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Posted on 12/24/2022 5:22:28 AM PST by Labyrinthos
For years, two administrators at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJ) have been withholding notifications of National Merit awards from the school’s families, most of them Asian, thus denying students the right to use those awards to boost their college-admission prospects and earn scholarships. This episode has emerged amid the school district’s new strategy of “equal outcomes for every student, without exception.” School administrators, for instance, have implemented an “equitable grading” policy that eliminates zeros, gives students a grade of 50 percent just for showing up, and assigns a cryptic code of “NTI” for assignments not turned in. It’s a race to the bottom.***
But TJ School officials had decided to withhold announcement of the award. Indeed, it turns out that the principal, Ann Bonitatibus, and the director of student services, Brandon Kosatka, have been withholding this information from families and the public for years, affecting the lives of at least 1,200 students over the principal’s tenure of five years. Recognition by National Merit opens the door to millions of dollars in college scholarships and 800 Special Scholarships from corporate sponsors.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
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The dirty little secret of teaching is that smart people largely teach themselves. For smart kids, giving them the “right” material is usually enough — their curiosity will take over. Teachers are mostly guides.
Thomas Jefferson has historically been one of the top high schools in the country. All this equity nonsense has really wrecked the school.
They probably hadn't needed any such policies before, since they used to have motivated and high-performing students.
I went to a Fairfax County school board meeting years ago to complain about grade inflation. I had a back and forth discussion with a board member who ended her argument with “well, sir, I look forward to the day when EVERY student is on the honor roll.”
Unbelievably stupid.
The student didn’t check his school email.
She can’t seem to understand the concept that some students work harder at their studies than others. They should be commended for their efforts.
Still unsatisfied, gimme more.
IMAGINE JEOPARDY doing such a thing !!!!
These teachers cannot get “Equity” in behavior....
But they withhold awards correctly earned?????
—“well, sir, I look forward to the day when EVERY student is on the honor roll.””
Only in Lake Wobegon.
“all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average”
Garrison Keillor, left of Lenin, but still had a sense of humor.
—”But they withhold awards correctly earned?????”
NB:
You can never get up, if you are holding the other SOB down.
That certainly wouldn’t have crossed my mind.
It’s not as useful for financial aid as it used to be. My second son, who was a finalist, didn’t get offered any financial aid at the state school he wanted, although others would have given him full scholarships.
The Merit Scholarship Corporation used to provide the data to universities. Weren’t the students getting phone calls and emails from colleges, or do they not do that anymore?
Let me guess: You weren’t in high school when students had official school email accounts.
The kid got his PSAT results directly and it should have been clear from that that as someone in the top 3% he qualified as a commended student, but not more.
Finalists and final winners count more for colleges and scholarships, but if this wasn’t an anomalous, outlier test, he should have had his SATs as the more important results to send the same signal anyway.
I graduated from high school in 1984.
I also was asked to help set up a chapter of National Computer Science Honor Society at my daughter’s high school. At the kickoff meeting (teachers, administrators, and a couple of us industry types), the discussion got side-tracked by 1998 version of “wokeness.”
The special needs teacher at the high school wanted to make sure her kids could join. “It should be open to all!”
I told her that NHS or IEEE or ACM probably had published standards we to follow.
Her reply to that: “Well, maybe we can be the first in the country to let everyone.”
I shut up after that and never went to another meeting. That level of naivete+empty-headedness is too overwhelming.
I did some work at a largely minority Edison School in a Meridan Ct. [Grammar school]. I was talking to one of the teachers [male] and asked him how the kids were doing in this brand new with all the bells and whistles school. He said “ don’t look for any Edison’s here you won’t find any”. I laughed at the time but now I realize what a waste of tax money it is to try to teach the unteachable
The wife retired with 30 years in education....many years as elementary principal. Her last stint was in a downtown school that pulled from a lot of the local “projects”. She loved those kids and did a lot to turn the school around. But there were too many things going on there that could never be fixed. You can’t help but feel sorry for the children because they never had a chance.
It would be hard to hide that.
Now the students do (or did) get their SAT scores mailed to them. I think if they did some digging they could find out what the cutoffs were for National Merit but my goodness the administrators are absolute crooks.
But just keep voting for Democrats, Asians.
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