Posts Tagged ‘“Equity”’
Good Riddance to TJ’s Principal
Earlier this week, Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) announced that Ann Bonitatibus, the principal of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (“TJ”), was “resigning” to take a new position in the central office. The announcement followed the release of data showing that TJ’s number of National Merit semifinalists had plummeted from 165 last…
Read MoreTJ 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 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 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 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 MoreWill the Harvard/U.N.C. Decision Affect the TJ Admissions Case?
On May 23 of this year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in a 2-1 decision, overturned a federal district court’s ruling that the new admissions standards for the elite Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (“TJ”) violated the “equal protection of the laws” mandate of the Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment. …
Read More