Test-Taking for Gifted and Talented Kindergarten: Underscoring the Importance of Outreach

Using proprietary data collected prior to the establishment of the public Universal Prekindergarten program in New York City, this study finds statistically significant differences in test-taking rates for the city’s Gifted & Talented (G & T) program between two matched samples of students—those who attended a public prekindergarten (pre-K) program and those who did not—for each of four cohorts from 2008 to 2011, favoring the public pre-K group. Results also demonstrate that access to information about the G & T program is a plausible mechanism underlying the higher test-taking rates among the public pre-K group, especially for underrepresented groups. With the establishment of the Universal Prekindergarten in New York City in 2015, our results highlight the importance of instituting new policies for promoting the dissemination of information regarding the G & T admissions process within the public school sector. If targeted to address diversity in G & T, such policies could help reduce inequality in gifted education.