Public Pre-K: Closing the Gifted and Talented Opportunity Gap for Racial/Ethnic and Other Demographic Subgroups

• In Event: Roundtable Session 10
  In Roundtable Session: Public Early Childhood Education: Policy and Equity Considerations

Abstract

The New York City Department of Education G&T Programs aim to support all children of exceptional learning potential with more challenging opportunities than those offered by more traditional school options. Using proprietary data by the NYC DOE, we find substantial disparities in the rates of G&T admission test-taking across race/ethnicity, income, gender, age, and language subgroups, and by family, borough, and neighborhood characteristics, undermining one of the important aims of such programs, equal access. As a potential countervailing factor, we find that these observed disparities are reduced significantly for those who attend public Pre-K, suggesting that public Pre-K could be helping to play a role in ameliorating the gaps in test-taking by providing greater access to information about G&T test-taking.

Authors

• Ying Lu, New York University

• Sharon L. Weinberg, New York University