Challenge every child: Good riddance to subjecting 4-year-olds to a test, but in some form G&T education must live on
Wednesday, Mayor de Blasio and Chancellor Richard Carranza pulled the plug, starting the academic year after next, on the test-in admissions system by which families have their 4-year-olds qualify for separate gifted-and-talented programs and schools. What they didn’t do is explain what’ll replace it. That’s the far harder question, and it must be answered soon.
As currently administered, the test deserved to go. Ever since 2007, New York City’s littlest youngsters have taken a single assessment, with top scorers getting the golden ticket to their own classes and campuses for elementary grades. While well-intentioned — it replaced an uneven hodge-podge with a single, citywide standard — that’s yielded an inequitable system that cannot be defended.
Parents with the time, inclination and money to prepare their preschoolers for a standardized exam, who are disproportionately white and Asian, are the ones who overwhelmingly book passage into the special programs and schools. Even were every single 4-year-old in the five boroughs to take the test, as we’ve recommended, massive disparities would remain; G&T programs are three-quarters white and Asian, and paltry numbers of kids qualify in districts that are predominantly Black and Latino, as the school system as a whole is.
We believe elite high schools with test-in admission should stay; eighth-graders can academically compete on a level playing field. But a gameable test isn’t a good or fair way to identify precocious learners when they’re this young.
Carranza and de Blasio must now find fair and effective ways to identify precocious elementary school kids and offer them accelerated programs. Kids who are ready to learn above grade level need to be challenged every day. Their parents deserve a school system that keeps them on their toes. If they don’t get it in New York City’s public schools, you can bet they’ll find it elsewhere.
