China News Service, March 9. According to the US "World Journal" report, the admission reform of Thomas Jefferson High School (TJ High School), a well-known Northern Virginia, has experienced ups and downs since 2020. A federal judge recently ruled that the school's new admissions system Discrimination against Asian-American groups must end, the ruling marks a victory for the Asian-American community, but the Fairfax County Public Schools System (FCPS), which pushed for admissions reform, said it would appeal.

　　Federal Judge Claude Hilton pointed out in the judgment that the admissions reform at TJ High School is aimed at increasing African-American and Hispanic students, which is an illegal "racial balancing" (racial balancing), in addition to canceling the entrance examination and application fee, It is also unfair to switch to an "opaque" way to include students' family income, English conversation level, etc. in the admissions criteria, so the admissions system must be terminated.

　　The ruling is a big victory for the Asian-American community, but Fairfax County Public School Board Chair Stella Pekarsky said in a statement recently that "there is no legal support for the ruling," so she will look for all possible options to appeal and try to Ensuring that the new recruiting mechanism continues to operate.

　　Pekasky said the Fairfax County Board of Education will also fight a judge to allow TJ High to move forward with the admissions process for the Class of 2026, while the school will consider its next steps.

　　She said ending the current admissions system would "create a lot of stress and uncertainty for students who are applying to TJ High School", with about 2,500 students applying for 2022 admission (ie 2026 graduates) who have entered The screening system meets the requirements of having a GPA of 3.5 and having taken multiple courses. "The termination of the admissions system will seriously affect the admissions work next year, and it will also disrupt students' course selection, teaching arrangements, and curriculum design."

　　Asra Nomani, co-founder of the Fairfax County School Board of Education's "Coalition for TJ" and a parent of TJ High School students, said Fairfax County Public School's (appeal) behavior amounted to stubbornness in discriminating against Asian-American groups. "TJ High School should return to a race-blind admissions approach so that students' efforts are no longer in vain."

　　TJ High School has been rated as the No. 1 public high school in the United States for many years. Before the enrollment reform, Asian students accounted for more than 70%, while the number of African-American and Hispanic students was significantly smaller. The Fairfax County Public School (FCPS) Board of Education in Victoria has recently The promotion of enrollment reform on the grounds of balancing the number of students of all ethnic groups has caused a strong backlash in the Asian community.

Last year, the school began to recruit new students entering in the fall of 2021 through a new "comprehensive assessment" method. Under this admission mechanism, the proportion of Asian students dropped from 73% to 54%, and the proportion of African Americans increased from 1% to 7%. Ethnic language increased from 3% to 11%.

(Zhang Yun)