City Seeking New Test for Gifted Admissions

New York Times ^ | June 21, 2010 | SHARON OTTERMAN

[reaganaut1]

The city will search for a new admissions test for its gifted and talented public school programs, a Department of Education official said on Monday, in part to address concerns that some families were “gaming” the test through extensive preparation.

The official, Marc Sternberg, the new deputy chancellor for portfolio planning, said the change could occur for the 2012-13 year. The city has one more year in its current testing contract.

Mr. Sternberg announced the move at a City Council hearing on education, after extensive questioning from council members about why the city’s gifted programs were not as racially and economically diverse as the city schools as a whole. David Greenfield, a council member from Brooklyn, asked whether the Department of Education was concerned about how families in richer communities were “expending thousands” of dollars on tutoring and classes before the gifted test, giving their children a better opportunity to get into the programs.

“We are concerned about it,” Mr. Sternberg said. He added that the city would examine “whether we could look for a different kind of test that, to be frank, would be harder to game in the way that so many families do, so as a result be more likely to result in a level playing field.”

The current testing program for the city’s gifted kindergarten and first-grade classes was adopted in 2008 as a way to standardize admissions across the city, to address longstanding complaints that favoritism played a role when districts were allowed to set their own rules, as well as to increase racial and economic diversity in the programs.

But a result has been that while more students now take admissions tests for gifted programs, fewer students now enroll, and they are less racially diverse, council members said.

[reaganaut1]

The Bell Curve strikes again. All standardized IQ and achievement tests produce the dreaded disparities, but thinking about why that is gets one branded as "racist".

[2banana]

t a result has been that while more students now take admissions tests for gifted programs, fewer students now enroll, and they are less racially diverse, council members said.

TRANSLATION: Too many whities are getting in...

[jy1297]

My nephew just got in for next year kinder school. and my two girls next door to me are in gifted schools. My kids on the other hand... I’ll leave it at that. They don’t look like minorities.

[CaptainAmiigaf]

Once again, the insanity of the left holds sway. The goal must be a proportionate DIVERSITY at all costs, no matter the educational disaster that follows. Yet ONLY in education, from elementary school to the halls of academe, is the HOLY GRAIL of DIVERSITY held sacred.
Does the NFL strive for “diversity” or does it seek ONLY the best for its teams. Or Major League Baseball? Or the NBA..why aren't SHORT people evenly represented?
Does the local symphony strive for excellence in performance or for musician diversity?
Gifted means “gifted”. The undersized person GIFTED musically will enthrall millions at the violin, and would not last a single play on the football field. The very large GIFTED tight end will enthrall millions with his heroics on the football field,yet will chase a granite statue from the hall if he picked up that violin.
All people are “GIFTED” in different ways..that is how it is.
Diversity in education has led to the “Dumbing down of America. Enough already

[equalitybeforethelaw]

Why don’t we just fund each student equally and let the results be what they are. School choice. Its no secret that the parents who are heavily involved with their kids school and after school activities produce better results than those parents who view the whole thing as a baby sitting service. Shoosh, how many billions have been dumped down the urban union race hustle known as “education”?

[Mr Ramsbotham]

You might want to consider a funny cartoon I once saw in Writer’s Digest. The setting is a creative writing classroom with about thirty students. Twenty-nine of the students are sitting bolt-upright facing the teacher with looks of rapt attention. One, in the back of the classroom, is lying with his head down on the desk, snoring away, as the teacher says, “Some day, one of you will be a great writer!”

[Pollster1]

Gaming the system for public schools? Who would have guessed?

[KarlInOhio]

Am I the only one who doesn’t like the term “gifted”. It makes it sound like some random occurance, when other than a few savants it is more likely a case of parents caring for their children’s education and making sure they are in an environment where learning is promoted rather than just sitting in front of the idiot box.

[ConservativeWarrior]

The “preparation” for gifted and advanced placement exams for our kids included my wife and I spending 15 minutes online searching for sample pre-algebra quizzes, 30 minutes going over the material with our kids, and 10 minutes explaining how to answer simile questions. (dog is to collar, as horse is to ...)

If there's a disparity between prepared and unprepared students, it's likely along family life and social lines. Of course, there's probably a relationship between these factors and race, but we can't bring that up, now can we?

Ask the Coz. He'll tell you how popular it is to point out the connection between lacking family structure among black kids and economic and educational failure.

[Niuhuru]

Gifted isn’t just about academics, but a unique state of mind. The disparity between the emotional age and intellectual/psychological age is drastic, which is why gifteds have problems connecting with their peers. As for cutting the gifted out, fine, but lets not be surprised taht the Chinese surpass us. We deserve it if we don’t take care of our talented and intelligent. They have needs that need to be addressed too.