How to end segregation in New York City’s gifted and talented program
The problems with premises and politics
ch of the discussion surrounding New York City’s school segregation problem has focused not on serious policy moves involving school integration* for the nation’s largest district but rather on maximizing school choice and improving quality.
The city’s education department still has not taken into full account research evidence showing that school integration leads to positive social and academic benefits for all students, while school choicespurs more segregation.
Meanwhile, another type of school segregation occurring within the city’s schools has received much less focus in the media and popular press: The type of segregation caused by school-within-school gifted and talented programs.
These programs act as a magnet to attract higher income, white families to the public school system and increase achievement levels. Since the Bloomberg and Klein policy regime supported these programs and pushed to expand the number of programs across the city, the education department has used a single standardized test score to admit students to these high-status programs.
The admissions policy is also based on the faulty premise that all parents will get their children tested and apply. As a result, the city’s gifted programs remain disproportionately white, Asian, and higher income. General education programs housed within these same schools, however, tend to enroll a majority of low-income children of color. This practice can by default, desegregate schools at the building level. It can also have the unintended consequence ofsegregating students by race, class, and perceived academic ability inside schools.
Related: Can schools create gifted students?
Gifted and talented education has become a highly contested How to end segregation in New York City’s gifted and talented program - The Hechinger Report:
