It is worth taking a look at the data in light of knee-jerk predictions about families fleeing the school system over eliminating separate spaces for G&T-identified elementary-school students:
Over 15,000 very young children took the test last year. 7950 qualified. Only 5700 actually went on to apply for a seat in a program, and, of those, only 3700 actually got seats.
What does that mean? First it means that families of over 9000 students who were interested in G&T programs for their children were denied in some way. If not getting G&T causes people to flee, then we are already losing up to 9000 families, but we are not aware of any evidence that they are. And there is certainly not the same hand-wringing about this issue in the media. We are far more likely to hear calls for expanding charter schools, which do not offer G&T programs of any kind. To retain those 9000 families, why not expand enrichment to more children through the school-wide enrichment model?
Further, the fact that parents of 2250 students who qualified didn’t apply for a seat suggests that getting into a G&T program isn’t as much of a deal-breaker for parents as some would like us to believe.
Finally, well under half of all qualifying students took a seat in separate G&T programs. In other words, most qualifying students are already finding other kinds of programs in which to cultivate their genius.
Read the article in Chalkbeat about how G&T programs work in New York.
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