Gifted and Talented Admissions Process
Those who attended the latest workshop in our P.A.L. Series got a crash course in Gifted and Talented admissions testing. We also invited reading expert, Dr. Marion Blank, to share her insights with the anxious crowd. We called in the powerhouse experts on gifted and talented admissions process, Dr. Janet Jackson, and Dr. Robin Arronow, to answer your toughest questions.
We were fortunate to have Dr. Marion Blank as our keynote speaker on measuring intelligence in young children and supporting your child’s intellectual development through reading. The huge crowd was mesmerized while Dr. Blank explained the fundamentals of reading and how the “exception words” of the English language are used 60% of the time.
Dr. Blank is the director of the A Light on Literacy program at Columbia University. She has spent over forty years studying how children learn to read and is recognized by her peers as one of the world’s top experts in literacy.
Dr. Blank earned her Ph.D. in Medical Psychology from the University of Cambridge in England, and her latest venture, ReadingKingdom.com, has become a valuable resource for parents seeking to enhance their child’s reading skills.
The Doctors Are In! Dr. Robin Arronow and Dr. Janet Jackson amaze the crowd with their knowledge of the G&T process!
Hundreds of Parents Cram Into the Downtown Community Center to Hear the G&T Experts in Admission
Dr. Marion Blank from Columbia University and Founder of ReadingKingdom.com speaks to parents about her breakthrough reading program.
Michael McCurdy, co-founder of TestingMom.com and an NYC gifted-and-talented parent expert, instructs future NYC G&T parents on the “ins and outs” of the complicated process.
Parents rush to get to the experts after the panel discussion ends to get all their questions answered.
We covered so much! From knowing the right time to have your son or daughter tested to the dangers of disqualification.
Dr. Jackson started us off by talking about her personal history administering the exams, specifically the Stanford-Binet, and how the process works. Dr. Arronow laid out the logistics of the registration and preparation process, as well as what to expect when the results come in. She specifically stressed the importance of picking the right time to have your child tested. For something like the ERB-WPPSI, which runs from April to January, you will want to take into account your child’s capabilities at that time. And don’t forget the OLSAT and Bracken tests given to children as young as 4 years old as the sole admission criteria for a coveted seat in the New York City gifted and talented program.
“If you have an extremely verbal child, if they’re a child who can sit still for about an hour, and if they’re a child who has adequate fine motor control, you might consider testing your child in the spring/summer period. If you have a child who, developmentally, needs a little bit more time to mature, particularly if you have a bilingual child, you might want to wait until fall.” She stressed that the developmental leaps the kids can make over that summer are really significant and should be taken
“Probably the most important thing,” according to Dr. Arronow, was making sure the child could sit still for the duration of the test. “Some private schools may push you to take the test in the spring because they want the WPPSI results back.” But remember, for the ERB, “you will only get to take the test once,” so the decision is very serious.
With the Stanford-Binet, you’ve got a three-month window, and just a two-month window for the DOE test, so there isn’t as much opportunity for variance between the two.
Dr. Arronow also warned about the dangers of over-prepping, child burnout, and the number of children disqualified from the OLSAT each year because the proctor believed they’d had prior access to the actual test. Scary stuff!
The next workshop in our Parents of Accelerated Learners Workshop Series will be held on Tuesday, April 12, with the topic “The Accelerated Learner, Part 1 – Parenting the Gifted Child.”
Register today for the next P.A.L. Workshop series on April 12, 2011, at 6:30 pm in Manhattan (Tribeca).
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