Call it the revenge of the Tiger Mothers. Almost two-thirds of the class of 2015 at Fairfax County’s acclaimed Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria will be Asians. But TJ’s announcement that it will admit 273 Asians — compared with 161 whites, 27 multiracial students, 13 Hispanics and six African-Americans — raised the old canard that minorities are “underrepresented” at the nationally ranked magnet school, even though white students make up just a third of the incoming freshman class.
What critics really mean is that blacks, Hispanics and other politically correct minorities are underrepresented. Somewhere along the way, Asians in Northern Virginia apparently ceased being victimized members of racial minorities and became … what, exactly? Overachievers whose work ethic prevents real minorities from getting into TJ?
Such is the absurdity of trying to force multicultural dogma into what is supposed to be a race-blind merit system.
Asian students dominate TJ’s admissions process because they’ve been beating the competition at math and science ever since elementary school. You can argue whether the tough discipline imposed by Asian families is good for their children’s psyches, but you can’t argue with the academic results.
In fact, if math and science test scores were the only criteria taken into account, even more Asian students would likely be accepted at TJ. Written essays, teacher recommendations and grades are also taken into account, giving the rest of the pack — including whites — a subjective leg up.
But even that’s not enough to keep white students from slipping to just 33.5 percent of the freshmen class next year, while the percentage of Asian students continues to rise.
The Fairfax School Board’s Blue Ribbon Committee, established in 2004 to create a “diversity plan” for TJ, included a consideration of race and ethnicity as a “plus” factor in admissions. It failed spectacularly — but only if “success” is defined as increasing the numbers of black and Hispanic students, who make up 29 percent of the county’s student population. Black and Hispanic admissions declined from 5.5 percent in 2005-2006 to less than 4 percent for the upcoming school year.
The same pattern can be seen in Montgomery County, where only 8 percent of freshmen at Montgomery Blair’s highly ranked Science, Mathematics and Computer Science Magnet Program are African-American or Hispanic, even though they make up 46 percent of the school system’s enrollment.
The diversity plan was a smashing success considering that 2008 was the first year Asians outnumbered white students, dramatically altering TJ’s racial and ethnic profile. But somehow they don’t count.
Of course, the process of identifying students who are gifted in math and science and providing them with the appropriate level of instruction begins — or doesn’t begin — in elementary school. In February, the Washington Post’s Jay Mathews quoted Longfellow Middle School’s Vern Williams, one of the nation’s top math teachers, who admitted that he’s “lost all faith in the TJ admissions process,” comparing it to “flipping coins.”
Williams’ common-sense solution to the so-called minority gap is to “get rid of all warm and fuzzy math programs at the elementary school level and teach real academic content to all students.”
Diversity advocates don’t blame Fairfax County Public Schools for not adequately preparing black and Hispanic students for the academic rigors of TJ because that would only expose the school system’s focus on equality and diversity at the expense of academic excellence.
Instead, they continue to complain about a “minority gap” that pointedly excludes hundreds of minority students who manage to master math and science despite FCPS’ dumbed down curriculum and conflicting social agenda.
Barbara F. Hollingsworth is The Examiner’s local opinion editor.
