Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Katz was no help

From the Queens Courier:

Whitestone and Flushing parents were sent back to the drawing board after meeting with Borough President Melinda Katz to discuss their desire to create a gifted and talented program for middle schools in the northern and central Queens area.

Lisa Fusco and a growing number of parents are building a case for the creation of gifted and talented programs for middle schools in their district. During a meeting with Katz and education officials on Wednesday, the parents were told that the district’s superintendent was the only one with the power to extend the program from its limited elementary school reach to middle school.

“They’re giving us the run around,” Fusco said. “We’ve spoken to [Superintendent Danielle Di Mango] before and that hasn’t gotten us anywhere. We’ve tried everything else.”

Mango declined a request for comment.

Fusco’s fourth-grade daughter is enrolled in the gifted and talented program in P.S. 79 and — unlike in many other school districts — the program does not continue into middle school within District 25, which covers most of central and northern Queens. Neighboring districts 26 and 30 provide the program to students in middle school. More than 150 parents have signed a petition to bring the program into their middle schools in places like Flushing and Whitestone.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe the UFT is against this program?

Anonymous said...

What the parents really want is NOT to have their kids kicked out of the "gifted and talented" program. Once admitted, the kids can't be transferred to a normal class if their kids were determined not to be "gifted". The G&T is a test that is first given before entering Kindergarten. Obviously there are many problems in determining if your kid is gifted by giving a test with some puzzles.
In middle school, there are SP classes for the advanced students. To determine if you qualify for those, you have to consistently show on standardized tests that you are smart, not just that they passed a test that one time before they started kindergarten.
What they should demand is that they issue the gifted and talented test every year in every grade and weed out the ungifted. The ungifted will actually slow the class room down because they can't keep up with the advanced work. It's also not good for young kids to think they are failures if they can't do their work. They were normal, not "gifted".

Jon Torodash said...

Why would the UFT stand against a gifted and talented program? I am pretty certain that if the superintendent belongs to a union, it would be the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, along with the principals, APs, and anyone who would actually have budgetary discretion.

Why so quick to jump on teachers?

Anonymous said...

What exactly is this gifted and talented program it sounds "stealthy" Is it singing & dancing ?

If so the taxpayer should not be paying for it or any other useless liberal arts crap. The days of an artist being "discovered" and paid are long gone. They build them now.

Anonymous said...

"What exactly is this gifted and talented program it sounds "stealthy" Is it singing & dancing ? "



The gifted and talented program certainly isn't for people who post suspiciously because they're too lazy to use google:

http://schools.nyc.gov/ChoicesEnrollment/GiftedandTalented/default.htm

Anonymous said...

This program is not fair because the 1000s of "new immigrant kids" being shipped to NYC to be educated are illiterate in any language. They will NEVER make the list let alone pass score standards already in place. G&T is "discrimination" To add both local and federal government want all future American voters dumb, subservient and in need.

Anonymous said...

This program is not fair because the 1000s of "new immigrant kids" being shipped to NYC to be educated are illiterate in any language. They will NEVER make the list let alone pass score standards already in place. G&T is "discrimination" To add both local and federal government want all future American voters dumb, subservient and in need.

G&T is a chance to shield the brightest pupils from the third world hordes invading the school system, the welfare class that doesn't care about education, and the majority that pulls the class to the mean.

Anonymous said...

Too many white and Asian kids in the neighborhood.
You have to have kids of a brown and black complexion to have a gifted program or else it's discriminatory.

Anonymous said...

""shield the brightest pupils from the third world""

Its not not going to happen ! The system wants the brightest dimmed down (or dead and buried)
As in: Anybody that can think for themselves dead, buried or knocked out of the loop anyway possible!!
The President, Mayor, Governor and all your elected democrats want it this way !! Why cant people finally open their eyes and accept this fact YOU ARE BEING SCREWED BY YOUR ELECTED !!

ASIANS: The average 12 year old Asian student is far smarter then the average Queens elected. Asian kids are a real threat to the Democrat agenda yearning to dim everybody down into a single "equal" class that's easily managed with the same needs (equal)
America and large sanctuary city's have gone to total hell we are in the toilet !!!!

Anonymous said...

Those caring parents need to get together with the Asians (who value education and children's safety) and create a private school.
Public education is is slated to the toilet 3rd word standards. Its a done deal with no stopping it in sight. Kids would be in the 3rd grade forever with overcrowding 10X worse unless substantial "dimming" is implemented. To add: Whites and Asians are an unimportant 25% minority in America come 2030 so nobody cares.

Anonymous said...

Too many white and Asian kids in the neighborhood.
You have to have kids of a brown and black complexion to have a gifted program or else it's discriminatory.

----------------------

winner winner chicken dinner.

You have to make the classes exactly equal in all races, and perfectly 50/50 by sex, or you will face tens of thousands of lawsuits and protest marches.

Anonymous said...

Hipsters,hipsters, hipsters!
Also,WHIPPING POST!!!

Anonymous said...

The only time that alley Katz could be helpful is if she dropped to her knees when I need to take a quick pee.