Racial and economic disparities in the students tested for New York City gifted programs are smaller for children who attended a public prekindergarten, finds a study in the journal Educational Researcher.
Researchers found large racial gaps in students tested for New York City’s gifted programs: Of nearly 70,000 students starting kindergarten in 2009, 14 percent of black, 8 percent of Latino, 29 percent of white, and 26 percent of Asian students took the gifted test.
For black and Latino students who attended public preschools, the racial gaps in their likelihood of being tested for gifted programs shrunk significantly by 15 percentage points for Latino students and by 31 percentage points for black students.
