New Orleans school choice goes live

Recovery School District says new pupil enrollment system is getting the job done

The state-run district that governs most of the public schools in New Orleans has finished assigning more than 25,000 pupils who turned in applications for seats at one of 67 campuses this spring, declaring its new central enrollment system a success. Recovery School District officials said Wednesday that of the 3,841 students looking for a kindergarten or ninth-grade seat -- broadly speaking, those entering the system for the first time or making the transition to high school -- 84 percent got into one of the first three choices they ranked on their application. About 76 percent got their top choice.

View full sizeJohn McCusker, The Times-PicayuneAmong elementary schools, Dr. Martin Luther King Charter School, Lafayette Academy and Martin Behrman were the most popular. Janet Wolfe was photographed teaching her second-grade class at Lafayette Academy in October.

Of the 19,896 looking for a place in the other grades, about 73 percent got one of their top three choices. And 59 percent got their first choice.
On the other hand, almost 16 percent of students heading into kindergarten or the ninth grade didn't get any of the choices they ranked, along with 26 percent of students in other grades. Because there are a limited number of seats in any given school and some schools are more popular than others, it was inevitable that some students would have to stay put where they already attend or be manually assigned by the district.
State officials said that in those cases, they assigned students to open seats using random lottery numbers, giving preference to those living closer to one school than another. A little more than half of the students who didn't get any school that they ranked will remain in the school they already attend.
The data also suggested that only a fairly narrow set of public schools in New Orleans have built a strong enough reputation to draw big applicant pools. The state said that on average, families ranked only 2.6 elementary schools and 2.4 high schools, even though they could have ranked as many as eight.
"It says two things," concluded Gabriela Fighetti, the Recovery District's director of student enrollment. "There are some schools that families really want to go to -- and we really need to keep improving our full range of schools so that families have more options."

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Overall though, state officials are pointing to these numbers as a sign that the district's new central enrollment process, which made its debut this year, is working.
The state moved to centralize enrollment this spring after years of complaints from parents about the difficulty of finding a school in a city where so many independent charter schools have been handling the process on their own. In past years, families who wanted to try for a spot at more than one charter school -- charters now educate close to 80 percent of the city's public school students -- had to fill out separate applications and hope that one of their choices had an open seat.
Now the district is assigning seats based on how families rank their top choices, their proximity to the school and a random lottery number.
Families are being notified this week where their children will attend in the fall. Anyone can appeal their assignment, and given the significant number of pupils assigned a school they didn't ask for, that could prove a contentious, emotional process.
"If you're asking if there were wrinkles, absolutely," said Vera Triplett, CEO of the New Beginnings charter school network. "There were kids who weren't assigned to any of their choices, kids who didn't get into a school where their sibling goes, that kind of thing."
Triplett added: "I think a lot of it will be ironed out after it's brought to the district's attention."
Still, the district isn't in a position to give every family what it wants. Seats are limited, and if parents ranked only the more popular schools, they were more likely to be disappointed.
The Recovery District released a list of the top three most popular schools for different grade levels on Wednesday, but officials had not compiled complete rankings for every school in the city. Those in the top three tended to be schools with better performance scores from the state, as measured by test results and other factors.
Among elementary schools, Dr. Martin Luther King Charter School, Lafayette Academy and Martin Behrman topped the list. For just those students entering kindergarten, however, schools that are a part of the KIPP charter network proved the most popular, with KIPP Central City, KIPP McDonogh 15 and KIPP Believe in the top three slots.
Lake Area, Sophie B. Wright and Sci Academy were the top secondary schools among all applicants, while those entering the ninth grade most often chose Lake Area, Sci Academy and KIPP Renaissance.

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See these previous posts on IIPSC projects.

School Choice as a national goal

Both the NY Times and the Wall Street Journal report on a report from the Council on Foreign Relations that emphasize the importance of school choice.

The NY Times: Panel Says Schools’ Failings Could Threaten Economy and National Security

"The panel made three main recommendations:

¶ Common Core standards should be adopted and expanded to include science, technology and foreign languages.

¶ Students, especially those in poor schools, should have more choices in where they go to school.

¶ Governors, working with the federal government, should develop a national security readiness audit, to judge whether schools are meeting targets."
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The WSJ: School Reform's Establishment Turn: The Council on Foreign Relations endorses choice and competition.

"But the real story is how much progress the reform movement has made when pillars of the establishment are willing to endorse a choice movement that would have been too controversial even a few years ago."
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From the vantage point of the work we're doing with school districts around the country at the Institute for Innovation in Public School Choice (IIPSC), I would have to say that the cutting edge is combining charter and regular district-administered schools in one system, as in Denver (and underway in Chicago)

School choice design in New Orleans Recovery School District

When it comes to design, not only do algorithms and procedures have to be designed (in this case with the assistance of  IIPSC), but also advertisements and logos. New Orleans Recovery School District has billboards going up that emphasize that the new centralized school choice procedure lets parents apply to multiple schools with just one application--{one App}--with, for emphasis, one cute kid playing all three roles in the billboard.

RSD hopes to primarily use a top trading cycle system (which is the second of two algorithms described in this short paper about the design of Boston's school choice system), which makes it safe for families to rank schools in the true order of their preferences. (Schools in RSD aren't strategic players; they don't rank students, who have priorities assigned by the district).

Here's my earlier post on New Orleans school choice, including an interview with John White, who was at that time the new RSD Superintendent, but is now the superintendent of schools for the State of Louisiana.

HT: Gabriela Fighetti

School choice in New Orleans

New Orleans has some ambitious plans for a unified school choice plan in a city whose schools will include many independent charter schools. Here's a ten minute video of an interview with Recovery School District Superintendent John White. Starting at minute 3 it is about school choice.

This is work in which IIPSC, the Institute for Innovation in Public School Choice, is lending support in market design and technology.


Here's an earlier story: Recovery School District chief plans central enrollment system, technical training, more

"The head of the state-run Recovery School District, which governs most of the city's public schools, issued a wide-ranging strategic plan Tuesday aimed at tackling the district's most chronic shortcomings.

 ...

"He is promising a central enrollment system by next year, so parents and guardians -- especially those looking to place children midyear -- will be able to ask the district to find them an open spot, rather than having to contact one school after another.
...
"Most, if not all, of the district's schools will eventually be charters...

"On the central enrollment system ... White provided new details, explaining that parents will be asked to list their top school choices on a common application. The district will be able to weigh factors like a school's distance from a child's home, and assign each student to a building by looking at available seats in both charters and direct-run campuses."

School Choice in Denver

Denver is implementing a new school choice system. IIPSC, the Institute for Innovation in Public School Choice, is helping. Denver Public Schools will be the first large district to unite charter schools and district managed schools under one umbrella of centralized choice.

New, Unified DPS Enrollment Process Backed by Coalition of Education Advocates

DENVER – A coalition of 10 local education advocacy groups announced their support today for Denver Public Schools’ (DPS) new, unified enrollment process, SchoolChoice. 

The coalition worked closely with DPS and national enrollment experts to develop SchoolChoice, a unified enrollment process for the 2012-13 school year that is designed to simplify how families enroll students in schools. The group will continue to assist the district with the campaign to notify parents and community leaders as well as the implementation and review of the new process.

“Years ago, families identified significant drawbacks and hurdles to the way DPS enrolled students in schools across the district.  Many families were spending days or weeks trying to navigate multiple deadlines and driving across the city to find different forms. And many other families didn’t participate at all.  We all came together to find ways that the current process could be simplified and streamlined,” said Amy Slothower, Executive Director, Get Smart Schools.  

“We believe the new process will increase access to the district’s highest-performing schools and make enrollment much easier for students, their families and their schools,” Amy continued.

Prior to the introduction of SchoolChoice, charter and magnet schools each conducted their own enrollment.  When combined with the district’s own choice process for its traditional neighborhood schools, there were more than 60 different enrollment processes with different forms and due dates for public schools across Denver. The range of due dates, methods and applications made enrollment overwhelming for many parents and made planning for the school year challenging for schools.

SchoolChoice is designed to simplify school enrollment because every transitioning student (incoming K, 6^th and 9^th grades and any student who wants to choice into a different school) will prioritize their schools of interest on a single form with a single deadline. All transitioning students will then receive a school assignment, based on their preferences, during a single week in March.

Putting into place one process for all district schools and one form per grade will simplify what has been a confusing and often overwhelming system for students and families to navigate.

 “We’re excited because SchoolChoice will ensure a fair and equitable enrollment process for all DPS families,” Slothower continued. “With the help of our partners, the district and the Walton Foundation, we’re making it easy to connect students with the schools that best fit their needs.”

SchoolChoice is being funded by a combination of public and private funding in the form of grants and bonds, including a substantial grant from the Walton Foundation.

The full list of coalition members includes:

·        Get Smart Schools

·        The Walton Family Foundation

·        Denver Public Schools

·        A Plus Denver

·        Colorado League of Charter Schools

·        Colorado Succeeds

·        Donnell-Kay Foundation

·        Metro Organizations for People

·        Stand for Children Colorado

·        University of Colorado Denver

Update: see also http://scholasticadministrator.typepad.com/thisweekineducation/2011/11/update-denver-unveils-unified-district-charter-application-process.html

School choice around the U.S.: some short video interviews

Northwestern's journalism school has a project on school choice that allows you to click on a map of the U.S. and see very short (1 minute) clips of video interviews they did about school choice in the indicated cities:
 One size does not fit all

You can glimpse my filing system for journals in the background of interviews they did with me and Neil Dorosin of IIPSC about Boston, New York, and Denver...

School choice in Denver

Denver Public Schools is getting ready to develop a new public school choice plan, with the help of IIPSC (The Institute for Innovation in Public School Choice), the nonprofit founded by Neil Dorosin after he helped implement New York City's high school choice plan. The plan is that Neil will again be assisted by the same team of economists. An innovative element of the plan is that both public and charter schools will participate in the same school choice process.

Here's a story in Colorado Education News, by Charlie Brennan: Streamlined DPS enrollment in works

"Denver Public Schools is planning to streamline its enrollment system and will ask – but not require – all students to choose their schools beginning as soon as fall 2012.

"Under the proposed plan, families for the first time would be able to use one form to apply to traditional DPS schools, magnets or charter schools, and all applications would be on the same deadline.


"Families not wishing to participate would be assigned to their neighborhood school by default, as always. District officials say people exercising choice should find this new system easier to navigate.

"Superintendent Tom Boasberg said the change is really simply one of “mechanics.”

“For those families who do exercise choice, it will be a system that is more equitable, more efficient and more transparent,” Boasberg said.
...
"District officials say the plan’s main purpose is to streamline and unify the district’s current patchwork and often confusing systems of school choice. During the 2010-11 school year, 53 percent of DPS students attended schools outside their assigned attendance area. This includes charter schools.


"Dorosin said he knows no other major urban district that uses one application form for district schools and charter schools.

"The proposal would continue guaranteed enrollment in neighborhood schools as well as priority status for those with siblings already attending a school.

"Board member Mary Seawell has met with Dorosin and said she supports the change, if it will put all district families on a level playing field when choosing schools.

“To me, it is really about, is our system working and is it fair? Is there equity for all kids? And I’ve learned that it isn’t fair, and we need to be fair,” she said.
...
"In the 2004 New York system Dorosin helped design, eighth-graders were asked to rank up to 12 schools in order of preference, while schools ranked applicants without seeing how those students ranked the schools. A computer then compared rankings, using an algorithm originally created to match medical residents with hospitals.


"New York and Boston did not include its charter schools in the choice process as Denver will. New York implemented the plan only for high school students. Denver will do it systemwide, as has Boston. New York did away with wait-lists, Denver will not.

"For 2010-11 in New York, of 78,747 students who applied, the computer placed 83 percent of the students with one of their top five choices. Another 7 percent matched to schools further down their preference lists.

"However, roughly 10 percent of the city’s eighth-graders were matched with none of their listed choices.

“That just means they didn’t get matched in the first round,” said New York City Department of Education spokesman Matt Mittenthal. “We’re currently in a supplementary round, so the process is not by any means over. There’s always a period for appeals but after the supplementary round, they are essentially given one assignment.”

"Mittenthal added there are “hundreds of appeals every year.”

"Dorosin said technical aspects of the Denver program are still under development. Using a formula to match students to schools prevents savvy parents from gaming the system at the expense of less sophisticated families, he said.

"While Dorosin said the New York and Boston models hold lessons for Denver, DPS spokesman Vaughn underscored a fundamental difference in what’s contemplated here.

“We do think it’s good to encourage families to think proactively about their choices, but in no way is any part of this mandatory,” Vaughn said.