Oakton-Area Schools Send More Than 80 Students to TJ

Three area middle schools that draw from Oakton's attendance area are sending a number of students  to Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology next year.

More than 80 of the 480 students accepted to TJHSST's Class of 2017 are from schools Oakton students attend, according to data from Fairax County Public Schools: Carson, Thoreau and Jackson Middle Schools.

It's not clear which of those accepted live in Oakton versus other parts of the schools' attendance areas.

Carson Middle School had the most students accepted, a total of 64, for the class of 2017. Longfellow Middle School in Falls Church and Rocky Run Middle School in Chantilly each had 55 students accepted.

Luther Jackson Middle School had 15 students accepted, while Thoreau had less than 10.

A this year, according to statistics released  by FCPS last week. Seventy-six percent of those students are from Fairfax County schools.

The admissions process to the governor's school has often been a sensitive subject in Fairfax, and one the school board has discussed in a series of work sessions this year.

The Coalition of the Silence (COTS), a group former school board member Tina Hone founded to seek equity for all students within FCPS, and the Fairfax branch of the NAACP filed a discrimination complaint last summer with the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights, asserting FCPS has committed "clear violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964" via the admissions process.

The complain alleges FCPS is perpetuating discrimination against black, Latino and disabled students through the admission process for Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJHSST).

The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights launched a formal investigation into the claims in September.

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