If TJ’s mission remains as a charter school for Science and Technology, then why would it not remain academically strong? Seems the population may look different, but the mission and educational goals would seem to remain the same. .
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Mission statements do not actually determine the quality of an institution, regardless of what their authors hope.
And the population may not change that much as the students applying to go there will be doing so based on the school and the quality of instruction there.
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I was wondering whether a charter school could be set up with the same curriculum, with exam-based admission. The exam schools’ excellence is a result of the students who go there.
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And the goal of a charter school is not to shoot itself in the foot. Charter schools remain selective schools. Just how they select may change.
Oh, TJ already has become less Asian, since the exam was dropped in 2021. Many people think that was the goal, and it has been achieved in part.
I believe TJ is a public magnet, never a charter school.
In a related matter, I was puzzled how a new private STEM high school in McLean could leap to the top of school ratings so quickly. I think I understand now.
From Wiki:
Attendance at the school is open to students in six local jurisdictions based on academic achievement, essays, and socio-economic background. (In fact according to the WP article seats are set aside at the school to fulfill a new diversity quota).
Before the 2020–21 school year, the admissions process also involved a math, reading, and science exam.
I think this is the rub…TJ is supposed to be a magnet school for science–and they’ve abolished the admission exam on the very subject they purport to excel at. I doubt you get invited to a magnet school for the arts if you can’t draw. The exam may have been “notoriously difficult” but getting rid of it has to some extent lessened the school. This is not to say there are not worthy students in need of an equally excellent education but that is not the purpose of a “magnet” school.
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In VA, there are 19 Governor’s Schools (with various academic focus areas) each of which covers a section of the state. Several high schools from within each of those sections participate in the Governor’s school program. Most, like my daughter’s high school (and the 11 others in the section) have a school within a school to accommodate the students in the program. Only three of the 19 schools are completely made up of Governors school students in one location, and TJ is one of those.
So the gifted and academically inclined students in the state of are being serviced by rigorous academic programs similar to the caliber as TJ. There were about 600 students in the program in the section of the state that we lived in.
While I will be forever grateful for the opportunities the Governor’s School gave my kids, by no means is it similar in caliber to what is offered at TJ! And I am somewhat familiar with TJ, as I grew up in NOVA and back in the dark ages was invited to attend.
In our area, the Governor’s school is off-site from the regular high schools, but it is only 1/2 day during your junior and senior years. They only offer math, science, and English. Math essentially ends at Calc II. They did have an intro to Linear Algebra class, but it only counted as 2 credits. Only science was Bio, Chem, and Physics. Nothing computer related. All students were required to take an Intro to Stats class fall junior semester followed by learning research methods in the spring. Senior year you had you big research project that you did have to present to a panel, but in no way was it similar to anything at TJ! You weren’t partnered with anyone, let alone big tech/research companies. It was more like a big science fair project with a report.
The classes were all DE, and they were much better than the APs taught at the local high school. At our HS a 3 is considered to be great. 4s and 5s are very rare. There were a few good APs when older S went through, but those teachers left. Almost all of the kids go to in-state publics, so they graduated high school with an Associate’s degree and would enter college with 50+ credits, more if they took any AP tests for their other classes.
But the best part about the school for our kids, is that they were treated like mini adults. There was no hand holding. They were able to drive themselves to school, decide where to go for lunch (the cafeteria with professional workers, fast food, home, HS), and then off to the regular high school. The kids wanted to be there. At their high school almost half the kids there as freshman don’t graduate. There is no soap, paper towels, or even doors on the bathroom stalls. Knife fights can break out next to you in the cafeteria. These kids enjoy being able to be together and act grown-up. And the teachers are happy. They know they’ve got it good.
Most of the Gov school kids in my kids’ grades I knew since they were in kindergarten. They always impressed me so much just how well they had their act together. The kids figured out what classes to take. Parents weren’t driving the college process. The schools certainly weren’t going to help with the process. It was up to them. And they did a great job figuring it out even if almost nobody went to T20s. They all went to college and did very well!
So no. While the governors school program is a great program for kids in our area, by no means is it if the same caliber as what is offered at TJ.
And this is why I say that a charter school with admission by grades and exam score would almost immediately become the equivalent of what TJ was. The school is only a reflection of the kids who go there. There are plenty of teachers with masters degrees who would happily teach AP level classes, Organic chem, 3rd yr college math, college literature, etc. The only thing I can think of that is expensive that they would need, would be equipped science labs. Of course, within four years, when the success of the school (which will probably not be reflective of the racial makeup of the catchment area) becomes obvious, we will see lawsuits to compel that the school change its admissions process to better reflect the general population.
I am not so sure. TJ appears to have a lot more resources behind them than I could see a charter school offering. (Edit - they have a whole lot more resources than our area could ever offer. We can’t find teachers at all, let alone qualified in these subjects!) This is just their science course catalog.
It’s not clear those resources will remain at TJ if the student body changes greatly.
That would be a shame. I think of TJ as a special place. A place for the crème of the crop in an area that already has a disproportionately high number of intelligent people. And not just smart. You have to want to be there as well. I believe my older S could have handled the academics OK, but he would not have been happy. He’s a math guy, but not a science guy. I would not have sent him, even if he had the opportunity. I don’t think younger S could have handled it, even though he was 3rd in his class and a very fabulous all-around person! I don’t know of many in our area that could handle that kind of place.
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The TJ class of 2024 admitted under the old system differed greatly in math preparation than the class of 2025 students admitted under the new system.
For the class of 24, just 4% had completed only the minimum required math course ( 96% exceeded that minimum). For the class of 25, 31% had completed only the minimum.
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This has happened to many previously elite public schools, when admission became other than by exam, or exam and grade history, in order to achieve a targeted composition that was not based solely upon academic achievement. There have been issues at Boston Latin since it went to a convoluted gerrymandered points system for admission (which made it impossible for a student from the highest socioeconomic portion of the catchment area to be admitted, even with a perfect GPA and a perfect exam score), rather than a straight exam score and GPA. Teachers at Boston Latin have voiced concerns over “teaching and learning conditions”, and they don’t mean the science lab equipment. In other words, they’re now running into behavioral problems in the classrooms, and feel that the administration is understandably ignoring these issues, since they’re a 3rd rail subject that can only lead to blowback. Not surprisingly, when the admissions criteria were gerrymandered to be based upon factors other than academic achievement and performance on a standardized exam, students were admitted who were unprepared for the academic level of the school, were unaccustomed to doing and turning in schoolwork, and who had classroom behavioral issues.
I wonder what has happened to the average SAT/ACT score of TJ students since the scrapping of the admissions exam and the move to “holistic” admissions.
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TJ teachers too have complained that they have lowered their standards and still have more students unable to meet them than ever before. I guess it is now more representative of the public school system in everyway.
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