De Blasio cancels gifted and talented schools program in NYC

[rayg]

Because it discriminates against black and Hispanic students

Critics of the program said it was racist because most of the gifted schools were filled up with white and Asian American students.

De Blasio cancels gifted and talented schools program in NYC because it 'discriminates against black and Hispanic students' - but parents AND teachers say it will halt smart kids' learning and leave others 'behind'

Mayor Bill De Blasio announced on Friday he is ending the gifted and talented program that puts advanced students in separate NYC public schools and classes
He, and other critics, say it discriminates against black and Hispanic kids, fewer of whom are in the schools

Most of the schools in black and Hispanic areas closed in recent years, per The New York Times in 2019, because too few local kids passed the test to get in
Now, the majority of the spots are taken up by white or Asian American kids

De Blasio's solution is to put all kids of mixed abilities in the same schools and classes

The gifted kids will be given 'accelerated' learning programs - ie, different material

Teachers say it adds to their workload and parents say it benefits neither the gifted kids nor the less gifted kids

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...anic-kids.html

[kj47]

What's that tell ya?

[dogtag]

Just as well as all the gifted and talented left already.
That's pretty obvious else why would Blazio be Mayor
Dumb voters.

[Art]

The parental uprising in Virginia, which the AG has decided requires sic-ing the FBI on parents as terrorists, is, in large part, about Gifted and Talented and Advance Placement programs as well as magnet schools. Virginia, for example, now intends to end all accelerated math programs below the 11th grade. If the Republican wins the Governorship next month it will be in large part because of that.

[togor]

I'm confused.

Y'all realize that the parents wanting these G & T services for their little darlings are as a rule the highly educated liberal types right? Pulling out all the stops to get their kids across the same educational divide?

In my day in school, there were 30 to a class. For math they had a couple sorta-advanced courses, but if a kid really was a self-learner then they had these other things out there....what were they called?......oh yeah "books on mathematics".

No, back in the day the emphasis was on trying to teach the great bulk of the students enough of the basics, so they could go forward out of high school and function in the economy, even doing math and understanding a little bit about science, if that helped them on the job.

Now I don't know how much energy, what % of the budget NYC was aiming towards the top kids. But to the extent that the public schools were in effect running private academies within their system and diverting funds away from what should be the primary job of giving all kids a shot at decent education, then I think he could be doing the right thing.

The local G & T school coordinator paid hit-and-miss attention to my own kids. But I have met parents of other G & T kids and as a group they can be uptight, especially where their babies are concerned. A lot of those babies, it seemed to me, would have traded a small amount of their academic prowess for a chance to be "cool" for a little while, if ever they got the chance.

[lyman]

I read G&T as Gin & Tonic,,

and now I want one,

[Art]

I'm confused.

Y'all realize that the parents wanting these G & T services for their little darlings are as a rule the highly educated liberal types right? Pulling out all the stops to get their kids across the same educational divide?

In my day in school, there were 30 to a class. For math they had a couple sorta-advanced courses, but if a kid really was a self-learner then they had these other things out there....what were they called?......oh yeah "books on mathematics".

No, back in the day the emphasis was on trying to teach the great bulk of the students enough of the basics, so they could go forward out of high school and function in the economy, even doing math and understanding a little bit about science, if that helped them on the job.

Now I don't know how much energy, what % of the budget NYC was aiming towards the top kids. But to the extent that the public schools were in effect running private academies within their system and diverting funds away from what should be the primary job of giving all kids a shot at decent education, then I think he could be doing the right thing.

The local G & T school coordinator paid hit-and-miss attention to my own kids. But I have met parents of other G & T kids and as a group they can be uptight, especially where their babies are concerned. A lot of those babies, it seemed to me, would have traded a small amount of their academic prowess for a chance to be "cool" for a little while, if ever they got the chance.

There's a bunch there.

The politics of the parents of children in any advanced program depend on the politics of the community. The population where I live is overwhelmingly politically conservative and well off. The majority of children in GT programs come, therefore, from well off conservative parents. When I was doing my 10 year educator (sort of) gig I learned that GT programs are actually special education for smart kids as opposed to special education for intellectually challenged kids. true GT kids have interesting quirks. For example, among teachers there's a saying that GT stands for "gotta talk." Before GT these kids were the ones that, at least through elementary school, went from bright, sweet but a little disruptive to bright kids who were out and out odd balls.

AP programs are different. They allow kids to take base courses like English, History and some math courses at a higher level and after taking a comprehensive test apply the course as college credit at whichever school they go to. I saw motivated high schoolers pack in 12-18 semester hours while in high school, stuff they didn't have to take (or pay for) in college. DiBlasio will end that as well.

Like you, when I went to school there was none of that stuff. Mentally disabled children were packed off to "special" schools or institutions instead of being "mainstreamed" in special education programs as much as possible today which I find to be a good thing. Bright quirky kids also got left behind sometimes and I do think they might have been ok in a GT program.

The abolition of these programs is actually racist in motivation. Bringing poor inner city kids up to grade level is tough, due to mainly environmental reasons, but it has been done. Getting them into advanced programs is tougher but it has been done too, remember "Stand and Deliver???) It's easier just to eliminate the advanced programs and bring everyone down to the same level. The thing that got the uproar started in Loudoun County Virginia involved a science and technology magnet school (do you oppose magnet schools.) About 60% - 65% of the students were Asian and the majority of the remainder white. Well the school board decided that they weren't having that and changed the admission procedure from being purely merit (that is class rank and test score based) to "other criteria" that was supposed to result in having no more than 50% of the student body Asian. Well it hit the fan, you don't mess, as you said with people's babies. Just to show the state wasn't just picking on Asians advanced math classes are to be abolished below the 11th grade. The plan for our grandson is to take Algebra I in the 8th grade. An option that's open in all public middle schools in Texas for kids progressing at a high enough rate. Va. is ending that as well.

I actually have an interesting AP story. Our son, in the 9th grade, was making good, though not spectacular grades in English. He had plans of going to college but his writing skills were horrible, so bad I knew he'd never make it in college. So I went to his teacher, who I knew and after a little gentle brow beating got her to write the required note (since he didn't have an "A" in English) to get him into the Pre AP class that would put him in AP English as a junior. AP English is much more rigorous and involves things like timed writing and critical analysis. I remember after a couple of weeks in the class he told me "what have you gotten me into?" I told him to suck it up because he wasn't getting out. Well he had made "Bs" in level English and sure enough made "Bs" in AP English. The difference is he became proficient in writing and actually finished college.

If McAuliff loses in Virginia it will be because the state "messed with" the children of upper middle class and rich liberal parents, Ironic isn't it.

[lyman]

Art,

one commercial that ran last night was a bit odd to me,

McAwful was saying how we don't need to go back to Trump and how Trump endorsed Youngkin

repeated that over and over, how bad it would be to go back to Trump,

yet if he wins, we go back to McAwful, ,,


back on topic,

when I was in school, there were a few , very few, advanced classes, and as you mentioned all the Special Needs kids that went to school were packed in a large classroom for the day,
the rest of us roamed from class to class, SN were stuck in one room

here in Central Va, we have the Governor's school, which is basically AP ,

there are several 'high end' private schools,

and the high schools in the rich folks areas tend to do a bit better scores wise,
as well as being newer facilities