Academic Excellence Slipping at T.J.
by James A. Bacon
In 2021 the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in changed its standards with the goal of admitting more “marginalized” minorities. Scrapping its rigorous admissions test, Fairfax County imposed wholistic criteria which, according to the school’s Wikipedia page, are incorporate “grade point average, a math- or science-related problem-solving essay, a student portrait sheet demonstrating skills and character, and details about a student’s socio-economic background….”
The immediate result was a decline in the percentage of Asian-American students from 73% to 54%.
A secondary result was a tumble in T.J.’s national ranking from the No. 1 high school in the country to No. 14.
Perhaps the most disturbing result has been a fall-off in academic excellence. The number of semifinalists recognized by the National Merit Scholarship plummeted from 157 in 2020 to 81 for the 2025 award, according to the UnHerd blog.
The same slide in performance is captured in the percentage of T.J. Students who scored “Advanced” on their math and science Standards of Learning (SOL) scores from around 90% pre-COVID to the mid-40s in 2023-24, the most recent academic year for which the SOLs were tested. (See the table atop this post.)
To be sure, the collapse in advanced scores at T.J. was matched by comparable percentage drops statewide, although from lower levels. Standards and achievement collapsed at all of Virginia’s public schools system during the COVID-19 epidemic, and recovery has been uneven since.
But the testing decline was not even at T.J. Pre-COVID, there may have been smaller percentages of Blacks and Hispanics, but hefty majorities of the minority students scored “advanced” in their math and science SOLs, as can be seen by comparing the blue bars below.
For Blacks and Hispanics at T.J., “advanced” SOL scores for math fell at roughly the same proportion as for Asians and Whites. But for science, the decline was more precipitous. Why this change over five years? The COVID shutdown and its dismal aftermath are one contributing factor, but the new admissions regime was likely another.
Bacon’s bottom line: As it turned out, White students were the beneficiaries of the new admissions regime at T.J. Even though the old system was allegedly “built by White people for White people,” the number of Whites ticked up significantly as admissions standards relaxed.
But speaking as a White person, I am unhappy to see anything that undermines the principles of meritocracy. Instead of blaming “the system” for results that favor Asian-Americans over Whites, my response is to ask what Asian-American students and their families are doing to achieve academic and intellectual excellence and to ask if all Americans shouldn’t emulate their values and priorities.
Also, forgotten in all the hoo-ha about disparities and “social justice” is the fact that the U.S. is in a globally competitive world. Not only is U.S. economic prowess declining in many industries, its status as a military and diplomatic superpower is in jeopardy. As a society, we need to cultivate and reward excellence. We need to set higher standards. We need to identify the smartest young people — of whatever race or ethnicity — hone their talents, and launch them into the business, technology, and political arenas.
If a disproportionate number of success-bound youth are Asian-Americans, I’m OK with that. Only in a culture that obsesses over racial identity is that a problem.
