“These arguments are steeped in white supremacy and anti-Blackness,” she said. (At 43%, the largest share of kindergartners in the program are Asian - many of whom come from immigrant and low-income families.) She also spoke passionately about the need for more integrated classrooms, rejecting that gifted programs serve Asian families well. And during a time of such risk and uncertainty, I cannot consciously support that this is a good use of the city’s money and time,” she said. “Testing 4-year olds was never the right way - and most, if not all, experts would agree. Panel chair Vanessa Leung took a strong stand against moving forward with the test for another year, pointing to rising COVID-19 rates in the city. The admissions test is administered one-on-one in person, which also raises concerns about health and safety. Education department officials themselves warned this summer that moving forward with the test would likely widen disparities, as the effects of COVID-19 have fallen disproportionately on Black, Latino, and low-income communities. Whether the city affords fair access to gifted programs has been hotly debated for years, and many advocates for reform hoped the ongoing coronavirus pandemic would finally force changes. “That’s why we want this to be the last year this test is administered.” As a pedagogue, as a principal, as a parent, I can say with certainty that there is a better way to serve our learners than a test given to 4-year-olds,” Carranza said at Wednesday’s meeting. ![]() Mayor de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza have both criticized the exam, but intended to use it this year while pursuing long-term changes. New York City is one of the only school districts in the nation that uses a test given to preschoolers to determine admission to elementary school gifted programs. In the meantime, the city proposed several admissions tweaks aimed at creating more diversity for the incoming kindergarten class. The rejection came even after Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan appeared at the virtual meeting, promising future significant reforms to the gifted program. Instead, the vote failed 8-7, despite City Hall’s intense lobbying behind the scenes and the appointment of a new panel member just a day earlier. But that required the Panel for Educational Policy to approve an extension of the city’s contract with the company that provides the entrance exams, at a cost of $1.7 million. Approval seemed like a forgone conclusion when Mayor Bill de Blasio announced earlier this month that the entrance test would continue for one more year. The rejection was an unusual flex for a panel that has little formal authority, is mostly appointed by the mayor, and has acted largely as a rubber stamp for his education policies. ![]() With testing originally scheduled for this spring, it’s unclear how admissions to the city’s gifted and talented programs will move ahead. In an extraordinary rebuke to Mayor Bill de Blasio, a New York City education panel early Thursday morning rejected a testing contract - halting, for now, the controversial practice of testing incoming kindergartners for admission to gifted programs.
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