I live far far away from NYC, so I'm not familiar with the school system (I have some vague familiarity with the schools because I have a few relatives with children who live in Manhattan plus I am familiar with neighborhoods etc because I've spent a lot of time visiting :))... anyway, I'm curious about a few things. First, I'm guessing that only the kids who's parents opt to have their kids tested for gifted programs are being tested - is that what's happening? Are there any outreach programs in the poorer neighborhoods aimed at identifying underrepresented groups?
My other question is re the 90th percentile cutoff - if that's the arbitrary number chosen (90th percentile) for entry, the school district should be able to guesstimate how many children 90% of the current student enrollment represents. Let's just say that there are 1000 children in school district X, so 10 percent of 1000 is 100. Then let's say your gifted program only has enough seats for 50. Wouldn't the program be better and the children be better served if the cutoff for admission was moved to 95th percentile? I know that's simplistic in thinking, but just curious!
polarbear
