There is a real hot housing issue, but I hate to call it hot housing. Parents of more educated and financially well off homes tend to work with their children, playing with ABCs, puzzles, counting to 10 books as a matter of what you do with your baby and toddler.
The whole OLSAT saga began with the Dept of Justice threatening to sue the DOE because it was getting influential at the top gifted schools so they had to get an easy to administer test, that was not too costly, and then all top scoring kids go into a lottery for the most desirable schools. Hence why we got the 2nd choice in our district because there were only 2 spots open for grade 1 in the school we wanted.
And even if a spot opens up, they won't give it to us but to someone who may move into NYC over the summer and test and qualify. It is ridiculous.
So if you go with Val's suggestion, you would require all kinds of "gifted" programs on the west side where 1/3 qualify for the top gifted schools and some districts in the Bronx where no one qualifies and you cannot fill a class in some neighborhoods.
Ren
