Promise to grow ‘gifted’ program

City officials pledged Wednesday to expand access to gifted and talented programs while they phase out the “high-stakes” entrance test for incoming kindergartners that controls admission to fast-track elementary school courses.

The test will be offered one last time in April.

“The gifted and talented test is the definition of a high-stakes test, a single test that determines so much,” Mayor de Blasio said Wednesday.

“This approach to testing is not something I believe in,” he added. “I guarantee you, there’s a hell of a lot more kids who have talents and abilities and the need for special opportunities than just the few who have been in gifted and talented to date.”

Officials haven’t yet specified what changes they’ll make to the gifted program or its admissions process other than phasing out the exam, which is offered to kids as young as 4 years old.

“We’re going to have an intensive public engagement process through the spring and into the summer to really work with stakeholders of all kinds, parents, elected officials, community leaders, obviously our [Panel for Educational Policy] to think through what’s the right approach for the future,” de Blasio said.

Some 2,500 rising kindergartners are offered slots to citywide and district-based gifted programs every year based on their exam results. Less than 20% of the offers go to Black and Latino kids, though they represent 65% of kindergartners.

Roughly 15,000 of the city’s 65,000 kindergartners took the test last year, de Blasio said.

A school diversity advisory panel appointed by de Blasio in August 2019 recommended doing away with separate gifted classes and moving toward a model where children get additional support in their existing classes.

Officials pledged to take last school year to gather feedback on the proposal, but said Wednesday the process was “disrupted” by the coronavirus pandemic. De Blasio promised a different outcome this time.

“In this case, we have a very clear time line,” Hizzoner said, committing to a new gifted plan by September.

De Blasio said there could be more opportunities next school year to offer advanced coursework to kids who need it through tech devices; officials have distributed more than 400,000 iPads during the pandemic.

Anxious parents have been waiting for months for word on the fate of the gifted test, which is typically offered in January.

De Blasio said he decided to go forward with the exam this spring because “a lot of families had already prepared. They were counting on the opportunity. We respect that.”

Critics say that decision will exacerbate the inequity of a program that already disproportionately screens out Black and Hispanic students.

“Morally and ethically, this is wrong,” tweeted Shannon Waite, a member of the Panel for Educational Policy who pledged to vote against renewing a city contract with Pearson, the company that makes the gifted test.

“Communities of color ... are suffering, and largely opting OUT of in-person learning,” she said, noting officials temporarily suspended middle-school admissions this year in part because of concerns about equity during the pandemic.

A long-term decision about the structure of the gifted program will likely fall to the city’s next mayor, who will take office in January 2022.