Following months of delay, the city Department of Education is prepared to administer the high-stakes Gifted & Talented exam to 4-year-olds -- but the test will no longer be given after this year, fulfilling Mayor Bill de Blasio’s longstanding push to eliminate the test he says reinforces systemwide school segregation.

The DOE made the announcement on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, de Blasio said that with parents already preparing their students for the test — which is usually administered in January following a registration period that begins in November — it was only fair to proceed one final time.

"At this point in the year, a lot of families had already prepared, they were counting on the opportunity, we respect that. So we'll go forward. But we will not be providing that test in the future," de Blasio said.

De Blasio has previously said the demands of the pandemic kept him making a final decision on the test, delaying the process for students to begin selecting G&T programs or schools across the city.

A vote to extend the multi-million dollar contract to Pearson Education, which administers the test, will now go before the Panel for Educational Policy—the group that approves contracts, in which 8 of the 13 members are a mayoral appointee—on January 27th. If the panel approves the contract, the test will then be scheduled for April, giving parents time to prepare their children for the logic and math test. Those students who are placed in a G&T program will be able to finish out their G&T schooling throughout their elementary school years, according to the DOE.

The decision comes three weeks after de Blasio announced the suspension of screening admissions for middle and high schools, citing the loss of critical screening indicators resulting from the pandemic, such as grades and attendance. A lottery system will now replace the normal admissions process until 2022.

Roughly 15,000 young learners who pass the test apply for admissions into a highly coveted G&T program or school across the city each year, with only 2,500 accepted, according to the DOE. Such programs are viewed by some parents as a pipeline to competitive middle and high schools, which critics say reinforces decades-old school segregation in a largely diverse city. The income disparities reflect the demographics of G&T, where a total of 14% of Black and Hispanic students are in the program versus whites, who comprise 36% of the G&T student body.

Listen to WNYC's Jessica Gould interview on the impending overhaul of the Gifted & Talented test:

Competition is so fierce that G&T test prep has become big business, perpetuating what critics call an unfair system skewed against lower-income New Yorkers unable to afford paying for test prep. With white parents disproportionately earning more than Black and Hispanic parents in New York City, the Parents for Responsive Equitable Safe Schools [PRESS NYC], a group that’s sought to abolish the exam, has long called the G&T racist and classist.

In a statement, PRESS NYC criticized the mayor for bowing to demands to keep the test this year.

“To knowingly continue this unjust policy this year is the equivalent of allowing ‘just one more voter-suppressed election,’ or ‘just one more season where girls' sports receive less funding’ or ‘just one more year when a student with disabilities is denied access to legally mandated services,’" the group said in a statement.

Lucas Liu, co-founder of Parent Leaders for Accelerated Curriculum and Education, an advocacy group pushing for the expansion of G&T, argues that eliminating the test would be inherently racist, particularly for parents of Black and Hispanic students who seek to expose their children to more rigorous instruction.

“Their strategy for closing the achievement gap is to attack achievement and lower the average in order to close the gap instead of helping students that struggling students starting in elementary school, and help raise them,” Liu said. "So we continue to send kids unprepared out into the real world. And I think that's a crime. And actually, I think that's racist because look who the majority of those students are: low-income, Black and Hispanic kids, which the Chancellor continues to do nothing about [in] addressing the education they receive."

Liu added that canceling the test will simply place academically ambitious students to subpar schools that won’t meet their need for competitive learning.

For now, the DOE plans to hold public sessions this year that will explore alternatives to the G&T programs meant to be “more inclusive, enriching, and truly supports the needs of academically advanced and diversely talented students at a more appropriate age.”

While de Blasio has control of the PEP given the overwhelming number of mayoral appointees, Dr. Shannon R. Waite, an appointee for nearly three years, plans to vote against the contract, preferring to end the G&T program this year. Waite cites the country’s long history with racist policies toward Black and Hispanic neighborhoods of color, which have perpetuated school segregation, as one reason she plans to vote down the contract.

“Anybody who alleges that they are an advocate of equity, they are an advocate of all students, and they want to see equity for all in racial equity and they believe in education for all will vote no on this contract,” Dr. Waite said. “Otherwise, they are acknowledging and they are complicit. Whether they acknowledge or not, they are complicit in supporting and sustaining white supremacy and racism.”