I love how they teach at TJ just because of this. I look up some of the quizzes they give and they are a thing of beauty. A lot of thought went into these questions.

A fair question is do high schoolers really need this level of rigor? But for those that do enjoy these kinds of questions, TJ is amazing.

Regarding question on tests, I wrote about this in the past. The previous TJ principal talked about several times. TJ is different from other HS.

In base HS's you are tested on the material directly. That means if you paid attention in class and/or read the material and have a basic understanding of the material, you can get 100% on the test. This is how 99.99% of high school tests/quizzes work.

At TJ, you are expected to have a deep understanding of the material, not just a basic understanding.

What does this mean? It means that you should be able to apply the concept to a different situation or combine two different concepts to solve a problem. This is typically how colleges do in their tests. At least the top 100 colleges. This means you need to think through the material, stop and think, not just plug and play.

This is where the myth "they give questions that are not taught" comes up.

He didnt use any tests. gave HW which was walk in the park and then boom - exam hit the kids with questions which were at a complexity way higher than what was covered. DC does not know what the other section teachers did.

Anonymous wrote:my kids chem hons teacher came recenrly from some random high school in the mid-west.


just went through slides covering basic fcps chem hons materials.

exams were “tj level”. big disconnect. half the class got Bs

Did teacher use tests from prior teachers and that is why disconnect between what teacher taught this year and what was on test?

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Anonymous wrote:He should first remove the teachers who cant or wont teach at the level of the materials and exams that the students face.

completely agree. My kid has had 3-4 teachers over the past 4 years who just read off some basic slides that you could get in any FCPS high school.

But the questions on the exams are super hard and at a completely different level.

Under previous principal, DEI influenced teacher recruitment as well

Such nonsense. The new system is more merit-based than the previous one, where people just purchased admissions.

Certainly, the shift toward merit restoration has started with the principal change, but fully removing DEI from all aspects of TJ will take time.

That will never happen. At TJ or anywhere else. Suck it.

DEI bye bye. [B]Merit URMs deserve their rightful spot upfront, and cant be undermined by lottery URMs[b].

This bears repeating. The efforts and achievements of meritorious URM were diminished and filled by DEI.

The system might have been able to absorb a little bit of DEI but when the gap exceeds a standard deviation, you've broken the system

Anonymous wrote:my kids chem hons teacher came recenrly from some random high school in the mid-west.


just went through slides covering basic fcps chem hons materials.

exams were “tj level”. big disconnect. half the class got Bs

Just changing the principal and pausing there won’t restore merit. The entire rest of administration needs an overhaul, replacing them with individuals who have STEM backgrounds, understand advanced math, science, and technology curriculum requirements, recognize student learning needs, and can recruit qualified faculty.

https://tjhsst.fcps.edu/about/administration

my kids chem hons teacher came recenrly from some random high school in the mid-west.


just went through slides covering basic fcps chem hons materials.

exams were “tj level”. big disconnect. half the class got Bs

Teachers are not selected via DEI at all and vast majority of the teachers are simply outstanding.

Right now DEI is radioactive and any institution or program or person tied to it is going to extreme measures to disassociate themselves from it. As it should be.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He should first remove the teachers who cant or wont teach at the level of the materials and exams that the students face.

completely agree. My kid has had 3-4 teachers over the past 4 years who just read off some basic slides that you could get in any FCPS high school.

But the questions on the exams are super hard and at a completely different level.

Under previous principal, DEI influenced teacher recruitment as well

BS: These were def not DEI hires ( unless u consider hiring whites as reverse DEI)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He should first remove the teachers who cant or wont teach at the level of the materials and exams that the students face.

completely agree. My kid has had 3-4 teachers over the past 4 years who just read off some basic slides that you could get in any FCPS high school.

But the questions on the exams are super hard and at a completely different level.

Under previous principal, DEI influenced teacher recruitment as well

Such nonsense. The new system is more merit-based than the previous one, where people just purchased admissions.

Certainly, the shift toward merit restoration has started with the principal change, but fully removing DEI from all aspects of TJ will take time.

That will never happen. At TJ or anywhere else. Suck it.

DEI bye bye. Merit URMs deserve their rightful spot upfront, and cant be undermined by lottery URMs.

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Anonymous wrote:Kill dei

Replacing the principal midyear seems to be a step in that direction. The drop in rankings may have led to the realization that there is no substitute for merit in advanced academics.

From #5 to #14 out of 25,000 high schools?

Your math sucks.

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Anonymous wrote:The new TJ principal is exactly the principal that the school has needed for years. Everyone is happier.

It's been a problematic environment - at different ways at different times - essentially since Geoff Jones left back in 2001. If FCPS allows him to, Mukai could absolutely get TJ back to that place where it deserves to be.

It's there already and better than ever.

In what ways is TJ better with the new principal?

DP

He has these town halls and he is very frank. He talks about college and stress and how he would navigate TJ if his kids were there. This is the info that the families need. He wants the kids to be successful not just diverse (he wants diverse but that's not the ultimate goal)

How exactly did he phrase that?

Or maybe he didn’t say that but it fits into PP’s narrative.

Or maybe we finally have a principal that puts excellence and academic success ahead of a well curated palette of skin colors in the student population

That’s your narrative and you’re sticking to it! Regardless of whatever he actually said.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:He should first remove the teachers who cant or wont teach at the level of the materials and exams that the students face.

completely agree. My kid has had 3-4 teachers over the past 4 years who just read off some basic slides that you could get in any FCPS high school.

But the questions on the exams are super hard and at a completely different level.

Under previous principal, DEI influenced teacher recruitment as well

Such nonsense. The new system is more merit-based than the previous one, where people just purchased admissions.

Certainly, the shift toward merit restoration has started with the principal change, but fully removing DEI from all aspects of TJ will take time.

That will never happen. At TJ or anywhere else. Suck it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He should first remove the teachers who cant or wont teach at the level of the materials and exams that the students face.

completely agree. My kid has had 3-4 teachers over the past 4 years who just read off some basic slides that you could get in any FCPS high school.

But the questions on the exams are super hard and at a completely different level.

Under previous principal, DEI influenced teacher recruitment as well

Such nonsense. The new system is more merit-based than the previous one, where people just purchased admissions.

Certainly, the shift toward merit restoration has started with the principal change, but fully removing DEI from all aspects of TJ will take time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He should first remove the teachers who cant or wont teach at the level of the materials and exams that the students face.

completely agree. My kid has had 3-4 teachers over the past 4 years who just read off some basic slides that you could get in any FCPS high school.

But the questions on the exams are super hard and at a completely different level.

Under previous principal, DEI influenced teacher recruitment as well

Such nonsense. The new system is more merit-based than the previous one, where people just purchased admissions.