DOE Explores Plan to Create Citywide Gifted and Talented Program in Northeast Queens

The city is collecting data and input from northeast Queens parents to determine whether it will create a citywide Gifted and Talented program at Bayside’s P.S. 188, a city Department of Education spokeswoman said.

Amanda Cahn, of the DOE’s division of portfolio planning, stopped by the Community District Education Council 26’s monthly meeting last night to discuss a proposal to create a citywide program at either P.S. 188, which is zoned as a District 26 school, or Queens Village’s P.S. 18 in 2012.

But parents of local Gifted and Talented students said a citywide program in northeast Queens would leave the district with fewer seats.

“It’s a tough pill for me to swallow as a property owner and as a parent of a student at P.S. 188,” resident Michelle Cespedes said. “I have a major problem with a citywide Gifted and Talented program.”

Under the program, Gifted and Talented students already at the school would remain at P.S. 188 until completing fifth grade. To gain entry into the program, students must score in the 97^th percentile.

The DOE originally planned to create the program this year, but the agency has pushed the plan back for one to allow time to speak to parents and educators.

“We have not made a decision and we’re not making a decision today,” Cahn said. “If we come out of this saying, ‘No, this is not a better way to serve the community,’ then we won’t do it.”

She said the DOE’s criteria for creating a citywide program includes the quality of the school in which it would be located as well as the existence of an established program in the district.

The school would also need to be centrally located and have enough space for the program.

Cahn said there is currently enough demand to open a first grade Gifted and Talented program at P.S. 188. But the agency is still continuing to look at P.S. 18.

“We don’t necessarily see convincing data that suggest P.S. 18 is a citywide option,” she said.

Janet Caraisco, P.S. 188’s principal, has said a chief concern was among parents with more than one child who already have a student in the Gifted and Talented program.

These parents are concerned whether they would have to drop their children off at separate schools in the morning should their second child get shut out of the program.

The education council also passed a resolution to oppose a city plan that would create new tests for students that would be used to evaluate teachers.

“It’s a waste of money and time,” said Robert Caloras, the CDEC 26’s president of the tests. “And it’s basing teacher evaluations on a test that has no scientific or sociological basis.”

Matt Mittenthal, a spokesman for the city’s Department of Education, said the tests could count as much as a classroom assignment, a typical test or not at all.