“For years, two administrators at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJ) have been withholding notifications of National Merit awards from the school’s families, most of them Asian, thus denying students the right to use those awards to boost their college-admission prospects and earn scholarships.”
Top school principal hides student academic awards in name of 'equity'.
I read this article. A lot of people should lose there their jobs. This is awful.
Maybe it was just Commended students that weren’t notified? The article was kind of vague. While it’s disappointing, I don’t think there are scholarships for being a CS. Realistically, their SAT scores probably reflect high PSAT scores.
Withholding semi-finalist status would have been a different matter, but I believe they are notified in different ways, or at least once all the schools come courting.
The article said commended students were notified but later than intended.
I think it’s a stretch to say this impacted potential applicants because scores still went with the application. Regional admissions officers know the cut offs.
Regardless, it was not the school’s place to withhold such information from its students.
“The article said commended students were notified but later than intended.”
Only for the current year.
“I learned — two years after the fact — that National Merit had recognized my son, a graduate of TJ’s Class of 2021, as a Commended Student in a September 10, 2020, letter that National Merit sent to Bonitatibus. But the principal, who lobbied that fall to nix the school’s merit-based admission test to increase ‘diversity,’ never told us about it. Parents from earlier years told me that she also didn’t tell them about any Commended Student awards.”
Parents vs. students. The students had been notified. The original article complains that the students were notified by school sanctioned email (same way that all schools with such emails communicate.)
NFSF for TJ were announced in September. Two Hundred Thirty-Eight FCPS Students Are 2023 National Merit Semifinalists | Fairfax County Public Schools. The commended cutoff had been known since the previous May.
This is much ado about nothing.
I have to say, I was expecting some bombshell. This is a tempest in a teacup, IMO.
A commended student for National Merit is jut not a big deal, sorry. A commended student doesn’t get anything other than a letter, and bragging rights to say they were commended. There are 34,000 students who get these letters. My kid got one and so did a couple of others in her year. The Ivy League school that rejected her obviously didn’t care😆
Of course, I don’t know for sure, but I’ll wager that no student would have been denied because they didn’t put their commended status on their application. Maybe the other 16,000 NM semi finalists would be in a worse off position for not being able to put that on their application, but I’m betting that most kids at that high school go to very good colleges for the most part, regardless of national merit status.
And this line is ridiculous… “The war on merit is a war on our kids.”
Despite being the OP who shared the article, I think this one is a more even-tempered take on the situation that I prefer:
I did do a search for National Merit and Thomas Jefferson on CC before posting this topic, but I have no issue with it being locked if it’s being discussed elsewhere.
I understand. It just seems like it should be an issue for TJ high school community, rather than constant national fodder in the culture wars.
My thinking at the time was that because TJ is one of the two high schools well-known for an insane number of NM awards (along with Stuyvesant), it would be interesting to the broader NM community. I wouldn’t have posted something similar about, say, some Idahoan HS that averages seven NM a year. But I understand your argument, as well as the argument that it’s a nothingburger that should be ignored entirely. Which is why (along with the fact that it’s being discussed elsewhere) I don’t mind if mods lock this topic.
Have you considered that many schools award significant money to these kids? Not everyone is aspiring to go to an ivy. Many of these kids could stand to benefit.
There was no honor in the actions of the administrators. They should get fired and the school sued.
It was up to them to notify the students – they did not.
Shameful!
Imagine if this was done to POCs that were not Asians?
This is the first round of NM based on PSATs. Students applying to college who want their tests considered generally report their own scores on their applications. To me, this is akin to scoring 4s/5s on AP tests, sending the scores, but omitting mentioning AP scholar under awards. The schools are still seeing the scores, which is the key piece.
I wasn’t aware that the certificates were only delayed for Asian students.
Or is your assumption that only Asian-American students would earn commended status? 
Commended students do not get any money at all. They are not semi finalists. They don’t get anything.
Didn’t the article say a disproportionate number of Asians were affected or am I imagining things here?
This article said:
For years, two administrators at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJ) have been withholding notifications of National Merit awards from the school’s families, most of them Asian, thus denying students the right to use those awards to boost their college admission prospects and earn scholarships.
But most of the students at TJ are Asian, so this isn’t necessarily disproportionate, nor is there anything even suggesting it was racially motivated.
Also, the quoted statement is flat out false. Those receiving NMSF awards were notified in September, it was even announced in the press. The commended cutoff was publicly known from the spring before.
Fair enough. Let’s see what the school board decides after investigating.