The School Diversity Advisory Group (SDAG) created to resolve “inequality issues” released a report that is now causing a stir among the “more gifted students”. The panel recommended to get rid of the “gifted and talented screening” and replace it with “equitable enrichment alternatives with the belief that all students deserve to be challenged.”
Inequality has been a severe global issue based on the actuality that some people appeared more privileged than others.
New York City has had a reputation of having a broad range of “gifted and talented” programs for students. Statistics have, however, revealed that this approach favors Asian or white students, and this instigated the inequality issue.
An outrage was inevitable in New York’s Stuyvesant High School after just seven (7) black learners were admitted in a freshman class comprising of eight hundred and ninety-five (895) students.
This is despite the fact that Hispanic and black students comprise about seventy percent (70%) of New York’s school structure.
Inequality is, therefore, suspected because only ten percent (10%) of these students get admitted to schools that are selective.
Inequality prompted by selective schools
Gifted-and-talented programs and selective schools have been criticized for “instigating inequality”.
As a result, in 2017, Bill de Blasio, New York’s Mayor, crafted an investigative team to find out the remedy of this problem.
Additionally, a recent report by the School Diversity Advisory Group (SDAG), made recommendations that the scrutinizing structures ought to be eliminated in New York.
The SDAG also stipulated that the notion of gifted and talented ought to be replaced with equitable enrichment alternatives. The members believed that all learners ought to be challenged so that their optimal potential can be attained.
Inequality in the education system
The SDAG asserted that some of its proposals would irk families and students from white and Asian groups.
Asian families have apparently gone out of their way by investing heavily on academic after-school initiatives and thus, escaped New York’s struggling public schools through admission to the gifted and talented programs.
The SDAG proposal of banning gifted-and-talented programs follows the approach taken by various Maryland highs schools of eradicating standard courses and placing all learners in honors classes.
Standard classes are comprised of Hispanic and Black students, whereas honors ones had Asian and white students.
Inequality is an issue that ought to be addressed in the US education structure. For instance, a recent study revealed that one thousand (1,000) district schools in the US segregate based on income and race.
