The Feb. 21 front-page article “Magnet school’s policies survive” noted that “the percentage of Asian American students dropped from around 70 percent to 50 percent” at the Thomas Jefferson School for Science and Technology. The Coalition for TJ favored this deeply problematic before-and-after data comparison in its attempt to limit opportunities for underrepresented groups. This misleading statistic masks how Asian Americans benefited under new admissions protocols adopted in late 2020. Asian American students were the only racial group that received significantly more offers than their percentage of the applicant pool in 2021. Moreover, the ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit cited statistics showing that low-income Asian Americans and Asian Americans who attended schools that have historically been underrepresented at TJ received more offers after the admissions revisions. Though only one low-income Asian American attended TJ in 2020, under the revised admission plan, that number rose to 51.
We know that educational equity is under attack across the United States. We will continue to fight in coalition to protect the civil rights of all students, and particularly the most marginalized.
The writers were organizational representatives of Asian American amici curiae in Coalition for TJ v. Fairfax County School Board.
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