eliminate school gifted and talented programs

Related Surprising Numbers Behind Which NYC Schools Actually Educate Kids This led to even more segregation, both racial and economic - not less, as had been predicted.

Plus, where, previously, a majority non-white school with a terrific academic program might have attracted some wealthier and whiter students (a phenomenon we are currently seeing with some NYC charter schools), the lower-performing these schools got, the fewer affluent families of any ethnicity would even consider attending them. Mastery of both is vital to success on the high school admissions test - but students were no longer being taught what they needed to know to pass it. It meant fewer complex texts to analyze and no algebra in middle school. No more honors programs meant a curriculum well below what some students were capable of. In poorer, often also nonwhite, districts, high-achieving students were left with no such options. What happened in actuality was the opposite: In wealthy districts, when programs for high achievers were cut, parents moved out of the city, transferred their children to private schools or hired tutors from outside the classroom. Though research continues to be mixed on the pros and cons of heterogeneous ability grouping, in New York City, the view prevailed that getting rid of accelerated and honors programs in kindergarten through eighth grade would lead to higher - or, at least, equal - achievement for all in high school. In an attempt to shrink the achievement gap, New York, along with many other American cities, moved to get rid of tracking - the practice of sorting students by ability into homogeneous classrooms. As the Times elaborates: To understand this decline involves a trek back through decades of policy choices, as city officials, pushed by an anti-tracking movement, rolled back accelerated and honors programs and tried to reform gifted programs, particularly in nonwhite districts. What seems to have happened is multiple policies that were supposed to encourage the longed-for integration of New York City public schools. Numbers that had risen, whether test scores or admissions to prestigious schools, leveled off and then began to decline. Our young people seemed not so uppity and often not as ready to compete with others. This group of “uppity” young Black/Latino young men and women was able to successfully compete anywhere at any time with anyone. When people talked about integration in those times, WE were integration. We gained admission to Stuyvesant, Bronx Science and Brooklyn Tech, and for years, the number of Black and Latino students attending the elite schools increased. We took the specialized high school entrance exam and passed. We kicked down educational barriers wherever they existed, hoping that there would be a stream of Black and Latino students who would follow our example and slip through the cracks our assault on the system had created. The writer of this editorial recalls that:īack in the early to mid-1960s, I was part of a wave of young Black and Latino shock troops coming out of poverty, public housing and tenements whose purpose was to obliterate any and all educational obstacles. Related More G&T Classes Would Help School Diversity, Not Harm It So what happened? Why didn’t anything work? In addition, a Discovery program was put in to help those who scored just a few points short of the qualifying cut-offs to attend summer prep courses and earn a second chance at admission. So where have all the Black students gone?Īs the New York Times recently pointed out, “Decades ago, when crime and socioeconomic conditions were far graver than they are today, Black and Latino teenagers passed the examination in great numbers.”Īnd while the contents of the test have been tweaked a few times since then, on each occasion the stated goal was to enable more Black and Latino students to qualify for admission.

This was three years after the admissions test was enshrined into state law as the sole criterion. Across all eight high schools that use the Specialized High School Admissions Test, only 3.6 percent of admission offers in 2021 went to Black students (though they make up 26 percent of the total public school system), despite the availability of a city-run summer prep program.Īfrican-American enrollment at Stuyvesant peaked in 1975. In 2017, when our older son graduated from Stuy, and 2018, when our younger one started, the number of Black students there was under 40. A few miles away, at Brooklyn Tech, two-thirds of the students were Black and Latino. When my African-American husband entered the freshman class of Stuyvesant, New York City’s top specialized high school, in 1981, there were more than 200 Black students enrolled. Get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox.

Eliminate school gifted and talented programs