NYC Gifted and Talented Program and Testing

Well, it looks like one of the unforeseen consequences of the NYC universal pre-K program is that it causes more talented tots to qualify for a seat in the ultra competitive NYC gifted and talented program. According to a study in Educational Researcher 4-year-olds who attend a preschool are 4.8 times more likely to get a qualified score for the competitive NYC G&T program. The findings shouldn’t be very surprising since early education initiatives would have a direct impact on not only overall performance but also how the child takes direction from a teacher. Since the OLSAT test requires listening from the child, any child who is in pre-K would have an advantage by more likely having to develop listening skills since they are in a classroom setting. Hopefully by all children attending universal pre-K in lower income areas these children will now be able to perform better on the G&T test. Plus parents in these areas will be more likely to know about the NYC gifted and talented program since the pre-K teachers will hopefully tell parents about the program.

Here’s the full article>