After two years of quietly lobbying the de Blasio Administration and the Department of Education about putting a Gifted & Talented (G&T) program in a District 16 school covering Bedford-Stuyvesant and north Crown Heights, City Councilman Robert Cornegy Jr. has said enough is enough.
And now with the full weight of the City Council’s Black, Latino and Asian Caucus behind him, Cornegy will hold a press conference tomorrow to, among other items, demand that the DOE install some gifted and talented programs not only in his district but three other predominately Black & Latino districts – the only districts of 28 citywide that have no G&T programs.
“I’m excited to have the partnership of the Black, Latino & Asian Caucus – the largest caucus in the City Council who are now making this education inequity a priority,” said Cornegy.
G&T programs are for students entering kindergarten through third grade in regular public schools. To be eligible to participate in G&T admissions, children must pass an assessment to be eligible, although how the programs are taught differ from district to district.
There are two types of G&T programs – those located in district elementary schools, and citywide G&T programs, which are open to students from all boroughs without district-based priority.
Last school year, more than 70 percent of students in the city’s G&T programs were white or Asian, compared to a system that is roughly 30 percent white or Asian overall.
The press conference comes after a packed meeting in District 16’s PS 5 last night, in which Community Education Council 16 passed a resolution demanding the DOE establish a G&T Program in the district by the fall of 2016.
The DOE has maintained that the reason why District 16 doesn’t have a G&T program is there are not enough test takers to justify opening a program.
“Every student — no matter what zip code they live in — deserves a fair shot at gifted-and-talented programs, and we have worked to increase the number of test-takers in areas like District 16 by sending postcards to families and providing hard copies to G&T directors at pre-K programs,” DOE spokesman Harry Hartfield told reporters.
In 2015, a total of 16 students entering kindergarten qualified for a district-wide program, and 20 qualified in 2014, according to DOE data.
But Cornegy, who is leading an effort to get 500 kids in the district to sign up for the test by the Nov. 9 deadline, disputes the DOE’s outreach effort.
At last night’s meeting, after DOE representative Susan Kleinhandler again stated the DOE did a mass mailing about the upcoming G&T test, Cornegy, who has six children, said he never received a postcard and asked anyone in the auditorium if they have received a postcard. Only two people raised their hands.
CEC District 16 President NeQuan McLean, who has four school-aged children attending regular public schools, said Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina has repeatedly brushed off the council’s overtures to have a G&T program in the district, which is what led to the resolution.
“Our whole reasoning is we want to be able to compete with the charter schools that have come into the neighborhood even with less funding, and putting in a G&T program would supplement what we’re tying to do,” McLean said.
Cornegy added last night’s turnout alone showed that parents want and need a G&T program.
“I was tremendously impressed with the turnout and the turnout was a testament that there is a high demand for accelerated and G&T in this community. And it was a broad cross-section of families that attended with new and old residents representing the diversity now present in the district,” Cornegy said.
