NYC Gifted and Talented Program and Testing

The NYC department of education just posted the G&T handbooks for the 2011 – 2012 school year. It looks like the OLSAT test and Bracken will still be used (at least for this year) as the tests for entranced into the New York City gifted and talented program for kindergarten, first grade, second grade and third grade. Depending on the age of your child, the Otis-Lennon portion will be the OLSAT Level A (pre-K and Kindergarten), OLSAT Level B (1st grade) or OLSAT Level C (2nd grade). Make sure you go to TestingMom.com to get 50 free sample practice questions for the test.

You can also get all the juice from the DOE web site for handbooks which are pretty much the same as previous years but good to review for a refresher if you have it read it in a awhile.

If you’re totally new to this process for gifted and talented program in NYC, then you might find the parents information sessions somewhat useful. Keep in mind, these sessions historically have covered the same exact material in the handbooks from the Dept. of Ed. web site.

Here are some important dates you’ll need to know along with dates/times of information sessions starting next week:

• September 26, 2011     Families begin submitting the Request for Testing (RFT) Forms
• October 28, 2011      Deadline to submit Request for Testing (RFT) Forms
• October 2011     Gifted and Talented Parent Information Sessions – see flyer for dates and locations
• January 3 – February 10, 2012 – Current K-2 Public School Students, OLSAT/BSRA testing at school sites
• January 7, 8, 14, 15, 21, 22, 28 & 29, 2012; February 4 & 5, 2012
• Current DOE Pre-K Students and Non-Public School Students OLSAT/BSRA testing at selected sites
• Mid-April 2012         Score reports and applications with available G&T sites communicated to eligible students
• April 20, 2012     Applications due
• Week of May 21, 2012     Placement offers communicated to families
• Week of June 4, 2012     Deadline for families to accept/decline placement offer

 Parents Information Sessions Starting Next Week

• Manhattan, October 5, 2011, 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m., Brandeis High School, 145 West 84th Street
• Bronx, October 12, 2011, 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m., Theodore Roosevelt Educational Campus, 500 East Fordham Road
• Staten Island, October 6, 2011, 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m., New Dorp High School, 465 New Dorp Lane
• Brooklyn, October 18, 2011, 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m., MS 113 Ronald Edmonds Learning Center, 300 Adelphi Street
• Queens, October 11, 2011, 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m., Long Island City High School, 14-30 Broadway
• Bronx, October 19, 2011, 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m., P.S. 121 Throop, 2750 Throop Avenue

If you have questions, please email me at skipper646@gmail.com to get free sample OLSAT questions or to get my G&T newsletter list. Thanks – Michael