Identifying gifted children in Fairfax County

Regarding the Metro stories “Two racial bias complaints over TJ take different tacks” [July 26] and “Fairfax schools’ practices face test” [July 24]:

Just about everyone I know believes in the value of ethnic diversity in public high schools. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (which my grandson attends) has plenty of Asian students but, sadly, disportionately few black or Hispanic students. But watering down its rigorous admissions process would be the wrong thing to do if it is to remain an elite school in which Northern Virginia can take pride. Doing so surely would result in destroying TJ’s demanding programs and its status as an important, elite academic school. It also would be unfair to students who might flourish at other high schools but fail at TJ no matter how many remedial resources are devoted to them.

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Parents, civil rights plaintiffs and school officials should carefully examine the experience of other elite public high schools such as Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Tech and Bronx High School of Science in New York and Boston Latin. If those schools have managed to level the ethnic playing field, how did they do it? If they failed to achieve acceptable diversity, why did they fail?

Rather than diminish TJ’s admission requirements, educational programs in all communities — not just black and Hispanic — should begin in kindergarten to identify and nurture gifted children and challenge them as they move through elementary and middle schools.

Ed Nanas, Gainesville