The Wall Street Journal reports that New York City has adopted a new test for its gifted and talented classes. It is said to be “harder” than the previous test. The Bloomberg administration uses a test as the sole means of getting into these highly coveted classes.
Critics say it will reduce the proportion of black and Hispanic students in these classes even lower than it is now, but the test-maker disagrees.
Parents who have invested thousands in test prep for the old test are worried. Now they must invest thousands in test prep for the new test.
One parent has already started her three-year-old on test prep so he will be ready to take the test next year.
Is there only one kind of giftedness? Is there only one talent, the talent for getting the “right” answer? The Bloomberg administration thinks so.
What kind of people think that education can be defined by test-makers? Are they so enamored of standardized tests because they got high marks themselves and want the world to look like them? Do they ever think about cultivating divergent thinkers? What about the dreamers who don’t care about test scores? What kind of a world do they want?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
What kind of world do they want? A compliant, consumerist world, of course! What better way to inculcate those values than giving a narrow-gauge standardized test that you can do well on if you purchase tutoring!
I’d merely add “regimented” to your list. They want the kind of society where people would never dream of thinking outside the test or challenging the people in charge.
The thing about true giftedness is that it doesn’t come from enrichment or test prep or barraging a kid with cognitive stimuli. It just is. Signs of it happen naturally. It is certainly possible to teach a very young child how to read. That does not make that child “gifted”. In fact, for most kids, learning to read that early is not developmentally appropriate, will have no positive long-term effects and may have negative long-term effects. A truly gifted child will learn to read (or do math or build complicated structures or any number of other expressions of giftedness) with very little parental guidance other than, perhaps, being read to and having materials available. Most parents of truly gifted children will tell you that they didn’t seek it and they’re not entirely comfortable with the reality of it. Having a truly gifted child can be a strain in somewhat similar ways to having any other child with special needs, at least as far as getting his/her needs met and social concerns.
I agree with your last sentence 100%.
I administer the G&T exams for the DOE. The test that had been used was like a mini SAT. I can’t imagine it being more difficult. There were questions that the teachers couldn’t decide which was the correct answer.
The test takes about an hour for pre-k and K children.
Some of the children cry and refuse to take it
Others give up after the first 5 minutes and just point to anything just to be finished with it.
I wouldn’t even tell you about the cheating. There have been children who knew the answers before they were read to them and one child shared that her mom had that test at home.
There has been arguments about the lack of diversity in the past. I am surprised to hear the new test exclude more children.
The range of knowledge and behavior is very narrow. To me, stamina seems to be the biggest factor in taking the test.
The city is looking only for a narrow range of what they consider gifted.and parents are pulled into it.
Many of the parents are so anxious. We have to keep an incident log on every child and we are not allowed to ever see the parent due to possible contamination.
I can hardly wait to be trained for the new exam
The system in which I taught was brought to task many years ago about the lack of minorities in the gifted and talented program. A great deal of effort was put into recruit minorities.
I can’t help but ask if anyone is knowledgeable about the Nobel Prize-winning “matching” algorithm whose lead application is being touted as making “smarter” matches for NYC and Boston charters. What happened to random selection and equal opportunity? Even if some are “counseled out” later, expelled, or just become misplaced statistics, weren’t those choice school selections supposedly randomized?
http://www.businessinsider.com/alvin-roth-bio-2012-10
I couldn’t believe that this algorithm was using school choice as its banner application!
I think the world they want is one in which people just like them and their children succeed.