Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The job of TJ is to teach kids. Your basic point is that kids who have allegedly shown themselves to be adept in math (or whatever) should not be provided any programs specifically designed to cater to this ability. However, if a kid is adept in basketball, they do deserve such a program. Apparently winning basketball games is more important for you guys than providing supplemental education for students demonstrating proficiency. That says a lot about you, doesn't it?

The new admission policy ensures that more kids who need this enrichment get it whereas the old system only ensured kids who already got outside enrichment got it from the school too. This seems like a great and necessary change.

BINGO

+1 This right here is the heart of the change. You can argue for or against it. But kudos to the above poster for articulating the change.

There's no way around it. The people who want to cling to the old system mostly just want to be able to guarantee their kids will get in if they take a couple prep classes. These changes make it a lot harder and give bright kids in less affluent a fair chance.

The "prep" lady is lying again. The old system is race neutral. The new one is racist. Everyone can "prep", aka studying. Studying is the least expensive thing to do. If it were so easy to ace SAT by just taking a couple prep classes, white parents wouldn't have paid tens of thousands to have someone else take SAT for their kids.

Someone already posted the nationalities/ethnicities of the folks busted in Varsity Blues and it included a wide variety of nationalities and ethnicities, it wasn’t just White people. Lots of parents are stupidly desperate to get their kids into the best colleges and high schools thinking that it is highly important. It leads to them doing stupid things, like cheat on SATs or TJ admissions tests. It leads to prep for exams that have been demonstrated as being biased in favor of Middle Class/Upper Middle Class families.

TJ is simply proof that families are willing to spend money and time to prep their kids, leading to artificial acceleration in math in order to try and increase the chances of attending TJ. I understand that there are smart kids who enjoy math but that doesn’t require that kids take Geomoetry over the summer to meet their needs. Nor does it require kids taking science and math classes over the summer so that they have a head start on learning the material that will be taught in their class, to insure that they have an A in MS, for TJ, or A in high school, for colleges.

Not every kid who attends TJ does these things but a good percentage do. How do we know this? Look up the number of private business that teach TJ prep classes and teach science and math classes over the summer for kids to take. That is very different then kids taking AoPS or RSM or participating in STEM extra curricular activities.

You call it hard work, others call it gaming the system. Whatever you call it, the same desperate need to get your kid into TJ drove a very small percentage of rich, but not rich enough to buy a building for a University, parents to cheat to get their kids into colleges. Parents who were all races, skin colors, and nationalities.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The job of TJ is to teach kids. Your basic point is that kids who have allegedly shown themselves to be adept in math (or whatever) should not be provided any programs specifically designed to cater to this ability. However, if a kid is adept in basketball, they do deserve such a program. Apparently winning basketball games is more important for you guys than providing supplemental education for students demonstrating proficiency. That says a lot about you, doesn't it?

The new admission policy ensures that more kids who need this enrichment get it whereas the old system only ensured kids who already got outside enrichment got it from the school too. This seems like a great and necessary change.

BINGO

+1 This right here is the heart of the change. You can argue for or against it. But kudos to the above poster for articulating the change.

There's no way around it. The people who want to cling to the old system mostly just want to be able to guarantee their kids will get in if they take a couple prep classes. These changes make it a lot harder and give bright kids in less affluent a fair chance.

The "prep" lady is lying again. The old system is race neutral. The new one is racist. Everyone can "prep", aka studying. Studying is the least expensive thing to do. If it were so easy to ace SAT by just taking a couple prep classes, white parents wouldn't have paid tens of thousands to have someone else take SAT for their kids.

Make your kids study all you want. It just cannot be a requisite for the county stem high school. When the county makes this process fair and truly race neutral the admissions exam will test content taught through algebra I. More kids will qualify, and they’ll use a lottery to select kids equally across the county. Like another poster said, the earth will not stop spinning. TJ will still be a STEM magnet high school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The job of TJ is to teach kids. Your basic point is that kids who have allegedly shown themselves to be adept in math (or whatever) should not be provided any programs specifically designed to cater to this ability. However, if a kid is adept in basketball, they do deserve such a program. Apparently winning basketball games is more important for you guys than providing supplemental education for students demonstrating proficiency. That says a lot about you, doesn't it?

The new admission policy ensures that more kids who need this enrichment get it whereas the old system only ensured kids who already got outside enrichment got it from the school too. This seems like a great and necessary change.

BINGO

+1 This right here is the heart of the change. You can argue for or against it. But kudos to the above poster for articulating the change.

There's no way around it. The people who want to cling to the old system mostly just want to be able to guarantee their kids will get in if they take a couple prep classes. These changes make it a lot harder and give bright kids in less affluent a fair chance.

The "prep" lady is lying again. The old system is race neutral. The new one is racist. Everyone can "prep", aka studying. Studying is the least expensive thing to do. If it were so easy to ace SAT by just taking a couple prep classes, white parents wouldn't have paid tens of thousands to have someone else take SAT for their kids.

Anonymous wrote:It’s just a high school. Who cares?

+1,000. Earth will still spend on its axis no matter what the admissions policy is at TJ; whether it's the #1 school in the country or "just" #4 or #8 or #12, your children still need to attend school (somewhere) and be nurtured (by teachers and unhinged parents!).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:


Agree but some posters would rather discuss imaginary conspiracies than try and look at this honestly

How is it not a conspiracy? You admit it is a group action to benefit some people over a different group who will no longer get that benefit. That is by definition a conspiracy. Sometimes I wonder how this country can function with so few people being competent in the English language.

except these groups aren't identified on the application because that is illegal still people like to imagine people are out to get them

when in fact the county is simply addressing the abuse of prep that has allowed some to game the system for years

U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton expressed skepticism about the school system’s assertions that its new admissions policy is race neutral.

“Everybody knows the policy is not race neutral, and that it’s designed to affect the racial composition of the school,” he said. “You can say all sorts of beautiful things while you’re doing others.”

The judge said it. Now attack the judge...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The job of TJ is to teach kids. Your basic point is that kids who have allegedly shown themselves to be adept in math (or whatever) should not be provided any programs specifically designed to cater to this ability. However, if a kid is adept in basketball, they do deserve such a program. Apparently winning basketball games is more important for you guys than providing supplemental education for students demonstrating proficiency. That says a lot about you, doesn't it?

The new admission policy ensures that more kids who need this enrichment get it whereas the old system only ensured kids who already got outside enrichment got it from the school too. This seems like a great and necessary change.

BINGO

+1 This right here is the heart of the change. You can argue for or against it. But kudos to the above poster for articulating the change.

There's no way around it. The people who want to cling to the old system mostly just want to be able to guarantee their kids will get in if they take a couple prep classes. These changes make it a lot harder and give bright kids in less affluent a fair chance.

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, I see the TJ problem as an example that the average curriculum across all the HS's should be advanced. Obviously, every HS shouldn't be TJ - but given the demand and the ability - I see no reason why they shouldn't overall the standard curriculum in FCPS HS to make it more advanced.

but at most HS kids struggle with basic arithmetic so teaching anything advanced is problematic also grouping the smart kids together would be tracking and that's not acceptable (not personally sure why) alternatively they could offer hard classes and give kids who can't handle it F's but parents would complain and these classes get dumbed down so no matter what they do it won't work largely because the parents make it impossible

Honestly, I see the TJ problem as an example that the average curriculum across all the HS's should be advanced. Obviously, every HS shouldn't be TJ - but given the demand and the ability - I see no reason why they shouldn't overall the standard curriculum in FCPS HS to make it more advanced.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The job of TJ is to teach kids. Your basic point is that kids who have allegedly shown themselves to be adept in math (or whatever) should not be provided any programs specifically designed to cater to this ability. However, if a kid is adept in basketball, they do deserve such a program. Apparently winning basketball games is more important for you guys than providing supplemental education for students demonstrating proficiency. That says a lot about you, doesn't it?

You're misrepresenting the argument.

Kids who are adept in math ARE provided plenty of programs specifically designed to cater to their ability. There are plenty of students every year who are entering pre-calc in 9th grade and are not admitted to TJ. What becomes of them? Their school helps them to find solutions if they run out of math at their high school. Perhaps there are enough of those kids to warrant an additional advanced class. Perhaps they take a college class.

If we hijack TJ as an educational institution that is only designed to serve the extremely advanced, before long you will no longer have a full-service high school on your hands. TJ is a wonderful place to be because students can have an exceptional STEM education AND they can also play basketball, or write for the newspaper, or act in a play, or march in the band. Otherwise it's just another AOS or Curie.

Agreed, TJ shouldn't be only for STEM nerds, it should have rigors for arts and history too, a balanced HS. Wait...what's the point of TJ existence, such a waste of money, why can't the funds and donations go to the underprivileged elementary school directly, at least it helps those kids at early age than being propped as poster kids at high school and suffer the failure at TJ.

It’s just a high school. Who cares?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The job of TJ is to teach kids. Your basic point is that kids who have allegedly shown themselves to be adept in math (or whatever) should not be provided any programs specifically designed to cater to this ability. However, if a kid is adept in basketball, they do deserve such a program. Apparently winning basketball games is more important for you guys than providing supplemental education for students demonstrating proficiency. That says a lot about you, doesn't it?

The new admission policy ensures that more kids who need this enrichment get it whereas the old system only ensured kids who already got outside enrichment got it from the school too. This seems like a great and necessary change.

BINGO

+1 This right here is the heart of the change. You can argue for or against it. But kudos to the above poster for articulating the change.

Yep!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:


Agree but some posters would rather discuss imaginary conspiracies than try and look at this honestly

How is it not a conspiracy? You admit it is a group action to benefit some people over a different group who will no longer get that benefit. That is by definition a conspiracy. Sometimes I wonder how this country can function with so few people being competent in the English language.

except these groups aren't identified on the application because that is illegal still people like to imagine people are out to get them

when in fact the county is simply addressing the abuse of prep that has allowed some to game the system for years

Anonymous wrote:


Agree but some posters would rather discuss imaginary conspiracies than try and look at this honestly

How is it not a conspiracy? You admit it is a group action to benefit some people over a different group who will no longer get that benefit. That is by definition a conspiracy. Sometimes I wonder how this country can function with so few people being competent in the English language.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The job of TJ is to teach kids. Your basic point is that kids who have allegedly shown themselves to be adept in math (or whatever) should not be provided any programs specifically designed to cater to this ability. However, if a kid is adept in basketball, they do deserve such a program. Apparently winning basketball games is more important for you guys than providing supplemental education for students demonstrating proficiency. That says a lot about you, doesn't it?

The new admission policy ensures that more kids who need this enrichment get it whereas the old system only ensured kids who already got outside enrichment got it from the school too. This seems like a great and necessary change.

BINGO

+1 This right here is the heart of the change. You can argue for or against it. But kudos to the above poster for articulating the change.

Agree but some posters would rather discuss imaginary conspiracies than try and look at this honestly

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The job of TJ is to teach kids. Your basic point is that kids who have allegedly shown themselves to be adept in math (or whatever) should not be provided any programs specifically designed to cater to this ability. However, if a kid is adept in basketball, they do deserve such a program. Apparently winning basketball games is more important for you guys than providing supplemental education for students demonstrating proficiency. That says a lot about you, doesn't it?

The new admission policy ensures that more kids who need this enrichment get it whereas the old system only ensured kids who already got outside enrichment got it from the school too. This seems like a great and necessary change.

BINGO

Well this is precisely the issue. I am not qualified to determine who needs exactly what. I disagree with the notion that all kids in TJ already got outside enrichment since it is obviously false. Obviously, you think that FCPS should favor some kids over others. Perhaps you should ask yourself whether this is politically sustainable. Do you really think the rich allegedly-liberal hypocrites in the Fairfax electorate will continue to support a public school system that essentially tells their overly-entitled offspring to pound sand? Oooh, this will be entertaining.