Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a former TJ teacher. I was a bit shocked and disappointed to hear about the proposed change. I specifically wanted to work at TJ because I love working with gifted kids, which is what I thought TJ was all about, but maybe I just assumed that (?). Not to say the kids selected through the lottery won't be gifted, but it will be a mixed bag for sure, which will require more differentiation and probably less of an opportunity to go as in depth as I loved to do with my students. I do hope the powers that be at least figure out a way to identify the profoundly gifted kids who are interested in STEM, as I feel they would be the real losers in this plan.

Do you think teachers will leave to pursue other endeavors?

Teachers will wait to see what happens. TJ is a great gig for a teacher. So they'll see what the new class looks like - chances are, it won't look too much different except for there'll be a few more kids in Geometry - and they'll probably hang in there.

I'm the PP to whom your question was directed. The answer, above, was not written by me. If I were still teaching at TJ, I would consider planning my exit strategy. I say this because I see this as being the beginning of the end. These changes will have a domino effect that will become apparent in 3-5 years, and it will no longer be the special place that students want to go the extra mile to attend.

I responded previously much earlier to the OP. If I were still teaching at TJ, I would be excited about the possibilities of the change in the admissions process. I found my students to be increasingly self-involved and one-dimensional as the years passed - more and more focused on college and less and less focused on high school. Increase in high-maintenance parenting, increase in grade-grubbing, decrease in genuine interest in the subject matter - not just in my class, but in my colleagues' as well.

I'd be excited that the decrease in emphasis on test prep and resume-stacking would result in a student population that is more genuinely curious and more directed toward enjoying the rigorous high school environment for its own sake. TJ parents won't want to hear this, but there really wasn't that much of a difference between my AP students there and at the local high school where I taught previously in terms of ability. The difference was that the TJ students were more focused on their grades and less focused on learning.

Are you pretending to be a former TJ teacher to spew anti-TJ and anti-Asian stereotypes? Sounds like you never taught at TJ since you do not say anything factually that would lend some credibility that you were in fact a teacher at TJ. Which white bio teacher was known to love watermelon? This was a well known fact at TJ.

Oh sure - I'll do the same thing as Curie did and post names of people on this board. Great idea.

Let's see....there was a math teacher who had photos of comic book covers all over the walls of their classroom, another math teacher who was the football team's offensive coordinator, another math teacher who works with the color guard, two of the math teachers were TJ alums and one of them completely rewrote the TJ math curriculum to what it currently looks like today (TJ Math 1, 2, 2.5, 3, etc).

And I didn't work in the math department. So there.

crickets

still crickets

From Sami :
Lottery is wrong because

1. It will destroy TJ's standard and ranking. The goal / definite outcome is downgrade of TJ to a normal good high school. If you look at the presentation (page 25) FCPS
superintendent made to the board, he listed some schools which are good and use lottery as intake method. If you look at the rank of those schools, some are in 100, 600. If TJ
starts lottery TJ will be one of those. Some sample schools he listed are
- Raisbeck Aviation High School, WA with niche.com rank 272, US news rank 108;
- International community school, Washington; niche.com rank 157, US news did not rank the school.


2. Lowering of quality will be extended to future. Student body that will enter through lottery will do worse than usual noting the fact that even students who go through admission
test struggle at TJ. Then teachers will be asked to dumb down the test so the advocates of lottery look better. AP courses all have structured test which will manifest the
degradation in quality. Unless colleges change their admission criteria TJ students will not go to top colleges in usual proportion.

3. About 5% of TJ students finally selected had "Algebra 1" in 8th std. Rest are higher (Geometry 1, Trig etc.). For FCPS that means they took algebra in grade 7 which in turn means
they were top percentile in Iowa Test. Now, Algebra 1 students will be more. Lowering standard again.

4. "Merit" is a falsely used word here. Life only measures , rewards "preparedness for a role". Standardized test is very good (not perfect) at measuring it. Most other methods
cannot cite success over long time. Lottery does not even care for it. If someone disagrees we can measure. Take 90% of students through admission test and take 10%
through lottery. Track their grades for 4 years and the colleges they go to. If the results converge then make lottery the process of admission.

5. If you look at the presentation FCPS superintendent made he mentioned what has been tried to admit more "economically disadvantaged" student (page 6). He acted as if he tried
everything he possible could but still did not get the result. If you notice carefully FCPS did nothing to "improve the quality" of "economically disadvantaged". Only action
(outreach) that could have benefited them was curtailed. He kept on changing the structure of the test and of course did not get result. In case you have any doubt about the
information here is what he presented. Unless someone is absolutely dumb he would not expect these changes to help "economically disadvantaged"

2011 (Class of 2016) –Outreach Specialist Position Created
2013 (Class of 2018) –Holistic Review , Student Information Sheet proctored
2014 (Class of 2019) –Sliding Scale Adjusted, Minimum semifinalist requirements lowered
2015 (Class of 2020) –Problem Solving Essay Added
2016 (Class of 2021) –Outreach Specialist Reduced to 0.5 Position
2017 (Class of 2022) –New Tests Introduced, Quant-Q and ACT Aspire Reading & Science
These changes have not made a significant impact on the application pool or admitted student demographics

This reminds me of going to Iraq war . Saddam was a bad person and removing him was a good goal. But Iraq war was the wrong choice. But this is what jingoism, zealots do. They focus on 1 topic and completely ignore everything else. Fortunately, people will not die if this passes. However, lot of hard work backed dreams will die. More importantly, an institution that took long time to build will die.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does teaching at TJ differ from teaching at a base school? Would the teachers stay at a lottery TJ?

STEM teaching is at a college /MIT level, even for honors (not AP/ Post AP) classes. My kid did standard honors physics (not AP C). Got a B. Placed into third semester college physics at a pretty strong physics school. And still spent the first semester bored out of his mind and walking his problem set group of sophomores and juniors through the work. Is now a sophomore physics TA, so it worked out.

Also placed out of multi variable, despite only going through TJ’s version of BC.

FCPS students who are interested in STEM should not have to be ready to be taught at an MIT level in high school in order to survive at TJ. That is what FCPS has let TJ become, which is why many kids no longer want to apply to go there.

I know a bunch of kids were accepted to TJ, but refused, not only because of the known cheating (whether or not TJ people call it that, but also because they would not have anything in common with TJ's current over prepping students. In other words, they believe that one should be admitted by their own talent, not by memorization, and parents who force many hours per day on tutoring. If you need a tutor for hours each day, maybe the school is too much for you. Kids should be getting in by their own merits - not being prepped to the test.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a former TJ teacher. I was a bit shocked and disappointed to hear about the proposed change. I specifically wanted to work at TJ because I love working with gifted kids, which is what I thought TJ was all about, but maybe I just assumed that (?). Not to say the kids selected through the lottery won't be gifted, but it will be a mixed bag for sure, which will require more differentiation and probably less of an opportunity to go as in depth as I loved to do with my students. I do hope the powers that be at least figure out a way to identify the profoundly gifted kids who are interested in STEM, as I feel they would be the real losers in this plan.

Do you think teachers will leave to pursue other endeavors?

Teachers will wait to see what happens. TJ is a great gig for a teacher. So they'll see what the new class looks like - chances are, it won't look too much different except for there'll be a few more kids in Geometry - and they'll probably hang in there.

I'm the PP to whom your question was directed. The answer, above, was not written by me. If I were still teaching at TJ, I would consider planning my exit strategy. I say this because I see this as being the beginning of the end. These changes will have a domino effect that will become apparent in 3-5 years, and it will no longer be the special place that students want to go the extra mile to attend.

I responded previously much earlier to the OP. If I were still teaching at TJ, I would be excited about the possibilities of the change in the admissions process. I found my students to be increasingly self-involved and one-dimensional as the years passed - more and more focused on college and less and less focused on high school. Increase in high-maintenance parenting, increase in grade-grubbing, decrease in genuine interest in the subject matter - not just in my class, but in my colleagues' as well.

I'd be excited that the decrease in emphasis on test prep and resume-stacking would result in a student population that is more genuinely curious and more directed toward enjoying the rigorous high school environment for its own sake. TJ parents won't want to hear this, but there really wasn't that much of a difference between my AP students there and at the local high school where I taught previously in terms of ability. The difference was that the TJ students were more focused on their grades and less focused on learning.

Are you pretending to be a former TJ teacher to spew anti-TJ and anti-Asian stereotypes? Sounds like you never taught at TJ since you do not say anything factually that would lend some credibility that you were in fact a teacher at TJ. Which white bio teacher was known to love watermelon? This was a well known fact at TJ.

Oh sure - I'll do the same thing as Curie did and post names of people on this board. Great idea.

Let's see....there was a math teacher who had photos of comic book covers all over the walls of their classroom, another math teacher who was the football team's offensive coordinator, another math teacher who works with the color guard, two of the math teachers were TJ alums and one of them completely rewrote the TJ math curriculum to what it currently looks like today (TJ Math 1, 2, 2.5, 3, etc).

And I didn't work in the math department. So there.

crickets

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a former TJ teacher. I was a bit shocked and disappointed to hear about the proposed change. I specifically wanted to work at TJ because I love working with gifted kids, which is what I thought TJ was all about, but maybe I just assumed that (?). Not to say the kids selected through the lottery won't be gifted, but it will be a mixed bag for sure, which will require more differentiation and probably less of an opportunity to go as in depth as I loved to do with my students. I do hope the powers that be at least figure out a way to identify the profoundly gifted kids who are interested in STEM, as I feel they would be the real losers in this plan.

Do you think teachers will leave to pursue other endeavors?

Teachers will wait to see what happens. TJ is a great gig for a teacher. So they'll see what the new class looks like - chances are, it won't look too much different except for there'll be a few more kids in Geometry - and they'll probably hang in there.

I'm the PP to whom your question was directed. The answer, above, was not written by me. If I were still teaching at TJ, I would consider planning my exit strategy. I say this because I see this as being the beginning of the end. These changes will have a domino effect that will become apparent in 3-5 years, and it will no longer be the special place that students want to go the extra mile to attend.

I responded previously much earlier to the OP. If I were still teaching at TJ, I would be excited about the possibilities of the change in the admissions process. I found my students to be increasingly self-involved and one-dimensional as the years passed - more and more focused on college and less and less focused on high school. Increase in high-maintenance parenting, increase in grade-grubbing, decrease in genuine interest in the subject matter - not just in my class, but in my colleagues' as well.

I'd be excited that the decrease in emphasis on test prep and resume-stacking would result in a student population that is more genuinely curious and more directed toward enjoying the rigorous high school environment for its own sake. TJ parents won't want to hear this, but there really wasn't that much of a difference between my AP students there and at the local high school where I taught previously in terms of ability. The difference was that the TJ students were more focused on their grades and less focused on learning.

Are you pretending to be a former TJ teacher to spew anti-TJ and anti-Asian stereotypes? Sounds like you never taught at TJ since you do not say anything factually that would lend some credibility that you were in fact a teacher at TJ. Which white bio teacher was known to love watermelon? This was a well known fact at TJ.

Oh sure - I'll do the same thing as Curie did and post names of people on this board. Great idea.

Let's see....there was a math teacher who had photos of comic book covers all over the walls of their classroom, another math teacher who was the football team's offensive coordinator, another math teacher who works with the color guard, two of the math teachers were TJ alums and one of them completely rewrote the TJ math curriculum to what it currently looks like today (TJ Math 1, 2, 2.5, 3, etc).

And I didn't work in the math department. So there.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does teaching at TJ differ from teaching at a base school? Would the teachers stay at a lottery TJ?

STEM teaching is at a college /MIT level, even for honors (not AP/ Post AP) classes. My kid did standard honors physics (not AP C). Got a B. Placed into third semester college physics at a pretty strong physics school. And still spent the first semester bored out of his mind and walking his problem set group of sophomores and juniors through the work. Is now a sophomore physics TA, so it worked out.

Also placed out of multi variable, despite only going through TJ’s version of BC.

FCPS students who are interested in STEM should not have to be ready to be taught at an MIT level in high school in order to survive at TJ. That is what FCPS has let TJ become, which is why many kids no longer want to apply to go there.

Wow, you have a messed up reason for supporting policy changes. Let me guess, you are an “own the libs” trump supporter?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

We understand that there are many people who think that there is a racial inequities at play, but the reality is that some families are just stronger in math than others.

A lot of Asians who live here work in science- whether it be government or tech. So do white people. But the difference isn’t the test per se.

It’s the culture of the home.

I wish people would just stop with this. It comes across as completely tone deaf to the idea that children have no say what families they are born into. Bright kids are born into many families in many places. Children don’t deserve to miss out on opportunities simply because of the parents they get at the birth lottery.

It is wrong too push one child in front of another because of the “culture of the home.”

Right. Fcps should stop pandering to blacks and stop discriminating against Asians.

i

This is why I will celebrate when this change goes through. The arrogant TJ parents will finally be put in their places. Aholes.