Free Republic

A school diversity committee formed by Mayor Bill de Blasio wants to eliminate programs for gifted and talented students, claiming they perpetuate racial inequality because they’re comprised mostly of white and Asian students.The committee also recommended scrapping all forms of screening for students across the city.The report has no binding power, but de Blasio can implement the panel's recommendations if he wishes.New York Post: De Blasio only said of the report Monday, “Every child, regardless of ZIP code, has the right to attend a school where they can thrive. “I thank the School Diversity Advisory Group for all their...

Now, after lauding Common Core’s benefits, Common Core supporters are scrambling to justify the oft-maligned education standards. At the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, UConn education professor Jonathan Plucker criticized school districts for using the standards in order to cut funding for gifted and advanced student education. In his research, he noted, “We found plenty of evidence that many districts are using the implementation of the Common Core to cut services for advanced students,” and cited “four to five press releases” and articles to support this claim. But, instead of blaming Common Core, Plucker blamed its supporters. He said, “The justification...

As California's public schools have increasingly poured attention and resources into the state's struggling students, high academic learners - the so-called gifted students - have been getting the short shrift, a policy decision that some worry could leave the United States at a competitive disadvantage. Critics see courses tailored for exceptional students as elitist and not much of an issue when compared with the vast number of students who are lagging grades behind their peers or dropping out of school. But a growing chorus of parents and advocates is asking the contentious question: What about the smart kids? "We have...

BOISE, Idaho – Every high school has at least a handful of them, gifted students who blow through Faulkner as if it were a comic book, teenagers who catch on to calculus as if it were checkers. These students are often just marking time in high school and typically become bored and withdrawn as they long for a bigger academic challenge. States are responding to the problem by making it easier for gifted students to head off to college sooner. Idaho lawmakers have proposed giving scholarships to high school students who enroll in college early. Eight other states are participating...

There they were, parents and students from the New Explorations Into Science, Technology and Math school, banging drums and shaking maracas in front of Cipriani Wall Street to disrupt the black-tie benefit where Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein was speaking. There they were again, hundreds representing NEST, as the school is known, passionately chanting "Save the NEST" in front of City Hall. And there they were, hoisting "Don't Tread on Our School" signs on a wooded patch of East Hampton near the Ross School, a private school founded by Courtney Sale Ross, the wealthy widow of a former Time Warner...