Fairness of Common Lottery?

[Anonymous]

I keep reading posts from people saying I got into school X, but have a great waitlist number for school Y.

I know that no one wants to go back to the horrible old system, but it does seem unfair that some people have a bunch of choices while others are completely shut out or matched with #12 and have bad waitlist numbers everywhere.

Just wondering if there is a better way. I have no answers, but has anyone else given this some thought?

[Anonymous]

Just to clarify- I totally understand that the nature of a lottery is that some people win and others lose. But it seems weird that some people win dramatically while others fight for the scraps these winners turn down.

I don't have a dog in this fight. I just wonder at the fairness of a system that allows for such big wins and big losses.

[Anonymous]

But those people can still only go to one school and under the common lottery system, when they choose one school it necessarily opens up a spot at the other school for someone else. Under the old system, some people still got lucky and got into more than one school, but didn't have to make any decisions until school started, which hurt everyone else.

[Anonymous]

It isn't fair because everyone gets something, it's fair because everyone has the same chance of ending up doing well or poorly. Everyone doesn't have to get a trophy, just an equal chance at a trophy.

[Anonymous]

This system is a HUGE improvement on the old system. I think it is especially good for sought after charters with specialized programming, because the parents who get in have to actually prioritize one program versus another, rather than ending up at a program they may be fully committed to.

[Anonymous]

I think it might make sense to let people rank schools as a "tie." Right before the lottery, some people are always saying "how do I rank these similar schools?" And then after, the same people are struggling to decide if they'd move if they come off the waitlist. If you let people rank those schools as a tie, and the algorithm could just send them to the school with less demand, it seems to me that would generate more happy matches faster -- as well as sparing indecisive parents the agony of making up their minds, and sparing the rest of us the "embarrassment of riches" posts.

(People do this with traditional schools all the time, btw. "Oh, we're looking for something in Lafayette or Janney." "Anywhere in Whitman." Etc. All else equal, they'll wind up in the school with less demand because the houses there cost less.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But those people can still only go to one school and under the common lottery system, when they choose one school it necessarily opens up a spot at the other school for someone else. Under the old system, some people still got lucky and got into more than one school, but didn't have to make any decisions until school started, which hurt everyone else.

This.

[Anonymous]

What you are really unhappy with, OP, is the lack of seemingly desirable options, not the lottery.

The algorithm used for the lottery was designed to ensure that no two people could trade slots and be better off, e.g. Kid A got into School B and Kid C got into School D but they would have preferred each other's school. So it allocates the scarce resource (school slots desirable to DCUM) as well as possible given its nature as a random lottery.

[Anonymous]

Anyone who even questions the new system did not deal with the old system.

[Anonymous]

What you are really unhappy with, OP, is the lack of seemingly desirable options, not the lottery.

The algorithm used for the lottery was designed to ensure that no two people could trade slots and be better off, e.g. Kid A got into School B and Kid C got into School D but they would have preferred each other's school. So it allocates the scarce resource (school slots desirable to DCUM) as well as possible given its nature as a random lottery.

+1

[Anonymous]

+1000. Each lucky person only gets one seat in March. Not a bunch of seats that they hold until August.

[Anonymous]

Maybe I don't understand enough but it seems that each person should generate an individual lottery number new for each school on their list. If I get a great lottery number then I get higher dibs on EVERY school on my list right? So I am 12 times luckier than someone else for my 12 preferred schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe I don't understand enough but it seems that each person should generate an individual lottery number new for each school on their list. If I get a great lottery number then I get higher dibs on EVERY school on my list right? So I am 12 times luckier than someone else for my 12 preferred schools.

You don't understand it enough. Yes, people with good lottery numbers will get a school high up on their list. They still can only take one spot.

[Anonymous]

Listen all you new moms who didn't get into the school you wanted this year.: If you hang in there, you will get a spot at a great school by 1st grade (likely sooner if you're not PK3, and if you're willing to make a mid September move and hound the school at the beginning of the school year.). There's less movement after school starts under the new system but there is still movement, and the later into the school year it gets, the more leeway the school has with their waitlist. If you are PK3 and you didn't get your first choice, your kid will be fine wherever they land. It's super hard to mess up ABC/123.

My kids only remember the treehouse fom preschool, and then, only if I prompt them (BTW- DC went to a great PS that I payed good money for). We moved to the District right before PK and landed in what I felt was a pretty sub par school. As a matter of fact, DC begged me not to send her/him to school on a daily basis toward the end of the year. I was distraught and stuck. Still both DC and I survived (and again, DC barely remembers the school beyond not liking it very much). We switched schools every year until 1st grade. The 3rd switch was the charm. DC is doing fantastic now as a rising 4th grader.

Bottom line...a bad lottery number is not the end of the world. You and your kid will be fine. Also, the new lottery system is light years better than the previous one, as others have noted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone who even questions the new system did not deal with the old system.

Wrong. I dealt with the old system, got 2 kids into 2 different HRCS's over 2 years because of individual lotteries. We didn't play in the new system but I've followed it closely, and while I do actually support the new system and understand why in the end it is probably more fair and more accurate (in terms of matching), for those who got a crappy random lottery number for the common lottery, you can't really expect them not to wish they had several more shots at getting a better number in at least a few other lotteries.

Basically just pointing out that some of us who did the old system did very well, so you cannot say anyone who questions this system never dealt with the old one. My wish for the current one is that they could do a version of individual school lotteries within the overall common lottery, so for each person applying to 12 schools, you got 12 chances at a great lottery number instead of one chance that affected your matching/waitlist for all 12 schools.