Enact Real Change at TJ with Affirmative Action
I was appalled when I realized that the TJ admissions office admitted so few Black students that the number was too small to report. I firmly believe our community should hold this institution responsible in addition to the Fairfax County Public Schools system and other societal inequalities that played a large role in this outcome.
As a 2019 graduate who identifies as Latina, I owe a lot of my academic opportunities to this school. If I had gone to my base school, I doubt I would have had access to the same quality of instruction (considering that almost, if not all, of TJ STEM teachers have PhDs), research experience, or passionate peers working to advance the field of science. The fact that none of the 160 Black students who applied to join the class of 2024 will be able to have the TJ experience is disappointing to me. Like many of you, I recognize that this is part of a deeper issue rooted in inequality and one of many products of the institutional exclusion of Black and Indigenous people of color (BIPOC) in higher education. However, I do believe that TJ admissions is perpetuating this exclusion by not considering race and socioeconomic inequalities in the admissions process.
I’ve always believed that racial and socioeconomic diversity should be a necessary goal for any school in this country. I can say from personal experience that I’ve enjoyed my college experience so much more because I’m now exposed to different cultures, perspectives and backgrounds partially thanks to the affirmative action policies my college upholds. Many other TJ alums have also appreciated this and noted that it was a culture shock compared to the mostly homogeneous experience they had in high school. There is a lot of research that points to the benefits of diversity in higher education, such as better collaboration and more creativity. I honestly think that TJ would become a more innovative, equitable and socially conscious institution. Students would be better equipped to notice how people from different race or class status experience the world. Perhaps this would even cause TJ alums to consider new solutions to major problems involving race and/or class in STEM such as the racial discrimination in our healthcare system.
However, I think we need to acknowledge that diversity doesn’t just benefit the students getting exposed to underrepresented minorities (URM). It also allows people from underrepresented backgrounds the access to institutions, resources and experiences they otherwise wouldn’t have. In the case of TJ admissions, it would allow URM high schoolers the opportunity to study STEM at an advanced level and hopefully persuade them to pursue a career in the field, which was originally part of TJ’s mission. For many URM, it can be difficult to imagine yourself pursuing something when the people in that field don’t come from the same background as you. However, TJ can give these URM the chance to explore things like quantum physics, advanced computer science, marine biology and astrophysics, which are pretty exclusive to TJHSST and won’t be found at FCPS high schools that are primarily Black, Latinx or low income. They could also use this education as a form of class mobility by increasing their skill level and access to other elite institutions as a college student.
When reviewing my own path to TJ as a Latina from a title-one elementary school, I think the step that was most critical was my placement into the GT/AAP program in third grade. It was there where I was able to develop critical thinking skills, score well on the IOWA test, and earn placement into the Algebra 1 HN class as a seventh grader. Luckily I also went to a middle school that had clubs like TSA and Science Olympiad that many of my friends taking Algebra 1 participated in and they persuaded me to join. They would talk about their test prep classes so I begged my parents to buy me a SHSAT/TJ prep book on Amazon so I could self-study for the exam. Had I not been a part of AAP, I think I would have had an infinitely harder time getting into TJ. Not to mention that my parents could not afford expensive test prep and the first time I heard about TJ was in seventh grade. There were so many bright URM students I knew who definitely would have benefited from TJ’s curriculum if they had the same resources and opportunities I had growing up. I often think of how different TJ would be if they were given the chance.
When URM students at Stuyvesant, a specialized high school in New York with similar admissions diversity data, were asked about what they believed to be the best solution to the racial education gap that exists at specialized high schools, they mentioned “expanding gifted and talented programs”. The problem that these programs currently have is that at certain schools you have to be invited to test into the program, which could lead to unconscious racial bias. When I was the student representative on the FCPS Minority Student Achievement Oversight Committee, we identified this as one of the many causes of the racial achievement gap in FCPS. While these programs also have some sort of appeal process so that parents can challenge the final decision, Black and Latinx parents are significantly less likely to appeal compared to White or Asian parents. This can be attributed to many different things, such as information about these programs, language barriers, missing appeal dates etc. The bottom line is that FCPS needs to fix this problem in order to significantly change the amount of Black and Latinx students in challenging academic environments like TJ. Speaking from my own experience, I think the best long-term solution to the diversity issue would be increasing the number of underrepresented minorities in the GT program/AAP, expanding the program to all elementary schools and investing in STEM clubs/education at all elementary and middle schools. I believe that this could radically change the demographic of advanced programs in FCPS and across the country.
However, I still support affirmative action because I believe that TJ and the greater STEM field cannot wait the 15 or however many years it’ll take for this initiative and other outreach to really make a difference in our admissions data. I applaud outreach initiatives, like LIFT or STEMbassadors, for their work and think they are making a critical difference in the lives of many students. When I volunteered for STEMbassadors at my former elementary school, I’m sure students were positively affected by the STEM curriculum I helped implement over the summer. However, it is a fact that these programs alone are not giving us the results we need to see (not at the fault of the volunteers or organizers of these programs). We cannot wait for these initiatives to change the makeup of the school given that there are so many other larger factors at play. Colleges and universities recognize that their fly-in opportunities and summer programs will also not be enough to solve problems URM face like racial and socioeconomic inequality, funding disparities in the public school system or lack of access to expensive test prep and tutors. The STEM field is rapidly changing each and every day. Each year that admissions continues to fail to admit a population of URM students that reflects the makeup of our five counties, we continue to exclude this group from pursuing a field that already faces the challenge of retaining them. Completely merit based admissions can really only be fair when everyone has equal access to all resources starting at birth (how possible is this in any society?)
There have been many arguments against affirmative action but I’ll take the time to address one of the most popular claims: if TJ admits more URM after the implementation of an affirmative action policy, they will not be prepared for the curriculum and our drop out rate will increase. Many prestigious institutions, like Harvard and Yale, practice affirmative action. The difference between TJ and these institutions is that these universities are also providing the academic and social resources needed for their students to stay at these institutions and be successful. This comes in many forms, for example summer bridge programs, career preparation panels with URM alumni and academic opportunities reserved exclusively for URM. Personally, the Williams summer bridge program was a great way for me to get accustomed to the college environment and it taught me that it’s okay to ask for extra support from professors, deans and other mentors if needed. The TJ curriculum should not be difficult enough that URM, who are qualified based on the admissions criteria, feel unsupported. (Many people against AA policies forget that, when done correctly, the students admitted ARE qualified to attend the institution based on test scores, grades, etc.) TJ culture should not be one where students feel less intelligent for needing help and extra support, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Or where students feel discriminated against because of their background. If this is the case, and it certainly was when I attended TJ as a Latina and first-gen student, TJ’s administration and faculty are also failing. TJ’s culture, curriculum and overall mission will need to radically shift in order for this policy to work. Is TJ willing to commit to this important challenge?
This also ignores the large sums of money that currently go into academically supporting students after they’ve gained admission to TJ. The fall of my sophomore year, I learned that many of my classmates had enrolled in paid STEM summer courses designed to prepare them for TJ’s chemistry, physics or math 4/5 curriculum. As a community we must ask ourselves why families feel the need to pay hundreds of dollars to prepare their student to take a TJ course, given that those opting to take these summer courses tend to be the most privileged. The students that don’t have access to these types of courses, which tend to be URM, are already behind compared to their peers before the course has even started. Why is our curriculum so difficult that this must exist? Why do some TJ teachers feed into this problem by instructing these courses? What can teachers do to reach out to these disadvantaged students and offer them extra support?
There are many issues with the admissions process that chooses who is and is not deserving of a spot at the top public high school in the United States. But I believe that there are many benefits to admitting more URM students through affirmative action policies and TJ admissions is doing a disservice to the greater STEM community by choosing to operate under the assumption that race and class do not affect an 8th grader’s academic success. While I am a big advocate for the expansion of GT/AAP and the importance of outreach programs, the past 20 years have shown us that it is not enough. Even changing the admissions test to be more “equitable” and less “prep-able” have failed to do so. Until our society can heal from the discriminatory practices that group together BIPOC families into lower quality schools and fix the issue of socioeconomic inequality, affirmative action is the first step to remedying the inequality in our broken society.
Also we must not fall victim to the idea that our ideas are too radical or politically unfeasible to work. We must not choose against fighting when underserved students are facing obvious inequality. There are many institutional forces working against our mission but we must not remain silent, especially during a critical time in the history of racial discrimination and income inequality. TJHSST should be on the right side of history.
