Anonymous wrote:The source of the math issues is that parents are rushing kids through Algebra and Geometry in order to try and gain an edge in TJ admissions. Statistics show that TJ is significantly more likely to accept a child who has completed geometry or higher in 8th grade. Very, very few kids are truly ready for Geometry or Algebra II in 8th grade. Sure they can do well in the class, but they can't truly grasp the concepts like they could if they were a couple years older.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
http://schoolprofiles.fcps.edu/schlprfl/f?p=108:42:1757190621013254::NO:42_SCHOOL_YEAR,P42_CLUSTER_ID,P42_DIVISION_ID,P42_SCHOOL_ID:201112,1,DIVISION,


total 7,8 plus aap[removed sped]=23,440
aap=3535 [assume 50% in each grade so 1767 in grade 8 ranging from 61 at Glascow to 259 at Carson]

Now do you all see why there are variations in the numbers for TJ from centers?

Great link to nowhere!

Anonymous wrote:Don't people ever get tired of this topic?

I'm Asian-American and always get insulted whenever this topic comes up. My parents were immigrants. English was my second language. I was never put in ESL classes because I always tested well. I never had tutors. I never went to afternoon or Saturday school. I don't think my parents ever helped me with my homework. I studied hard because I did not want to be poor like my parents. My parents always told me that Asians had to score much higher on tests if we wanted a fighting chance to succeed. I had plenty of black and Hispanic friends at Harvard.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I agree with you, but the fact is that there has been a steady deterioration in the math level of the students who are admitted, precipitating a crisis this year since almost 30% of the frosh class is considered inadequately prepared for the rigors of the program and has been placed in remedial math instruction. Before you jump to conclusions and conclude that it's the blacks and latino kids who aren't doing well, it's mathematically impossible for that to be the case--blacks and latinos make up less than 5% of the class. Furthermore, as the letter points out, most of those kids come from private schools, so they're in all likelihood not disadvantaged.
The fact is that the increasingly subjective application process has let in a lot of underqualified white and asian kids whose families have figured out how to game the system by writing the "perfect essay", saying the right things on the student information sheet, securing excellent recommendations, and packing their kids' after-school hours with science-related stuff, whether the kid is good at it or not and likes it or not.
.

This is a problem. Many people have enrolled their kids in TJ prep classes for a year or more before they take the test. Last year kids who needed help in Algebra II were identified less than a month into the school year, so the math issues existed before entry into the TJ program.

I went to a magnet high school in another state. There were valedictorians from junior high schools who cried because they could not follow along. Some kids from private school returned back to private school because their parents did not think their kids could compete and their chances of getting into Princeton were low. Most of the kids who could not keep up were white. This was back in the 90's though. The demographics of my old high school probably changed much since I attended.

Indian kids kicked major ass in mathematics at that school. There were always a few Indian kids who went to MIT. More black kids got into Harvard, Yale, etc. The white and Asian kids used to vent that it was unfair that the black kids got into the better colleges with lower test scores.