Photo by U.S. Department of Agriculture via Flickr Creative Commons
17 middle schoolers and their families are suing Fairfax County Public Schools after the district removed TJ High’s rigorous admissions exam, the Washington Post reports.
Also known as Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, TJ High is consistently ranked the nation’s #1 public high school, and has a 17% acceptance rate. Its hyper-competitive admissions process includes a test some students start preparing for in elementary school. Of course, this only adds to its reputation. Still, the school’s prestige doesn’t exempt it from receiving public criticism and controversy — mainly over its demographics. As AsAmNews reported in September, over 70% of TJ’s student body is Asian. Over 90% of the student body is Asian and/or White.
In October, EdWeek reported that among the 486 freshmen in the class of 2024, there are only 16 Hispanic students and less than 10 Black students. With the exception of a few academic terms, similar numbers have typically been the case throughout the school’s 35-year history. This “lack of diversity” has been one of the chief public complaints towards TJ High for decades.
“[But] the school is already diverse,” many Asian American parents at TJ say, according to NBC Washington. They suggest that efforts to change the school’s racial makeup reflect anti-Asian bias. The article also notes that the school board and Superintendent “have cited the lack of Black and Hispanic representation and need for equity as major factors in the proposed revisions.”
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According to Washington Post, this revision process is still ongoing. But in October, the school board voted to approve the first 2 major changes: Removing the intensive admissions exam, and getting rid of the $100 application fee. A random “lottery-based” admissions system was also proposed. Yet many families disagree with these changes and proposals so far.
According to NBC Washington, the official lawsuit filed argues that eliminating the exam breaks a law that gifted-student schools must use an aptitude test to identify high-performing children. While there is no direct mention in the lawsuit about how these changes will hurt Asian students, NBC Washington says the conservative legal group, Pacific Legal Foundation, “wrote a letter to the school last month warning the proposed revisions may unlawfully discriminate against Asian Americans.” Moreover many students and their families agree.
“The superintendent’s approach is ham-handed [and] discriminates against Asian American students,” says The Coalition for TJ — a group of students against the superintendent’s changes — the Washington Post reports. “It will ultimately place unqualified children in an academic environment far too rigorous for them, while robbing talented and hardworking applicants of spots at TJ,” they say.
((Though commenters on the Washington Post article seem to have a wide range of opinions on this topic, two parents of TJ alumni share their perspective. PinkieMe, an Asian American whose son attended the school, says, “We spent $0 and 0 extra effort ‘prepping’ [my son] for the test.” Referencing 2 other modest Asian American families with similar stories, they say, “The kids got in TJ on their own drive and merit.” PinkieMe also writes that the trap of the “simplistic and generalized view of privileged dragon/helicopter parents” is lazy and racist. “It’s not all about their parents’ resource and privilege,” they write. “Don’t discount the kids’ own ability and effort in this.”
Similarly, dhpan — who had 2 children go through TJ — says, “It’s a tough grind. I also know many kids who went through test prep and didn’t get into TJ.” But they note that those students still did well at other schools. Getting in doesn’t guarantee a bright future, they write. Instead, it “depends much more on a student’s own drive and work ethic” while there.))
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