Borough presidents urge deBlasio to give black, Hispanic kids fair shot at gifted classes

The Bronx and Brooklyn borough presidents are demanding the city take drastic steps to end the unequal access to gifted classes and specialized high schools that have penalized kids in several districts.

In a 22-page report, Brooklyn BP Eric Adams and Bronx BP Ruben Diaz Jr. say Mayor de Blasio and the city Education Department must make a number of fixes to help needy kids from their neighborhoods.

Adams said current department policies block black and Hispanic kids from the city’s top schools.

“Your zip code determines your ability to get into gifted and talented classes, that’s the system that we’re looking at now,” Adams said. “It’s an embarrassment.”

Many Bronx and Brooklyn neighborhoods have no gifted programs at all, and black and Hispanic students account for a tiny fraction of enrollment at specialized high schools.

Adams and Diaz say the city needs to test all 4-year-olds for gifted and talented programs and scrap the Specialized High School Aptitude Test as the sole means for admitting students to top high schools. They also called on the city to provide free test prep to students who need it and to transport kids admitted to gifted programs outside their neighborhoods.

The borough presidents’ report, “Fixing the Pipeline,” is based on the testimony of families who attended two town halls Adams and Diaz hosted, plus interviews with public school educators, alumni and advocates. The document was being released Wednesday.

“When you look at where gifted programs are located throughout the city, you can see that you’re in a place where there are disparities,” Diaz said. “But there are a number of things we think we can do right off the bat here.”

Education Department spokesman Will Mantell said the city has taken a number of steps to boost underserved kids’ access to gifted programs and specialized high schools.

The city added gifted classes to four districts in Brooklyn and the Bronx in 2016, which previously had no gifted classes. Those classes use teacher referrals rather than tests to determine admissions.

The city has also expanded programs to notify families of testing for gifted programs and boosted tutoring programs for the Specialized High School Aptitude Test.

“We’ll review the recommendations in the report, and look forward to working with the borough presidents,” Mantell said.

Speaking as an insider to the NYC public schools, I can tell you that this is but another blatant demonstration of why NYC's schools have gone straight to hell: vote-seeking politicians with no knowledge of the profession of teaching putting their greedy noses where they don't belong.

The first claim by these ignorant corrupt pols is that "current department policies block black and Hispanic kids from the city’s top schools". That is pure baloney. The policies to which these clowns refer are those requiring a satisfactory score on stiff entry exams to gain admittance to the elite scholarly schools where students are very serious about their studies. Get a good enough score, and you can attend, race or ethnicity of no importance. So Mr. Adams' claim that it's the kids' ZIP CODES keeping them down on the farm is a big fat LIE. Oh, but what if you are practically illiterate and the only thing you're really adept at is playing around with your cell phone in class? Then I guess you would not pass those exams AND you would not be able to keep up with the high level of work demanded in these high schools. That's racist? No, that's logic. The kids they're trying to force down the throat of these scholarly schools could not possibly keep up with the work, so therefore they would be bored and frustrated, and act out in class so that NO ONE could learn anything.

The article states that "Many Bronx and Brooklyn neighborhoods have no gifted programs at all". What they're leaving out here is which neighborhoods. In schools located in low income neighborhoods, the students are really struggling to read basic texts, have very poor math skills, and cannot write a cognitive term paper. Why then, in a system starved for classroom money, would such a school offer gifted programs? For the 3 students who might benefit? I am absolutely telling the truth here, describing what it's really like in these schools.

Oh, and in a city already living beyond its means, the city should provide "free test prep" to students who need it and free transportation for kids to attend gifted programs outside their neighborhood. Again, this would benefit very few students. And, isn't it the responsibility of the PARENTS to provide this for their children? Oh, but the NYC public schools, by their own admission, even have to provide breakfast, lunch, and meals during the summer to the students, since their parents can't be bothered to do so. Ditto having free medical clinics right within the school AND free babysitting in the school's basement for the children of the students.

By trying to force something which should not happen to occur, the end result will be to ruin the educational opportunities of the truly motivated students in the elite schools by filling their schools with disruptive students who have no business there and who cannot function in such a rarified setting. What happened to the rights of those hard working motivated students? Instead of encouraging such truly gifted young minds by providing them a quiet and orderly environment in which to learn, with highly qualified teachers (many holding doctorates), the idiot politicians are putting race ahead of everything else. A precious thing---learning and creating on a high level, with extraordinary results--will be yet another thing of the past in NYC. The Commie agenda, mediocrity uber alles, will be forced on these promising young minds, which makes me sick to my stomach.

“the city needs to test all 4-year-olds for gifted and talented programs”

Seriously?

Many ‘gifted’ kids, especially boys, are deemed “ADHD” at the age of four. Many ‘bright’ four year old kids are merely good psychologists and can see which of their behaviors bring special approval from parents & teachers.

Give all kids about six years or so under the tutelage of GOOD teachers, then test. And fire all the administrators who prevent good teachers from maintaining the classroom discipline necessary for teaching.

I’d recommend talking to Sharpton, Moore, and hollywood about raising money for private schools. You can put it anywhere you want and allow entry to anyone you want without the NYC bureaucracy.

That is, if the residents and the liberal elites actually care about education rather than just making noise.

I imagine some of the residents and liberal elite do care and have legitimate arguments. There are opportunities if they stop depending on government for solutions and stop following “community organizers” who are not interested in solving problems as much as getting attention, money for themselves.

What they're leaving out here is which neighborhoods. In schools located in low income neighborhoods, the students are really struggling to read basic texts, have very poor math skills, and cannot write a cognitive term paper. Why then, in a system starved for classroom money, would such a school offer gifted programs? For the 3 students who might benefit?

It's fair to ask how best to serve your hypothetical three high quality students whose futures will be blighted if they are trapped in terrible neighborhood schools. Their difficulty is likely compounded, of course, by the high probability that there is no dad around to help. In theory, NYC's options should be better than most because kids above a certain age can hop on the subway. So the issue becomes how to salvage as many promising kids as possible in the early grades, before the age at which they become mobile.

Full school choice would help, although I'd not be surprised if the really crummy neighborhoods don't have high performing private schools either. There really is no substitute for ability grouping and tracking within schools that maintain effective discipline from the start, which ultimately implies a willingness to expel chronic bad actors. Once that is done, we can see if there's critical mass for a gifted and talented program.

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