Advancing Equity With Policy

Across the country, school districts are using academic tracking as a tool to tailor instruction to students’ perceived ability. These tracking systems sort students into high, middle, or low academic paths as early as elementary or middle school. On paper, academic tracking promises a fix to student scores backsliding since the COVID-19 pandemic (NAEP, 2024) by offering advanced learners accelerated coursework while providing targeted support to others. However, in practice, academic tracking often acts as a gatekeeper as it may reinforce existing inequities, limit opportunity, and curb student educational aspirations before they have the chance to flourish. Several districts and states are revising their approach to academic tracking through implementing polices including but not limited to revisions to their admissions process, enacting automatic enrollment to advanced coursework, and providing expanded access to advanced coursework. 

New York City has recently shifted its approach to admissions in gifted and talented programs.  Historically, access to the gifted and talented programs was controlled through selective admissions processes, but had stark disparities along racial and socioeconomic lines. For example, during the 2018–2019 school year, 70% of NYC public school students were Black and Latino, but 75% of gifted and talented students were White and Asian (New York City Independent Budget Office, 2021). At the kindergarten, elementary, middle, and high school levels, New York City has had a long-standing reliance on a single standardized admissions test, which disproportionately favored families with greater access to test preparation and early enrichment opportunities. (New York City Department of Education, 2023).

As the admissions process excluded capable students from historically marginalized communities without test preparation opportunities, New York City redesigned its gifted and talented admissions process. In 2021, the Panel for Educational Policy, the New York City equivalent to a school board, voted against the traditional gifted and talented program admissions test in favor of a teacher-nomination process for that year’s admissions, moving away from reliance on standardized testing (NYC DOE, 2023). This shift was intended to broaden the pool of students considered for advanced learning opportunities. As a result, there was an increase in the number of Black and Hispanic students admitted after the admissions test was removed in 2020. From 2020 to 2021, the gifted and talented program offered to Black students rose from 4%  to 11%, and from 7% to 13% for Hispanic students. (The Century Foundation, 2022). While disparities still persisted, this policy change showcased that revising admissions frameworks improved equitable access to advanced programs. 

New York City then expanded the availability of gifted and talented programs across the five boroughs. In the 2022–2023 school year, the city added 100 kindergarten seats and 1,000 new seats for third-grade students. The city also ensured that every community school district had at least one gifted and talented program to reduce the geographic disparities that had previously limited access for students in under-resourced neighborhoods (The Century Foundation, 2022). In the 2023–24 academic year, the admissions processes were further refined by dividing the kindergarten applicants into two groups. Students who were enrolled in NYC DOE pre-K centers or charter schools were evaluated holistically by their teachers. In contrast, students outside of the charter school or DOE system were assessed through interviews conducted by experts from the DOE’s Division of Childhood Education. If a student applied after kindergarten, admission was determined based on family choices, program seat availability, and established admissions priorities instead of the single test score used in years prior. (NYC DOE, 2023) 

While a transition away from single test scores should increase equity in these programs, Grissom & Redding (2016) noted that Black students assigned to non-Black teachers are significantly less likely to be referred for gifted programs. However, students of color were more likely to be referred to gifted programs when taught by same-race teachers, as Black students with Black teachers are 3x more likely to be referred to gifted programs than those with non-Black teachers. As New York City moves toward teacher referrals for its gifted and talented programs, there should also be efforts to diversify the teachers as well. As of the 2022- 2023 school year, New York City Public School teachers were 58% White, 19% Black, 16% Hispanic or Latino, and 7% Asian, compared with the student population being 14% White, 24% Black, 42% Hispanic or Latino, and 17% Asian. Increasing the diversity of the teacher workforce should result in greater representation in gifted programs as well as higher high school and college completion rates, and lower rates of exclusionary discipline for students of color later in their schooling journey. 

In the 23-24 session, the New York State Senate passed three bills: Senate Bill S3385A: Task Force on Educator Diversity, Senate Bill S1192: The Underrepresented Teachers of Tomorrow Program, and Senate Bill S1988: Diversity and Empowerment Convention. These three bills will create a task force to study the impacts of diversity and recommend solutions, develop recruitment programs to recruit and retain minority and bilingual educators, and establish conventions for underrepresented educators. (New York Senate, 2024) New York City’s adjustments to its gifted and talented programs, from eliminating testing to expanding teacher nominations and geographic access, indicate a political will to grant every student, regardless of their background, an opportunity to succeed. When combined with the state-wide efforts to increase teacher diversity, equity in the gifted and talented programs is expected to continue increasing in the coming years. The coordination between states and districts in New York should be a model for a political framework to increase equity in academic tracking across the country.