Follow-Up on DOE: G+T

Posted by helen at 1:00 PM

Last week, Insideschools spoke with Anna Commitante (head of DOE G+T), Elizabeth Sciabarra (OSEPO head) and Marty Barr (OSEPO's elementary-schools head) about gifted and talented programs, enrollment, and admissions policies. Here are highlights from our conversation; a longer article in the next alert will answer some new questions, too.

Centralized admissions will still be the mode for grade-school gifted and talented programs in 2009-2010. The two exams currently used to evaluate youngsters, the OLSAT and the Bracken School Readiness Test, will continue in use; there is no plan whatsoever to add a human, subjective eye to assess the effects of, say, a suddenly tongue-tied, shy, or stubborn four-year-old. The OLSAT carries triple the weight of the Bracken, because the former looks at aptitude and the latter, at actual knowledge (letters, numbers, colors, etc.).

Sibling priority enrollment meant, this year, that applicants with older sibs in the program or in the school building (a subject of significant confusion at PS 9, which also houses the Anderson School) were eligible for citywide g+t classes at lower test scores than kids who don't have sibs in the first-choice school. The three citywide g+t schools, Anderson, NEST+m, and TAG, accepted siblings with scores from the 99th to the 96th percentile. Non-sib applicants were admitted at the 99th percentile at NEST and Anderson, with a few exceptions at TAG.

We asked how many of the newest crop of citywide g+t Kindergarten students were younger siblings vs. non-sibs; DOE rep Andy Jacob said he would get us the numbers, and we hope he will.

The question of opening a new citywide g+t school in an outer borough is under discussion, but has not yet been resolved. (We'll know more in a few weeks, promises Liz Sciabarra.) Ditto, for whether gen-ed Kindergarten applications will be centralized or school-based. Pre-K applications will, however, continue to be centralized again this year -- but the timeframe will be earlier, and communication, everyone promises, will be better, clearer, and more consistent.

As parents learned this year, some districts start g+t programming in Kindergarten, and others in first grade. While there's no citywide mandate to regulate when g+t 'should' start (or, for that matter, an official, citywide g+t curriculum, above and beyond grade standards), DOE planners now recognize that their guarantee to seat every qualified student was understood by many parents to mean, starting in Kindergarten, with new classes created where none existed before.

But new K classes were never part of the plan, said Marty Barr. The decision to hold over scores -- the 'exemptions' parents got letters about -- came about in the wake of parent protest. Most kids who qualify for g+t seats will receive them, but in first grade. (Qualifying students in Districts 7 and 14, however, were offered seats in alternate districts, because no g+t programs were offered within 7 and 14, forcing parents to consider commuting challenges and other daunting logistics.)

"It's a communication issue," said Sciabarra, who cited 'lessons learned' and a desire to "take the angst out" of admissions. "We have to do better at that."

We couldn't agree more.

(Readers seeking nitty-gritty answers to fine-tooth questions, watch for an expanded story in the upcoming alert -- too much here to bog down the blog.)

Admissions Catch-Up

Posted by helen at 8:12 AM

With news reaching parents on g+t kindergarten placement and middle schools, some of the furor of the past week or so seems to have fizzled. But confusion persists in some quarters -- the News reported that some students have gotten letters meant for other children, and we've heard that up to 50 rising 6th graders at Manhattan's coveted Anderson School received middle school placements at other schools-- even though they didn't apply for seats outside their home school, which continues to grade 8.

We're hoping for follow-ups from the DOE today on lotteries in Districts 1 and 3 -- and for additional illumination on the District 15 middle school placements, where overwhelming demand appears to have cost some students their first-round seats (or seats at the schools of their choice). It's great news that so many strong, local schools generate such robust demand -- but worrisome that the same schools can't absorb the entirely predictable flow of in-district fifth-graders seeking seats.

After-School Activism: Remember the Budget?

Posted by helen at 12:01 PM

If your kids aren't booked solid after school with dance, baseball, Kumon and Kaplan -- and especially if you're a family that relies on after-school programs for enrichment, homework help, clubs, teams and more, the Kids Protest Project wants you, to speak out against budget cuts that may threaten the out-of-school extras that so many kids enjoy -- and so many parents count on, every day.

Join students and parents from PS 75M, Central Park East II, PS 9/The Anderson School, Manhattan School for Children, Stuyvesant High School, Edward R. Murrow High School, the Computer School, and PS 59 as they deliver mail daily to Chancellor Klein's office at the DOE. Better yet, organize a campaign at your school, and add your community's voice to the fray.