11 Percent of Test-Takers Score in the Top 1 Percent

posted by Karen Quinn, The Testing Mom - April 24th, 2012

The latest round of Gifted and Talented testing results has been released and a surprising statistic came out: 11 percent of children who took the test scored in the 99^th percentile. Out of the 14,239 test-takers, 1,603 made it into the Top 1 percent. That is nearly a 50 percent increase over last year, DNA info reports. This number has been steadily rising over the last few years and will no doubt continue to rise in the future. What does that mean to you and your child trying to test into the system?

Scoring in the 97^th to 99^th percentile means your child is eligible to enter into one of the five NYC G&T programs. The NYC G&T program has fewer than 400 seats available for the incoming kindergarten class. Children can test into the G&T Program from Kindergarten to the 3^rd grade, but the number of seats available for your child decreases with every year. Testing your child for Kindergarten is one of the few automatic advantages within the system, since the Kindergarten classes have the most spots open.

However, even the Kindergarten classes are shrinking, with seats reserved for siblings with eligible scores, of children already in the G&T program. Inside Schools released the breakdown of the reserved sibling spots in the system. 12 percent of the incoming kindergarten spots are already set-aside for siblings, with 4 seats set-aside at STEM in Queens, 12 seats at Brooklyn School of Inquiry, 15 seats out of 100 at NEST+M and 16 seats out of 50 at The Anderson School. The Anderson School also had to restrict school visits for parents. They only toured parents of children who scored in the 99^th percentile and still had to turn parents away.

Despite an outcry from the parents of gifted children to expand the G&T program in New York City, the Department of Education has no current plan for expansion. But the DOE will replace the Bracken School Readiness Assessment with the more challenging Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test. This new exam places the stress on cognitive ability with identifying patterns and sequences, instead of simply identifying shapes and colors. The DOE will also equalize how they weigh the tests, with the OLSAT currently being weighed at 75% with Bracken at 25%. The test itself is changing, the test weights are changing, and the number of spots is decreasing with the number of eligible students increasing. No longer will scoring the 97^th or 98^th percentile secure your child a place in the G&T program.

Start learning about the new Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test now. Have your child practice and prepare for the test to ensure they make it into the Top 1%, so they can even have a chance at getting into the right G&T School for them.