Has the TJ Experiment Been a Success?
We are more than three years into the TJ experiment, but the Fairfax County School Board hasn’t yet addressed its successes and failures. Whether an objective analysis will ever be conducted is questionable, for the program was adopted primarily for ideological reasons, and the Board may be reluctant to subject its ideological assumptions to scrutiny. …
Read MoreIt’s a Sad Day: TJ Discriminatory Admissions Policy Is Allowed to Stand
The U.S. Supreme Court, in an order entered yesterday, declined to review the decision of a court of appeals in Coalition for TJ v. Fairfax County School Board that upheld a discriminatory admissions policy for the once-elite Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (“TJ”). Two justices (Alito and Thomas) voted to take the…
Read MoreSacred Texts — Part 2 — Rachna Sizemore Heizer
A previous article on this site noted that a member of the Fairfax County School Board, Karl Frisch, took his oath of office in December on a stack of controversial, sex-themed books, thereby sending an in-your-face message to the community about his ideology and priorities. See “Karl Frisch’s Sacred Texts.“ Mr. Frisch was not the only…
Read MoreKarl Frisch’s Sacred Texts
On December 13 the recently elected members of the Fairfax County School Board were sworn into office. The incoming Chair, Karl Frisch, is pictured above as he took his oath. What are the texts Frisch’s left hand rests on? They don’t include the Bible, the Torah, the Koran or other sacred books commonly used when…
Read MoreFCPS Promises Transparency, But Hides the Ball
Several prior posts on this site have reported on a lawsuit stemming from the failure of Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) to provide timely notice to high school students of commendations they had received from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. As reported earlier, the failure created intense controversy. In response, the school Superintendent announced in…
Read MoreFCPS Violates Its Policy on Political Advertising
A Regulation of the Fairfax County School Board states that “Campaign literature supporting one or more candidates shall not be distributed within the schools or on school buses by students, teachers, or others; nor shall campaign posters be displayed at or within the schools ….” (Regulation 4426.5). School administrators are ignoring this policy at at…
Read MoreFCPS Spins the Decline in SAT Scores
Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) posted a misleading article last week entitled “Fairfax County Students Continue to Outperform SAT State and Global Averages.” The school Superintendent, Michelle Reid, touted the same data at the October 12 meeting of the School Board, using a chart labeled “Fairfax seniors have consistently outperformed state and global SAT outcomes.” The…
Read MoreI Spoke Too Soon ….
Six months ago, I posted an article praising an action of the Fairfax County School Board. See “Fairfax School Board Acts to Streamline Its Meetings.” As it turns out, I was too quick to find a silver lining in the Board’s pattern of making its meetings unfriendly to the public. At its recent meeting on…
Read MoreBeware the Social Studies Curriculum — Part 2
Documents obtained under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act reveal a disturbing ideological bias in the social studies curricula of Fairfax County public high schools (FCPS). The first article on this subject, which is HERE, discloses that after the current School Board took office in 2020, the curricula were extensively revised to view history and government…
Read MoreBeware the Social Studies Curriculum! — Part I
As a new academic year begins, Fairfax County citizens should be aware of what our children will be taught in the public schools. Particular attention should be given to the social studies curriculum. It is not a straightforward education about history and government. It is agenda-driven, emphasizing a viewpoint supported by “progressives” and race-theory advocates. …
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