What information do individual schools have about lottery applications?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think in smaller schools everyone is so in each other's business that you know who is trying to leave. Especially if it's a charter that does a lot of fundraising, because losing certain families will hit your annual fund pretty hard. Those families will also make a lot of noise on their way out if the are dissatisfied with the school. Admin and the PTA is definitely paying attention.

This. Or if someone does a ton of work for the PTA-- there might not be anyone else willing to do it. Or if there are only two kids who are way ahead in math, your kid and my kid, then I would definitely care. But would it be my business to gossip about? Absolutely not.

And because at certain schools, as the years go on, the cohort of higher-performing kids gets smaller and smaller. So everyone's asking themselves if this is the year their kid won't have an appropriate reading group or whatever. And they all know they have to leave because the middle school feeder sucks, the only question is when.

This. Or when you can see that the school is trying to move in a direction that isn't going to work for your kid. I think charter schools especially have not-so-subtle ways of telling families who they don't want after a certain period of time. Middle school seems to be that turning point for a lot of people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think in smaller schools everyone is so in each other's business that you know who is trying to leave. Especially if it's a charter that does a lot of fundraising, because losing certain families will hit your annual fund pretty hard. Those families will also make a lot of noise on their way out if the are dissatisfied with the school. Admin and the PTA is definitely paying attention.

This. Or if someone does a ton of work for the PTA-- there might not be anyone else willing to do it. Or if there are only two kids who are way ahead in math, your kid and my kid, then I would definitely care. But would it be my business to gossip about? Absolutely not.

And because at certain schools, as the years go on, the cohort of higher-performing kids gets smaller and smaller. So everyone's asking themselves if this is the year their kid won't have an appropriate reading group or whatever. And they all know they have to leave because the middle school feeder sucks, the only question is when.

This. Or when you can see that the school is trying to move in a direction that isn't going to work for your kid. I think charter schools especially have not-so-subtle ways of telling families who they don't want after a certain period of time. Middle school seems to be that turning point for a lot of people.

Huh? Can you give an example?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think in smaller schools everyone is so in each other's business that you know who is trying to leave. Especially if it's a charter that does a lot of fundraising, because losing certain families will hit your annual fund pretty hard. Those families will also make a lot of noise on their way out if the are dissatisfied with the school. Admin and the PTA is definitely paying attention.

This. Or if someone does a ton of work for the PTA-- there might not be anyone else willing to do it. Or if there are only two kids who are way ahead in math, your kid and my kid, then I would definitely care. But would it be my business to gossip about? Absolutely not.

And because at certain schools, as the years go on, the cohort of higher-performing kids gets smaller and smaller. So everyone's asking themselves if this is the year their kid won't have an appropriate reading group or whatever. And they all know they have to leave because the middle school feeder sucks, the only question is when.

This. Or when you can see that the school is trying to move in a direction that isn't going to work for your kid. I think charter schools especially have not-so-subtle ways of telling families who they don't want after a certain period of time. Middle school seems to be that turning point for a lot of people.

Huh? Can you give an example?

Like seeing that there's no dedicated special education teacher for the middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think in smaller schools everyone is so in each other's business that you know who is trying to leave. Especially if it's a charter that does a lot of fundraising, because losing certain families will hit your annual fund pretty hard. Those families will also make a lot of noise on their way out if the are dissatisfied with the school. Admin and the PTA is definitely paying attention.

This. Or if someone does a ton of work for the PTA-- there might not be anyone else willing to do it. Or if there are only two kids who are way ahead in math, your kid and my kid, then I would definitely care. But would it be my business to gossip about? Absolutely not.

And because at certain schools, as the years go on, the cohort of higher-performing kids gets smaller and smaller. So everyone's asking themselves if this is the year their kid won't have an appropriate reading group or whatever. And they all know they have to leave because the middle school feeder sucks, the only question is when.

This. Or when you can see that the school is trying to move in a direction that isn't going to work for your kid. I think charter schools especially have not-so-subtle ways of telling families who they don't want after a certain period of time. Middle school seems to be that turning point for a lot of people.

Huh? Can you give an example?

Like seeing that there's no dedicated special education teacher for the middle school.

Ayy, how is that legal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow I really hope that thing about schools knowing which of their current families submitted lottery applications is a lie! We are/were considering moving this summer for reasons totally unrelated to schools, since we love our school. But I threw in a lottery app with a few charters in reasonable locations for our potential move this year just in case, since we have no idea where exactly we might end up. If we don't move (which is looking likely given the current state of the housing market), I can't see us leaving our current school. And if we do move, we're as likely to wind up in a nearby suburb as another part of DC, so we might be leaving for a school in MD or VA anyway, making our lottery app moot.

Anyway, I'd just hate to think our school knows about this application and thinks we are thinking of jumping ship out of dissatisfaction because nothing could be further from the truth.

I hate the lottery system. Stuff like this is dumb.

The school doesn't care and it's a given that parents will keep options open. This is especially true but not limited to approaching MS. Sometimes it's positioning siblings to have better options. Or a family wants language immersion. Or commute related to job. The schools generally want to retain families who want to stay but they don't take it personally.

+ 1 A school might take notice if they suddenly see a huge increase in the number of current students entering the lottery while seeing fewer students than usual trying to get into the school, but no one is going through lists and saying "I really thought Hester was a friend but now I'm going to give her the evil eye at pickup."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Shortly after submitting my lottery application (but before the deadline to re-rank schools), I got a call from one of the charter schools I had ranked (near the bottom of my list), noting my application and offering a tour of the school.

I'm curious: when do schools learn who ranked the school? Do they know where I ranked them? Was the goal of the reach-out to get me to re-rank the school higher?

(Also: I was quite surprised when I attended the virtual DC school fair and ended up on the email lists for every school I had clicked on at the fair.)

Apple Tree called me as well, asking if I had any questions about the PK program

[Anonymous]

Why middle school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think in smaller schools everyone is so in each other's business that you know who is trying to leave. Especially if it's a charter that does a lot of fundraising, because losing certain families will hit your annual fund pretty hard. Those families will also make a lot of noise on their way out if the are dissatisfied with the school. Admin and the PTA is definitely paying attention.

This. Or if someone does a ton of work for the PTA-- there might not be anyone else willing to do it. Or if there are only two kids who are way ahead in math, your kid and my kid, then I would definitely care. But would it be my business to gossip about? Absolutely not.

And because at certain schools, as the years go on, the cohort of higher-performing kids gets smaller and smaller. So everyone's asking themselves if this is the year their kid won't have an appropriate reading group or whatever. And they all know they have to leave because the middle school feeder sucks, the only question is when.

Above is typical in poorly performing DCPS schools as middle class families start leaving in K and cohort of higher performing kids gets smaller and smaller.

[Anonymous]

Schools see which kids are trying to get in. A friend who is an administrator at a school we put on our list said he was glad to see my kid was applying (but that he was sorry we probably wouldn't get in lol).

[Anonymous]

Former charter school administrator here. I worked in enrollment and can tell you facts:

- We don't know how you, and individual applicant, ranked our school. We can see in the aggregate, how many applicants ranked us in the top three. This is to help us plan our enrollment and gauge if we are far off our projections (which informs staffing). We also see your contact information if you applied, regardless of how you ranked us. This helps us recruit you and inform you about our program. Your choice can then be an informed choice because the ideal outcome is a good fit for student and school.

- We don't know if you, individual enrolled student, applied out. We are notified when you ENROLL elsewhere. This helps us fill your seat.

Someone posted the My School DC FAQ. They are excellent at their jobs and enrollment was insane before the common lottery system. Go there first or call their hotline if you have concerns.

[Anonymous]

To add on to the previous comment: yes, schools know when their current students ENROLL elsewhere (by name). They also know ANONYMOUSLY how many current students have applied out in the lottery. This is to help them plan for how many seats they will offer in the lottery (if they know that 10 fourth graders have applied out in the lottery, they might choose to offer 10 more seats in the lottery, for example).

Of course, you might inadvertently tell them that you've applied out, depending on how you respond to their "intent to return" poll in the spring (which is non-binding).

But you will not lose your seat at your current charter school just by throwing your hat in the lottery. You will lose it if you (1) enroll somewhere else or (2) do not provide proof of residency (and a signed DCRV form) to the school by the deadline.