A new frontier in the war on excellence

But even grade inflation may not suffice to spare feelings and hide excellence. Thus, the administrators at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJ) — an elite and extraordinarily prestigious public school in Northern Virginia (it’s number one in the U.S. News national ratings) — found a new tool in the war on excellence. They decided to withhold notification of National Merit awards from families of students who won them.

As for the students themselves, TJ contrived for years to notify them in low-key, hit-or miss ways after the deadline for applying “early decision” to college passed. Indeed, one student says he learned he won the award through an email from the school to a school district email account that students rarely check.

TJ was already waging war on excellence by discriminating against Asian-American applicants in order to limit their presence in the student body and to increase the presence of blacks and Hispanics. In addition, to accommodate poorly qualified blacks and Hispanics admitted unfairly, it has made major adjustments to its grading system.

But what to do about awards TJ’s top students (mostly Asian-Americans) win in events over which the school has no control? In the case of National Merit awards, which schools typically celebrate and publicize, the answer was to keep them nearly secret.

[When I was in school, the students sometimes felt pressured to downplay their achievements due to social pressure that punished excellence. At least the schools at that time encouraged excellence and achievement. Student achievers today must feel completely abandoned. — Ed]