Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

This Is What Meritocracy Looks Like in 2019

—

by

James A. Bacon
in

Breakdown of the class of 2023 admissions to the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.

The Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology has published the admission rates, broken down by ethnicity and gender, for the the 2023 class. Nearly three-quarters of the students admitted to the elite Fairfax County institution, one of the most highly regarded public schools in the country, were classified as Asian. One in five was white, and only 8% belonged to other groups.

The breakdowns by gender and race are little changed from previous years.

Despite the marked under-representation of Hispanics and blacks — sadly, so few blacks were admitted that they were lumped in with “other” — Thomas Jefferson HS’s admission policies appear to place a premium on scholastic aptitude. I admire the school for hewing to meritocratic principles in this age of racial bean-counting and the reflexive attribution of racism and discrimination to any disparity in racial statistics. I do wonder, though, how long the school can withstand the hurricane-force winds of change.

It has been amply documented that Virginia’s public universities discriminate against Asians in their admissions policies. Although Asians enter the state’s most prestigious institutions in percentages larger than their share of the population, their average SAT scores are significantly higher that that of whites, blacks, and Hispanics, suggesting that many who did not make the cut still outscored peers of other races.

Meanwhile, at the local level, Fairfax County’s One Fairfax policy explicitly endorses the dismantling of institutional barriers to social and racial “equity” with the goal of achieving equal racial/ethnic outcomes. (See Tom Pafford’s post on One Fairfax  here.)

Given the deep blue hue of Fairfax County government, it is reasonable to ask how long Thomas Jefferson HS’s meritocratic admissions policy can last. However, it might be worth observing that Asians (20.2% of the county’s population) outnumber blacks (10.5%) by a two-to-one margin. They comprise a more formidable voting bloc in Fairfax than almost anywhere else in the state.  (In Virginia as a whole, Asians comprise only 5.6% of the population). Any effort to base Thomas Jefferson High School admissions on the basis of “social equity” principles likely would engender an intense political backlash.

It will be interesting to watch as the conflicting forces play out out.

(Hat tip: Jeanine Martin)

Share this article

ADVERTISEMENT

(comments below)

ADVERTISEMENT

(comments below)

Comments

32 responses to “This Is What Meritocracy Looks Like in 2019”

  1. V N Avatar
    V N

    Thank you for this post. Very informative.

  2. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    This is the same issue wherever there are Charters and/or merit-based schools enrollment policies – in many areas including New York City:

    “How New York’s Elite Public Schools
    Lost Their Black and Hispanic Students

    In interviews, more than a dozen black and Hispanic students who graduated from New York City’s specialized high schools from 1975 to 1995 described the schools as oases for smart children from troubled neighborhoods. But the alumni said they were anguished that the schools have since lost nearly all of their black and Hispanic students.

    White enrollment has also fallen while Asian enrollment has ballooned. Among the most drastic shifts: Brooklyn Technical High School’s black population dropped to 6 percent in 2016 from 51 percent in 1982.

    The city has designated five additional test-in specialized high schools since 2002, bringing the total to eight, in an attempt to integrate the elite schools. But even those schools have seen a decline in black and Hispanic enrollment over the last decade, which undercuts the idea that simply adding more elite schools will shift demographics. Black and Hispanic students currently represent 70 percent of the school system, but make up just 10 percent of the enrollment in the specialized schools.”

    https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/06/03/nyregion/nyc-public-schools-black-hispanic-students.html

    1. djrippert Avatar
      djrippert

      “White enrollment has also fallen while Asian enrollment has ballooned. Among the most drastic shifts: Brooklyn Technical High School’s black population dropped to 6 percent in 2016 from 51 percent in 1982.”

      Gee, I thought unrestricted legal and illegal immigration bolstered by sanctuary cities had no downside. Isn’t that what the prog-libs have been claiming for the past 25 years?

  3. Peter Galuszka Avatar
    Peter Galuszka

    This is limited to rich people in nova. So what? The bigger issue is what to do with the rest of the state.

    1. djrippert Avatar
      djrippert

      Lol. What a comment. This has nothing to do with “rich NoVa” and everything to do with hard working Asian-American immigrants. As LarrytheG’s comment illustrates, the same thing is happening in New York City.

      Maybe the liberals around Richmond need to re-think their love of sanctuary cities and open borders. The same hard working Asian-Americans are coming to Richmond. Once they arrive in numbers their culture of hard work, hard study, focus on education and willingness to seize the economic opportunities that have always been present for “people of color” (despite prog-lib doctrine to the contrary) will put pressure on whites, blacks and latinos alike.

      I guess the prog-libs of Richmond will have to decide whether to join the prog-libs of Harvard and discriminate against Asian-Americans in areas like admissions to prestigious magnet schools. I really hope that’s what happens. As far as I’m concerned we can use all the hard working Asian-Americans we can get in Northern Virginia. And … unless the RPV is even more incompetent than I think (which is possible) … it’s only a matter of time before Asian-Americans start voting Republican.

      1. Dick Hall-Sizemore Avatar
        Dick Hall-Sizemore

        I am getting tired of categorizing people by national/ethnic characteristics. My daughter married a son of Chinese immigrants. Although “Chinese”, her husband was born and raised in Indianapolis, about as American as you can get. So, what does that make my grandchildren, who are growing up in Vienna, Va.? My mother-in-law was born in Massachusetts of Russian immigrants, but grew up in Paris and then married a GI from Halifax County. The parents of the woman who lives across the street from me were Italian immigrants. The United States is truly a melting pot. Once the second generation grows up immersed in American culture and begins to marry outside its tribe, these categories make less and less sense.

        1. TooManyTaxes Avatar
          TooManyTaxes

          One can be proud of one’s ethnic background and ancestors and still consider oneself an American. And if one tests one’s DNA , it’s pretty hard to find someone who has 100% of one’s DNA from a single nation or ethnic group.

          Racial or ethnic politics is a divisive as the crap that Trump states. The more we think of ourselves as Americans, the less hostile the political rhetoric.

        2. James A. Bacon Avatar
          James A. Bacon

          I totally agree — when the government categorizes people by ethnic/racial characteristics, it feeds the beast of racial identity politics. But it’s impossible for those who wish for a post-racial society to stop talking about race/ethnicity when others explicitly make race/ethnicity the lens through which they view the world.

          The only hope in the long run is if enough Americans, like your daughter and son-in-law, have enough children (classified by the government as multi-racial) who view race as a meaningless construct. Once upon a time, that’s what American liberals believed — and I presume that many self-described liberals still do. But old-fashioned liberals are being displaced by race-obsessed Progressives in the Democratic Party, who in turn are inspiring a white identity blacklash on the right.

        3. Reed Fawell 3rd Avatar
          Reed Fawell 3rd

          “the beast of racial identity politics” is nothing more or less than race baiting by bigots or other types of immoral people who engage in such highly destructive tactics for their own personal or group advantage, and these immoral people do so by manipulating the fears and prejudices of other people.

          Until we start calling this race baiting for what it in fact is, despicable, our politicians and other leaders will intentionally run wild smearing their opponents with toxic results that will hobble, plague and ultimately destroy all our futures by setting us one against the other.

          All politicians of all stripes engage in this sort of hate mongering to gain personal advantage over others. George H. W. Bush won his only presidential election by such tactics, empowering his attack dog Lee Atwater to take hate mongering “Wedge Politics” to an art form. Same thing happened to Bork, and Clarence Thomas, and most recently Bret Cavenaugh, and half the nation jumped gleefully aboard the hate mongering train. Bush’s people were proud of their Lee Atwater tactics, as are all those who followed his immoral example. No one can claim superiority here, only their lack of morals and ethics. Human’s love their dark side, and relish half the time, while hiding it most always, or trying too.

        4. djrippert Avatar
          djrippert

          It’s the progressive-liberals (or “prog-libs”) who fixate on the race of Americans. Who coined the term “white privilege”? Prog-libs. Who claims “people of color” can’t get ahead in America? Prog-libs? Who thinks reparations for slavery should be paid to today’s descendants of slaves? Prog-libs? Who thinks affirmative action should go on forever? Prog-libs.

          “Once the second generation grows up immersed in American culture and begins to marry outside its tribe, these categories make less and less sense.”

          Tell that to the prog-libs clamoring for forced busing to right the wrongs of institutional racism, not me.

  4. Jane Twitmyer Avatar
    Jane Twitmyer

    or the rest of the country?

    The main thing these stats say to me is that the emphasis on comparative race-based measures of success are misplaced. The schools and teachers, the tools they use, are where we need to place our emphasis. According to what I read, “the traditional mental model of learning is being challenged in many quarters, but alternative theories are still fragmented and limited to supporting specific approaches, such as thematic instruction, cooperative learning, meaning-centered curriculum.”

    Traditional instruction is “teacher dominated, focused on memorizing what we call surface knowledge and relies on a delivery model to which traditional resources, such as textbooks, lectures, and possibly videos or movies. The traditional school schedule is basically inflexible and student assessment is based primarily on quantitative test data.”

    Since the 1990s, which President George Bush defined as the decade of the brain, there has been a mass production of academic prose reflecting on the learning processes of the brain, and the need to implement brain-based methods in education’ (Roberts, 2011). That kind of deep change is difficult to create.

    In ‘brain-based learning’ instruction shifts “from memorizing information to meaningful learning. Brain-based learning stresses the importance of patterning, that is, the fact that the brain does not easily learn things that are not logical or have no meaning. Because our brain’s natural tendency is to integrate information, we resist learning isolated bits of information. Because the specifics of instruction are always tied to larger understandings and purposes, teachers need to help their students see the meaning of new information. … Teachers and students should use stories and complex themes and metaphors to link information and understanding, and computers should be used for all types of work.”

    While the theory includes new information about how we learn, it doesn’t sound all that different from what we thought of as good teaching 30 years ago, given that the system my children attended in CT was well regarded. I did read that there is an elementary school in CA that has spent 3 years redesigning their instructional processes. An improvement rate for the kids abilities acquired under the new protocols was not available.

    Who knows where this will go but it sounds worth while to attempt to incorporate methods that understand our brains into the way we teach our kids.

    1. Reed Fawell 3rd Avatar
      Reed Fawell 3rd

      “Since the 1990s, which President George Bush defined as the decade of the brain, there has been a mass production of academic prose reflecting on the learning processes of the brain, and the need to implement brain-based methods in education’ (Roberts, 2011). That kind of deep change is difficult to create.

      In ‘brain-based learning’ instruction shifts “from memorizing information to meaningful learning. Brain-based learning stresses the importance of patterning, that is, the fact that the brain does not easily learn things that are not logical or have no meaning.”

      I respectfully disagree with this “brain based learning.” It’s wrong. It has been wrong since René Descartes “thought it up” in the 17th century. René Descartes’ brain lived a fantasy. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Decartes, he was far more than his brain, much, much, much more, a human being, so he only scratched the surface of who he was. So, being so limited, he dreamed up his fantasy that his brain was a God. Most “smart people” can’t transcend that fantasy. Look at most all your Harvard and Yale professors, for a prime living example of a collection of fools.

      Hence most “smart people” regularly make fools of themselves, like Descartes. Our learning is and always has been a full body experience. That inescapable fact imprints our entire being in deep and profound ways, ways so complex, changing and variable, that we will never unwind our being, or our brains escape it. Hence we as individuals and groups are wrong most all of the time.

      1. Jane Twitmyer Avatar
        Jane Twitmyer

        Reed, Brain based learning is not restricted to learning just with the brain. Instead it takes the information we have learned from brain research begun in the 90’s and attempts to apply that knowledge to move education away from ‘brain only’ teaching. A lot of it is learning by doing, expanding resources to include more than just books, and alternate ways of evaluating success besides written tests. etc.
        Check it out. Here is 1 ref
        http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/apr95/vol52/num07/Reinventing_Schools_Through_Brain-Based_Learning.aspx

  5. Acbar Avatar
    Acbar

    Just tell those TJ grads to apply to Harvard, which has it all figured out.

  6. Steve Haner Avatar
    Steve Haner

    “The schools and teachers, the tools they use, are where we need to place our emphasis.” No, I don’t think it is a matter of teaching methods.

    It starts long before they get to school, even long before they get to the growing number of preschool programs. If you start with the premise that all children are born able to learn, and absent brain development issues they are, then it is the home environment, the interaction with parents and other key adults, the exposure to books, puzzles, music, art, creative play, and thing like that lay the groundwork for future success. If that is done, then the schools have something to work with, and the parents will be right there working with the school.

    It is nothing short of hard work to be that kind of parent, and yes it is difficult to near impossible when it is a working single parent, poorly educated themselves. Poverty is a limiting factor – simply taking the child out to a children’s museum is a challenge if you lack time and transportation. Household stress is a huge limiting factor. And now you have the digital screens killing brain cells at ever younger ages.

    There is certainly “wealth privilege” but more important are social and economic stability in the home, and a commitment on the part of parents (single, double or whatever) that preparing the children for school is job one. In most of those Asian households it clearly is. The tiger parent is no myth. Neither it is myth that intellectually-gifted and motivated black kids face pressure for “acting white.”

    1. djrippert Avatar
      djrippert

      “The tiger parent is no myth.”

      Funny how you don’t read a lot about that in the mainstream media. Of course, such reporting who shatter many of the fundamental pillars of prog-lib doctrine. White privilege for example. Or the presumed rejection of immigrants and the children of immigrants because of the structural racism in the country. Or the notion that parents who focus on their children realizing the inherent opportunity in American society actually see their children realize the benefits of that opportunity.

      Prog-libs can’t handle the reality of Asian-Americans. The reality of Asian-Americans breaks down the pseudo-logic of self-loathing so beloved by prog-libs. Maybe America really isn’t a racist wasteland. Maybe “people of color” really can prosper in America if they play by the rules and try hard. Oh dear!

      Louisiana Republicans somehow found Bobby Jindal. South Carolina Republicans somehow found Nikki Haley. Both Asian-American governors of their respective states. Where are the RPVs high level Asian-American candidates? Oh right, Virginia’s Asian-Americans don’t live in rural or small town Virginia so they don’t count.

      The Democrats in Virginia did’t kill the RPV. The RPV committed suicide.

  7. Reed Fawell 3rd Avatar
    Reed Fawell 3rd

    Jane says: “The main thing these stats say to me is that the emphasis on comparative race-based measures of success are misplaced. The schools and teachers, the tools they use, are where we need to place our emphasis.”

    I agree with that in spades.

    In addition, we’ve seen this race bait story being pushed again and again, harming everybody and community left in its wake. Most recently here on this blog we saw it in the Shaker Heights story Larry pointed out to us in the Washington Post whose plague now now has removed itself to Alexandria City to foul that well. It is a poison easily spread by those whose intent is to gain power, influence and control for themselves personally.

    See, for example:

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/10/11/this-trail-blazing-suburb-has-tried-years-tackle-race-what-if-trying-isnt-enough/?

    One antidote to this virulent race plague paradigm is discussed in the fine and beautifully written book “Unlearning Race, Self-Portrait in Black and White,” by Thomas Chatterton Williams, a man who shook off his race obsession after his daughter’s birth and he never looked back. He tells his beautiful story, beautifully.

  8. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    “prog-libs” ??? is that the latest after our “snowflake” phase? 😉

    “they” say it is Equity versus Equality.

    can we articulate the difference when it comes to public education ?

    can we articulate the difference when it comes to private education?

    One might be persuaded that the current public school ecosystem is “biased” towards teaching well-parented kids of well-educated parents (regardless of color or culture) and it does seem to “fit” the whites, blacks and Hispanics but what about Asians? Do they “fit” the same perceived socioeconomic characteristics?

    If economically poor and educationally deprived Asians somehow manage to motivate their kids to excel – even in school systems that are biased to the non-poor, well-educated….. then how do we reconcile that?

    Or have I got this all balled up?

    1. djrippert Avatar
      djrippert

      I don’t have the time or the willingness to invest keystrokes to help the left fix its branding problem. Sometimes they call themselves progressives, sometimes liberals. Prog-lib makes it easier.

  9. Reed Fawell 3rd Avatar
    Reed Fawell 3rd

    “If economically poor and educationally deprived Asians somehow manage to motivate their kids to excel – even in school systems that are biased to the non-poor, well-educated….. then how do we reconcile that?”

    Excellent question, here is best answer that I’ve been able to figure out.

    1. Again we must take race out of equation. Why? Because all parents of kids of whatever color or race, or whether or not they be economically poor and educationally deprived or not, typically (unless they themselves are damaged goods by reason of an abusive upbringing), will love their kids and want their kids to succeed, and will if they be given the opportunity, will work hard to motivate and help their kids to excel.

    This has been proven over and over again by many examples in American education since the American civil war. All parents and their kids need is a safe and encouraging environment built on their experience, and the inherent nature of parents (or typical caregiver adult) and the inherent natures of infants and toddlers, will do the rest to set up the three year old kid to launch yet again in repeating the process of learning how to succeed in their culture by learning how to deal with and learn from their peers three to six year olds. Here kids goes go from learning how to be WE (caregiver adult plus I) to being WE (me and my peer 3 to 6 year olds in my group). Doing this as is regularly done by 6 or 7 years of age is an awesome achievement that only human kids can do. It requires enormous mind boggling skills what we far too often take for granted or lose or throw away by ignorance UNLESS

    AND THERE IS A BIG KEY, THE NEXT STEP:

    We need schools like Success Academy or its ilk that can take kids irrespective of the wealth and or education of parents and motivate those kids and their parents to get the very best education their talents allow. Thus All kids will have equal opportunity.

    1. Jane Twitmyer Avatar
      Jane Twitmyer

      All those things are terrific and I agree BUT I say again that the parents who make the choice to enroll their kids are already engaged parents and that takes the cream of the crop from the public schools, leaving them with the harder ‘fixes’.

      1. TooManyTaxes Avatar
        TooManyTaxes

        About 20 years ago more or less, a group of parents in Fairfax County asked the Schools to begin ABA treatment. The administration and school board balked, citing the high cost and lack of sufficient results to warrant the expenditure of the funds. The Schools did agree to a one-year pilot program with 10 kids.

        After a year, two kids had great improvement; two kids went backwards; and six kids stayed about the same. The conclusion: don’t initiate the ABA program.

        The parents came back and proposed to set up a charter school for kids with severe autism. Immediately, fearing a loss of dictatorial control over a school, FCPS announced it would adopt the ABA program despite the poor results of the trial and the cost.

        Needless to say, the media (except for the community newspapers) ignored the story.

        1. Jane Twitmyer Avatar
          Jane Twitmyer

          I am not sure of your point. We are not talking about special ed here but just more generalized educational success. I would guess that 20 years ago the knowledge of how to deal with autism was clearly lacking all around. Did those parents have a better program?
          Special Ed requires continual staff attention to what techniques are working and what are not and continual oversight by the administration.

        2. TooManyTaxes Avatar
          TooManyTaxes

          Jane, my point is there is intense opposition to charter schools within Fairfax County Public Schools to the point where it will adopt an incredibly expensive program based on results that would not lead normal-thinking people to spend the money simply to avoid a charter school operating in the County.

          But for this opposition (and the total suck-up by the MSM), I suspect there would be a number of charter schools operating in Fairfax County and that many of them would be catering to low-performers using educational methods not preferred by the still-monopoly provider of educational services (FCPS).

          Why is a tool that has been used successfully in other parts of the nation to help low-performers not used in Fairfax County? I’m not arguing for a blank check for charter schools but they are public schools and should be available.

          1. Jane Twitmyer Avatar
            Jane Twitmyer

            Charter schools are not really public schools in other states where Charter schools receive government funding but operate independently of the established state school system in which it is located. In VA the law is different.

            All charter schools in Virginia are located within a school division and under the authority of a local school board. That means that in VA Charter schools do not operate with the lack of accountability prevalent in other places. I would guess that also reflects the funding, which in some states in not all up to the local B of Ed.

            My argument with Charter Schools, as someone who served on a public school board, is that, by definition, they use public monies to only serve only those children whose parents are engaged in their child’s success, a fact that dramatically increases the ratio of success. It also leaves all those children with no parental support, kids requiring extensive support within the school system, up to the public system.

            The rationale to say no in Fairfax would be a bit different I guess and maybe not give the school the freedom yoou seem to want.

          2. TooManyTaxes Avatar
            TooManyTaxes

            Jane, why drag down children whose parents care so that they don’t get ahead of children whose parents don’t care? It makes no sense. But that is the operative policy of the Virginia Democratic Party.

            We’ve established that low-income kids in Fairfax County get access to more resources than non-low-income kids. That point cannot be debated. Some kids respond well to the extra resources; others don’t. Some kids fail. Having one’s parents not care or having parents missing can create obstacles. But as JFK said “Life is not fair.” If some kids can make it in a charter school, why not let them.

            FCPS is not this benevolent entity. I’ve practiced law for more than 42 years and FCPS is the most dishonest entity I’ve encountered I my professional career. I heard more lies from school administrators and school board members than from any source. I’ve confronted administrators and board members with bald lies that sometimes contradict their own records. The general response – silence. I’ve seen at-large board members refuse to answer questions or provide information.

            FCPS administrators and school board members refused to provide average class size information to middle school parents. It took legislation introduced by Delegate Kathleen Murphy that passed into law to get the information.

            FCPS administrators purposely sabotaged a decision by the BoS to combine county and school printing operations and encouraged former employees to sabotage outsourced school bus maintenance.

            Lie after lie after lie. FCPS is so dishonest that only the Post could believe them. FCPS opposes charter schools because the administration and school board members cannot control every aspect of them.

  10. djrippert Avatar
    djrippert

    “My argument with Charter Schools, as someone who served on a public school board, is that, by definition, they use public monies to only serve only those children whose parents are engaged in their child’s success, a fact that dramatically increases the ratio of success.”

    So, penalizing the children of parents who care by forcing them into schools with the children of parents who don’t care is a good idea? While the children of parents who don’t care can’t be blamed for their parents neither can the parents who care or their children be blamed for the negligent parents.

    At some point we need to stop dumbing down everybody to the level of the miscreant parents who just don’t care about their children’s education.

    1. Jane Twitmyer Avatar
      Jane Twitmyer

      So, dj … Would you blame the kids whose parents don’t care for their own lack of preparation? Maybe make sure they have a police record for cutting in the lunch line or talking on the bus?

  11. J. Abbate Avatar
    J. Abbate

    My son was a 2003 graduate of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. While he was involved in Middle School in the Gifted & Talented program, he was seriously harassed in Middle School in Reston by minority African American students to the point that we chose to remove him from that school and home school him for a year before he took the entry exam for Thomas Jefferson. He was a self motivated student and with us (prog-lib parents) encouraging him as any good “tiger parents” would. he was able to ace the entry test, enter Thomas Jefferson and have a robust and excellent education and really expand his learning and scholastic skills. Without the harassment that had previously distracted and disturbed his school experience, he was able to bring his full attention to the advanced curriculum and excellent instruction at Thomas Jefferson. He was able to grow as a student and scholar and attend Stanford University and graduate with honors. Our experience was that this school’s policy of operating as a meritocracy provided an opportunity for our son to achieve scholastic excellence even though we were not wealthy. We supported our son throughout his challenging but wonderful time at Thomas Jefferson with a few overnight projects, cheering him on with his science projects, and driving him to and from school from 1 hour away, all so he could have a quality education and be well prepared for college. It was real work for us as parents and for his work as a student. It was well worth the energy expended.

    1. James A. Bacon Avatar
      James A. Bacon

      Thank you for sharing your experience. I don’t care what your political persuasion is, if your child is getting hazed or bullied at school, you will expend every effort to put him into another school. Our son attended an elite prep school in Richmond and was subjected to chronic bullying as well. We yanked him out and put him into Douglas Freeman High School, a Henrico County public school, where he encountered no more problems.

    2. TooManyTaxes Avatar
      TooManyTaxes

      Bullying simply cannot be tolerated. Bullying begets more bullying. Efforts to teach respect are worthwhile activities.

      1. James A. Bacon Avatar
        James A. Bacon

        I totally agree. Cracking down on bullying is an integral part of maintaining discipline in schools. Trouble is, bullies are usually smart enough not to do their thing in the presence of teachers or staff. It turns into a he-said/he-said situation, the word of one kid against another. It’s not easy to deal with.

Leave a Reply

Read More