Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJHSST, or TJ) is a regional magnet school in Fairfax County that consistently ranks as one of the best high schools in the country. Prior to 1997, officials overseeing the very competitive admissions process practiced affirmative action by denying admission to approximately 30 White and Asian students each year to permit admission of 30 Black students with lower scores and grades. In 1997, parents of one of the displaced students sued Fairfax County Public Schools and won. Over the summer of 1997, FCPS had to offer admission to the 32 students who would have been admitted to TJ were it not for their illegal affirmative action.
Since that year FCPS has spent tens of millions of dollars in efforts to increase the number of Black and (to a lesser extent) Hispanic students at TJ. At one point there were 11 different programs in FCPS designed to increase the number of Black students in gifted programs, enrolled in AP and IB programs, admitted to TJHSST, and admitted to colleges. FCPS has an entire division devoted to helping Black students to perform better and close the achievement gap between Black students and White and Asian students. FCPS expanded Gifted & Talented centers, now called AAP (Advanced Academic Placement) centers from 4.5% of the elementary population to 16% of the population in an effort to capture more Black and Hispanic students. For years there were special TJ prep courses available only to Black and Hispanic students. Those students were tutored two evenings a week and on Saturday for three years, fifth grade through 7th grade and the first months of middle school prior to taking the TJHSST admission exam in December. The Young Scholars program began about 15 years ago offering extra help and free summer school to students in schools with high numbers of Blacks and Hispanics. The program was established to get more minorities into GT/AAP programs and into TJ. It costs millions a year and one or two Young Scholars is admitted to TJ. Of course those students may well have been admitted to TJ without having been in the Young Scholars program.
None of the efforts of FCPS have resulted in increasing the number of Blacks admitted to TJ. Over the last few years as few as 4 Black students were admitted in 2010, to a high of 10 this year, just over 2% of those admitted to the class of 2018. Meanwhile the number of Asians has increased every year. In 2008 more Asians than Whites were admitted to TJ for the first time. Asians were 45% of the students admitted. Asian percentages have increased every year since then. In 2010, the class of 2014, 57.5% of those admitted were Asians with Whites down to 34.6%. Two years later the TJ class of 2016 was 66.2% Asians, Whites were 26.3%, and Blacks were 0.8%. This year the class of 2018 is 66.3% Asian, Whites 24% and Blacks 2.1%.
Now it appears that FCPS is attempting to keep down the number of Asians at TJ. The top math student at Kilmer AAP center was denied admission this year. He is ethnically Chinese and so brilliant at math that he was allowed to take the exclusive American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME) open only to the top math high school students across the country. He qualified to take the AIME despite being only in the 8th grade. He has had a love for math that has been demonstrated throughout elementary and middle school. He is also a straight A student. This young man is not the only Asian to be denied admission to TJ this year. Other exceptional Asian students at Kilmer Middle school, Rocky Run Middle school, and other schools were also denied admission. It is difficult to find reasons for their rejections. They are outstanding students who have excelled in math and science.
There has been speculation about the excuses FCPS might be using to discriminate against Asian students. One possible explanation might be the essays that all applicants must write as part of the TJ admission process. Asian students may not be as politically correct in their essays because they have not received coaching on such topics. Asian students are more likely to write about how hard they work to learn more and to achieve higher grades. That would not be considered as politically correct as writing about how wonderful diversity is, or how loving other people is more important than hard work and excelling in academics. But it’s only speculation since no one knows why, and how, FCPS is keeping deserving Asians out of TJHSST—yet it is common knowledge that they are. The local members of the Asian American PAC 80-20 have grown concerned about this discrimination and are alerting their members to the problem. We do not yet know what course of action they will recommend to their members.
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18 comments
I wasn’t aware of TJ’s affirmative action history. But, if you look at the 90s enrollment on Schooldigger, blacks outnumbered Hispanics until 1998 which could have only happened with affirmative action. Even though both groups received admissions preference, blacks received more than Hispanics.
Nowadays, TJ is having great difficulty admitting their target goal of 15-20 blacks and Hispanics. So, they have resorted to increasing the freshman enrollment until the hit their goal. The freshmen class used to be 480 each year but TJ admitted 487 to the class of 2018, and 493 to the class of 2019.
http://www.schooldigger.com/go/VA/schools/0126002034/school.aspx
http://www.fcps.edu/cco/pr/tj/tjadmissions0414.pdf
http://www.fcps.edu/cco/pr/tj/tjadmissions0415.pdf
I am a class of 2016 TJ student and I would just like to point out that I am a definitively average math student at TJ and I have qualified for AIME for the past 3 consecutive years, in 8th, 9th, and 10th grade. Why would you dedicate an entire paragraph of your article to this story, without knowing hardly any facts about the content?
Because I am the mother of a TJ grad and have many other ties to the school. You must have Vern Williams for a teacher.
Good news tonight for those who care about education! The Republicans have taken control of the Senate and with that reorganization Senator Steve Martin is now chairman of the Education Committee and Dick Black is a member of the committee! We now have a real chance of getting some laws passed that will prohibit racial preferences in Governor’s schools!
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Janine, do you even understand the FCPS system for you to be making these pronouncements? Your numbers are correct, however your premise is not. As a Fairfax County resident and parent in the system for the last 15 years, I am up to speed on some of those changes, and can shed a bit of a light into it. 4 years ago TJ did change their admission criteria to an absolutely crazy one, and it was this: they started admitting Arts and Humanities students, and more females. I know from personal experience from some of the families and students affected in the Mount Vernon pyramid, to include my son and several of his classmates, who had grown up together and started the GT Program in third grade and went on to follow that curriculum through the AAP in HS. Siblings of TJ alumni, that excelled and dedicated their focus to the Maths and Sciences, and had the same outstanding academic performances as their brothers/sisters, were denied admission, to favor classmates that wanted to study arts, for example. These students all met the academic requirements to be admitted, but were not. At the end of the day it did not matter, because all these students excelled at the HS they ended up attending, West Potomac in this case. They all graduated with Honors, earned the Math and Science Awards, won scholarships based on their merits, and were admitted to their schools of choice for Math and Engineering programs. These students were Asian and White, and all males. None considered themselves as being discriminated against. TJ has every right to change their policies as they see fit, and all the parents involved, while a little surprised with the change of course, were OK with it. I think it’s a bit of a stretch for you to say that Asians are being discriminated, when they are the majority population attending TJ. That is just absurd.
Thanks for assuming that I know nothing about the FCPS system. I spent 20 years on various GT advisory boards in FCPS. I was VP of the Gifted Association, a parents group. I was the Hunter Mill rep to the GT advisory for many years. I was also on the Superintendent’s advisory committee for many years, under several different leaders. I was a member of the County Council of PTA’s, representing gifted students and their parents. I had numerous other positions in education across Fairfax County. I still have many contacts in FCPS, at TJ, and in the gifted community.
TJ didn’t begin their push for more girls and Humanities students 4 years ago. That’s been going on for decades. Liberals love to force girls into STEM programs.
Not ‘all’ of the children denied entry to TJ ‘excel’ at their local school because their local schools cannot offer the advanced math programs those students need. Some of those children are stuck in low performing schools with IB programs that don’t come close to meeting the needs of advanced math and science students. Just as unfortunate, those children often have a very limited peer group, if any.
You have no way of knowing what the racial mix of TJ would be without discrimination against Asians. I am completely fine with TJ being 100% Asian if those the students who deserve to be there and can benefit the most from the programs offered at TJ. I do not support discrimination based on race under any circumstance.
Are you aware that approximately one-third of the students at TJ now need remedial help in math? And it’s not the Asian students? No child admitted to TJ should need remedial help in math. Prior to the last 10 years no child at TJ returned to their base school because they couldn’t keep up with the other students at TJ. Now there are numerous students each year who under perform to the point of being asked to leave and are return to their base school. Something is wrong with admission procedures that admit children deficient in math and unable to compete at TJ.
TJ does not have ‘every right’ to change their policies to policies that discriminate based on race. TJ is a Governor’s School, not just Fairfax county. FCPS was sued, and lost, in 1997 because they discriminated based on race! They have desperately been trying since then to increase their Black and Hispanic populations without risking another lawsuit.
It is hoped that we can soon get a law passed similar to the law in NY that forbids the NY City competitive magnet high schools from using race as a factor in admissions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specialized_high_schools_in_New_York_City That law has been in effect in NY City for over 30 years. We hope to get a law through the Virginia general assembly that would forbid the use race in admissions to any of the 20 Governor’s schools in Virginia because it’s not just TJ where racial discrimination has been a factor. Other Governor’s schools across the state have had similar problems. Such discrimination should not be permitted in public high schools in Virginia.
Great! so why didn’t you preface your blog by stating you are well aware of policies favoring females and students that are not necessarily gifted in the STEM field? That’s the issue here. I completely agree that only the most qualified students should attend. Not sure I follow your statement about being ok with 100% Asian population. All factors being equal, the student body should be diverse. At no point did I generalize about all students excelling at their local schools; I am just speaking of my particular experience as a very involved parent in the county connected to many of the parents affected, and insights into School Board and other administrative bodies affecting the GT/AAP Program, clearly different from yours. How long ago did you leave the system? And I am aware of the students needing remedial math, and would bet money they are the same students that are not STEM oriented and shouldn’t have been admitted to begin with, regardless of their demographics.
Oh dear Marta, that is such old news, decades old, I didn’t feel it needed to be addressed.
Please see my new post above.
Now you are dating yourself… Why won’t you educate young parents with young students currently in the system? Don’t you think that would be useful to us? I certainly didn’t have children decades ago, let alone pay attention to the school system at a time when I was single and childless. I would think that blogs like this are intended to discuss matters of importance today, and providing historical background would be useful to parents in my, or younger, generations. Just a suggestion 😉
I totally disagree that a science and tech school should be ‘diverse’. But many would agree with you.
As far as lawsuits, apparently you are not aware FCPS has been sued last year by an organization named “The Coalition of the Silence” of Fairfax, its acronym is COTS. DOJ is involved as well.
Let us know when there’s a ruling on this foolishness. I still don’t support racial preferences or affirmative action.
Neither do I. What I support is equal opportunity, not equal outcome, for all. This lawsuit claims the issue to be that feeder schools to TJ are not incorporating ethnic minorities into the programs students must go through in order to have the opportunity to qualify. I do not know whether that is the case or not. I also wanted to address a comment you made about girls being pushed into STEM. I agree and support the encouragement of girls to participate and pursue STEM fields. No liberal pushed me into studying Computer Science in an Engineering school; my dad, who was a college professor and passionate about math, never discouraged me for being a girl, and always whetted ny appetite for math, which is what led me to pursue the STEM field. There’s nothing wrong with encouraging girls and breaking away the stereotypes, some of which you mention here, hat girls are not good at STEM, or that Asians are better at it than any other race or ethnicity. Those statements in themselves are discriminatory. We shall see what happens with the lawsuit, but I’m not interested in it. I am mentoring and volunteering my time mentoring FCPS. Students to become interested in STEM, and I believe I am making a difference. Cheers!
I’m a TJ senior, and nobody I know is in remedial math tutoring. There simply are not any remedial classes at all. Everything is honors level or above. We have tutoring to help others out, but that’s because the classes are for the most part on the university level, and if you miss a day you are left in the dust. Finally, the entire premise of affirmative action at TJ is BS. Race and gender aren’t known to the admissions counselors, and I think I have maybe one acquaintance who does liberal arts. Try checking your facts- you’re clueless.
I’m an eighth grader, and I don’t know how it’s changed since then, but they do consider race. At our school’s TJ introduction, the woman giving the speech said that they considered our grades, test results, and she emphasized that race was considered.
What is FCPS?
Fairfax County Public Schools