Author Topic: TJ High School’s Race Problem  (Read 716 times)

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Offline Kamaji

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TJ High School’s Race Problem
« on: February 21, 2022, 02:01:41 pm »
TJ High School’s Race Problem

A Fairfax County school chooses race-based admissions, as though access to learning is the same thing as learning.

By Peter van Buren
February 21, 2022

Ground Zero for wokeness is Fairfax County, Virginia. It is 65 percent white and votes solidly Democratic. The median income is over $124 thousand. I used to live there; it was common to hear white people brag about having black friends (at work, you know, not the kind that come over to the house) and worry about whatever the issue-of-the-week was on NPR. Hell, with the county’s proximity to Washington, D.C., people there work for NPR.

The jewel in Fairfax’s public school system is Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, known to all simply as “T.J.” It is not an exaggeration to say T.J. is a critical part of America staying ahead of other national economies. T.J. is widely considered the best STEM high school in the country.

Things worked well at T.J. until about a year ago, based on the fact that the only way in was to pass a very competitive entrance exam. Entry into T.J. meant you were a smart kid with the discipline to put in hard hours with no guarantee of success, a perfect definition of those who would also go on to succeed at MIT.

The problem was the dang Asians. As many as 73 percent of students admitted to Thomas Jefferson High School were Asian. Some locals felt black and Hispanic students were underrepresented, as typically only about 2 percent of T.J. students were black. The solutions were: a) To improve all middle schools in the area so they better prepare their kids to compete to enter T.J.; b) Offer all students rigorous after-school accelerated STEM programs; or c) Just lower TJ’s admission criteria to balance out the races in line with progressive politics.

Yeah, they did C. The crazy-hard T.J. entrance exam was replaced with

Quote
A holistic review…of students whose applications demonstrate enhanced merit…Students will be evaluated on their grade point average (GPA); a student portrait sheet where they will be asked to demonstrate Portrait of a Graduate attributes and 21st century skills; a problem-solving essay; and experience factors, including students who are economically disadvantaged, English language learners, special education students, or students who are currently attending underrepresented middle schools. (Emphasis added)

Experience factors? That basically opened the door to that criterion being “whatever we say it means.” The result at T.J. was a drop of more than 11 percent in the number of Asians, and double-digit growth on the part of blacks and Hispanics, achieved by making being poor a check-off for acceptance. No one cares white students account for only 22 percent of admissions, despite being 65 percent of the county population.

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Source:  https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/tj-high-schools-race-problem/

Offline Kamaji

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Re: TJ High School’s Race Problem
« Reply #1 on: February 21, 2022, 02:02:03 pm »
The Asian students who are now being denied entrance should sue for racial discrimination.

Offline SZonian

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Re: TJ High School’s Race Problem
« Reply #2 on: February 21, 2022, 02:32:32 pm »
TJ High School’s Race Problem

A Fairfax County school chooses race-based admissions, as though access to learning is the same thing as learning.

By Peter van Buren
February 21, 2022

Ground Zero for wokeness is Fairfax County, Virginia. It is 65 percent white and votes solidly Democratic. The median income is over $124 thousand. I used to live there; it was common to hear white people brag about having black friends (at work, you know, not the kind that come over to the house) and worry about whatever the issue-of-the-week was on NPR. Hell, with the county’s proximity to Washington, D.C., people there work for NPR.

The jewel in Fairfax’s public school system is Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, known to all simply as “T.J.” It is not an exaggeration to say T.J. is a critical part of America staying ahead of other national economies. T.J. is widely considered the best STEM high school in the country.

Things worked well at T.J. until about a year ago, based on the fact that the only way in was to pass a very competitive entrance exam. Entry into T.J. meant you were a smart kid with the discipline to put in hard hours with no guarantee of success, a perfect definition of those who would also go on to succeed at MIT.

The problem was the dang Asians. As many as 73 percent of students admitted to Thomas Jefferson High School were Asian. Some locals felt black and Hispanic students were underrepresented, as typically only about 2 percent of T.J. students were black. The solutions were: a) To improve all middle schools in the area so they better prepare their kids to compete to enter T.J.; b) Offer all students rigorous after-school accelerated STEM programs; or c) Just lower TJ’s admission criteria to balance out the races in line with progressive politics.

Yeah, they did C. The crazy-hard T.J. entrance exam was replaced with

Experience factors? That basically opened the door to that criterion being “whatever we say it means.” The result at T.J. was a drop of more than 11 percent in the number of Asians, and double-digit growth on the part of blacks and Hispanics, achieved by making being poor a check-off for acceptance. No one cares white students account for only 22 percent of admissions, despite being 65 percent of the county population.

*  *  *

Source:  https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/tj-high-schools-race-problem/
Most engineers come from a STEM background, so any who think this topic is inane, is quite mistaken...aircraft, automobiles, boats, motorcycles, buildings, etc. are all going to be topics on "Engineering Disasters" in years to come.  I see it my industry already where most new hires barely have communication skills, let alone analytical thinking.
Throwing our allegiances to political parties in the long run gave away our liberty.