Seattle Public Schools is shutting down its program for gifted and talented students, where the majority are white or Asian, citing “equity” concerns.
The school board voted to scrap its Highly Capable Cohort program in 2020 after a 2018 survey found that only 3.7% of participating students were Hispanic and 1.6% were black. Meanwhile, 11.8% were Asian, and the majority were white.
“Numbers would suggest that within our city … predominantly white children are more gifted than other cultures and races, and we know that is absolutely not true,” Kari Hanson, the district’s director of student support services, told Parent Map in 2018.
“Clearly we’re not identifying our children of color and we need to get down to why,” Hanson said.
The district began phasing out the gifted program in the 2021-22 school year, and it will be gone entirely by the 2027-28 school year.
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