To get a sense of what’s to come, it’s worth understanding the history of recent battles over gifted-and-talented programs. The thousands of New York families who care about merit-driven educational opportunities for their children will be eager to see how the program evolves under Adams’s and Banks’s leadership. The administration has already shown that it has the right approach: expand, don’t end gifted and talented programs. We can expect more changes to these programs in the coming year. Banks was explicit about the administration’s goals: “Today we move to end the era of scarcity-the era of making families fight amongst themselves for limited Gifted and Talented seats in far off schools.” Last week’s announcement is important not just because it signals an end to de Blasio’s efforts to dismantle these popular programs but also because it marks the beginning of a new effort to maintain and diversify them through growth and modification. “Thanks to this expansion,” said Mayor Adams, “for the first time ever, there will be a Gifted and Talented program in every school district in this city.” ![]() One thousand of the new seats will be for programs beginning in third grade, and the remaining 100 for kindergarteners in local school districts that don’t have gifted-and-talented programs. That admissions method became necessary because in January 2021, the Panel for Educational Policy refused to extend the contract for the long-standing process of testing four-year-old students individually for entrance to gifted-and-talented programs. Adams and Banks are reversing course-though this year, students will be admitted to these programs based on teacher recommendations. ![]() Concerns about the racial and ethnic makeup of these schools and programs led to former mayor de Blasio’s attempt to gut them by eliminating the use of a single test for admission. “Gifted and talented” refers to a program involving six elementary schools that serve only students who meet the citywide entrance requirements, as well as similar programs in other classrooms within elementary schools that serve the general population. We can expect more positive news on this score in the coming year. Last week’s announcement from Mayor Eric Adams and Schools Chancellor David Banks that the city plans to add 1,100 seats to gifted-and-talented programs in time for the start of the school year in September is a welcome shift from Bill de Blasio-era attempts to dismantle such initiatives.
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