New York City Overhauling Gifted Programs

Following Florida’s lead, New York City has proposed plans to change eligibility guidelines for Gifted programs in the city’s schools. Right now, standards vary among schools. But the chancellor of schools, Joel Klein, has proposed a standard to be by all schools in evaluating Gifted students. All students who qualify would be guaranteed a spot in their school’s Gifted program. However, the qualifications would be substantially higher. The proposal would only admit those students who scored in the 95th percentile or higher on two national tests into Gifted programs.

The proposal is getting mixed reviews. Some parents are happy, as they feel it brings more credibility to the programs. Others worry that students who are now benefitting from being in Gifted programs, may fail to qualify under the new standards. Personally, I’m undecided about this. I can see it both ways. Obviously, a Gifted program must be more difficult than a regular program, otherwise the term “Gifted” becomes watered-down and loses meaning. On the other hand, how do we say that a student who scores in the 90-95% percentiles can’t benefit from participation in a Gifted program? Especially now that normal school curriculum is so focused on NCLB requirements, borderline students are at risk of being lost in the shuffle, and that’s not good for anyone.

The best approach might be to use percentile scores as the objective part of the evaluation, and introduction a subjective part as well. The subjective part could include recommendations from teachers, administrators, parents, etc. Before my daughter could enter the Gifted program in 2nd grade, she was required to complete a project of her choosing and it was evaluated by the Gifted facilitator of the district. There’s more to being Gifted than just scoring high on tests.