Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know how top 1.5% is picked? 30% of the students at our MS scored straight A last school year. What else are counted?

The top 1.5% just refers to the number of guaranteed seats. If your school has 600 8th graders, then there would be 9 guaranteed seats.
All applicants are scored based on GPA, their portrait of a graduate paragraphs, their problem solving essay, and any experience factors. The top 9 scorers are given spots, and the rest go into the general pool of applicants.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A quick google search is all that is needed .. https://www.fcps.edu/node/47920

SMH at the number of people who are spewing venom because that is what they are good at

Is it true that 30 Longfellow kids got in out of 200 applicants versus 1 Whitman kid out of 2 applicants?

What is FCPS hiding by not releasing the number of applicants from each school?

This convoluted percentage game is masking the actual number of applicants per school. If that were disclosed, it would expose the inconvenient truth of admissions manipulation.

It is not hiding anything. We all know that there are schools where a lot of kids apply and schools were only a handful apply. That is well established. Part of the reason they moved to seats for every MS was to increase the number of kids applying from all MS because kids would know that there were slots for kids from that MS. In the past kids would apply from a school and no one would be admitted. A history of this discouraged kids from applying.

Part of the reason why they moved to a requirement for a common course load and not extracurricular activities was so that kids from schools that did not have those extracurricular activities or access to RSM/AoPS/Curie/math enrichment classes would be evaluated on an equal footing.

They don’t identify numbers under 10 because it makes it too easy to individually identify a child. But everyone knows the schools that rarely had kids at TJ and can see that at least kids are applying and attending. Hopefully as kids at the MS see classmates attending, more kids see tj as attainable and work towards attending there. Hopefully that leads to more kids applying themselves in Math and Science and challenging themselves.

If there were 2 applicants from Whitman and only 1 was in the top 1.5%, that kid would be admitted, the other probably would not receive an offer. The remaining slots would go into the open pool.

Carson, Longfellow, and other schools have long had hundreds apply and not be accepted. The numbers have increased because of the guaranteed seats but they still dominate the admissions categories. I would like to see TJ applicants have Geometry by the end of 8th grade because I don’t think it makes sense to attend tJ and not have the math background to access the specialized math and science classes. That said, I think TJ is a FCPS magnet school and it should be open to all kids from FCPS. I like that there are seats for every school. And yes, this might bite my kid in the butt in a few years if he chooses to apply, he will be attending Carson because it is his base school.

TJ should not be open for all students, but for qualified students who have proven mastery of middle school stem subjects. It is racist to use geographical quota as a proxy to conduct racial balancing, especially to lower strength of asian american students. It is racist to say students are from wealthy families when they allocate their limited money towards RSM/AoPS/Curie/math enrichment classes, instead of towards basketball, football, baseball, soccer, etc. It is racist because asian american student families are well known to allocate their limited money towards RSM/AoPS/Curie/math enrichment classes.

The students being selected now are more than qualified as these past years have demonstrated. The only thing this does is ensure that selection is open to all residents and not limited to the wealthiest schools

Neither schools nor students are "wealthy." Parents may be.

The percentage of low-income TJ admits in the Class of 2027 dropped almost in half from the Class of 2026 (11.6% vs. 20.7%). Only Langley among FCPS high schools has less than 11.6% FARMS. So it looks like wealthier families are figuring out quickly how to place their kids into TJ under the new system.

The percentage of admitted students who are Asian was about 60% again, which is clearly lower than before the change in admissions policy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A quick google search is all that is needed .. https://www.fcps.edu/node/47920

SMH at the number of people who are spewing venom because that is what they are good at

Is it true that 30 Longfellow kids got in out of 200 applicants versus 1 Whitman kid out of 2 applicants?

What is FCPS hiding by not releasing the number of applicants from each school?

This convoluted percentage game is masking the actual number of applicants per school. If that were disclosed, it would expose the inconvenient truth of admissions manipulation.

It is not hiding anything. We all know that there are schools where a lot of kids apply and schools were only a handful apply. That is well established. Part of the reason they moved to seats for every MS was to increase the number of kids applying from all MS because kids would know that there were slots for kids from that MS. In the past kids would apply from a school and no one would be admitted. A history of this discouraged kids from applying.

Part of the reason why they moved to a requirement for a common course load and not extracurricular activities was so that kids from schools that did not have those extracurricular activities or access to RSM/AoPS/Curie/math enrichment classes would be evaluated on an equal footing.

They don’t identify numbers under 10 because it makes it too easy to individually identify a child. But everyone knows the schools that rarely had kids at TJ and can see that at least kids are applying and attending. Hopefully as kids at the MS see classmates attending, more kids see tj as attainable and work towards attending there. Hopefully that leads to more kids applying themselves in Math and Science and challenging themselves.

If there were 2 applicants from Whitman and only 1 was in the top 1.5%, that kid would be admitted, the other probably would not receive an offer. The remaining slots would go into the open pool.

Carson, Longfellow, and other schools have long had hundreds apply and not be accepted. The numbers have increased because of the guaranteed seats but they still dominate the admissions categories. I would like to see TJ applicants have Geometry by the end of 8th grade because I don’t think it makes sense to attend tJ and not have the math background to access the specialized math and science classes. That said, I think TJ is a FCPS magnet school and it should be open to all kids from FCPS. I like that there are seats for every school. And yes, this might bite my kid in the butt in a few years if he chooses to apply, he will be attending Carson because it is his base school.

TJ should not be open for all students, but for qualified students who have proven mastery of middle school stem subjects. It is racist to use geographical quota as a proxy to conduct racial balancing, especially to lower strength of asian american students. It is racist to say students are from wealthy families when they allocate their limited money towards RSM/AoPS/Curie/math enrichment classes, instead of towards basketball, football, baseball, soccer, etc. It is racist because asian american student families are well known to allocate their limited money towards RSM/AoPS/Curie/math enrichment classes.

The students being selected now are more than qualified as these past years have demonstrated. The only thing this does is ensure that selection is open to all residents and not limited to the wealthiest schools

Anonymous wrote:FCPS under Michelle Reid views transparency as getting in the way of equity. So FCPS is no longer disclosing (at least not on a timely basis) data that used to be disclosed every year, such as:

- SAT scores by school (school-wide or disaggregated by race/ethnicity);
- Admissions to TJ by middle school; and
- Racial/ethnic data for individual schools

Instead, we should all pretend every school is the same, where all outcomes will be the same, and that no data can be shared without "contextualizing" it so that the stupid FCPS parents understand how exactly Reid and her staff want everyone to interpret it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A quick google search is all that is needed .. https://www.fcps.edu/node/47920

SMH at the number of people who are spewing venom because that is what they are good at

Is it true that 30 Longfellow kids got in out of 200 applicants versus 1 Whitman kid out of 2 applicants?

What is FCPS hiding by not releasing the number of applicants from each school?

This convoluted percentage game is masking the actual number of applicants per school. If that were disclosed, it would expose the inconvenient truth of admissions manipulation.

It is not hiding anything. We all know that there are schools where a lot of kids apply and schools were only a handful apply. That is well established. Part of the reason they moved to seats for every MS was to increase the number of kids applying from all MS because kids would know that there were slots for kids from that MS. In the past kids would apply from a school and no one would be admitted. A history of this discouraged kids from applying.

Part of the reason why they moved to a requirement for a common course load and not extracurricular activities was so that kids from schools that did not have those extracurricular activities or access to RSM/AoPS/Curie/math enrichment classes would be evaluated on an equal footing.

They don’t identify numbers under 10 because it makes it too easy to individually identify a child. But everyone knows the schools that rarely had kids at TJ and can see that at least kids are applying and attending. Hopefully as kids at the MS see classmates attending, more kids see tj as attainable and work towards attending there. Hopefully that leads to more kids applying themselves in Math and Science and challenging themselves.

If there were 2 applicants from Whitman and only 1 was in the top 1.5%, that kid would be admitted, the other probably would not receive an offer. The remaining slots would go into the open pool.

Carson, Longfellow, and other schools have long had hundreds apply and not be accepted. The numbers have increased because of the guaranteed seats but they still dominate the admissions categories. I would like to see TJ applicants have Geometry by the end of 8th grade because I don’t think it makes sense to attend tJ and not have the math background to access the specialized math and science classes. That said, I think TJ is a FCPS magnet school and it should be open to all kids from FCPS. I like that there are seats for every school. And yes, this might bite my kid in the butt in a few years if he chooses to apply, he will be attending Carson because it is his base school.

TJ should not be open for all students, but for qualified students who have proven mastery of middle school stem subjects. It is racist to use geographical quota as a proxy to conduct racial balancing, especially to lower strength of asian american students. It is racist to say students are from wealthy families when they allocate their limited money towards RSM/AoPS/Curie/math enrichment classes, instead of towards basketball, football, baseball, soccer, etc. It is racist because asian american student families are well known to allocate their limited money towards RSM/AoPS/Curie/math enrichment classes.

The students being selected now are more than qualified as these past years have demonstrated. The only thing this does is ensure that selection is open to all residents and not limited to the wealthiest schools

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A quick google search is all that is needed .. https://www.fcps.edu/node/47920

SMH at the number of people who are spewing venom because that is what they are good at

Is it true that 30 Longfellow kids got in out of 200 applicants versus 1 Whitman kid out of 2 applicants?

What is FCPS hiding by not releasing the number of applicants from each school?

This convoluted percentage game is masking the actual number of applicants per school. If that were disclosed, it would expose the inconvenient truth of admissions manipulation.

It is not hiding anything. We all know that there are schools where a lot of kids apply and schools were only a handful apply. That is well established. Part of the reason they moved to seats for every MS was to increase the number of kids applying from all MS because kids would know that there were slots for kids from that MS. In the past kids would apply from a school and no one would be admitted. A history of this discouraged kids from applying.

Part of the reason why they moved to a requirement for a common course load and not extracurricular activities was so that kids from schools that did not have those extracurricular activities or access to RSM/AoPS/Curie/math enrichment classes would be evaluated on an equal footing.

They don’t identify numbers under 10 because it makes it too easy to individually identify a child. But everyone knows the schools that rarely had kids at TJ and can see that at least kids are applying and attending. Hopefully as kids at the MS see classmates attending, more kids see tj as attainable and work towards attending there. Hopefully that leads to more kids applying themselves in Math and Science and challenging themselves.

If there were 2 applicants from Whitman and only 1 was in the top 1.5%, that kid would be admitted, the other probably would not receive an offer. The remaining slots would go into the open pool.

Carson, Longfellow, and other schools have long had hundreds apply and not be accepted. The numbers have increased because of the guaranteed seats but they still dominate the admissions categories. I would like to see TJ applicants have Geometry by the end of 8th grade because I don’t think it makes sense to attend tJ and not have the math background to access the specialized math and science classes. That said, I think TJ is a FCPS magnet school and it should be open to all kids from FCPS. I like that there are seats for every school. And yes, this might bite my kid in the butt in a few years if he chooses to apply, he will be attending Carson because it is his base school.

TJ should not be open for all students, but for qualified students who have proven mastery of middle school stem subjects. It is racist to use geographical quota as a proxy to conduct racial balancing, especially to lower strength of asian american students. It is racist to say students are from wealthy families when they allocate their limited money towards RSM/AoPS/Curie/math enrichment classes, instead of towards basketball, football, baseball, soccer, etc. It is racist because asian american student families are well known to allocate their limited money towards RSM/AoPS/Curie/math enrichment classes.

The students being selected now are more than qualified as these past years have demonstrated. The only thing this does is ensure that selection is open to all residents and not limited to the wealthiest schools

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A quick google search is all that is needed .. https://www.fcps.edu/node/47920

SMH at the number of people who are spewing venom because that is what they are good at

Is it true that 30 Longfellow kids got in out of 200 applicants versus 1 Whitman kid out of 2 applicants?

What is FCPS hiding by not releasing the number of applicants from each school?

This convoluted percentage game is masking the actual number of applicants per school. If that were disclosed, it would expose the inconvenient truth of admissions manipulation.

It is not hiding anything. We all know that there are schools where a lot of kids apply and schools were only a handful apply. That is well established. Part of the reason they moved to seats for every MS was to increase the number of kids applying from all MS because kids would know that there were slots for kids from that MS. In the past kids would apply from a school and no one would be admitted. A history of this discouraged kids from applying.

Part of the reason why they moved to a requirement for a common course load and not extracurricular activities was so that kids from schools that did not have those extracurricular activities or access to RSM/AoPS/Curie/math enrichment classes would be evaluated on an equal footing.

They don’t identify numbers under 10 because it makes it too easy to individually identify a child. But everyone knows the schools that rarely had kids at TJ and can see that at least kids are applying and attending. Hopefully as kids at the MS see classmates attending, more kids see tj as attainable and work towards attending there. Hopefully that leads to more kids applying themselves in Math and Science and challenging themselves.

If there were 2 applicants from Whitman and only 1 was in the top 1.5%, that kid would be admitted, the other probably would not receive an offer. The remaining slots would go into the open pool.

Carson, Longfellow, and other schools have long had hundreds apply and not be accepted. The numbers have increased because of the guaranteed seats but they still dominate the admissions categories. I would like to see TJ applicants have Geometry by the end of 8th grade because I don’t think it makes sense to attend tJ and not have the math background to access the specialized math and science classes. That said, I think TJ is a FCPS magnet school and it should be open to all kids from FCPS. I like that there are seats for every school. And yes, this might bite my kid in the butt in a few years if he chooses to apply, he will be attending Carson because it is his base school.

TJ should not be open for all students, but for qualified students who have proven mastery of middle school stem subjects. It is racist to use geographical quota as a proxy to conduct racial balancing, especially to lower strength of asian american students. It is racist to say students are from wealthy families when they allocate their limited money towards RSM/AoPS/Curie/math enrichment classes, instead of towards basketball, football, baseball, soccer, etc. It is racist because asian american student families are well known to allocate their limited money towards RSM/AoPS/Curie/math enrichment classes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A quick google search is all that is needed .. https://www.fcps.edu/node/47920

SMH at the number of people who are spewing venom because that is what they are good at

Is it true that 30 Longfellow kids got in out of 200 applicants versus 1 Whitman kid out of 2 applicants?

What is FCPS hiding by not releasing the number of applicants from each school?

Carson is the only FCPS middle school that has regularly had more than 200 applicants to TJ. Its AAP program draws from ES feeders in multiple pyramids.

Whitman had about 420 8th grade students last year, so it would have been allotted 6 seats to TJ under the 1.5% formula If at least 6 kids meeting the minimum requirements applied, at least 6 would have been admitted. If only 2 applied, and they both met the minimum requirements, both would have been admitted.

The 1.5% is a racist attempt to lower number of Asian American students admitted to TJ.

"Asian-American applicants are differently situated because they disproportionately attend a handful of gifted centers that have disproportionately high percentages of eligible applicants. These centers draw middle-school students from multiple schools who have scored highly on aptitude tests and offer them advanced classes. The 1.5% set-aside thus “disproportionately forces Asian-American students to compete against more eligible and interested applicants” attending these top gifted centers, rather than competing against all students."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A quick google search is all that is needed .. https://www.fcps.edu/node/47920

SMH at the number of people who are spewing venom because that is what they are good at

Is it true that 30 Longfellow kids got in out of 200 applicants versus 1 Whitman kid out of 2 applicants?

What is FCPS hiding by not releasing the number of applicants from each school?

This convoluted percentage game is masking the actual number of applicants per school. If that were disclosed, it would expose the inconvenient truth of admissions manipulation.

It is not hiding anything. We all know that there are schools where a lot of kids apply and schools were only a handful apply. That is well established. Part of the reason they moved to seats for every MS was to increase the number of kids applying from all MS because kids would know that there were slots for kids from that MS. In the past kids would apply from a school and no one would be admitted. A history of this discouraged kids from applying.

Part of the reason why they moved to a requirement for a common course load and not extracurricular activities was so that kids from schools that did not have those extracurricular activities or access to RSM/AoPS/Curie/math enrichment classes would be evaluated on an equal footing.

They don’t identify numbers under 10 because it makes it too easy to individually identify a child. But everyone knows the schools that rarely had kids at TJ and can see that at least kids are applying and attending. Hopefully as kids at the MS see classmates attending, more kids see tj as attainable and work towards attending there. Hopefully that leads to more kids applying themselves in Math and Science and challenging themselves.

If there were 2 applicants from Whitman and only 1 was in the top 1.5%, that kid would be admitted, the other probably would not receive an offer. The remaining slots would go into the open pool.

Carson, Longfellow, and other schools have long had hundreds apply and not be accepted. The numbers have increased because of the guaranteed seats but they still dominate the admissions categories. I would like to see TJ applicants have Geometry by the end of 8th grade because I don’t think it makes sense to attend tJ and not have the math background to access the specialized math and science classes. That said, I think TJ is a FCPS magnet school and it should be open to all kids from FCPS. I like that there are seats for every school. And yes, this might bite my kid in the butt in a few years if he chooses to apply, he will be attending Carson because it is his base school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A quick google search is all that is needed .. https://www.fcps.edu/node/47920

SMH at the number of people who are spewing venom because that is what they are good at

Is it true that 30 Longfellow kids got in out of 200 applicants versus 1 Whitman kid out of 2 applicants?

What is FCPS hiding by not releasing the number of applicants from each school?

Carson is the only FCPS middle school that has regularly had more than 200 applicants to TJ. Its AAP program draws from ES feeders in multiple pyramids.

Whitman had about 420 8th grade students last year, so it would have been allotted 6 seats to TJ under the 1.5% formula If at least 6 kids meeting the minimum requirements applied, at least 6 would have been admitted. If only 2 applied, and they both met the minimum requirements, both would have been admitted.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A quick google search is all that is needed .. https://www.fcps.edu/node/47920

SMH at the number of people who are spewing venom because that is what they are good at

Is it true that 30 Longfellow kids got in out of 200 applicants versus 1 Whitman kid out of 2 applicants?

What is FCPS hiding by not releasing the number of applicants from each school?

Carson is the only FCPS middle school that has regularly had more than 200 applicants to TJ. Its AAP program draws from ES feeders in multiple pyramids.

Whitman had about 420 8th grade students last year, so it would have been allotted 6 seats to TJ under the 1.5% formula If at least 6 kids meeting the minimum requirements applied, at least 6 would have been admitted. If only 2 applied, and they both met the minimum requirements, both would have been admitted.

But the way it really works the 1.5% only accounts for half of the 500 seats so Carson could potentially place another 250 kids if they are the best.

No. LCPS and PWCPS each take a hefty share of the TJ seats.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A quick google search is all that is needed .. https://www.fcps.edu/node/47920

SMH at the number of people who are spewing venom because that is what they are good at

Is it true that 30 Longfellow kids got in out of 200 applicants versus 1 Whitman kid out of 2 applicants?

What is FCPS hiding by not releasing the number of applicants from each school?

Carson is the only FCPS middle school that has regularly had more than 200 applicants to TJ. Its AAP program draws from ES feeders in multiple pyramids.

Whitman had about 420 8th grade students last year, so it would have been allotted 6 seats to TJ under the 1.5% formula If at least 6 kids meeting the minimum requirements applied, at least 6 would have been admitted. If only 2 applied, and they both met the minimum requirements, both would have been admitted.

But the way it really works the 1.5% only accounts for half of the 500 seats so Carson could potentially place another 250 kids if they are the best.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A quick google search is all that is needed .. https://www.fcps.edu/node/47920

SMH at the number of people who are spewing venom because that is what they are good at

Is it true that 30 Longfellow kids got in out of 200 applicants versus 1 Whitman kid out of 2 applicants?

What is FCPS hiding by not releasing the number of applicants from each school?

Carson is the only FCPS middle school that has regularly had more than 200 applicants to TJ. Its AAP program draws from ES feeders in multiple pyramids.

Whitman had about 420 8th grade students last year, so it would have been allotted 6 seats to TJ under the 1.5% formula If at least 6 kids meeting the minimum requirements applied, at least 6 would have been admitted. If only 2 applied, and they both met the minimum requirements, both would have been admitted.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A quick google search is all that is needed .. https://www.fcps.edu/node/47920

SMH at the number of people who are spewing venom because that is what they are good at

Is it true that 30 Longfellow kids got in out of 200 applicants versus 1 Whitman kid out of 2 applicants?

What is FCPS hiding by not releasing the number of applicants from each school?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The School Board has been a disaster over the past four years, but most people don't pay attention and tend to vote a party line. Then they wonder why their schools are kind of a mess and/or their kids aren't getting as rigorous an education as they'd hoped, but then tend to either suck it up or pull their kids out of FCPS.

Realistically, the real pressure on the School Board will come eventually from the Board of Supervisors. They are also mostly from the same party and can see that the School Board is flailing. To some extent, they don't want to get involved with FCPS matters, because then it becomes their mess as well, but some know that FCPS was once a big draw for the county and that's no longer the case.

We need a Republican Party in Fairfax County that is serious about the business of governing. We're long past being able to have that across the country, but there are enough sensible conservatives in Northern Virginia that we should end up with better candidates than Harry Jackson and Debbie Tisler and Saundra Davis. The Fairfax County GOP - at least based on their Twitter account and their endorsements - seems to be obsessed with being as Trumpy as possible when that tack has been proven repeatedly to be unsuccessful in this area. Fairfax County is not a place to appeal to the lowest common denominator and we should demand better.

Saundra Davis is a good candidate. So is Paul Bartkowski. Maybe Debra Tisler is as well; not my district.

You want to lump every GOP-endorsed candidate along with Harry Jackson because you know he’s polarizing. No different than suggesting every FCDC-endorsed candidate is a carbon copy of Abrar Omeish or Karl Frisch (both awful).

Would be great if voters would look at individual candidates and recognize we need diverse views on the board again.

PP. I will grant you that Omeish is terrible. I am thankful she is not running again, especially after her anti-Semitic stunt at the last Board meeting. Karl Frisch is fine - he's nothing special, but he's perfectly suited to do the job and in this field, "not actively harmful" is a plus.

Bartkowski is too focused on students' genitals, and I have no patience for anyone who is interested in book-banning or who genuinely believes that there is "porn in schools".

And Harry Jackson isn't polarizing. He's a serial abuser.