We want to be very clear on three things:
First, the reality of our current G&T programs is this: kindergarten classrooms filled with African American and Latinx students on one side of the hall and classrooms with very few of those students on the other. This is hands down the single-most egregious and damaging manifestation of segregation in the NYC school system. This is not about ability; it’s about power, privilege, history, and racism.
Second, the SDAG is not calling for the end of gifted education. Quite the contrary. The recommendation is to stop putting students identified as G&T (when they are 4 years old) in classrooms and buildings separate from other children. There is nothing radical about this. Separate classrooms for G&T kindergartners is extremely rare outside NYC.
Third, the idea that we can have both separate G&T classrooms for K-5 students AND integration is a fallacy and a canard. As our 2014 briefing relates, DOE has been chasing the fantasy that we can make separate G&T programs more equitable for decades to no avail. Saying that we can fix a program that is inherently segregative is just political cowardice.
Read our briefing here.
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