You didn't win that...

[Newman]

Top school principal hides academic awards in name of ‘equity’ (msn.com)

"Hides" means denying financial scholarships to deserving families, mostly Asian, and I fervently hope lawyers enrich themselves getting a small fraction of the damages due.

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. This episode has emerged amid the school district’s new strategy of “equal outcomes for every student, without exception.” School administrators, for instance, have implemented an “equitable grading” policy that eliminates zeros, gives students a grade of 50 percent just for showing up, and assigns a cryptic code of “NTI” for assignments not turned in. It’s a race to the bottom.

An intrepid Thomas Jefferson parent, Shawna Yashar, a lawyer, uncovered the withholding of National Merit awards. Since starting as a freshman at the school in September 2019, her son, who is part Arab American, studied statistical analysis, literature reviews, and college-level science late into the night. This workload was necessary to keep him up to speed with the advanced studies at TJ, which US News & World Report ranks as America’s top school.

Last fall, along with about 1.5 million US high school juniors, the Yashar teen took the PSAT, which determines whether a student qualifies as a prestigious National Merit scholar. When it came time to submit his college applications this fall, he didn’t have a National Merit honor to report — but it wasn’t because he hadn’t earned the award. The National Merit Scholarship Corporation, a nonprofit based in Evanston, Illinois, had recognized him as a Commended Student in the top 3 percent nationwide — one of about 50,000 students earning that distinction. Principals usually celebrate National Merit scholars with special breakfasts, award ceremonies, YouTube videos, press releases and social media announcements.

But TJ School officials had decided to withhold announcement of the award. Indeed, it turns out that the principal, Ann Bonitatibus, and the director of student services, Brandon Kosatka, have been withholding this information from families and the public for years, affecting the lives of at least 1,200 students over the principal’s tenure of five years. Recognition by National Merit opens the door to millions of dollars in college scholarships and 800 Special Scholarships from corporate sponsors.

This is nuts in so many ways I can't begin to unwrap it. But the bottom line is that dollars are being denied unjustly to students and their families.

The offending principal is a white woman, as expected, but the report says the practice has been going on "for years." Was it school policy, known to every family, kin which it's fine and dandy?

I strongly suspect that Ms Bonitatibus is better suited for the overnight shit at 7-11, if she must work, poor soul. Can't that husband of hers give her the life of leisure she deserves? What's wrong with him?

[Celeste Chalfonte]

This is a crime. Ultimately, Honoria and I did not actually benefit from our National Merit Scholar rankings, but they made it possible to even consider the colleges (G'town, AU) that accepted us but were still too expensive. Without the NMST ratings, we wouldn't even have applied. NMST allows kids to reach for their potential.

[Newman]

This is a crime. Ultimately, Honoria and I did not actually benefit from our National Merit Scholar rankings, but they made it possible to even consider the colleges (G'town, AU) that accepted us but were still too expensive. Without the NMST ratings, we wouldn't even have applied. NMST allows kids to reach for their potential.

Our son also won the award but didn't use it after he changed his mind about what school to attend. It was a significant part of his resume even so.

This school is a magnet public school in Fairfax County, Virginia. Their director of student services is Brandon Kosatka, also a person of pallor:

Kosatka admitted that the decision to withhold the information from parents and inform the students in a low-key way was intentional. “We want to recognize students for who they are as individuals, not focus on their achievements,” he told her, claiming that he and the principal didn’t want to “hurt” the feelings of students who didn’t get the award.

School principal Ann Bonitatibus "lobbied that fall [202] to nix the school’s merit-based admission test to increase 'diversity,' "

So it's not like they hid their progressive views. But the thievery here goes beyond money. The aggrieved family behind this report, the Yashars, is Arab American, and the award would doubtless provide a boost to that student's college admission choices.

“Keeping these certificates from students is theft by the state,” says Yashar. Bonitatibus didn’t notify parents or the public. What’s more, it could be a civil rights violation, says local parent advocate Debra Tisler, with most TJ students in a protected class of “gifted” students, most of them racial minorities, many with disabilities, and most coming from immigrant families whose parents speak English as a second language. “It’s just cruel,” says Tisler.

Civil Rights indeed. Progressive policies consistently harm those it pretends to champion.

Brandon Kosatka told Shawna Kashar, “We want to recognize students for who they are as individuals, not focus on their achievements,” And sure enough, he, and Bonitatibus, were harming them as individuals, and not focusing on their achievements.

[Celeste Chalfonte]

Oddly, this reminds me of my own experience in the late 1950s/early 1960s.

It wasn't diversity or equity back then; it was a concerted effort to convince smart kids they weren't as smart as the Germans, Russians, or Japanese, in order to make them "work harder." Every year from 3rd grade on, the teachers announced in class the person who had improved most on the annual "Iowa tests." After not hearing my name for the 3rd year in a row, I arrived home in tears, telling my mother that I wasn't smart enough to go to college (this was in 5th or 6th grade). She scheduled a meeting with the teacher to go over my test scores and see what the problem might be.

It turned out that I hadn't "improved" because I had scored at 12th grade/12th month (or whatever the max was) in 3rd grade. They just neglected to tell me that when they went over my results. This was supposed to motivate us to try harder. It pissed me off and made me realize the futility of trying harder to please those assholes, and I pretty much skated until law school, since more effort did not bring more rewards.

[Gramps]

I pretty much skated until law school, since more effort did not bring more rewards.

I skated through HS
Finished 3rd didn't really care. Scored in the top 1 percentile in all aspects of the NMST. Received an academic scholarship to Missouri which I could not accept because I was helping support my mom and sis. Accepted a 1 yr academic scholarship to Jr College and went from there.

[Newman]

Oddly, this reminds me of my own experience in the late 1950s/early 1960s.

It wasn't diversity or equity back then; it was a concerted effort to convince smart kids they weren't as smart as the Germans, Russians, or Japanese, in order to make them "work harder." Every year from 3rd grade on, the teachers announced in class the person who had improved most on the annual "Iowa tests." After not hearing my name for the 3rd year in a row, I arrived home in tears, telling my mother that I wasn't smart enough to go to college (this was in 5th or 6th grade). She scheduled a meeting with the teacher to go over my test scores and see what the problem might be.

It turned out that I hadn't "improved" because I had scored at 12th grade/12th month (or whatever the max was) in 3rd grade. They just neglected to tell me that when they went over my results. This was supposed to motivate us to try harder. It pissed me off and made me realize the futility of trying harder to please those assholes, and I pretty much skated until law school, since more effort did not bring more rewards.

Great story.

I skated through HS
Finished 3rd didn't really care. Scored in the top 1 percentile in all aspects of the NMST. Received an academic scholarship to Missouri which I could not accept because I was helping support my mom and sis. Accepted a 1 yr academic scholarship to Jr College and went from there.

The trouble with skating is that it's habit forming.

The purpose of gifted programs, if any still exist, and tracking levels, too, is to maintain challenges for kids who might otherwise skate and forfeit their potential.

But in the town of my high school experience, Chapel Hill, they eventually (after my time) did away with gifted programs, smarting from the aroma of elitism and disparate impact. I don't know if they washed away tracking, too, but the whole move inspired some close friends of mine to start a charter school. It was a Sysiphean task for years but they stuck with it.

Tragically high scores don't help the school. No Child Left Behind forced schools to concentrate resources on the struggling students, and the idea took root—explicitly—that the bright kids could "take care of themselves." Sometimes they were even drafted as "teaching assistants."

And yes, bright kids—and dumb ones—will take care of themselves, but they won't reach their highest potential.

One of my rants.

[Gramps]

The trouble with skating is that it's habit forming

.

There was no reward for Valedictorian. I won the best scholarship offered and couldn't accept it.

[Frostbit]

I’ve spent a lot of time among Asians. I call many close friends In the 70’s it was the Chinese because I studied Gung-fu from a Chinese man in a time when that was not acceptable.

we have a large Korean showing in our CF gym.

I have never met a lazy Asian. Insular yes, lazy no.