A bright idea
Of all the inequities in a school system plagued by them, one of the most glaring smacks parents of brilliant young kids in the face every spring: If you live in some of the city’s lowestincome neighborhoods, your son or daughter is far less likely to qualify for gifted and talented programs. And even if he or she qualifies, the only available G&T classroom might be many miles away — which means as good as not available for a young one.
This week, after years of inaction, came a kindergartener-sized step in the right direction.
Kids entering grades K through 3 can get into special G&T classes by scoring above 90% percentile on an optional screening test.
On the Upper West and East Sides, in Park Slope and the like, they take the test by the thousands — and only the very top scorers have any shot at making it into crowded programs. In other parts of the city, exponentially fewer kids take the test, and a far smaller fraction still hit the 90% bar.
Which means, in Districts 7 and 12 in the South Bronx and Central Brooklyn’s Districts 16 and 23, there aren’t enough kids to qualify for even a single class.
Enter equity-obsessed Mayor de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña — who’ve nobly made diversifying the programs a priority.
First Fariña tried to up the number of kids in lower-income areas taking the test by sending home mailers encouraging all youngsters to participate. That didn’t even move the needle. This year, she took another tack. In the four districts without programs — where yet again, too few kids got tested and passed — admission of current second graders will be not based on the test alone, but on multiple measures, perhaps including teacher recommendations and student classroom achievement.
Which means that a few hundred more brilliant young ones will be identified — and put on a track to excel. And every district in the city will finally have at least one third-grade G&T class.
But here’s a better idea still: Automatically sign up every child in universal pre-K — there are about 70,000 citywide — for the G&T test, with parents free to opt out.
For example, District 7 has 1,317 kids in pre-K, yet only 76 of them took the G&T test. Even if 80% of parents declined the G&T test, it would still have meant 260 kids taking the test this year, likely producing enough qualified youngsters to fill a classroom.
It doesn’t take a genius to identify more prodigies.