Some parents were distraught, fearing that bright students would be left bored and restless at their desks.
Others questioned whether teachers can truly determine whether a 4-year-old is gifted.
And rival candidates in the mayor’s race pounced.
The divided reactions across New York came after Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic front-runner for mayor, said this week that he planned to end the city’s gifted and talented program for kindergarten students at public schools if he is elected. Students who are already in gifted classes would remain in the program, and his campaign said on Thursday that he would keep a separate track next year that admits students in third grade.
New York’s program stands apart from many other major cities that admit children into gifted classes starting in later grades. It is small: New York’s school system enrolls about 2,500 students out of 55,000 kindergartners.
Children are selected during pre-K by their teachers; a previous system that tested 4-year-olds was abandoned four years ago.
But it can play an outsize role in directing students’ educational paths and regularly emerges as among the most provocative education issues in the nation’s largest school system.
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The post ‘A Hornet’s Nest:’ Mamdani’s Gifted Education Plan Divides New Yorkers appeared first on New York Times.
