The number of black and Hispanic students accepted into the Washington region’s premier high school has dropped by more than half in the past five years, according to numbers from Fairfax County Public Schools.
Only six Hispanic students and eight black students earned acceptance to the class of 2013 at Fairfax County’s Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, down from 12 black students and 19 Hispanic students for the class of 2009. About 480 students were accepted this year overall.
U.S. News and World Report ranks Thomas Jefferson, commonly called TJ, as the best high school in the nation. Its admissions process involves an academic test and an extensive review of the students’ backgrounds, but does not incorporate race or ethnicity.
Across the Potomac in Montgomery County, black and Hispanic applications and acceptances to the top math and science magnet programs have gone up slightly in the past five years, but the numbers remain low. In 2009, they accounted for 28 of 230 total admissions. Montgomery has a similar application process that does not take race into consideration.
Some educators are saying the admissions numbers are a clear sign that school districts need to put more effort into reaching talented minority students at a younger age, instead of waiting until middle school, when it is often too late to get them caught up.
“The key to TJ is the pipeline,” said Fairfax school board member Martina Hone. “How are we getting kids ready and prepared?”
“To make these corrections to TJ in seventh grade or eighth grade is absolutely too late,” said John Johnson, a member of Fairfax’s Minority Student Achievement Oversight Committee, explaining that students need to be on an accelerated track in elementary school in order learn the necessary math and reasoning skills.
The admissions decline at TJ has come in the wake of the redesign of a program called Quest, originally intended to prepare a diverse body of students for the test and application. In 2004-05, Quest began focusing on admittance to all advanced options, including Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate programs.
Minority student participation in AP and IB has increased, but some worry it has been at the expense of fewer students aiming for TJ.
As black and Hispanic acceptances have fallen, so too have their overall applications — a fact Hone calls “particularly striking.”
“What are we doing that’s essentially discouraging these kids from applying?” she asked.
Asian; 32%; 54%
White; 53%; 36%
Black; 2% (12 students); 2% (8 students)
Hispanic; 4%; 1%
Multiracial; 6%; 6%
Montgomery Blair High School – Math, Science, Computer Science Magnet Program
Race; % admitted for the class of 2009; % admitted for the class of 2013
Asian; 61%; 57%
White; 31%; 31%
Black; 5%; 8%
Hispanic; 2%; 4%
