Re: high school redistricting
Date: February 22, 2008 05:35PM
quantum Wrote:
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> Old Timer - explain the significance of TJ being,
> as you state, mostly white and wealthy (and I
> guess asian, too). The school is more diverse
> than almost any other, except, of course, when it
> comes to native intelligence, to which it has a
> surplus. There are literally kids with national
> origins from all over the globe there. Or are the
> children of the wrong kind of race or national
> origin to fufill a progressive narrative, or at
> least your own definition of diversity? Or
> alternatively, are these really the kinds of kids
> upon which it makes sense to play racial identity
> politics? They are smart, they will, if properly
> trained, bring outsize benefits and multiplier
> factors to our economy and to our culture, and it
> is in our interest to challenge them as best we
> can. Is this really the platform upon which we
> should let typically vacuous notions of liberal
> white guilt prevail?
Ohh - "liberal white guilt," "progressive narrative," "racial identity politics." What are you talking about Quantum? I expected much more from you.
I mentioned TJ is mostly white or asian and wealthy in relation to its high average SAT scores. Duh!
We were discussing when IB was implemented in South Lakes and Forum Reader said that SL was never a "high" performing school.
To accurately measure SL performance, I said you would have to throw out TJs score as it skews the average OR reattribute the scores back to their base school.
As we should all know by now, SAT scores ARE NOT an indicator of high school excellence but are very closely correlated to parental education and wealth. At least this is the case in Fairfax county.
Before you tell me that TJ is diverse (yeah so what -the whole county is) and not wealthy, let's look at the data:
TJ demographics of students from fcps.edu:
Asian 36%
Black 1.5%
Hispanic 2.5%
White 54%
Other 6%
90% of the students at TJ are white or asian. Only 1.4% are on free and reduced lunch. Maybe asian or white parents don't let their children go on frl, who knows. But FRL is an "indicator" of demographics and wealth of the population.
TJ is 1.4% - for comparison sakes, Langley is 1%, Madison is 5%.
So, to generalize, the population at TJ is generally white or asian and wealthy. Isn't this what I said? Did I criticize the population for being white or asian or wealthy? I doubt it, as myself and most of you on this forum, fit the same critieria.
Wealth is relative - the median household income in the nation in 2006 was <$50,000. Most of the households in Fairfax County are wealthy compared to the nation as a whole. The median household income of Fairfax county residents was $100,300, that is DOUBLE the national figure. Most people in the rest of the nation (and certainly the world) believe that a household income of $100,000 is wealthy. Now, what it can get you in NoVA in terms of housing, etc. is a different story.
Forum Reader - I know many asian TJ students. The ones I know come from dual income college educated parents.
None of this is a criticism of TJ or a judgement. It is what it is.