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Last week our child’s G&T kindergarten class at PS 33 Chelsea Prep held parent-teacher conferences. Our conference went well though it was short — just 10 minutes — so the teacher could meet with every child’s parents. I was pleasantly surprised to receive a detailed report card for our child.

Below is a copy of the actual report card we received for our child (sorry for the poor quality!). I whited out the grades for obvious reasons and I’m not sure if all schools use the same report card, but this will give you an idea of how children in a G&T kindergarten class are evaluated. The grading scale is 1 to 4, with 4 being “exceeds grade-level standards” and 1 being “far below grade-level standards.”

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Last Thursday I participated in the Bright Kids NYC parent information session about OLSAT test prep and general information about the NYC gifted and talented program. Bright Kids NYC is a program that prepares children in pre-K through second grade to take standardized tests.

I sat on the G&T panel and answered questions from prospective G&T parents. Along with three other parents, there were also two teachers on the panel — one who teaches gifted and talented students and another who actually proctored the OLSAT and BRSA tests for several years. Bige Doruk, founder of Bright Kids, gave a presentation beforehand.

About 40 parents attended the session scheduled from 6:30 to 8 p.m. After it was all said and done we didn’t get out of session until after 9 p.m. due to the high interest and interaction amongst audience members! (more…)

As promised, here are my top 10 suggestions for the Department of Education’s future gifted and talented information sessions:

1. There should be a “first come, first seated” policy on seating. When it’s full don’t allow anyone else into the session.
2. Make sure the facility doesn’t get too hot. Parents are already on edge to begin with so the heat during the Manhattan session last week just added to anxiety levels.
3. Start the gifted and talented information sessions later than 6:30 p.m. Many people work until 6 or 7 p.m. so getting to the school in time for the G&T information session by 6:30 p.m. could be difficult for some.
4. Present additional information about the gifted and talented program that people wouldn’t be able to get online.
5. Distribute FAQs at the beginning of the meeting so parents can review those questions and answers during the presentation.
6. Hold audience Q&A at the end and have people line up on the side for their questions. There should be a microphone to speak into so everyone can hear the questions instead of the presenter shouting and repeating the question to the audience.
7. For any answers available online refer parents to online instead of addressing those questions.
8. Conduct more gifted and talented information sessions in Manhattan and other boroughs.
9. Allow parents who have gone through the gifted and talented testing process with their children give a presentation to the audience.
10. Have the information session as a live webcast or taped webinar. Many people have small children at home and can’t find babysitters during weekdays.

If you attended one of these sessions (or even if you did not), I am interested to know what you think: How could these sessions be improved?

I attended the NYC DOE gifted and talented program session this past Thursday night on the Upper West Side at Brandeis High School (84th and Amsterdam) where hundreds of prospective G&T parents convened. I arrived a bit late due to delays on the 2 train but finally showed up around 7:15 p.m. (the session started at 6:30 p.m.). As I walked into the front entrance droves of people sweating bullets were streaming out the door. At first I thought the information session must be over or maybe the parents suddenly discovered their child wasn’t G&T material after all. To my surprise the mass exodus was due to the amount of people packed like sardines in the auditorium with temperatures that seemed in excess of 80 degrees.

Parents leaving in masses during the middle of the presentation due to the heat and crowding.

As I trotted into the auditorium with my camera swaying around my neck the presenter from the DOE gave a PowerPoint presentation to the audience. I didn’t catch her name since I showed up late for the session. The flow of the presentation seemed a bit choppy as audience members randomly shouted out questions with really no crowd control in place for the questions. Finally the presenter told everyone to keep their questions to the end of the presentation and the crowd gave a small ovation to the request. (more…)

The New York Times had an interesting article this week about the new Speyer Legacy School, a private school catering to gifted and talented children where annual tuition is a meager $28,500 for kindergarten. I suppose some people think there’s a need for such a program in the competitive world of gifted and talented but there still remains that nagging question: What exactly is “gifted and talented”?

Yes, that’s a loaded question and depending on whom you ask you’ll probably get a different response from everyone.  I’ve heard G&T defined by some parents as “every child is gifted and talented” while other parents claim “only the top 1% of the top 1% (.0001) are considered gifted and talented.” My guess is most people define gifted and talented somewhere in between.

As far as the NYC goes, the DOE defines gifted and talented extremely narrowly: by OLSAT and BSRA scores alone. Is this fair? (more…)

NYC Gifted and Talented Information Session Reminder Postcard

In the mail yesterday we received the notice below from the NYC DOE reminding us about the gifted and talented program information sessions that began yesterday in the Bronx. I’m sure there were many parents in the Bronx who would have liked to attend but didn’t get their notice until it was too late. Hopefully those parents can attend the sessions in the other boroughs over the next week.

Before I started posting to GothamSchools, I polled readers of my blog to find out parents’ perspectives on test prepping their child for the OLSAT to get into the NYC gifted and talented program. I must admit, I was a little suprised so many parents voted they’d be fine if others found out they test prepped their child. But there’s still a good chunk of parents who claim they’d never test prep their child at all. 

Here’s the question I asked: Would you tell anyone if you prepped your child for the OLSAT test for gifted and talented program?

And here are the results I found:

• 56% – If someone asked, I’d be more than happy to tell them but I wouldn’t broadcast it. (more…)

The DOE just posted the gifted and talented handbook on the NYC Dept. of Ed site.  You can now apply online for the gifted and talented testing.

This past week we visited our child’s gifted and talented class at PS 33 Chelsea Prep for a parents meeting with the teachers and principal. The school staff conducted the meeting in a very organized, professional and informative way. They addressed all of our questions and we had the opportunity to chat with other parents we haven’t met before.

The principal stood before us and explained the expectations of parents for the gifted and talented program. I have to admit, the expectations are extremely high for parent involvement but I prefer that than low expectations. Principal Lindy told us about the aggressive math and reading curriculum along with the levels our kindergartner will be expected to learn. The principal went on to tell us she secured a special instructor in robotics for the students! The school scheduled a robotics expert to come into the class on a regular basis to teach the children the fundamentals of robotics. Each child prepares their own project to learn the mechanics and creativity of robotics. Needless to say, we were shocked (in a good way) this type of experiential learning will be available for our kindergartner. (more…)

I’ve been religiously checking every day and the NYC DOE just posted gifted and talented testing dates and information sessions for this year.

I’ll be attending a couple of the sessions to evaluate the format and gauge interest in this program. I’ll post my evaluations of these meetings and I invite you to do the same.

Here’s a brief summary of the upcoming dates, taken from the DOE’s site: (more…)