Schools Ask: Gifted or Just Well-Prepared?

Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times

Natalie Viderman, 4, was tutored at Bright Kids NYC for an assessment test. 

Assessing students has always been a fraught process, especially 4-year-olds who are vying for increasingly precious seats in kindergarten gifted programs.  In New York, it has now become an endless contest in which administrators seeking authentic measures of intelligence find it difficult to keep ahead of companies who aim to bring out the genius in every young child.

The city’s leading private schools are even considering doing away with the test they have used for decades, popularly known as the E.R.B..

For the 2012-13 school year, nearly 5,000 children qualified for gifted and talented kindergarten seats in New York City public schools. That was more than double the number five years ago. Last year, the Education Department said it would change one of the tests used for admission to public school gifted kindergarten and first-grade classes and focus more on cognitive ability.  Test prep companies leapt to action, printing new books tailored to the new test and organizing classes.

Natalie Viderman, 4, spent an hour and a half each week for six months at Bright Kids NYC, a tutoring company, working on skills like spatial visualization and serial reasoning, which are part of the new test. She and her mother, Victoria Preys, also worked every night on general learning, test prep and workbooks.

“It is my philosophy that if you can get more help, why not?” Ms. Preys said. She prepared her son the same way and he benefited, she said.

“Every time these tests change, there’s a lot of demand,” Bige Doruk of Bright Kids, said. She said she did not accept the argument that admissions tests had been invalidated by test prep. “Parents will always do what they can for their children,” she said.  And not all children who take preparation courses do well, she said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/18/nyregion/new-york-city-schools-struggle-to-separate-the-gifted-from-the-just-well-prepared.html?smid=pl-share&_r=0

Question 1. Indicate whether these sentences are true or false. Justify your answers with evidence from the text.

a)  The E.R.B is a new test.

b) The number of children in New York who pass the gifted public school tests rose by 50% in just one year.

c)  Victoria was taught only by her mother.

d)  Tutoring companies have more work when the authorities modify their tests.

Question 2. Answer the following questions in your own words.

a)       What different ways of preparing children for the tests are mentioned?

b)       How does Ms Preys react to the criticisms made of people who prepare young children for the tests?

Question 3. Find a word or a phrase in the text that means the same as:

a) to complete (para. 1)

b) designed for (para. 3)

c) logic (para.3)

Question 4. Rewrite the following sentences without changing the meaning.

a) “It is my philosophy that if you can get more help, why not?” Ms. Preys said.

      Ms. Preys said that it …………….

b)   Administrators seeking authentic measures of intelligence find it difficult to keep ahead of companies who aim to bring out the genius in every young child.

      Although administrators try to keep ahead ……….., they …………………. do so.

c) The city’s leading private schools are even considering doing away with the test they have used for decades.

     Doing away with the test which   ……………………….... is even ……………………

Question 5. Write a short essay (120-150 words) on the following topic:

“Exams are the best way to test someone’s knowledge.”  Discuss.