WHAT?? How does this happen re: DCPS lottery??

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know how they actually (supposedly) pick the number. Are they picking balls out fo a spinner for each number..in and WL, or are things computer generated, etc?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I guess I don't see number #1 and #89 and necessarily all over the place. If the higher number is for an oob school that you have no preference, you could easily be further back, or if other numbers drawn before you happen to have had more interest on that school. So many schools have huge wait lists...if you are #1 and then #200, thats enough of a convincing difference.

I HOPE that things are being done properly but it seems like 90% of people have all of their numbers in the same overall place and thats just suspect.

90% of the people in this 4 page thread. Do you know for a fact that its 90% of the lottery participants, because that seems suspect and also impossible. Some schools have wait lists that go into the hundreds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I guess I don't see number #1 and #89 and necessarily all over the place. If the higher number is for an oob school that you have no preference, you could easily be further back, or if other numbers drawn before you happen to have had more interest on that school. So many schools have huge wait lists...if you are #1 and then #200, thats enough of a convincing difference.

I HOPE that things are being done properly but it seems like 90% of people have all of their numbers in the same overall place and thats just suspect.

This is a dcum blow up. Pick a few tracking numbers and see if the hypothesis holds. On my sample it looks pretty random.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know how they actually (supposedly) pick the number. Are they picking balls out fo a spinner for each number..in and WL, or are things computer generated, etc?

It's been computer generated for a few years. Not true for most charters. There's no way to "game" the DCPS lottery process. Trust me. Many, many, many people have tried. It's easier to just ask for a transfer or placement directly through a principal. They can do pretty much what they want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a dcum blow up. Pick a few tracking numbers and see if the hypothesis holds. On my sample it looks pretty random.

ITA. This is a DCUM/DCPS newbies issue. Just wait until charter results come out. All those spreadsheet predictions of your chances of DCPS WL movement will be useless.

September Shuffle at PS/PK level is going to be a s__t storm. Prepare for List-Aggedon 2013!

[Anonymous]

these threads pop up every single year after the lottery when panicked and distraught families who didn't get squat are looking around desperately for some sort of kink in the system to save them. "Maybe if I can show that it's rigged, maybe if I can shed light on an irregularity that will give me a leg up." I've been there. My first lottery when I got nothing but waitlist numbers I tried to come up with any way I could salvage my child's education prospects. It worked out...it wasn't until late-Sept, but it worked out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:these threads pop up every single year after the lottery when panicked and distraught families who didn't get squat are looking around desperately for some sort of kink in the system to save them. "Maybe if I can show that it's rigged, maybe if I can shed light on an irregularity that will give me a leg up." I've been there. My first lottery when I got nothing but waitlist numbers I tried to come up with any way I could salvage my child's education prospects. It worked out...it wasn't until late-Sept, but it worked out.

Actually, I'm the OP and you're wrong. It's not about gaming the system, it's about understanding how it works so I know how to weigh our results. And if it is rigged, that would be good to understand too so we would know not to take the process seriously. I also believe in karma, and gaming to meeans cheating, which I wouldn't do because I'd be afraid of the consequences. Sounds corny but I'm totally serious.

[Anonymous]

How does one cheat in the lottery?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Given the last couple of posts, I really want to hear DCPS staff explain how they *really* did it. That explanation that once they pick you at all they fill in your whole list is the only explanation that makes sense. It explains all 6 of my numbers ranging from 18-34. And even though my numbers don't totally suck, I totally agree that that would be massively unfair.

Question:
What size is the waitlist for each school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:these threads pop up every single year after the lottery when panicked and distraught families who didn't get squat are looking around desperately for some sort of kink in the system to save them. "Maybe if I can show that it's rigged, maybe if I can shed light on an irregularity that will give me a leg up." I've been there. My first lottery when I got nothing but waitlist numbers I tried to come up with any way I could salvage my child's education prospects. It worked out...it wasn't until late-Sept, but it worked out.

and in the past they did identify places where people cheated. Was it last year or 2 years ago where people lied about having an IB sibling. There was an applicant who said that they had a sibling at each school they applied to in the lottery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How does one cheat in the lottery?

The only way I can imagine is if they lie about siblings or address. Everything else appears a to be computer generated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:these threads pop up every single year after the lottery when panicked and distraught families who didn't get squat are looking around desperately for some sort of kink in the system to save them. "Maybe if I can show that it's rigged, maybe if I can shed light on an irregularity that will give me a leg up." I've been there. My first lottery when I got nothing but waitlist numbers I tried to come up with any way I could salvage my child's education prospects. It worked out...it wasn't until late-Sept, but it worked out.

and in the past they did identify places where people cheated. Was it last year or 2 years ago where people lied about having an IB sibling. There was an applicant who said that they had a sibling at each school they applied to in the lottery.

I take it they got caught, since we're talking about it here? Or is it believed many tried the same thing and they didn't all get caught? That's exactly the type of thing I'd never do because I believe it would come back to bite me - maybe not in an obvious way, but in a big way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:these threads pop up every single year after the lottery when panicked and distraught families who didn't get squat are looking around desperately for some sort of kink in the system to save them. "Maybe if I can show that it's rigged, maybe if I can shed light on an irregularity that will give me a leg up." I've been there. My first lottery when I got nothing but waitlist numbers I tried to come up with any way I could salvage my child's education prospects. It worked out...it wasn't until late-Sept, but it worked out.

and in the past they did identify places where people cheated. Was it last year or 2 years ago where people lied about having an IB sibling. There was an applicant who said that they had a sibling at each school they applied to in the lottery.

I take it they got caught, since we're talking about it here? Or is it believed many tried the same thing and they didn't all get caught? That's exactly the type of thing I'd never do because I believe it would come back to bite me - maybe not in an obvious way, but in a big way.

I don't think they would let you register if you used a different address during then lottery. I assume that's dcps policy. Same probably goes for lying about siblings. The principals are supposed to check these things. That seems like one way to get some waitlist movement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:we were #8 on the WL at our top 3 choices...

And shown many seats did each offer?

If they were her/his top 3 choices, how ever many seats they have, being #8 for THREE top choices (combined with OP seeing someone else 7, 7, & 8) just does not sound fully "random".

Oops, I'm getting my threads confused. But point still stands: that just seems to hard to swallow as random.

Hey, I read about someone who won the powerball. You know the odds of that are something like 70 million to one? They matched all 5 numbers plus the powerball. That just can't happen randomly. I suspect foul play.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Given the last couple of posts, I really want to hear DCPS staff explain how they *really* did it. That explanation that once they pick you at all they fill in your whole list is the only explanation that makes sense. It explains all 6 of my numbers ranging from 18-34. And even though my numbers don't totally suck, I totally agree that that would be massively unfair.

Question:
What size is the waitlist for each school?

Someone in the other thread had #1 WL at SWS and second to last at another school.

I don't think folks know what random means.