In third grade, admission will be offered to the top 10% of students based on their grades in core subjects. Now, kindergarteners will be recommended for the program by their pre-K teachers. The city is also changing how students are admitted, partly in an attempt to enroll a more representative group of students. Instead, Adams and Banks have doubled-down on the current model that keeps students in segregated classrooms, opting to add more seats. But de Blasio announced the reforms at the end of his tenure, and they were never implemented. White and Asian students have historically made up about 70% of enrollment in gifted programs while only representing about a third of the school population citywide.įormer Mayor Bill de Blasio had proposed overhauling the programs, ending the current model where students labeled as “gifted” are served in their own, separate classrooms and schools - an approach that fewer than 10% of school districts across the country follow. In New York City, they have also been fiercely guarded by Asian families who see gifted programs as a ticket to higher performing schools. Gifted programs have long been seen as a way to keep white and more affluent families enrolled in public schools. The classrooms also enroll few students who have disabilities, who are learning English as a new language, or are in temporary housing. The city’s gifted programs have come under fire for being segregated, with Black and Latino students starkly underrepresented. Live interpretation will be provided in Arabic, Bangla, Chinese, French, Haitian Creole, Korean, Russian, Spanish, and Urdu. Virtual information sessions will take place on May 24, May 26, and June 1. Parents can begin applying for spots on May 31. Until now, the most common entry point for “gifted” programs has been in kindergarten, a practice long criticized for testing and sorting 4-year-olds. Officials are adding more than 1,000 seats, most of them as new programs that start in third grade.

The sites of new gifted classrooms were announced Tuesday, part of an expansion pushed by Mayor Eric Adams and Chancellor David Banks. Chancellor David Banks and Mayor Eric Adams are adding more than 1,000 seats to New York City’s gifted programs, which are deeply segregated.

Nyc gifted and talented 2022