Examiner reporter Lisa Gartner reports that teachers at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria — recently ranked the second best high school in the nation by U.S. News & World Report — are complaining about the “profound lack of preparation and readiness” exhibited by current members of the freshmen class. In a letter to admissions director Tanisha Holland and the Fairfax County School Board, faculty members wrote: “Simply put, these students are not succeeding, and many are not succeeding in spite of the tremendous support and remediation being offered to them by their teachers.” Holland responded that the school is “looking into the admissions process” to determine whether it could have done a better job of recruiting.

But Holland doesn’t have to look beyond her own office to discover the cause of what the faculty describes as an “alarming trend” in admitting unprepared students. They determined that 50 questions on the math portion of the admissions exam reflected standards that should have been mastered in sixth grade. Instead of being at least two grade levels ahead of their peers, some students admitted to TJ were two grade levels behind.