PROOF POINTS: Gifted programs provide little to no academic boost, new study says - The Hechinger Report

PROOF POINTS: Gifted programs provide little to no academic boost, new study says - The Hechinger Report

PROOF POINTS: Gifted programs provide little to no academic boost, new study says

National study finds Black students and low-income children don’t reap the small gains achieved by white, Asian and high-income children

Gifted education is often a flash point in school desegregation debates; in large cities, these programs often operate as an essentially separate school system, dominated by white and Asian children. Though gifted programs touch only 3.3 million school children, about 7 percent of the U.S. student population, it’s disturbing that Black and Hispanic children are rarely chosen for them. 

Some progressives have proposed eliminating gifted programs altogether. Others are seeking ways to increase the number of Black and Hispanic students. Only 4 percent of Black children and 5 percent of Hispanic children are in gifted programs compared with 8 percent of white and 13 percent of Asian children, according to the most recent federal figures.

Against this political backdrop, a new study raises big questions about whether gifted education benefits the kids who are lucky enough to be in it. Researchers analyzed the records of about 1,300 students, drawn from a nationally representative sample of children across the country, who started kindergarten in 2010 and participated in a gifted program for at least one year during their elementary school years through fifth grade. 

In school systems that offer gifted programs, children generally begin their schooling in a regular kindergarten classroom with children of mixed CONTINUE READING: PROOF POINTS: Gifted programs provide little to no academic boost, new study says - The Hechinger Report

NYC Public School Parents: NeQuan McLean on how DOE's "gifted" program is the fruit of a poisonous tree

NYC Public School Parents: NeQuan McLean on how DOE's "gifted" program is the fruit of a poisonous tree

NeQuan McLean on how DOE's "gifted" program is the fruit of a poisonous tree

See the eloquent letter below by NeQuan McLean, President of CEC 16 to Hazel Dukes, President of the NAACP NYS Conference and Christine L. Waters, Education Chair about the DOE "gifted" program.

 [One correction to this excellent letter: NYC DOE is not "the most well-funded public school system in the country."  There are other districts in the state and the nation that spend more.]

NYC Public School Parents: NeQuan McLean on how DOE's "gifted" program is the fruit of a poisonous tree

Forum on mayoral control, vote on gifted test and BLM in schools this week | Class Size Matters | A clearinghouse for information on class size & the proven benefits of smaller classes

 Forum on mayoral control, vote on gifted test and BLM in schools this week | Class Size Matters  | A clearinghouse for information on class size & the proven benefits of smaller classes

Tonight’s forum on mayoral control, vote on gifted test and BLM in schools this week

Jan. 31, 2021

I’ll be speaking tonight Sunday at 8 PM with other teachers, parents and advocates at a forum on how mayoral control or our schools should be changed– more here, including how to sign up and/or watch on Facebook live.

• An example of the problems with this governance system is how last week, the Mayor tried to push through the renewal of the unreliable and invalid Pearson test for giftedness, which luckily was defeated by an 8-7 vote of the Panel for Educational Policy – the first time in the history of the PEP that a DOE contract has been rejected.

Though even the Chancellor admitted that the admission process was “pedagogically unsound”, the main argument the administration made for the renewing the contract was it was too late to do anything else. This is despite the fact that numerous problems with the program and admissions process had been discussed for years, including at a PEP meeting last spring.

You can read a leaked DOE memo from July after the PEP discussion took place, which also suggests what the DOE may be planning to substitute for this test could be worse. The unconscionable delay in decision-making has been a repeated feature of our schools under de Blasio, who also postponed closing the schools last March when the Covid crisis was at its height, and delayed planning for their reopening till mid-July. Mayoral control has been touted as a more efficient form of governance, but it’s been any but efficient under this Mayor, as I point out in my (postponed) testimony to the NYS State Assembly.

Mayor de Blasio says he intends to go ahead with some sort of selection process for four-year-old kids this year to be admitted to the gifted program anyway; we will see if and how he maneuvers this. Already the Staten Island Borough President James Oddo has fired his appointee for voting against the Pearson contract, so it is possible that the Mayor could bring the contract back for another vote next month.

Any supposedly independent board where representatives can be fired at will is not an independent board at all.

• Finally, on my latest Talk out of School podcast, I spoke to Brian Jones about Black Lives Matter in School, to take place starting tomorrow Feb. 1-5, in schools throughout the country, including NYC. Brian is a former NYC public school teacher who now works at the Schomburg Center as the Associate Director of Education. On the show, he explains what BLM in School movement is all about, and places its demands and principles in historical context. It’s a fascinating discussion; there are also a link to some lesson plans in the resources section of the podcast site.

Talk to you soon,  Leonie

 Forum on mayoral control, vote on gifted test and BLM in schools this week | Class Size Matters  | A clearinghouse for information on class size & the proven benefits of smaller classes

NYC Public School Parents: Last night's historic vote of the Panel for Educational Policy to reject the Pearson contract for assessing "giftedness"

NYC Public School Parents: Last night's historic vote of the Panel for Educational Policy to reject the Pearson contract for assessing "giftedness"

Last night's historic vote of the Panel for Educational Policy to reject the Pearson contract for assessing "giftedness"

Last night was truly one for the history books, at least in the history of NYC public schools:  the Panel for Educational Policy, composed of a majority of mayoral appointees, voted down a DOE contract. 

After more than six hours of testimony by CEC members, elected officials, students and parents, most of whom opposed its renewal, eight panelists voted to reject the highly controversial Pearson contract to provide the "gifted" test, administered to kids as young as four years old; with only seven members voting yes.  This is despite the fact that the Mayor appointed two new representatives in the last two weeks and personally lobbied his appointees to approve it. Stories here: NY1, Chalkbeat, NY Daily News and Gothamist.  

It was the first time the PEP ever voted to reject a contract, since they were given this authority in 2009 -- which was meant to provide stronger oversight and a check on corruption. [As I testified in 2011, it didn't work and the panel has rubber-stamped many corrupt and wasteful contracts ever since.]  

 I wrote about this unsupportable Pearson contract for the Gotham Gazette last week, though I really didn't expect it would be rejected.  I also discussed it on my "Talk out of School" podcast with  Akil Bello of FairTest, who explained how the test had no validity or reliability, had clearly racially biased results, and to continue giving it especially during a pandemic was absurd.  

Even the Chancellor last night admitted that "There is no research, there is no pedagogical reason why one test to four-year-olds should be a sole determinant"  to entry to a gifted program, while tepidly urging the panel members to renew it for just one more year.

Of all the unprecedented events of last night, perhaps the most bizarre was that Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan was brought into the meeting  to justify it.  Fuleihan couldn't log on at first, so there were about seven minutes of empty time, but when he finally managed, he haplessly tried to explain that now, city officials were serious about changing the program and the screening method and would start planning this after this year.  They would go on "listening tours", and ask PEP members for their input, yada yada yada.  

This is after the DOE already had a full year to work on changing this process, which they promised they would do the last time they asked the PEP to renew the contract, sometime last year.  Also see the leaked DOE memo from  July - showing DOE had already been discussing how to proceed for many months.  

Chalk this down to more indecision and inefficiency of Mayoral control -- depending on one, very fallible person to make all decisions for nearly a million public school students.  The total ineptitude of the process recalls de Blasio's CONTINUE READING: NYC Public School Parents: Last night's historic vote of the Panel for Educational Policy to reject the Pearson contract for assessing "giftedness"

NYC Public School Parents: What the leaked DOE memo on the "gifted" test reveals

NYC Public School Parents: What the leaked DOE memo on the "gifted" test reveals

What the leaked DOE memo on the "gifted" test reveals

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

NYC Public School Parents: Why the DOE should cancel the unfair, unreliable and invalid "gifted" test now and forever & podcast on need to cancel all high-stakes testing this year

NYC Public School Parents: Why the DOE should cancel the unfair, unreliable and invalid "gifted" test now and forever & podcast on need to cancel all high-stakes testing this year

Why the DOE should cancel the unfair, unreliable and invalid "gifted" test now and forever & podcast on need to cancel all high-stakes testing this year

 Please read my piece published today at Gotham Gazette.  It explains why the DOE should cancel the "gifted" tests immediately; now and forever.  It makes no sense to continue this invalid, unreliable and biased exam, especially in the midst of a pandemic and the prospect of steep budget cuts to schools.  The contract will cost $1.7M and this doesn't even include the considerable but undisclosed DOE costs of administering this test to kids as young as four-year-old, one on one.  

My piece also deals with the horrific record of Pearson, who produces the test.  The renewal of the Pearson contract will be voted on next Wed., January 27 by the New York City Panel for Educational Policy.  Those who would like to speak on the proposal can register here, starting at 5:30 PM.  You can also email PEP members with your views.  Here are their emails: vleung@schools.nyc.gov; SWaite3@schools.nyc.gov; lpodvesker@schools.nyc.gov; PCalandrella@schools.nyc.gov; ICarmignani@schools.nyc.gov; GChacon@schools.nyc.gov; MKraft2@schools.nyc.gov; GLinnen@schools.nyc.gov; Achapman7@schools.nyc.gov; NGreenGiles@schools.nyc.gov; DDillingham@schools.nyc.gov; kparkprice@schools.nyc.gov; tomcsheppard@yahoo.com; ehenry16@schools.nyc.gov

Below is my podcast from Wednesday on the need to cancel all high-stakes testing this spring, including the gifted tests, the state 3rd-8th grade exams, and the Regents high school exit exams, with guests Akil Bello of FairTest, Lisa Rudley of NY State Allies for Public Education, and Jeanette Deutermann of LI Opt out. 

 

As discussed on the podcast, here is the NYSAPE petition urging the State Commissioner to cancel the Regents high school exit exams and to ask the US Department of Education for a waiver from having to administer the 3rd-8th grade exams this spring; also the FairTest petition to the US Department of Education and state education policymakers to suspend all high stakes testing this year. Finally, blog post and fact sheet on what’s wrong with the Regents graduation exit exams.

NYC Public School Parents: Why the DOE should cancel the unfair, unreliable and invalid "gifted" test now and forever & podcast on need to cancel all high-stakes testing this year

Cancel the Gifted and Talented Test Now, Not Next Year

Cancel the Gifted and Talented Test Now, Not Next Year

Cancel the Gifted and Talented Test Now, Not Next Year

Last week, Mayor de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Carranza announced that they will administer the controversial and problematic test for admissions to “gifted and talented” classes this spring, for perhaps a final year. Then: 

“We will spend the next year engaging communities around what kind of programming they would like to see that is more inclusive, enriching, and truly supports the needs of academically advanced and diversely talented students at a more appropriate age… We will also engage communities around how best to integrate enriched learning opportunities to more students, so that every student – regardless of a label or a class that they are in – can access rigorous learning that is tailored to their needs and fosters their creativity, passion, and strengths.” 

Yet the question arises as to why they will continue to give these exams to children as young as four years old at all. They are exams that few respected researchers believe are either valid or reliable. Why not end the practice now, especially given the risks and considerable cost of administering this test during a pandemic? 

We have posted many critiques of New York City's gifted program over the years on our NYC Public School Parents blog, including this one by esteemed education leader Debbie Meier in 2007, when Chancellor Joel Klein first instituted a standardized, high-stakes testing process for admissions to these classes in the CONTINUE READING: Cancel the Gifted and Talented Test Now, Not Next Year

From IQ tests and sperm banks to "The Queen’s Gambit": a history of gifted children | Salon.com

From IQ tests and sperm banks to "The Queen’s Gambit": a history of gifted children | Salon.com

From IQ tests and sperm banks to "The Queen’s Gambit": a history of gifted children

While identifying gifted children has helped some receive needed attention, it has sent us down a dangerous path

In Netflix hit "The Queen's Gambit," we see young orphan Beth Harmon discover her talent for competitive chess. During a game played in the orphanage basement, Harmon's chess tutor, the janitor, tells the nine-year-old: "To tell you the truth of it, child, you're astounding" — contrasting her youth and naivety to her seemingly inherent gift.

The series ends with Harmon as a young woman, competing in chess competitions at the highest level. The executive producer of the series, William Horberg, has said that they're unlikely to make a second series. "Maybe we can just let the audience imagine what comes next," he told Town and Country magazine.

My research looks into the question of "what next?" for so-called child geniuses like Beth Harmon, and how the "gifted" label affects their lives.

Growing up gifted

Interest in measuring the intelligence of children grew during the 20th century. The first IQ tests were developed in the early 1900s, looking to identify children in need of educational support. Later evaluations used IQ testing but also hormonal levels, patterns of sleep, metabolism, blood markers or genetics to try to understand and quantify "intelligence". CONTINUE READING: From IQ tests and sperm banks to "The Queen’s Gambit": a history of gifted children | Salon.com