TJ Info
Current Policy for TJ Admissions
On September 2004, the FCPS School Board voted to change the process that is used to admit students to TJ. Under the new process, all students who score above specific minimum raw scores on the TJ admissions test and have more than a specific minimum GPA in their middle school academic classes become "semifinalists." To some extent, a high GPA can compensate for a low test score, and vice-versa. For example, a student with a 3.67+ GPA whose raw score on the TJ admissions test is 60% will progress to the second round. Conversely, a student with a 2.67 GPA whose raw score on the TJ admissions test is 90%+ will progress to the second round. Under this new system, students with unusually high test scores will not progress to the second round if their GPA is less than 2.67.
This new process was expected to result in about 1500 semifinalists during 2004-05. However, of the 2855 students who applied to TJ and took the TJ admissions test in December 2004, 1601 became semifinalists. In 2006-07, 2,728 took the admissions test and 1,666 students became semifinalists. This process weights grades more heavily than the former process of ranking applicants, where applicants were ranked based 80% on their test scores.
After reviewing the files of these roughly 1600 to 1700 semifinalists (including teacher recommendations and the student's list of activities, interest, and awards), TJ will admit 500 students, rather than the 450 students who had been admitted for a few years before 2005 or the 400 students who were admitted during most years before 1998.
According to the original documents about the new process, twelve criteria will be used to evaluate semifinalists, and three of those twelve criteria will measure academic ability and/or academic achievement. For information on the remaining criteria, see the October 2004 FCAG newsletter. In the last two years, the TJ admissions office has substantially modified the applications forms and teacher recommendation forms, so that they also focus less on academic achievements and more on intangibles, including the ability to work well in groups, etc. To see the 2006-07 forms, see the student information sheet, instructions for the student information sheet, teacher recommendation form, and teacher recommendation information form.
FCPS also has expanded the TJ admissions office, and Judy Howard has been hired as the admissions director. Judy Howard is the former co-chair of the TJ Diversity Committee, and a long-time member of the FCPS Minority Student Achievement Oversight Committee, who spearheaded efforts to change the TJ admissions process. Judy Howard was appointed to the MSAOC by Janie Strauss, who represents the Dranesville area (primarily Herndon, Great Falls and McLean) on the School Board.
New 9/27/07: Vern Williams, the renowned GT math teacher from Longfellow MS, recently testified before the School Board to express grave concerns with the current TJ admissions process. Read his letter to the school board.
For more information about TJ, check out the TJ Website.
TJ Proposal History
On December 18, 2004, the Fairfax County School Board voted in favor of a resolution to form a blue ribbon panel on TJ admissions policies, with the goal of increasing specified types of diversity within the TJ student body. The panel recommendations were released to the public in June, 2004. The School Board is rushing to vote on a staff proposal to implement these proposals by September 9, 2004, so that the new admissions criteria and process can be used to select students who apply to TJ in the fall of 2004.
The basic proposal is to eliminate the use of any minimum test score or GPA requirement, and to give FCPS staff complete discretion to admit any student who applies. In a variety of meetings held during the summer of 2004, FCPS staff members repeatedly indicated that they were not interested in requiring any minimum test scores. Instead, they prefer to use a holistic approach, which focuses on leadership and other social skills, among other factors, consistent with the TJ mission statement that was rewritten in 2003-04 as part of the TJ accreditation process. Similarly, a student who expresses an interest in math, science or technology may be viewed as or more favorably as a student who demonstrates high achievement in those areas.
The history of this Blue Ribbon Commission proposal dates back over many years. Other proposals floated in fall 2003 would have moved from an 800 pool to a 1200 or 1000 pool, which still required a minimum test score. In 2001, former Superintendent Domenech suggested imposing geographic quotas on the number of students admitted to TJ from various middle school neighborhoods.
The stated justification for these varied proposals has been that TJ's student population needs to include more Black and Hispanic students. In addition, the Blue Ribbon Commission full report claimed that the current process admitted students who did not belong at TJ while rejecting stronger candidates. No data has been made public to support this claim.
TJ Admissions Statistics
2003-04 Class of 2008
2004-05 Class of 2009
2005-06 Class of 2010
2006-07 Class of 2011
2007-08 Class of 2012