Breakdown of the class of 2023 admissions to the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.
The Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology has published the admission rates, broken down by ethnicity and gender, for the the 2023 class. Nearly three-quarters of the students admitted to the elite Fairfax County institution, one of the most highly regarded public schools in the country, were classified as Asian. One in five was white, and only 8% belonged to other groups.
The breakdowns by gender and race are little changed from previous years.
Despite the marked under-representation of Hispanics and blacks — sadly, so few blacks were admitted that they were lumped in with “other” — Thomas Jefferson HS’s admission policies appear to place a premium on scholastic aptitude. I admire the school for hewing to meritocratic principles in this age of racial bean-counting and the reflexive attribution of racism and discrimination to any disparity in racial statistics. I do wonder, though, how long the school can withstand the hurricane-force winds of change.
It has been amply documented that Virginia’s public universities discriminate against Asians in their admissions policies. Although Asians enter the state’s most prestigious institutions in percentages larger than their share of the population, their average SAT scores are significantly higher that that of whites, blacks, and Hispanics, suggesting that many who did not make the cut still outscored peers of other races.
Meanwhile, at the local level, Fairfax County’s One Fairfax policy explicitly endorses the dismantling of institutional barriers to social and racial “equity” with the goal of achieving equal racial/ethnic outcomes. (See Tom Pafford’s post on One Fairfax here.)
Given the deep blue hue of Fairfax County government, it is reasonable to ask how long Thomas Jefferson HS’s meritocratic admissions policy can last. However, it might be worth observing that Asians (20.2% of the county’s population) outnumber blacks (10.5%) by a two-to-one margin. They comprise a more formidable voting bloc in Fairfax than almost anywhere else in the state. (In Virginia as a whole, Asians comprise only 5.6% of the population). Any effort to base Thomas Jefferson High School admissions on the basis of “social equity” principles likely would engender an intense political backlash.
It will be interesting to watch as the conflicting forces play out out.
(Hat tip: Jeanine Martin)
