Tuesday, April 22

G&T score notification letters in the mail?


After great uncertainty about dates -- at first it was supposed to be the end of March, then April 18, then the end of this month -- we're hearing that the first G&T letters have gone home. Have you checked your mailbox today? What's the word at your school and in your neighborhood?

UPDATE: I just wanted to note that we are not at all sure letters have actually gone home anywhere -- so don't be alarmed if you haven't gotten anything!

50 comments:

Anonymous said...

There is nothing in the mail today in the West Village!

Anonymous said...

I am in district 22 and have also heard nothing it is driving me crazy.

jennem said...

Nothing in Harlem/District 3.

Anonymous said...

I heard nothing. I am in district 26.

Anonymous said...

Nothing in Hell's Kitchen. What's your source for your information? Are they rolling out the letters per district/neighborhood? Or by score? Please fill us in on what you know. We are all dying to know something about this crazy process of sending out the letters!

Unknown said...

District 24, Glendale. Still no letters. This is indeed driving us nuts!

Anonymous said...

Nothing from District 2

Anonymous said...

i heard they are not going out until the 28th, and the school board is closed all week for spring break. so i would assume if they didn't go out by fri, the 8th, then they're not going out until next week

Anonymous said...

I can't wait to see how they handle the debacle of late applications after they give the parents almost no time to respond because they mailed scores so late.
How is this ineptitude even legal?
The greatest city in the world and the dept of education is an embarrassment.
HELP US!

Anonymous said...

nothing from District 21

Anonymous said...

Nothing so far in District 10, Riverdale.

Of course, a lot of us here simply never received mailings telling us when our testing time/site was, so maybe we're not going to get results mailings, either?

Anonymous said...

Nothing in Washington Heights (District 6).

Anonymous said...

I had heard letters were going to be mailed in batches starting 4/22, so the first group will be arriving today (4/23). Most will have their letters by Monday.

Anonymous said...

8:08 am: what is your source?

Anonymous said...

Hey last anon. -- what is your source for the 4/22 mail date? I keep calling the G & T office & they will not saying anything, except "they are working on it."

I have to say I see 2 patterns with DOE employees:

1. misinformation, not necessarily their fault but b/c of poor communication & training

2. they take the 5th; "I can't comment on that policy that I know is super important to life-altering decisions you will be making in the next year..."

Anonymous said...

My thoughts, this process is going to drag on into the summer. We may get test scores but most likely will not have confirmation on school assignment until summer......

Anonymous said...

We all keep wanting information and sources. This is ridiculous. This is public education and we are taxpayers and citizens. WHY can't the DOE be open about G&T? WHY all the secrecy? We are entitled to a transparent process. Wouldn't it be much less work for the DOE to just give us the information? I'm sure it would eliminate at least 80% of their phone and e-mail traffic from freaked out parents if they just gave the public some simple information.

Anonymous said...

FYI, I just spoke to someone in the G&T Office in Manhattan. Apparently, not everyone is off this week as we'd think. I asked about G&T results, and all she'd say is "Sometime at the end of April". Uuggh -- another "cookie-cutter" answer. I also asked why Queens only starts their G&T program in 1st grade -- again, no answers.

As a parent of a just-turned 5 year old girl who, according to her Pre-K teacher (who was formerly a G&T Kindergarten teacher in Brooklyn), is on a beginning-1st-grade-level overall, including reading, THIS IS SO FRUSTRATING! How come the "Special" G&T Schools for kids in the 97th percentile and up start their program in Kindergarten, but Queens kids don't get G&T instruction until the 1st grade? What is my daughter supposed to do/learn in Kindergarten when she's already "been there and done that"?

I also asked the G&T Office if it were possible to get her into the G&T School in our district for Kindergarten (even though G&T doesn't start until 1st grade) because I know switching schools after making friendships will be extremely difficult for her, and I was told "No - not for Kindergarten". Then I asked if a variance was needed or possible, and again, "No - not for Kindergarten." Uuuuggh!

In District 25 in Queens, 98 children are now eligible for G&T, and only 2 G&T schools. I asked if they were going to create more G&T schools to accomodate all these children, and she said, "Yes - it's on the website. If there are a certain amount of children, we'll designate more G&T programs." I asked if these schools would be indicated on the G&T results, along with the schools she'll qualify for, and that we're supposed to choose our preference and return by May 9th. She said we're just getting the scores, and my daughter's school would get the school choices. WHAT?!? Even when I told her my daughter attends a Universal Pre-K provider, she repeated herself. Well, what about the kids NOT attending Pre-K in NYC DOE? Obviously this Administrative Assistant for G&T must be wrong! At least I hope so!

This whole experience of waiting for G&T applications (only available for less than 1 month before the application deadline)/waiting for testing date/testing/scoring/waiting forever for the results/having a week to make school and program choice before returning, etc. has been a NIGHTMARE, and she hasn't even started her school career yet! Starting to think about private/catholic school after this! This administration is an embarassment! They do what they want, when they want -- where is the accountability to their students and the parents who PAY their salaries through tax dollars?!? Absolutely shameful...

Anonymous said...

Last year we didn't hear until May 22nd. They gave us the same timing that they are giving to you this year...

Anonymous said...

I can tell you that nothing came today just got my mail, I am in district 1.
My friend called last friday and was told a batch was going out that day and the rest later this week. Well forget that.
I called yesterday and I was told you will have them by the end of April.
Insideschools, I have a question, if all the stats are out, why are they not giving us the parents any info? or at least our schools(if one currently has a child in a school) I really feel the whole thing needs to blown open, if the stats are out and we know that much what is taking so long to get us an answer?

Anonymous said...

so glad to see that last comment. everyone seems to think it is just them, just this year. but this is the way it has always been. we are talking large, government bureaucracy. if you want transparency you have to pay for it.

would you prefer the corruption of 20 years ago? back then you could bribe the principal to get your child in.

i also assume that all the parents out there waiting to hear about the g&t results, have back-up plans if it turns out their child only scores in the 89 percentile?

Anonymous said...

You didn't hear about school assignments till May 22 last year, right? We haven't even gotten test scores yet.

Anonymous said...

"would you prefer the corruption of 20 years ago? back then you could bribe the principal to get your child in." As I understand it, there is still a lot of backroom politics that goes on.

"i also assume that all the parents out there waiting to hear about the g&t results, have back-up plans if it turns out their child only scores in the 89 percentile?" I don't mean to seem rude, but there's a reason we are all so hyper about these results. Most of us are on at least one waitlist (which is so bleak because there are so many kids on the waitlists) AND have a crappy school that we are zoned for that isn't an acceptable option. The DOE really limited our choices this year (esp in Dist 2). I understand that to parents not going through this right now we all seem like over hysterical type-A nuts, but really we don't have a back up and that's the problem.

Anonymous said...

I was told my son's school they found out last march, kids who scored high enough for nest were given a playdate.
last yr it was one step thing got in or didn't based on score, I can tell you though it was a nightmare, My friends child's score was lost, Kids didn't know where they were going untill september, and the tag class got kids all the way through october.

I can only assume its going to be MUCH worse this yr.

jennem said...

"i also assume that all the parents out there waiting to hear about the g&t results, have back-up plans if it turns out their child only scores in the 89 percentile?"

Yup. Catholic school. For which a nonrefundable deposit is due this week. We all have backup plans, which we need to put into place, because we can't do anything until we hear.

And yes, it was ASSIGNMENTS on May 22 last year. The RESULTS came out way earlier than May 1 (or whatever this year's target is). The DOE told me to expect assignments towards the end of June, for both G&T and the D3 lottery.

Anonymous said...

Nothing in wednesday's mail delivery.

Anonymous said...

Just checked my mailbox. Nothing in the mail today. District 1.

Anonymous said...

nothing in district 5 today.

Anonymous said...

According to a DOE employee the G&T notifications should be received in the mail by this weekend. I'd take it with a very large grain of salt at this point, but it sounded like that was the plan.

Anonymous said...

It's a joke, even once we receive these results we still have to wait to see what schools we will get.

Anonymous said...

I have a question.......my DD babysitter lives in another district. It seems we can only apply for the schools within our district. Would I have to show proff of address is I want her to go to another district?

thanks!

Anonymous said...

nothing in district 20. Question out of the district 20 schools which has the best program?

Anonymous said...

for the kids who scored above 97th percentile, articles i reas seem to imple that the citywide schools are not going to have space for them. So it seems that to actually get into one of the citywide you will have to score at a higher percentile.......anyone knows how this is going to work. Has a new cutoff been established for the citywide programs?

Anonymous said...

nothing received in today's mail - district 2.

jennem said...

Citywide programs don't have a cutoff per se. They take the highest scoring of their applicants until they fill the slots. Anderson has space for 50, so of everyone who applies there, they take the top 50 scores. And so on for the others.

Anonymous said...

The real problem will be that siblings get entitlement treatment adn the 3 Citywides will fill so fast with them before anyone else even has a shit. Even more disturbing though are the K-5 District schools. Lowering the bar to 90, and having a sibling preference on top of that, is really going to hurt a lot of kids who have higher scores. Theiretically, a 99 who didn't get into a Citywide could be kept out of the District school their parents want for them by a 90 sibling. It's terrible.

Anonymous said...

When I went to the Anderson open house in the fall I was told that they did not have a sibling preference policy. Can anyone confirm that this is mis-information and that sibling preferences will indeed be practiced. I thought that the sibling preference was only for the district programs. Of course, we were also told that qualifying students would be interviewed at the school for final selection and this was clearly misinformation based on practice previous to this year's reforms so clearly they may not have had the most up to date information at that open house.

I feel like the DOE pushed these reforms through quickly without really assessing and planning for implications. Unfortunately families are the ones paying the price for poor planning.

I'm not going to worry about problems with assigning seats before I see how the cards really fall but with the unprofessional way the process has been handled thus far, there's certainly reason to be skeptical.

Anonymous said...

JUST GOT IT DISTRICT 1

Anonymous said...

got it district 22

Anonymous said...

I just got the letter, district 18. My son's in. Got a choice of 5 schools.

Anonymous said...

Still nothing in today's mail - district 26.

jennem said...

Nothing today, D2.

Anonymous said...

Got it today...District3..One twin down..one more to go. Choice of 6 schools.

nowmee said...

We got it. District 22.

Anonymous said...

District 13. We got it today. Anyone know how many kids made the cut for the 3 citywide schools by %tile. I'm trying to assess our chances of actually getting in.

Anonymous said...

To the poster from 10:13 tonight -- in District 13, 34 children scored in 97th percentile or above (that's the best info that's public and it's on this site somewhere) qualified for Kindergarten, and 9 qualified for First Grade. If you're asking how many of ALL the districts got 97th percentile or above, that's 978 qualified for Kindergarten and 411 qualified for First Grade.

At least you got your results! As a parent of a child that attends a Universal Pre-K provider, this process was like giving birth -- nothing came easy for us, we had to watch the DOE website to find out when applications were available, fill them out, run to our District office along with our child, go to a different part of Queens to a school (her first time in a real school) and have people administer the test that my daughter has never seen before. Then, of course, all the drama involved with changing the original testing threshold, etc. Because of all that, there is an incredible amount of mounting tension over these scores! I only hope we get our score tomorrow, or I'll need to be fitted for a straight jacket!

Good luck to you! And congratulations on your child getting into G&T! :)

Anonymous said...

10:13 - 978

http://www.insideschools.org/nv/NV_GT_4_15_apr08-chart.php

NOTE FOR DISTRICT 15. PS38 is not Carroll

Anonymous said...

Still no scores in D25. I've been hugging myself all day in my handy dandy new straight jacket...

Basia said...

I'm in district 2 and we are still waiting for the letter but I know someone in my district that received the scores already so I'm awaiting today's mail impatiently ...

Anonymous said...

Nothing in District 15 in Brooklyn.