... How do we pit that kid against a 97th all around? ... I see why parents are going nuts with this.
Please consider not accepting things as they are: a limited number of seats for advanced academics, combined with a competitive, divide-and-conquer, winner-take-all mentality.
Economics teaches that there is market stability when supply=demand.
Instead of parents accepting that there is a limited supply of seats for gifted education and/or advanced academics, parents can unite and request seats be re-purposed from gen ed to advanced academics. This may be a meaningful educational reform: Increase the supply of advanced academic seats to meet the demand. (Here next to the word "demand" I will also add NEED, an important concept discussed earlier on this thread.)
It sounds like NYC needs about 5000 seats converted from general education to teach advanced academics, disbursed throughout the city? Who has a handle on where the qualifying students live, and which neighborhood schools would make the most convenient "magnets" for housing school-within-a-school programs? Does the school district have those figures? Does the media? Is anyone in touch with a school board member who might like to explore the concept, including exploration of gifted resources like Davidson, Hoagies, SENG...? Might there be some 200+ teachers excited to learn about advanced academics, even giftedness, and who would look forward to cluster grouping, acceleration, curriculum compacting, independent study, and more?
Improving access to education is said to be important to social justice. Helping NYC educate its 5000+ well-qualified students who are underserved would surely raise the bar.
