A diversity deficit: REVELATIONS ABOUT the dwindling number of African American and Hispanic students at Fairfax County's acclaimed Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology have sparked debate about achievement vs. diversity. It is a false choice. Surely a school system that is seen as among the nation's best should be capable of readying - and recruiting - a broader spectrum of its students for the rigorous academic demands of the selective school.
The lack of diversity at TJ, as the school is known, is not a new issue. The county school board created a blue ribbon committee in 2004 to come up with a plan for diversification. But, alarmingly, the number of African American and Hispanic students admitted to the school has declined since then - from 5.54 percent during the 2005-06 school year to 3.5 percent in 2009-10. This year's incoming class, The Post's Kevin Sieff reported, has just four African Americans and 13 Hispanics of the 480 students admitted. The numbers are all the more disappointing since the school is able to draw students from most of Northern Virginia, an area with richly varied demographics. African Americans and Hispanics comprise a third of the enrollment of the systems TJ draws from.
