ESL instruction at elite STEM high schools

2ndof3
Mon, 21 Mar 2011 15:17:05 +0000

IdWendy, My mom actually called me and told me to look this story up on line yesterday. I’m a graduate (2010) of TJ. There is both a verbal and math portion of the admission test as well as 2 essays (or at least that is what I took). The essays are only evaluated if a student makes the “first” cut. The verbal portion of the test is not particularly easy and I believe students need to have a minimum score in both sections in order to make the first cut. I will tell you that there are many Asian students at TJ and in fact I believe more than 50% who are now admitted claim Asian as their race. When I started at TJ, I could not believe the number of students who did not speak English to each other. I learned that mostly what I was hearing was Korean. I’m not sure what limited English means in the context of studying at TJ. I don’t know how a student would get through the required English and History courses if they had huge gaps in their English reading and writing skills.