In several of the articles on the controversy over the renewal of the Pearson contract for the gifted test, which will be voted on tomorrow Wed. night by the Panel for Educational Policy, including in the Daily News and Chalkbeat, a confidential draft DOE memo from July 2020 is mentioned that was leaked to PEP members.
The memo is embedded above and is also posted here. Several things stand out about this memo. First of all, it clearly points out that doing any testing at during the pandemic is likely to intensify the inequities of this program, that are already too evident:
"Testing during this time could exacerbate inequities for an admissions program that is widely known to have disparate outcomes by race. Data shows that the pandemic has impacted poor and ethnically diverse New York neighborhoods at higher rates than wealthier, predominately White ones. The difference in performance by racial and/or socioeconomic group could be increased by the impact of the pandemic, as students face loss of loved ones, loss of family income, food instability, etc."
Also: "Funding used for this program could be redistributed to programs providing more essential services to students."
This is surely true. Yesterday at the PEP Contract committee meeting, the DOE admitted that based on previous years, administering CONTINUE READING: NYC Public School Parents: What the leaked DOE memo on the "gifted" test reveals