![]() ![]() “It's not something that we discovered, it's something we invented about a century ago,” said James Borland, a professor at Teachers College at Columbia University and a prominent researcher in the field. One of the many problems, it seems, is that the general population has a misguided conception of what being “gifted and talented” means. “There is no consistent curriculum or standard of pedagogy that gifted teachers are required to invest in,” said Matt Gonzales, the Integration and Innovation Initiative Director at NYU Metro and a member of the SDAG panel. While the NYC Gifted & Talented test is available for students in a variety of languages, only 2 percent of gifted students in New York City are non-native English speakers.Įven for families that successfully maneuver through the system, there’s no guarantee that their children will receive a superior education. It’s also a practice that some experts say is inherently discriminatory, because the test is geared towards English-speaking students. Besides the fact that young children are not suited for such an experience - Cordova noted that a large part of the tutoring her son received was simply about preparing him for the process of going into a room with a stranger in order to take a test - standardized testing has been shown to be a generally inaccurate method of assessing capabilities and predicting professional achievement. As Hsin pointed out, it is the only major school system that uses a test that is administered to four-year-olds as the sole means of identifying gifted children. New York City’s version of gifted and talented programming operates in ways that are notably peculiar. “Our recommendation is to replace what we have, which is broken, with alternative models of advanced learning." "We're not saying that we should eliminate classes or programs for advanced learners,” said Hsin. The New York Times headline that broke the news to the public suggested that the advisory board wanted to eliminate all gifted programming, but Hsin explained that the SDAG is simply looking for better ways to challenge students that don’t exclude the low-income and minority students that dominate the public school population. Amy Hsin, a co-author of the SDAG proposal, thinks the anger is misplaced. The Department of Education estimates that just 1 percent of NYC’s public school students-about 16,000 of 1.1 million-are currently enrolled in gifted classrooms. “I stand behind the overarching goal to integrate schools and achieve diversity but I don’t think cutting out specialized programs is the way to go,” says Cordova, echoing the opposition. Parents took to social media and public meetings to express their outrage. Although the report is full of ideas for enriching schools in ways that would both narrow the achievement gap and offer more substantial learning opportunities to all students, the reporting and subsequent outcry have largely been focused on the task force’s recommendation to eliminate the city’s existing gifted and talented (G&T) programs. ![]() Last month, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s School Diversity Advisory Group issued their second set of recommendations for integrating New York City’s public schools, which are among the most segregated in the nation. Instead, Cordova’s son attends an elementary school in Queens that places gifted children in classrooms that are separate from the rest of the student body. Considering that there are only 2,500 slots in these schools, it’s unsurprising that even children who receive a 99 percent on the test aren’t guaranteed admission. Still, his grade of 97 percent was not high enough to land one of those coveted seats. “I think it helps them get the higher scores they need to get into those top five schools,” said Cordova. The tutor helped him prepare for the New York City Gifted & Talented test that would determine whether or not he would qualify for one of the five specialized schools that cater exclusively to gifted children. Cordova told Gothamist that her son, who is now in first grade, displays symptoms of ADHD, and would be better off in a classroom with more structure and a challenging curriculum. Like many parents with the means to do so, Anastasia Cordova hired a tutor for her son when he was four years old. ![]()
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