Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Manhattan's District 2 Tops List for Gifted and Talented Seats

NEW YORK — More children in Manhattan's District 2 applied for and got into gifted and talented programs this year than in any other part of the city, according to data released Tuesday.

District 2 — which stretches from TriBeCa to the Upper East Side but excludes the Lower East Side and East Village — saw 1,784 4-year-olds take the hour-long gifted and talented test this year, hundreds more than in any other district, the Department of Education numbers show.

More than half of those District 2 preschoolers passed the gifted test, and 533 of them received a gifted and talented kindergarten offer at the end of last month, according to the DOE.

Second in line was the Upper West Side's District 3, which saw 990 preschoolers take the gifted and talented test and 300 receive a kindergarten gifted seat.

Other districts where many children won a kindergarten gifted seat included southwest Brooklyn's District 20 and north central Queens' District 25.

In all, 3,403 preschoolers across the city won a spot in a kindergarten gifted and talented program this year, up from 2,747 last year and 2,515 in 2010, according to the DOE.

While many more youngsters also took the gifted and talented qualifying test this year compared to previous years, the rate of students who pass the test is on the rise, partly because parents are working harder to prepare their kids, experts said.

The DOE is making changes to the gifted and talented test next year that will make it harder, test preparation companies said.

Families that received a gifted and talented offer for the fall of 2012 and want to accept it must preregister their child by June 5.