Panel kills Blaz G&T exam plan
A city education panel often seen as a rubber stamp for the mayor’s agenda issued Hizzoner a major rebuke early Thursday — effectively killing his plan to offer the city’s Gifted and Talented exam this spring.
The volunteer Panel for Education Policy decided by a one-vote margin to deny a proposed contract extension for the testing company Pearson, which produces the polarizing gifted exam.
Without the contract approval, city officials have few options for proceeding with gifted testing as planned this spring.
In a marathon meeting that stretched into Thursday morning, parents, students and educators battled over the fate of the test — which assesses students as young as 4 for admittance to gifted programs.
“I’m ecstatic,” said Kaliris SalasRamirez, an elementary school parent in East Harlem and president of District 4’s Community Education Council, said of the final vote.
“It’s about time that we make a change that will make significant impact on integrating our schools,” she said.
For families whose kids were planning to take the test, the rejection of the contract stirred up anxiety about how the program will admit students for the upcoming year.
“We want him to have the test as he promised,” said Harlem mom Roslyn Pereira, who has one first-grader in a Gifted and Talented school, and was planning to have her other first-grade son sit for the exam this spring.
“What is the backup? Does he have a backup? Parents want to know now. He [Mayor de Blasio] needs to get his act together and come up with a plan,” she said.
Hizzoner (photo) brushed aside the setback in a Thursday press conference, pledging families “will have an opportunity to apply for those programs this year.”
“We’ll work on the right methodology, and we’ll announce it soon,” he said.
But on Wednesday, ahead of the decisive vote, passions ran high among parents, students and teachers over the fate of the testing program.
The debate over the mayor’s decision to give the exams in the spring ripped open broader questions of race and equity in the city school system.
“Holding the test this year would be immoral, unsafe and a waste of our resources,” implored Sophie Mode, a high school senior and member of the student advocacy group Teens Take Charge.
Anna Biernat, the mother of a student currently in a gifted program, said “we’re not affluent people, we’re immigrants. By taking away G and T program, you are taking away an opportunity for kids who are capable of learning at an accelerated speed.”
“You don’t blow up the old working bridge before you build a new one,” she added of the idea of nixing the exam this year.
Eight of the panel’s 15 members voted “no” in a nail-biter. While the Panel for Education Policy retains the authority to reject Education Department contract proposals, it almost never exercises that right. Nine of the panel’s members were appointed by de Blasio himself, while five were named by borough presidents and one was elected by parents.
“I need to center my decision on the most marginalized,” said Education Policy Panel Chairwoman Vanessa Leung, one of the eight “no” votes.
Shannon Waite, another “no” vote, said the gifted program tied to the contract is “rooted in and undergirds a white supremacist structure.”
Black and Hispanic students comprise under 20% of the fasttrack elementary school program, even though they make up 65% of kindergarten students.
Other Education Policy Panel members expressed concerns about the structure of the program, but said the city should go forward with the test this year because families have been planning to take the exam and there is no alternative system in place for deciding gifted admissions for next year.