Mayor Bill de Blasio’s apparent decision to end the screening of four-year-old children for admission to gifted and talented kindergartens is likely to draw strong reactions—both from parents who treasure these programs and from those who oppose them. Partisans on both sides should step back and encourage New York’s next mayor to develop a workable plan that is both educationally sound and fair to all.
Such a plan will need to be grounded in an understanding of the path that different students follow through New York City’s sometimes-troubled, sometimes-excellent public school system. It must also seek to improve opportunities for those left out of the enrichment offered in the current gifted and talented programs, without harming those who would have gained entry to those programs if not for the changes that the mayor has proposed.
Read Full Article »