Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Regions NYC area?

Anyone in the NYC area?

Yes.

We used to live in Riverdale area. DS7 (2e) went to a special needs pre-k in Manhattan near Lincoln Ctr.

I'd be interested to hear if anyone has any advice about the NYC G&T schools and if they're appropriate for HG/PG kids. We don't live near any city-wide schools. The district-wide schools accept the top10%, so I'm kind of doubting that they would be a good fit for my DD, but I really don't know. She is in a "good" private school right now. She is only 4 and we haven't done any testing yet. She is reading at about a 4th grade level. She learns and teaches me things she reads, especially science topics. She discovered multiplication a few months ago. We just signed up for dreambox, and in less than a week, she has completed K and is 1/3 done with grade 1. I don't know when her progress will slow down with the program. She is not way ahead with writing. She hates sounding out words; she just wants to spell correctly. She is probably about middle to end grade K or early grade 1 with writing. Her handwriting is not fabulous either. There are several HG/PG people in our family (all those who have been tested have scored in this range), and she is way ahead of where they were at this age.

We're thinking testing at this point would be a good idea.

Any advice out there? Any social or support groups you know of? Friends for DD would be awesome. I don't want to be too specific here about our exact location, but PM me if it would be relevant.

Thank you!

I don't know the area but one of the benefits of a tester might be guidance in finding friends and school possibilities. Physically sitting in classrooms and observing what goes on is a great help. Testing is key if you are considering an early enterence or starting in 1st grade instead of Kindy. Is homeschooling a possibility? Look for local coops for homeschooling.

I would suggest trying the Handwriting without tears books and materials, in a fun, relaxed way. When dealing with schools on can't expect them to notice and appreciate deep thinking. It is easier for them to notice a kid who needs a personalized path if she is even across the board. Thinking outside the box is very unusual for trainer professionals. You stand a better chance of being 'seen' if you can package her as some understandable variant of what they are familiar with.

It might be more workable to look fir a good and flexible school than for a school that actually fits

So much to think about. Thanks, Grinity. Her school has identified her as gifted, but I'm concerned that she might be pretty different from other gifted students they are familiar with. Her music teacher said she'd never met another student like her.

I think maybe we should test so we all have a better idea of what her needs are.

Onion
There are differing opinions on the citywides - some say that they arent good for EG and PG because they cater to MG/HG. Our experience has been that it has been the best outcome for our DS as of right now DS is in 1st. The more advanced your kid is the more likely you shouldn't look for long term solutions. Things working now might not work in 2 years.

. The regular GTs are enriched not necessarily accelerated although they might work faster. depending on your district those classes could have the same testing population as the citywides because of how many have 99s. If you have a class of 99s in a regular gifted program it will be better for your DD in that she will more likely have friends who at least understand what she is talking about. However, a regular GT without that kind of population would likely not work, as she will have pretty different needs from someone scoring 90 on the test. (I am using last years scoring, it might be different from this year forward because they changed the test)

In DS citywide, they differentiate for all kids by reading, are working 1 to 2 years ahead ahead in math and the other subjects. But there is a wide range of skills in terms of reading writing and math. And they accommodate it brilliantly and best, they move quickly overall and throughout the day so the typical boredom that gifted kids get doesn't appear. With DS we are comfortable in that he is happy, loves school, enjoys what they are doing. It doesn't come close to giving him what he needs but it's been ok because he is learning to like things he is not necessarily interested in. He is learning to work. He is learning to persevere at things not easy for him, which are few but significant. They are trying to accommodate him in some areas, and that's been good just that they have been willing. I am probably unusual in that I don't think he has to be learning in a classroom at the level he is capable of in all subjects. What was important to me was that he had teachers who got him, friends who didn't think he was strange and he wasn't bored all the time. Some of the time I think is ok.

My DS would not have survived in a regular classroom, or regular GT classroom unless a lot of differentiation. We would have had to look for other options. The long travel time and other inconveniences was worth it for us. And he does a lot of learning outside the classroom, but that's like breathing for him!

DeHe

I don't think the NYC g/t program is equipped for eg/pg or 2e kids, personally. Or divergent, creative students. Most are aimed at mg/hg kids; there's very little for 2e kids.

Personally, I'd be reluctant to place a pg kid in NYC's g/t program. I think they can deal with a child who is maybe a grade or two above level, but when you start talking 4+ years above level across three or more subjects then the situation changes and becomes quite different.

By all means, you could always try out the public/private schools and see what happens. At the end of the day, you can always homeschool if things don't work out. I know a former neighbor who pulled her son from Anderson to homeschool and it's been working out well for them last I heard.

DS7 has been in two private gifted schools here in MA, but he didn't last long at either one and is now homeschooling. DS needed more accommodation and radical acceleration than these schools could provide. I don't think the situation is too dissimilar across the country. However, it can vary widely depending on the child, teacher, school, curriculum, other students, etc. There's a lot of variables and more with each deviation from the norm it seems.

I missed this topic. There is Speyer, though it isn't cheap. And Hunter. But it depends on the personality for Hunter. They like them introverted.

The problem with NYC is that there are so many kids that test 99th percentile (OLSAT) all those kids vie for the spots so it comes down to lottery. I tried for 3 years and one summer I pushed and pushed but the lottery number was too low. But DD did get into a top district G&T and I used CTY for math on the side. At school, they offered chess, computer lab, Spanish. And she also got Sat school in Chinese. The class is mostly 99th percentile so there is a decent dialogue.

Speyer is going to give you a better fit but you pay for it. My problem is that DD has an end of Sept bday. All private schools, including Speyer, wanted to put her in a grade lower because of the 9/1 cut-off. She is in grade 3 because public schools have a 12/31 cut-off. So I wasn't going to pay 35K for Speyer and have her a grade lower.

We are now moving to Toronto, I got her into the gifted (not super great) public for grade 4 and then I will do a homeschool year of combined 5&6 and then put her into U of Toronto high school that starts in 7th and is a top gifted school. And Hunter high school really works for pg.

Your post is from a while back, but since no one answered...Citywides in theory take the top 3% (not 10%, that's district programs), but there are nowhere near enough seats for that, so it's a lottery among the top 1%. A sibling of a child already in the school can get a seat with a top 3% score, called the sibling preference. Plenty of kids in the top 3% are in the district programs or even gen ed due to lack of space in these programs.