NYC Gifted and Talented Program and Testing

Well, it’s that time of year and the NYC gifted and talented school tours have begun! I received this detailed report from a very involved Brooklyn parent who took the time to write down play-by-play during their school tours for the gifted and talented programs in Brooklyn. Thanks so much for this detailed report from this Brooklyn parent!

School name: PS229 Dyker in Brooklyn, New York, NYC DOE district 20. It has a district-wide G&T program.

• Grades in school: K-8, but gifted and talented program ends on 5^th grade. After that, the school offers NYS Regents track in Math (Common Core Algebra) and Science (Living Environment). Since 2012/13 school year they have 8^th grade, which is why on some web sites tis school is still incorrectly identified at K-7. It is K-8 for both General Ed and G&T (for the students currently entering into K).
• School hours for Kindergarten is 8:10 am – 2:30 pm,
• Building and location. The school is located in a new building (feel like a couple of years old), with a large community park with a children’s playground directly across the steet.
• Admissions and available seats. Gifted and Talented Kindergarten class in 2014  – 1 class with 25 kids T, entering K in Fall of 2014. In total, the school has 4-6 classed per grade: 1-G&T, 1- special ed (or co-taught with special ed kids), 3-4 – regular classes. At K level, each of these classes has 25 students. G&T program is district-wide, it admits all kids within the district based on the gifted and talented priority guidelines, regardless of which particular zone your child lives in within district 20.
• This year, the number of G&T spots available in each grade was:
• K – 25 seats
• 1^st grade  – 6 seats
• 2^nd grade – 1 seat
• 3^rd grade – 3 seats
• As a district-wide: Last year’s lowest gifted and talented score for in-district non-siblings, still admitted to the G&T program at this school, was no known to the principal or parent co-ordinator.
• G&T Approach,  curriculum and instruction. G&T class follow the “enrichment” model, which means the same exact Common Core curriculum and schedule as general ed, no acceleration, but rather enrichments. Per Ms Valentine (G&T k teacher), they go on trips a lot (Statue of Liberty, Staten Island, many other places – sounded like almost every month). In-class poetry on Fridays. So, they would go through the standard curriculum faster, with the remaining time left over for trips and other activities (in theory, anyway). Use “leveling” of books – children are bundled into group based on their reading level, each level then is assigned books most appropriate to their reading level.
• In K G&T, there is daily homework, which usually takes about 20- 30 min to complete.
• One teacher per class of 25, no TA’s . This is not a Title 1 school. (in my opinion, having only a single teacher per 25 kids will severely limit the ability of the teacher to customize work to the kids of different knowledge levels).
• The classroom has multiple stations / centers for different activities. The K G&T classroom is large and bright, has several tables each seating 4 students. There is some whole group instruction and some – small groups instruction. No foreign language instruction in the K class.

•  G&T K teacher, Ms Valentine, is G&T certified and worked in this school since 1984.

•  School Uniforms are optional but encouraged. Ibn the current G&T K class, most kids didn’t appear to wear uniforms.

• Physical activity. Gym – once a week. Going outside of the building: in K, it’s not built into the schedule. No going outside during the Fall and Winter, start going outside one a week in the Spring. Go outside into a community park, using small gates to segregate school kids from others playing in the park.

After school programs: there is a free after-school program (by lottery), conducted in-school by an outside agency NIA Community Services network http://www.niabklyn.org/afterschool_launch_page.html ),  with 24 seats for K (out of the 4-6 K classes, each having 25 students). Additionally, there are 12 private fee-based afterschool companies that work with the school, some of which pick up kids at this school:

• Chang’s Learning Center (1661-63 Bath ave)
• Excel 1 – 8640 20^th Ave
• Excel 2 – 7907 New Utrecht ave
• 18 Av NWT – 8004 18^th ave
• Elite Learning Group – 2234 bath ave
• Yoyee Learning center – 1952 86^th st
• Marks JCH of Bensonhurst – 7802 Bay Parkway
• Scholar Zone Learning Center – 1434 86^th st
• Mei Mei Daycare – 6805 14^th ave
• IQ Leaning Center – 123 Ave S
• AmWins Tutoring Center – 6402 8^th Ave suite 229
• Brilliant Minds – 1650 bath ave
• Dyker Excel Tutoring – 6717 11^th Ave

Observations: In the current K class, about 70% of the kids appeared Asian, most others appeared white.

I observed about 15 minutes of whole class reading instruction in the class – the teacher was holding up one card at a time with one word written on it,  then would read the word aloud and the kids would, altogether (all 20+ kids), say out loud  the first sound of that word. I was a little turned off by this – the exercise seem way too simple for my son’s reading revel (he reads about two grades ahead, as do many of the other G&T kids). Mind you, this was in the current K class (close to the end of their K school year). This type of activity feel to be more appropriate for my 3-year olds, so I am a little worried if the instruction level is rigorous enough for strong G&T students.

The Kindergarten class proceeded to have lunch at 10:30 am (seemed a little early).