Inequality as Process and Structure: Evidence From New York City's Kindergarten Gifted and Talented Programs

• In Event: Tracking, Labeling, and Sorting

Abstract

New York City’s public schools are among the most segregated in the Nation. In addition to severe housing segregation, NYC’s school segregation stems from the vast array of choices available to families and the stratified and complex system in which those choices are made. This paper explores the earliest stratification process: admissions to highly selective kindergarten gifted and talented (G&T) programs. Using data on almost 400,000 kindergartners, we find tremendous inequality in the types of families whose children participate in the G&T testing process, the results of this testing (and thus the schools to which children have access), as well as the influence G&T results have on family decisions whether to enroll their child in a NYC public school.

Authors

• Douglas Ready, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Elizabeth Park, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Shani Shalev Bretas, Teachers College, Columbia University