NYC Department Of Education Gifted & Talented Program Presentation At Roosevelt Island PS/IS 217 - Here's What Happened At January 12 CB 8 Meeting

Image From NYC G&T Community Forum Presentation

Manhattan Community Board 8's (CB 8) Youth & Education Committee together with the Roosevelt Island Committee hosted a presentation on the NYC Department of Education (DOE) Gifted and Talented (G&T) program last Monday evening, January 12, at PS/IS 217. According to CB 8:

Presentation by Principal Beckman, PS/IS 217 Roosevelt Island and Daniel Hildreth, Office of Student Enrollment, NYC DOE:

Discussion of the Gifted and Talented Program such as what the standards for admission are and the timing of applications, programming, etc.

Here's what happened.

Part 1. Introduction by CB 8's Youth & Education Committee Co-Chairs Hattie Quarnstrom and Judith Schneider of NYC BOE's Daniel Hildreth, PS/IS 217 Principal Mandana Beckman and PS/IS 217 G&T Testing Coordinator Ursala Fokine.



Part 2. An overview of the G&T application process from beginning to end and questions from parents on subjects including:

• city wide and district admissions eligibility,
• sibling and district priority,
• testing and note taking and
• bilingual test taking (not available at PS/IS 217 unless child is already in English Second Language program at PS/IS 217)

Part 3.

• transferring from one G&T program location to another,
• kindergarten placement and
• over subscribed placement lottery.

There is no guarantee of G&T placement even if child is eligible based upon test scores.



Part 4.

• PS/IS 217 Principal Mandana Beckman discussed PS/IS 217 Gifted & Talented Program,
• size of classes,
• interaction between G&T and general education classes,
•  placement of twins and
• a discussion of District 30 Queens students placement in the Roosevelt Island G&T program.

Part 5.

• child testing preparation and procedures,
• PS/IS 217 tries to make the test as unstressful as possible,
• Pre Kindergarten program (will there be a full time program at PS/IS 217 - not decided yet), 
• improvements at PS/IS 217 and 
• involvement of PTA

Part 6. Involvement of Cornell Tech at PS/IS 217.



Here's more information on NYC G&T Program,

Presentation From NYC Board Of Education

PS/IS 217 and the PS/IS 217 PTA.

Also,  as previously reported, for more info check out the Roosevelt Island Parents' Network Choosing A Kindergarten workshop as well as the January 16 and January 27 family PS/IS 217

Kindergarten Tour.