Nate starts kindergarten next year and we currently have no idea where he will attend. We are zoned for PS 84, but have not heard particularly good things about the school. We applied to a bunch of local charter schools (Our World Neighbor, Growing Up Green, VOICE), which work on a straight lottery system. And we applied to the Gifted and Talented program.
The NYC gifted and talented program starts at kindergarten and is extremely competitive. Four-year-old candidates must take a standardized test of 70 (yes, 70) questions which include analogies, spatial relationships, and patterns given by a tester (a total stranger in a separate room). While you might think such a test requires no prep, those who know have said otherwise. The test favors children who have prepared and some parents take this preparation very seriously - daily practice tests and tutors are not uncommon. I actually toyed with the idea of doing something like that for Nate after speaking to a friend who runs her own tutoring business. She told me that it was virtually impossible to do well on the G and T test without prep. So I decided I would get Nate all the help he needed - and then proceeded to do literally nothing about it. Life is busy enough without prepping your four-year-old for a standardized test!
So December rolled around and we finally decided to do something. We started talking to Nate about his fun "puzzle test". We got several iPad apps (Little Solver: Analogies, Quizful, Bright Kids, Teach me Kindergarten) and Nate really enjoys them. He especially likes Teach Me Kindergarten since it has a reward system with coins and items you "buy". Sadly, that program is not so useful for the test, but is great for teaching beginning literacy and Math. We also downloaded the short free practice test available through the nyc department of education gifted and talented site and got a couple of books with a few practice tests. Nate has been eager to do them, but I have to say - they are hard! I have come across some analogies that I got wrong. Not sure if this says something about me or the test...but I am a fairly intelligent person so I think I can safely say that some of these questions are challenging. The successful test taker will be someone, not just smart, but with a very good attention span who has no trouble answering difficult questions in front of a complete stranger.
Nate has a good attention span for a four-year-old, but he can be nervous in front of strangers or choose to deliberately say the wrong answer just to be silly or contrary. So I have no idea how he will do. I think not pressuring him has been a good thing. I hate to think of a preschooler developing anxiety because of a test and that apparently happens.
School stuff in NYC can be a bit crazy. It is one of the key (and somewhat legitimate) reasons parents leave the city. Some parents go on a panic spiral, thinking if their child doesn't get into the right kindergarten, then they'll never get into a good college and will end up unsuccessful in life. While each decision does of course affect your child's future, I find this way of thinking unuseful. After all, you never know exactly what will be best for your child. Maybe being surrounded by the greatest amount of diversity would provide the most enrichment or maybe your child will thrive more in artistic or athletic pursuits. We often can't know the best education for our child's specific needs until they are in the midst of it.
But I do know that the city itself is a great school. No matter where Nate attends kindergarten, he will grow up in a diverse neighborhood which fosters both independence and community. I cannot imagine a better education than that.