The Hard Bigotry of Forced Lower Expectations !

The school is predominantly Black and Hispanic.  Minorities make up more than two-thirds of the student body; Whites / Asians a mere 28%.

The higher academic functioning kindergartners were mostly white/asian.  It was mostly white parents who were engaged with the academic success of their child and enrolling them in the additional gifted program.

Absent of enough high level academically functioning blacks the gifted program lacked diversity.          So the school shut it down.

NEW YORK – A popular gifted program will get the axe after Ditmas Park school officials chose diversity over exclusivity.

Citing a lack of diversity, PS 139 Principal Mary McDonald informed parents in a letter that the Students of Academic Rigor and two other in-house programs would no longer accept applications for incoming kindergartners.

“Our Kindergarten classes will be heterogeneously grouped to reflect the diversity of our student body and the community we live in,” McDonald told parents in a letter posted on the photo-sharing site flickr and obtained by Ditmas Park Corner.

More than two thirds of the school’s roughly 1,000 students are black or hispanic while Asian-American and white students made up 28%, according to Education Dept. records.

At least one parent described the small gifted program, Students of Academic Rigor — or SOAR — as overwhelming caucasion, although others disputed that characterization.

McDonald didn’t respond to numerous requests for comment. A city Education Dept. spokeswoman said cutting the programs was the decision of the school.

One mother, a Sudanese immigrant, said the program was brimming with white students — but she was looking forward to her daughter joining after years of high test scores.

“Where are they going to put the higher-level students?” asked the woman, who declined to give her name. “Sometimes, there are different levels, and teachers can’t handle all the levels in one class.” (CONTINUE READING)