Any luck asking DCPS or individual schools about waitlist lengths and nonsib availability?

[Anonymous]

Has anyone had success calling DCPS's central number or individual schools to get basic info on the length of waitlists at particular schools, as well as how many nonsibling spots were available? Anyone willing to share what they know? It would help parents on waitlists make decisions on whether they should accept or decline a spot, as well as how much waitlists for higher ranked schools are likely to move.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone had success calling DCPS's central number or individual schools to get basic info on the length of waitlists at particular schools, as well as how many nonsibling spots were available? Anyone willing to share what they know? It would help parents on waitlists make decisions on whether they should accept or decline a spot, as well as how much waitlists for higher ranked schools are likely to move.

Have you tried calling?

[Anonymous]

They won't share. You need to call the schools. This is total BS--their lack of willingness to share the most basic data makes me think the process wasn't fair.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They won't share. You need to call the schools. This is total BS--their lack of willingness to share the most basic data makes me think the process wasn't fair.

Other than not having the waitlist information, why do you believe the process was not fair. Particularly when over 70% of applicants got into a school that they ranked?

[Anonymous]

Lee's waitlist is over 170.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They won't share. You need to call the schools. This is total BS--their lack of willingness to share the most basic data makes me think the process wasn't fair.

Other than not having the waitlist information, why do you believe the process was not fair. Particularly when over 70% of applicants got into a school that they ranked?

They love to tout statistics with no data to back it up, e.g., a huge % of applicants were matched with their top 3 choices (even if this is true--which I doubt--I'll bet you that was because the people with siblings make up the vast majority of this statistic). Last year, we had the data; why can't they provide it this year? If some charter schools don't want to provide it, then at least provide it for all publics and the charters that are okay with it.

When you call or email, they are wholly unwilling to share ANY information. Their solution? Call each school, during DC CAS testing week, to talk to the principal. Clearly, they don't want anyone to have the info, even those who are applying in round 2 and have been thus far shut out.

Moving to a new system is fine, but unless they are willing to provide transparency on that system, then I can't believe it was fair. I have talked to WAY too many people who have been completely shut out to believe the 70% stat you have above. And for those who are on waitlists or shut out, the data will help understand the probability of getting in and the need to activate back-up plans.

[Anonymous]

what people are suggesting is to write a quick letter to the charter school board, myschooldc, and OSSE saying that not releasing this information makes us not trust the new system and that they should release it

[Anonymous]

sorry DCPS/OSSE/Charter Board but I would include Abigail Smith
gotten from the thread about FOIA

[Anonymous]

and Chancellor?

[Anonymous]

Mundo Verde's wait list is up on their website. Maybe with time other schools will post theirs too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mundo Verde's wait list is up on their website. Maybe with time other schools will post theirs too.

Well, I moved up one spot to the 170s!

PS, this list confirms to me that, in general, DC parents do a great job of naming their kids.

[Anonymous]

Kudos to MV for posting, but here's the problem with not having all the data for all schools. Sure, you can see where you are on the MV list and who is in front of you and who has preference of any sort. But, you can't see where the lottery applicants who are in front of you are on other waitlists. And that is key. If you see any of your "competitors" with low numbers on other waitlists you can hope that that family would give take that spot if offered (because you're only waitlisted at schools you supposedly wanted more). Plus I totally disagree with posting children's names as MV has done. Just blind all the data with the tracking numbers each applicant received.

[Anonymous]

There is a separate thread on this too, but for those following this thread, here are the contacts to complain to about lack of data transparency:

DME Abigail Smith:
[e-mail]

Chancellor Kaya Henderson
send through this form:
http://dcps.dc.gov/DCPS/About+DCPS/Contact+Us/Ask+the+Chancellor

Scott Pearson - Exec Director, DCPCSB
[e-mail]

Jesus Aguirre - Head of OSSE
[e-mail]

[Anonymous]

DC schools are in intense DC CAS mode. The timing here is awful in terms of fielding calls from hundreds of parents. Call in a week or two and you'll likely get a more patient and complete response.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC schools are in intense DC CAS mode. The timing here is awful in terms of fielding calls from hundreds of parents. Call in a week or two and you'll likely get a more patient and complete response.

Yeah, the timing is really unforunate because we only have a short period of time to submit our second round picks.