Special Classes Help Gifted in Ghettos

OUTSIDE, there is a burned‐out tenement, a symbol of a devastated inner‐city neighborhood. Inside, a teacher is working on algebra problems with a class of gifted children, preparing them for entrance to specialized high schools.

Of the 16,800 pupils in District 7, 400 are in special progress classes. The district is about 68 percent Hispanic, 31 percent black and 1 percent “other,” meaning white and Oriental.

Madeline Golia, the coordinator of the district’s program for gifted and talented pups, said that admission to the special progress classes is based on several “flexible” standards.

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Grouping by Ability Of Students Upheld For New York City

The Federal Government said yesterday that New York City public schools could continue grouping Youngsters by ability even if it led to racially imbalanced classes.

And in a related action, it withdrew a charge that the city’s three academically elite high schools discriminated against black and female students.

The Government actions, contained in an agreement with the Board of Education, resolve a complaint intitated by the Federal Office for Civil Rights in early 1977.The board is expected to make the agreement public today.

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