FOIAs Reveal Additional Details on TJ’s Foreign Partnerships

In March 2023, PDE filed a public records request with Fairfax County Public Schools requesting records related to employees, board members, and volunteers affiliated with Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJ) between January 1, 2017 and December 31, 2020 in the wake of PDE’s March exposé of the school’s foreign funding. After being provided an initial estimate of $35,910, PDE narrowed the range to January 1, 2017 and December 31, 2018 – paying $13,930 for the documents, which are being provided in batches through November 17, 2023.

Observers from Tsinghua University High School visited TJ between February 10-16, 2017 (the trip was originally scheduled for February 13-17, but the final dates changed slightly; highlights provided in request):

The assistant principal requested the names of the educators who would be visiting:

Friends at the California Foundation for Equal Rights assisted with researching these individuals, noting that “all of these teachers, except for Han Lei … still work for the Tsinghua University High School.” (Links go to Baidu.com, a Chinese-language search engine.)

• Dr. Nan Qiu 邱楠, Physics Lab Dir. Teaches 12^th grade, awarded “(CCP) Party Membership Activist” in 2022.
• Dr. Jie Yuan 袁劼, Chemistry Lab Dir, still in the same position as of January 2022, CCP member.
• Mr. Weidong Meng 孟卫东，Physics Teacher, now Vice Principal, member of Jiusan Society (a democratic party that participates in the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference)
• Mr. Dashan Shen 申大山, Energy System Lab Dir, now a STEM teacher, party affiliation unknown. 
• Dr. Hongzheng Tan 谭洪政, Robotic and Automation Lab Dir., CCP Member.
• Mr. Shuai Cheng 程帅, Physics Teacher, CCP member and awarded “Outstanding Communist of Haidian District (Beijing)” in 2022.

The delegation had specific requests for information from the school:

On March 30, 2017, Sean Zhang, Executive Vice Chairman of the Ameson Education & Cultural Exchange Foundation contacted TJ principal Evan Glazer about efforts to hire for a senior administrator/deputy principal position and/or senior teacher.

Several days later on the same thread, Zhang contacted Glazer requesting that the school receive a delegation on short notice featuring the Party Secretary from Zhejiang Provincial Education Department, noting that “Party Secretary is in fact powerful than the general director of the Zhejiang Provincial Education Department.”

Between May 21-23, 2017, Glazer traveled to China on a trip coordinated by Sean Zhang (Zhang’s email footer for this itinerary lists his affiliation as president of “Ambright Education Group.”) Glazer participated in 3 signing ceremonies – in Nanjing, Hefei, and Shanghai. The Shanghai ceremony was “between Greenland Group and Ambright Education Group.” Greenland Group is a state-backed real estate development firm.

Ambright Education’s Recruiting Brochure for 2019-2020 pitches its “advanced school operations from Thomas Jefferson High School for Science & Technology in Virginia, USA” and goes on to assert that “a group of senior and experienced experts from the school are serving as advisors of the Shanghai Thomas School. They are working hard with their Chinese counterparts to set up a curriculum and course modules that mirror the essence of STEM education at TJHSST.”