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NYC Will Use Teacher Interviews Of 4-Year-Olds For Gifted & Talented Program Admissions
By
Sophia Chang
Published Feb 17, 2021
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NYC Mayor's Office
By
Sophia Chang
Published Feb 17, 2021
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New York City’s controversial Gifted and Talented program for toddlers will move to a teacher-administered interview and lottery model, after a contract to administer the traditional test was defeated by the city’s educational policy panel last month.
Mayor Bill de Blasio has said this will be the last year the G&T program will exist in its current form with screening young children -- the test is usually given before kids enroll in kindergarten.
The new plan, which rolls out on March 8th, will include parents alerting their preschools that they are interested in participating in the G&T program. Then an educator from the child’s preschool will administer a questionnaire that will then determine if the student will be eligible to enter a random lottery for the approximately 2,500 available G&T kindergarten seats.
Each year, about 15,000 students vie for the program, according to the Department of Education. Siblings of students already enrolled in schools with G&T programs will get priority, which the DOE said is consistent with previous policies.
Since many four-year-old children aren’t yet enrolled in a preschool program to determine eligibility for G&T, the DOE said those interested families should sign up for a seat in a pre-K program in order to complete the assessment. If that’s not an option, the DOE’s Early Childhood team will also conduct remote interviews with interested parents to complete the G&T questionnaire.
The lottery will be conducted in May and offers will be sent out this summer.
“Our focus continues to be on maintaining stability for families this year, while beginning the community engagement process that will lead to a more permanent plan to reform the system,” said DOE spokesperson Katie O’Hanlon in an email statement.
Additional details on what the teacher interviews will look like, what metrics teachers will use for recommending G&T participation, and how parents can sign up for the process, were not immediately available Wednesday.
The $1.7 million contract with NCS Pearson was narrowly voted down January 28th by the city’s Panel for Educational Policy. Since 2012, Pearson has administered the G&T test for New York City, which is the only city in America to test 4-year-olds to determine entry into special kindergarten programs as well as one of five specialized elementary schools.
The G&T program, as well as the city’s specialized high schools which require entrance exams, have become a battleground for the fight to desegregate schools -- critics say these programs are discriminatory and hoard resources for a small percentage of children. The G&T programs are disproportionately white and Asian, making up roughly 70% of students even though these groups make up only about 30 percent of the overall public school population. At the same time, only 43% of students in G&T programs are low-income, even though over 72% of the general public school population experiences poverty, according to the City Council.
Advocates say these programs offer the best education for accelerated students, and the outcry has only come after the G&T programs and specialized high schools have grown in Asian enrollment.
“We remain committed to finding a fairer and more equitable way forward to identify and meet the needs of students who would benefit from accelerated learning and enrichment, informed by a citywide engagement plan,” O’Hanlon said. “We believe deeply that widescale changes are needed to address the racial disparities in who has access to G&T programs and look forward to a long-term transformation.”
A spokesperson for PLACE, an education advocacy group that supports gifted programs while also expanding their admissions criteria, called the move a “good stopgap” as the city reconsiders screened schools altogether.
“On the one hand, an objective test is preferable because we don't have to worry about things like teacher bias, or the fact that kids are remote and on Zoom, and how is the teacher going to be able to make an appropriate assessment of a child?” said Deborah Alexander of Queens, who also sits on the Community Education Council for District 30.
“We're pleased that they are providing some sort of assessment, and an acknowledgement that this is not a program for every child. It is not an educational setting environment for every child,” Alexander added.
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Sophia Chang
Sophia Chang is a former WNYC and Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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