Thomas Jefferson High School (elementary school, calculator, lawsuit)

[irvine]

Here are the results for some other DC area school districts:

The number of National Merit Semi-Finalists in Arlington County schools:

Yorktown High School 7
Washington-Lee High School 5
Wakefield High School 1

H-B Woodlawn Secondary Program 5
(10 students from Arlington County attending Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology)

Alexandria:

TC Williams 2

City of Falls Church:

George Mason HS 3

[cardinal2007]

1.) I still don't know how this new "no GPA" rule will mesh with the mandatory 3.0 or above rule. I would imagine if both rules are in effect then anytime anyone with an unweighted GPA between 2.7 and 3.0 gets kicked out of TJ that the parents would put up a big fight and the weighing would go into effect. Kicking anyone out of TJ for having below 3.0 would send the message that TJ actually does have GPAs, and there is some weighing of classes that caused said student to have under a 3.0 in that weighing method. Any discrepency between the County guidelines for weighing classes for GPA, and the way TJ weighted the classes for said student would become a point of contention between the parents and TJ.

2.) I'm sure there are a number of schools that give automatic scholarship offers to applicants given a GPA, and SAT score cutoff, (I don't think it is the best use of their money but that is their decision), probably to help boost their rankings on US News. No GPA would probably mean no scholarship in those cases. One of those cases when I applied for colleges in 1999/2000 was University of Rochester which offered practically everyone from TJ that applied a $10,000/yr scholarship. Virginia Tech was offering practically everyone at TJ that applied there a $2000/yr scholarship, likely under the same conditions, GPA SAT combination. While I'm sure it could be argued with the office giving these scholarships to give one to a TJ student if the student and/or parent make the right calls, that is just another hurdle for them, plus they would have to be aware of this, if no one at TJ is offered such a scholarship, how would they know? Their friend knows has a friend at Langley that knows about it?

3.) According to the fairgrade website 55% of colleges do not recalculate GPA. Is the principal just assuming that schools will either calculate GPAs themselves for TJ students being that they are TJ students, or automatically get them past any GPA cutoffs they do. I'm sure over 300 TJ students probably apply every year to the University of Virginia, the admissions department would have to spend a lot of time to recalculate the GPA, so clearly TJ students will bypass that step, eh? Perhaps, but I'm not so certain that an admissions office would be happy about that.

[Yankeesfan]

Why not write to Jay Mathews at the Post? Although I don't like his Challenge Index / high school rating system, he is very good about contacting principals and bureaucrats about things like this in his Thursday columns.

[Denton56]

Great Idea! Jay would love this, lots of controversy, lots of parents writing in.

Apparently the principal has written a letter to parents, explaining why he supports no GPA. The real answer is that they couldn't figure out how to weight the highest level courses, the college level courses beyond AP, so they chose to throw the baby out with the bath water and get rid of ALL GPAs. How pathetic is THAT?! As one TJ parent said, if it weren't so serious, if it weren't going to cost TJ parents so much money, and cost students admissions to college, it would be hilarious.

Another upside for FCPS staff, many fewer students will apply when they realize that their lack of GPAs will put them at a competitive disadvantage when applying to college. All other FCPS students will have weighted GPAs while TJ students will have NO GPAs. Remaining at base schools will help to make all those kids competitive with the rest of the county students.

[Muffy62]

The October issue of The Washingtonian magazine is featuring TJ with a headline that reads "Why you should hate this school". It will be splashed on the front cover so you can't miss it on the checkout aisle of the grocery store. There is an excerpt on their website but to read the full article you have to buy the magazine. The school is not happy with the cover and the author of the article insists he wasn't responsible for it.

[Yankeesfan]

Too bad they chose to use such an inappropriate cover headline for what appears to be a good article. Apparently they're claiming it was a joke?

[cardinal2007]

I think there is already a lot of people that hate the school, that is probably why the school board wanted to cut busing so students would have to go back to their base school, and then hope that someone can pick them up. I think that probably stems somewhat from jealousy, or some idea that the school is elitist.

A lot of money is raised my parents and alumni, so it seems like they get more funding from the county.

A lot of alumni still live in the DC area, and that helps the economy there.

As for what was mentioned earlier, I remember articles in the Washington Post as far back as 2000 where it was argued that some students would have an easier chance getting into top colleges not attending TJ, since some schools didn't want to many students from the same school, and they could get higher GPAs in other schools. I'm sure without any GPA listed this would be even more true.

[Muffy62]

The issue showed up in the mailbox this morning. It isn't a bad article at all -- it is quite positive about the school. It is too bad they chose to use that headline -- maybe it was intended as "sarcasm" but it will probably go over the heads of the people who do not read the article. They also mentioned Dr. Glazer's proposal to get rid of the GPA.

[OrangeFish]

Originally Posted by cardinal2007

I think there is already a lot of people that hate the school, that is probably why the school board wanted to cut busing so students would have to go back to their base school, and then hope that someone can pick them up.

Would you fill me in more on this?

[cardinal2007]

Unfortunately the amount of stuff I could find online was limited:

FCAG - Archives 2009
FCPS to eliminate TJ PM neighborhood busing! Petition : [ powered by iPetitions.com ]
http://leadership.tjhsst.edu/ptsa/do...-bus-depot.pdf
Students, Parents Rise In Defense of Programs - washingtonpost.com

None of the sites here seem to mention specifics, but I remember reading an article saying that TJ students would be bused to their base school (not necessarily the closest high school to their home) and then how they find their way home would not be up to FCPS.

Maybe someone else knows more about the specifics.