Fairfax County School Board To Appeal Ruling Against Racial Balancing Efforts

The school board is fighting a federal judge’s ruling against a new admissions policy at Virginia's elite Thomas Jefferson High School.

The Fairfax County School Board has filed an appeal challenging a recent court ruling against controversial new admissions procedures at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJ), a prestigious magnet school in Alexandria, Virginia. 

The new admissions policy was intended to increase the proportion of black and Hispanic students at the school. It was struck down in late February by Judge Claude M. Hilton of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, who ruled that the new policy "has had, and will have, a substantial disparate impact on Asian American applicants to TJ." 

Before the challenged admissions policy was put in place, 73 percent of TJ students were Asian American. In 2021, the school was only 1 percent black and 3.3 percent Hispanic in a county in which 10 percent and 16 percent of the population is black and Hispanic, respectively. This led to the school being described by Didi Elsyad, who was one of the six black students in her grade at TJ, as "segregation in its modern form." 

In 2020, following the death of George Floyd, the Fairfax County School Board made sweeping changes to the school's admissions policy for the 2021-2022 school year. Formerly, applicants were required to take three hours of standardized tests to proceed to the semifinalist round of admissions to TJ, which accepts students from across several districts in Northern Virginia. The new policy nixed the standardized testing in favor of requiring applicants to have taken or be enrolled in middle school honors classes that cover the same material as the standardized tests. The school board also added a "student experience sheet" that allowed TJ's admissions team to account for household income, learning disabilities, and whether the applicant is a native English speaker. The policy also placed a percentage cap on the number of students coming from each feeder middle school. 

The changes had a staggering effect: According to the lawsuit, the class of 2024 was 73 percent Asian, while the class of 2025 is 54 percent Asian. Meanwhile, the share of black students increased from less than 1 percent in the 2024 class to 7 percent in the 2025 class, and the share of Hispanic students increased from 3.3 percent to 11 percent. 

After the new admissions policy was announced, 17 Northern Virginia families, many of them parents of students who applied to or attend TJ, formed the Coalition for TJ and filed a lawsuit against the school board. They claimed that dispensing with race-blind standardized tests in favor of the new criteria amounted to illegal racial discrimination intended at placing an informal quota on Asian students.

In February, Judge Hilton agreed. He struck down the new admissions procedures as having "disproportionately deprived" Asian American applicants "of a level playing field" and ordered Fairfax County Schools to reverse course on their new admissions policy. 

On Monday, the school board filed an appeal claiming that the decision does not take existing case law into account. The board also claims that "the intent of the school division was to design a process that removes systemic screening barriers that have historically impacted talented students from diverse backgrounds."

However, the school is likely to face an uphill battle in preserving its new policy. While it claims to be removing "systemic barriers," it seems to have done so by trying to reduce the Asian American student population. One Fairfax County School Board member reportedly texted another about the proposed changes: "I mean there has been an anti-Asian feel underlying some of this, hate to say it lol." 

The solution to issues of educational opportunity and lack of diversity—essentially, problems caused by past racial discrimination—cannot be solved by adopting the "right" kind of racial discrimination now.

Harry Jackson, the black father of a TJ student and a member of the Coalition for TJ, wrote in The Washington Post: "I would also like to see more Black and Hispanic students at the school. But if those students are not making the grade, the problem isn't the standards. It's more likely that the elementary school pipeline is failing to prepare them for the rigors of an environment like TJ."

Increasing the share of black and Hispanic students at TJ should come from improving the quality of underperforming Fairfax County schools so that more black and Hispanic middle school students can pass the school's entrance exam. 

"TJ freshmen are expected to be able to handle AP-level mathematics and computer science as soon as they enter the school," Aditya Kumar, a recent TJ alum, tells Reason. "I just don't think middle school performance can predict that but a tough standardized test can."

The new policy is not all bad, however. Removing the school's $100 application fee—a change that occurred alongside the new admissions standards—makes it significantly easier for lower-income students with high aptitudes to gain entrance into the school fair and square.

The issues raised by this recent controversy are not likely to go away any time soon. In January, the Supreme Court said it would hear cases challenging race-conscious admissions procedures at Harvard and the University of North Carolina.

Comments

[Moonrocks]

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[perlhaqr]

Harry Jackson, the black father of a TJ student and a member of the Coalition for TJ, wrote in The Washington Post: "I would also like to see more Black and Hispanic students at the school. But if those students are not making the grade, the problem isn't the standards. It's more likely that the elementary school pipeline is failing to prepare them for the rigors of an environment like TJ."

Ugh, I hate white supremacists like this so much!

[JimboJr]

"In 2021, the school was only 1 percent black and 3.3 percent Hispanic in a county in which 10 percent and 16 percent of the population is black and Hispanic, respectively."

Still waiting on the response for my petition to get on the basketball team which is 90% percent black despite a 15% black population in my area. Somehow when the appropriate races are winning, its totes fine to have a meritocracy but if someone "too white" outperforms then a racism happened.

[Outlaw Josey Wales]

And what is comically lost in the whole assessment of race is the emphasis on sports that a lot of black families put on their children. It is a clear avenue to success. But only for a small few. The rest become hangers on and or find other low skill or criminal endeavors. Why? Because without the balance of an education along with the sports focus only a small portion succeed along this path. It is also why a lot of the young black men that do succeed in sports end up broke 5 years after their career ends. The path following a successful sports career into the next best thing is even tighter.

Also one of the main reasons the Asians are white now. Tiger mommas focused on education first.

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[Dace Highlander]

Several points that I haven’t saw addressed:

When a standardized test that measures performance minimum standards shows that *performers* below this level are not likely to succeed why do we re-engineer the test to reduce the probability of success? Shouldn’t we water down the courses so that anyone can pass and thereby make the school much less desirable? That seems to be the historical solution to this problem. Expecting people to sacrifice and prepare to succeed has peaked and passed in our society.
Secondly, as JimboJr has already said, in cases where the in vogue disadvantaged demographic is disproportionately represented, there is never a call for equity.
Competitiveness requires that you assemble the best team. Why should it be different from athletics to academics?

[Rossami]

You are assuming in your first point that the standardized test can, in fact, show likeliness to succeed. A number of studies have shown at best mixed evidence for that proposition. If the tests had reliable predictive power, I would agree. But the best controlled studies show little to no predictive power.

The school district had pretty obviously racist motives in this case. But in other circumstances, I do support a move away from standardized tests and toward experimentation with selection criteria that might have greater predictive power.

[Marshall Eylicio]

MUH STANDARDIZED TESTS ARE WASISSSSS!!!!!!

It's good to see the 1990s making a comeback.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

When a standardized test that measures performance minimum standards shows that *performers* below this level are not likely to succeed why do we re-engineer the test to reduce the probability of success? Shouldn’t we water down the courses so that anyone can pass and thereby make the school much less desirable? That seems to be the historical solution to this problem. Expecting people to sacrifice and prepare to succeed has peaked and passed in our society.

Competence is a right-wing trait. Prove me wrong.

[Social Justice is neither]

You forgot White Supremacist. You know, like the Asian families and the black father highlighted in the article. He at least has part of the correct solution to my mind, it's not complete but the school cannot do much about the predominant culture for the racial cohort.

[LarryA]

"Competence is a right-wing trait. Prove me wrong."

On January 19, 2021, the U.S. economy was rebounding, inflation was negligible, store shelves were full, America was energy independent, taxes were lower, jobs were returning to the U.S., the U.S. military was admired worldwide, the U.S. and Mexico were coordinating to secure the border, Russia was blocked from invading Ukraine, China was minding its manners, France was still “America’s oldest ally,” terrorism was under control, and four Arab countries were peacefully negotiating with Israel.

Starting January 20, by cancelling the Keystone Pipeline and sending the troops guarding the White House to sleep in parking garages, the Biden administration flushed every bit of it.

So it appears competence is a right-wing trait, and that's a good thing.

[Hank Ferrous]

The education industry and teachers' unions have been working both of these issues. Aggressively lowering standards when standards are shown to impede the success, without the hard work of studying and doing well, of their preferred demographics. Not simply lowering the standard for admission, or dropping the standardized test altogether. but insisting that any suggestion that such action makes less capable students, thus employees. is the full suite of fuckwit assertions. That being. racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, Islamophobic. This said, left-leaning sorts, progressives in particular, aren't interested in the best team, or competitiveness, they are interested in equity.

[CE]

This type of move (making admissions less colorblind to an elite public high school) helped get school board members recalled, even in woke San Francisco.

Now about that school's name....

[Mickey Rat]

We have gotten to a new level of strangeness when the problem is too many Asians are at the top level of a meritocratic system. Something must done to reduce their numbers by increasing subjective criteria.

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[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

"has had, and will have, a substantial disparate impact on Asian American applicants to TJ."

Just so you know, that's not why the policy should be struck down.

[CLM1227]

Yup.

[Restoring the Dream]

I can see having special attention for black students, but I don't get programs for Hispanic students who came to this country voluntarily two years ago.

[Michael Ejercito]

Indeed.

It makes no sense.

[MasterThief]

I went to school in Prince William county (just south of Fairfax) and was given the opportunity to go to TJ. I cleared the entrance exams, but decided to go to my local public school. It wasn't worth it to spend that long getting to and from school when I was a 10 minute walk from the one I went to.
I'll offer another reason why so many Asians go to TJ. The affluent area around the school is actually a much higher percentage Asian than the broader region. A family's proximity to the school and financial means will certainly make a difference. There isn't much value in lowering entrance standards so lower performing students from weaker programs can gain entry.

[perlhaqr]

This led to the school being described by Didi Elsyad, who was one of the six black students in her grade at TJ, as "segregation in its modern form."

What a noxious little shit.

[B]

Apparently the modern form heavily favors Asians. That's an interesting twist.