Equity
TJ Drops in Quality Rankings, Again
Fairfax County’s Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJ) used to be the #1 high school in the country in U.S. News & World Report’s rankings. It achieved this status in three consecutive years — 2020, 2021 and 2022. But it slipped to #5 in 2023. And it has dropped to #14 in…
Read MoreHas 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 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. …
Read MoreNational Merit Suit — Brief Update
A controversy arose last December when it was reported that officials at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJ) had failed to notify students and parents in a timely manner of achievement awards from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. According to the news reporting, TJ administrators explained that the awards had been withheld…
Read MoreThe Wheels of Justice Turn Slowly — Update on National Merit Litigation
The Fairfax County General District Court conducted a pretrial conference this morning in Spooner v. Fairfax County School Board, which seeks to compel the school system (“FCPS”) to produce an outside law firm’s report on its investigation into the failure of several high schools to provide timely notice to students and families of “commended student” awards…
Read MoreSchool Board Amends Title of Equity Policy — Why?
On June 26, 2023, the Fairfax County School Board adopted a new, sweeping “Equity Policy.” At its next meeting, on July 13, the title was changed. It is now called the “Educational Equity Policy.” The amendment was on the meeting’s “consent agenda” and was adopted without any discussion, so the public doesn’t know who proposed…
Read MoreRhetoric v. Reality in the New “Equity” Policy
After a working session of the Fairfax County School Board a couple of days ago, a new draft of the proposed Equity Policy was hurriedly drafted, and then posted on the FCPS website at 3:30 Friday afternoon. A meeting will be held Monday evening, June 26, to stamp it with the Board’s final approval. It…
Read MoreNew “Equity” Policy — FCPS Schedules Key Vote with No Time for Public Engagement!
Two days ago, on June 14, the Fairfax County School System quietly posted its proposed “Equity Policy” on its website. The School Board is scheduled to consider it just four days from now, on June 20, and to approve it the following week, on June 20. The notice on the FCPS website says the policy…
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