NYC to phase out separate classes for ‘gifted and talented’ students

Mayor Bill de Blasio will essentially end the public school “gifted and talented” program in its current form — eliminating a high-stakes test for four-year-olds and no longer separating out students deemed gifted into separate classes.

The test has typically admitted only about 2,500 kindergartners a year into the “gifted and talented” program — a tiny fraction of the city’s school children. But those who have already been admitted to the separate classes will remain in them until they’ve graduated from them.

“As a lifelong educator, what we all know is that no single test should be determining any child’s future,” Schools Chancellor Meisha Porter said on Friday during an appearance with de Blasio on WNYC. “There are so many more students who are gifted, who are talented, who are brilliant, who have special gifts, and I think this is the moment about creating opportunities for all students to demonstrate their powerful learning abilities and for teachers to really tap into those gifts.”

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