Posted on 11/02/2019 12:06:01 AM PDT by grundle
As the city grapples with how to better integrate its schools, one Brooklyn elementary school has a suggestion: Getting rid of its gifted and talented classes.
"A test that kids sit for when they're three or four is not a measure necessarily of their academic capacity, but really a measure of the access to resources that they've had," said Kirsten Cole, co-chair of the school's Diversity and Inclusion Committee.
P.S. 9's school leadership team voted to send the proposal, which would phase out the program starting in 2020, to the district superintendent for his consideration.
The school, in Prospect Heights, is diverse. Cole said black students are underrepresented in gifted and talented classes.
"As the neighborhood has gentrified, the G&T track has gotten more and more white, more and more affluent," she said.
Most parents at the meeting were in support. But one said other alternatives, like his proposal to add diversity screening to gifted and talented classes, hadn't really been part of school discussions on the issue.
"I felt like the process that led to the G&T phase out proposal wasn't well considered, that it was set up in such a way that not everyone felt that they could have their voice heard," Michael Heimbinder said.
The school leadership team didn't recommend his proposal, with some saying gifted and talented classes are problematic by their very nature.
"I think that these programs foster a sense of entitled in these students that is not beneficial to the students themselves over the long term," school leadership team member Andrew Case said.
The vote comes as the city moves to end the use of a single test for admission to elite high schools and gifted and talented programs, which test much younger students, could be next. While some lawmakers, including State Senator Leroy Comrie, have proposed increasing gifted and talented classes in an effort to diversify the top high schools, Chancellor Richard Carranza has been skeptical.
"When you're talking about gifted and talented as a panacea, you're talking about further segregating children," he said earlier this year.
As for what comes next citywide, the mayor's School Diversity Advisory Group is set to issue recommendations on gifted and talented programs in the coming weeks.
"A test that kids sit for when they're three or four is not a measure necessarily of their academic capacity, but really a measure of the access to resources that they've had," said Kirsten Cole, co-chair of the school's Diversity and Inclusion Committee.
At 3 and 4 years old the best access they can have are shhhsh 2 parents. At 3 and 4 they are learning from their environment and it will show if parents or others are actually working with these young children. I guess they don't want to expose how many young children are neglected when it comes to spending quality time with them.
The school, in Prospect Heights, is diverse. Cole said black students are underrepresented in gifted and talented classes.
gee, I wonder why that is. /sarcasm
"As the neighborhood has gentrified, the G&T track has gotten more and more white, more and more affluent," she said.
Probably the most honest comment in the whole article. The real problem is that if you have classes for gifted students, then you need teachers that can keep these students challenged and learning. If i recall correctly, when they started these gifted or talented programs, it was because these students were bored with the curriculum and were losing interest in learning and in school.
"I felt like the process that led to the G&T phase out proposal wasn't well considered, that it was set up in such a way that not everyone felt that they could have their voice heard," Michael Heimbinder said.
The school leadership team didn't recommend his proposal, with some saying gifted and talented classes are problematic by their very nature.
"I think that these programs foster a sense of entitled in these students that is not beneficial to the students themselves over the long term," school leadership team member Andrew Case said.
I call BS on that. What kid, even gifted or talented feels entitled to harder classes and more work? No, its more likely that having these programs and classes made other kids feel inferior or the parents of the non gifted felt it singled their kids out as 'average'. Dumbing down or holding gifted kids back is never the answer.
You say schools are a mess.
You are 100% correct and don’t think for a moment that this is not by design.
Much like them force injecting problem children into gifted programs to create Kaos. The programs work and have high marks and the left and their zombie unions can not have this
It is if the entire goal is equality of outcome. Democrats are married to absolute equality. That means, literally, "fairness" instead of freedom.
There are too many children who would question "The Choco ration is increased from 30 grams to 20 grams." They might even start asking questions about how the last Five Year Plan didn't show the progress the State said it would.
We've voted our way half way into the lion's mouth. We are going to have to shoot our way out.
Because no student should ever be educated at a faster pace than the dullest, least motivated child in the school.
Well public schools use tax money and are charged with addressing all kids’ special needs. Including the super bright ones. That’s why. As someone who was in the gifted class and also had a kid in gifted class, yes, it’s important. If you have ever been in a class where the stupidity of the level of students had you impatient and upset, you get it.
Well while we’re at the whole equal is equal charade, when is the NBA and NFL and MLB gonna “represent” the 4’2” Asian woman? Racists don’t have even one on ANY TEAM!!!!
Yep, been there. My son, as well. You have to keep an eye the public schools all the time. They get extra funding for students that need special classes. That right there explains their need to dumb the students down.
My school district ended their “Gifted” program the year after we moved here, some 20-odd years ago. We had moved here specifically because we heard good things about the program. Bummer.
The school district had gotten tired of lawsuits about racial imbalance.
This has nothing to do with the students and everything to do with socialist adults.
Having gifted students is a giant, blinking ad for the reality that we are not all the same. So it has to go.
Blaming the “affluent” for ruining/whitening the gifted program doesn’t get past the first set questions. Because the affluent can relocate or choose private schools; then what?
These “educators” would rather drown the intelligence of black kids than be forced to acknowledge that there are others that are smarter. Especially if those others are white.
That’s true, the affluent can send their kids to better schools, or schools for gifted students, so all the dems are doing is hurting middle class students.
Apply this same reasoning to manning your high school & college sports teams.
DEMAND DIVERSITY!
No more discrimination due to height, weight, strength, speed or athletic skill!
(Yeah, right. Like that’s really going to happen)
A test that kids sit for when they’re three or four is not a measure
Way to minimize....
No that is not a measure of their abilities. But their performance even in your piss poor schools IS a measure of their abilities and acumen.
Damn I hate educators....
No. I don't either.
Here's the thing, folks: Public education by its definition is a mission aimed at mediocrity. This idea that you will have taxpayers fund a "school system" that is intended to serve the public at large in conjunction with compulsory education laws has no place in a free nation.
I'm actually surprised these "gifted & talented" programs have lasted as long as they have.
Personally I think you should care.
They are testing the waters.....incrementally
Dangerous precedent.....Utopia in mind
This press conference consisted of several...I seem to recall about a half dozen...doctors in white coats. Every single one of them was a white male. Not a single woman,not a single "person of color".And I'll wager everything I own that every one of them was in the "gifted" classes when they were in school!
The Democrats have only two choices either ban or rename so they should rename the program the honors track for awhile.
Two of my six grandchildren are in GT programs. In the GT programs they are given a bit of enhanced time, in the form of class pullouts, to explore outside the standard classroom instruction. I’m talking about 1 - 5 hours per week. They are not segregated into separate classes. The extra cost of the programs are not much.
GTers are usually smart, but really smart kids are not necessarily tested to be GT. To get the GT label the child must demonstrate “out of the box” thinking. Most of the GTers I know about are either super bright girls who are socially well adapted to school, or boys who demonstrate enhanced ability, for their age, in math, language or science, but have trouble sitting still in a standard classroom, often being labeled with some sort of ADD, ADHD, or “High Functioning” Autism.
NYC has been expelling its middle class for decades. The real issue for them is the Asians who still see it as a worthwhile destination; they won’t tolerate their children being sent into the prison-like schools of the gibsmedat caste.
This is absolutely nothing new. In grades 1-3, I was in a gifted and talented group (3 caucasian children). We were reading at levels 2-3 grades ahead of our classmates. We were put in a corner with our books by ourselves while the teachers spent the rest of the time in the remedial group (all minorities) trying to teach them colors and numbers.
Within 2 years, we had fallen to levels of our classmates and were reintegrated with them.
Thanks NC education system.
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