New York to Expand Gifted Offerings as Disparities Remain

The number of students who scored high enough to qualify for New York City’s gifted and talented programs rose this year, the Education Department said on Thursday. But the neighborhoods in which those children live continued along a familiar pattern: In wealthy districts, more children take the tests, and score well on them, than in districts where families are poor.

In an effort to make the programs available to more students, the department also announced that new gifted and talented programs would open next school year in four districts that do not currently have them, beginning at the third-grade level.

Those are Districts 7 and 12, in the Bronx, and Districts 16 and 23, in Brooklyn. With the new programs in place, every district in the city will have a gifted program, the department said.

Nearly 36,000 students took the tests this year, and about 30 percent of them scored 90 or above — the cutoff at which they are eligible to apply for district programs. That percentage is up from last year, when about 500 more students took the test, but only 25 percent received a high enough score.

To be eligible for one of the five citywide gifted and talented programs, students have to score at least 97.

The city uses two tests to determine eligibility: the Otis Lennon School Ability tests, which considers verbal abilities, and the Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test.

In a news release, the Education Department suggested that the growth in high scorers might be due in part to the increase in the number of students enrolled in prekindergarten programs. A New York University study found that students in prekindergarten were more likely to take the gifted and talented tests.

But significant disparities remain. In District 3, for example, which includes the Upper West Side and Morningside Heights in Manhattan, more than 1,500 students took the test and almost 700 of them scored at least high enough to qualify for a district program. In District 19, in East New York, Brooklyn, 525 students took the test and only 87 students received at least a district-level qualifying scores.

The city plans to announce the number of applications received for gifted and talented programs, and the number of offers it has extended, in May.

[Source:- The New York Times]