from diverse backgrounds and bring diverse perspectives and talents.

It is important to the functioning of a high school - ESPECIALLY a high-achieving one like TJ - to prevent an environment where all 500 students in the class are trying to accomplish the same goal on the same path. THAT is the reason for the toxicity that has existed in TJ's past, and that LONG predates it becoming majority-Asian.

Read that again - TJ's historic toxicity IS NOT about its racial composition; it is about the fact that for too long there were too many students who all had goals and ambitions that were way too similar.

It matters far less for the strength of the TJ environment to have a few kids who score a few points higher on the SAT or a few kids who are a year more advanced in math than it does to have a few more kids who are invested in making the community a better place to go to school. The kid who creates beautiful art in the school's stairwells or runs for six touchdowns on the football field or can actually speak to what it's like to grow up in poverty does far more for the school than the one who takes us from 20 AIME qualifiers to 21. And that should be obvious to everyone.

At its core, TJ is still a HIGH SCHOOL. And it's fine if you don't understand what makes for a positive, memorable, transformative high school experience - many don't. But you need to get out of the way of those who do.

The 50-100 who truly need a different experience should be in a dual enrollment program at George Mason and TJ should be returned to use as a community school that would naturally end up with the same diversity of talents that you somehow think a third-rate admissions department is going to be able to replicate.

Or, turn TJ into a full-time Academy program that only offers certain courses not available at base schools to a wider number of kids. If it were to function as a program site, rather than as a full-time school, you wouldn’t have to worry about the purported toxicity of the school or student body.

It remains beyond outrageous that the county spends so much time obsessing about the composition of, and environment at, a single high school when FCPS has neglected the needs of so many other schools. In fact, their latest tinkering with TJ will only aggravate the overcrowding at multiple schools.

Every single School Board member who has contributed to this mess needs to be booted out of office next year. They have completely and utterly failed, again and again.

The county does not want to spend all of this time obsessing over the composition of TJ. They wanted to make the necessary changes and be done with them. They are forced to continue the conversation because of the obsessive need for Coalition folks to make their voices heard to protect the small sliver of seats that they feel entitled to and are terrified of losing.

Did you feel this admissions office was third-rate when they were admitting the previous classes? Because it’s been the same folks for about ten years.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Removing teacher recommendations is a massive red flag. The only reason to remove it was to make the process into a lottery.

One student who was caught cheating in Science Olympiad. Our team got penalized for it and that student was removed from the team for the state level competition. That student got in. Teacher recommendation would have been able to eliminate this.

The whole thing is so toxic. They should move to lottery.

Some other counties do have lotteries for magnets. They determine which students are "qualified" and of the qualified students it is a lottery. Seems like a good way to eliminate some of those trying to game the system, while still maintaining high quality.

Or rethink TJ entirely and change it to an Academy. Allow any student to enroll in the post-AP classes that are not offered at the base schools.

Won't happen. It's built as a high school and must continue to function as such. That building was just recently renovated at a cost of over $100M and would make absolutely no sense as an academy.

The only solution that is workable is turning it into a lottery. Too many people want to game admissions. Lottery is the only answer.

Disagree. I am the most vocal pro-reform proponent on this board (apart from the nutjobs) and I reject the notion of a lottery. I believe there are genuinely a group of 50-100 students every year who wouldn't make sense at any high school other than TJ, and as we continue to reform the new admissions process, we need to make sure we are adding enough layers to the process to identify those kids.

But it's pretty obvious to any actual observer of the Northern Virginia academic community - and I mean the ENTIRE community, not just the Western Fairfax and Loudoun self-selected set - that beyond those 50-100, there are probably 1500-2000 kids who would be phenomenal at TJ. Many of those don't even apply, and we have to fix that. But of that additional group, it makes the most sense to have those students come from diverse backgrounds and bring diverse perspectives and talents.

It is important to the functioning of a high school - ESPECIALLY a high-achieving one like TJ - to prevent an environment where all 500 students in the class are trying to accomplish the same goal on the same path. THAT is the reason for the toxicity that has existed in TJ's past, and that LONG predates it becoming majority-Asian.

Read that again - TJ's historic toxicity IS NOT about its racial composition; it is about the fact that for too long there were too many students who all had goals and ambitions that were way too similar.

It matters far less for the strength of the TJ environment to have a few kids who score a few points higher on the SAT or a few kids who are a year more advanced in math than it does to have a few more kids who are invested in making the community a better place to go to school. The kid who creates beautiful art in the school's stairwells or runs for six touchdowns on the football field or can actually speak to what it's like to grow up in poverty does far more for the school than the one who takes us from 20 AIME qualifiers to 21. And that should be obvious to everyone.

At its core, TJ is still a HIGH SCHOOL. And it's fine if you don't understand what makes for a positive, memorable, transformative high school experience - many don't. But you need to get out of the way of those who do.

The 50-100 who truly need a different experience should be in a dual enrollment program at George Mason and TJ should be returned to use as a community school that would naturally end up with the same diversity of talents that you somehow think a third-rate admissions department is going to be able to replicate.

Or, turn TJ into a full-time Academy program that only offers certain courses not available at base schools to a wider number of kids. If it were to function as a program site, rather than as a full-time school, you wouldn’t have to worry about the purported toxicity of the school or student body.

It remains beyond outrageous that the county spends so much time obsessing about the composition of, and environment at, a single high school when FCPS has neglected the needs of so many other schools. In fact, their latest tinkering with TJ will only aggravate the overcrowding at multiple schools.

Every single School Board member who has contributed to this mess needs to be booted out of office next year. They have completely and utterly failed, again and again.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Removing teacher recommendations is a massive red flag. The only reason to remove it was to make the process into a lottery.

One student who was caught cheating in Science Olympiad. Our team got penalized for it and that student was removed from the team for the state level competition. That student got in. Teacher recommendation would have been able to eliminate this.

The whole thing is so toxic. They should move to lottery.

Some other counties do have lotteries for magnets. They determine which students are "qualified" and of the qualified students it is a lottery. Seems like a good way to eliminate some of those trying to game the system, while still maintaining high quality.

Or rethink TJ entirely and change it to an Academy. Allow any student to enroll in the post-AP classes that are not offered at the base schools.

Won't happen. It's built as a high school and must continue to function as such. That building was just recently renovated at a cost of over $100M and would make absolutely no sense as an academy.

The only solution that is workable is turning it into a lottery. Too many people want to game admissions. Lottery is the only answer.

Disagree. I am the most vocal pro-reform proponent on this board (apart from the nutjobs) and I reject the notion of a lottery. I believe there are genuinely a group of 50-100 students every year who wouldn't make sense at any high school other than TJ, and as we continue to reform the new admissions process, we need to make sure we are adding enough layers to the process to identify those kids.

But it's pretty obvious to any actual observer of the Northern Virginia academic community - and I mean the ENTIRE community, not just the Western Fairfax and Loudoun self-selected set - that beyond those 50-100, there are probably 1500-2000 kids who would be phenomenal at TJ. Many of those don't even apply, and we have to fix that. But of that additional group, it makes the most sense to have those students come from diverse backgrounds and bring diverse perspectives and talents.

It is important to the functioning of a high school - ESPECIALLY a high-achieving one like TJ - to prevent an environment where all 500 students in the class are trying to accomplish the same goal on the same path. THAT is the reason for the toxicity that has existed in TJ's past, and that LONG predates it becoming majority-Asian.

Read that again - TJ's historic toxicity IS NOT about its racial composition; it is about the fact that for too long there were too many students who all had goals and ambitions that were way too similar.

It matters far less for the strength of the TJ environment to have a few kids who score a few points higher on the SAT or a few kids who are a year more advanced in math than it does to have a few more kids who are invested in making the community a better place to go to school. The kid who creates beautiful art in the school's stairwells or runs for six touchdowns on the football field or can actually speak to what it's like to grow up in poverty does far more for the school than the one who takes us from 20 AIME qualifiers to 21. And that should be obvious to everyone.

At its core, TJ is still a HIGH SCHOOL. And it's fine if you don't understand what makes for a positive, memorable, transformative high school experience - many don't. But you need to get out of the way of those who do.

Mostly agree with everything you wrote. If there 1000-1500 students who could benefit from programs like this and are willing then I think the county should rethink this. Turning admission into some Hunger Games experiment seems pointless and is not in any kids interest.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Removing teacher recommendations is a massive red flag. The only reason to remove it was to make the process into a lottery.

One student who was caught cheating in Science Olympiad. Our team got penalized for it and that student was removed from the team for the state level competition. That student got in. Teacher recommendation would have been able to eliminate this.

The whole thing is so toxic. They should move to lottery.

Some other counties do have lotteries for magnets. They determine which students are "qualified" and of the qualified students it is a lottery. Seems like a good way to eliminate some of those trying to game the system, while still maintaining high quality.

Or rethink TJ entirely and change it to an Academy. Allow any student to enroll in the post-AP classes that are not offered at the base schools.

Won't happen. It's built as a high school and must continue to function as such. That building was just recently renovated at a cost of over $100M and would make absolutely no sense as an academy.

The only solution that is workable is turning it into a lottery. Too many people want to game admissions. Lottery is the only answer.

Disagree. I am the most vocal pro-reform proponent on this board (apart from the nutjobs) and I reject the notion of a lottery. I believe there are genuinely a group of 50-100 students every year who wouldn't make sense at any high school other than TJ, and as we continue to reform the new admissions process, we need to make sure we are adding enough layers to the process to identify those kids.

But it's pretty obvious to any actual observer of the Northern Virginia academic community - and I mean the ENTIRE community, not just the Western Fairfax and Loudoun self-selected set - that beyond those 50-100, there are probably 1500-2000 kids who would be phenomenal at TJ. Many of those don't even apply, and we have to fix that. But of that additional group, it makes the most sense to have those students come from diverse backgrounds and bring diverse perspectives and talents.

It is important to the functioning of a high school - ESPECIALLY a high-achieving one like TJ - to prevent an environment where all 500 students in the class are trying to accomplish the same goal on the same path. THAT is the reason for the toxicity that has existed in TJ's past, and that LONG predates it becoming majority-Asian.

Read that again - TJ's historic toxicity IS NOT about its racial composition; it is about the fact that for too long there were too many students who all had goals and ambitions that were way too similar.

It matters far less for the strength of the TJ environment to have a few kids who score a few points higher on the SAT or a few kids who are a year more advanced in math than it does to have a few more kids who are invested in making the community a better place to go to school. The kid who creates beautiful art in the school's stairwells or runs for six touchdowns on the football field or can actually speak to what it's like to grow up in poverty does far more for the school than the one who takes us from 20 AIME qualifiers to 21. And that should be obvious to everyone.

At its core, TJ is still a HIGH SCHOOL. And it's fine if you don't understand what makes for a positive, memorable, transformative high school experience - many don't. But you need to get out of the way of those who do.