Pittsburgh Public plans to test students for 'gifted' eligibility
It’s no secret that students of color are not proportionally represented in the number of Pittsburgh students who are tested and classified as “gifted.”
It’s something that education advocates have called out for years, and a fact that was highlighted early in 2017 in a comprehensive review of the district by the Council of Great City Schools that found that black students in Pittsburgh were only half as likely as white students to be enrolled in gifted and talented programs.
But Pittsburgh Public Schools administrators want to do something about it, as they plan a roll-out of a pilot program that would screen all second-grade students at six schools to identify candidates for formal gifted testing.
If successful, the program would be expanded to the roughly 2,000 second-grade students enrolled in the district, making Pittsburgh Public one of a growing number of school districts across the country to implement universal gifted screening.
“My hope is to gather information and see if this is a tool we can use for best practices in our district,” said Kashif Henderson, the district coordinator for K-12 gifted and talented students. “Before we commit to something we must learn through information gathered first. We've been at this for a while. It has been a really extensive process on our end with a lot of voices at the table.”
Pending approval by the school board later this month, the pilot would screen all second-grade students at Arlington PreK-8, Banksville K-5, Mifflin PreK-8, Langley K-8, Arsenal PreK-5 and Brookline PreK-8.
Read more in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Pittsburgh Public plans to test students for 'gifted' eligibility.