Common Lottery Algorithm

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:U r guaranteed a K spot in boundary, regardless of any lottery stuff.

Exactly and this is why siblings will absolutely bump non-siblings. DCPS is in no position to risk inflated enrollments at K, by not properly applying the sibling preference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:U r guaranteed a K spot in boundary, regardless of any lottery stuff.

Exactly and this is why siblings will absolutely bump non-siblings. DCPS is in no position to risk inflated enrollments at K, by not properly applying the sibling preference.

properly applying the sibling and IB preference at PS and PK.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:By law, sibs get preference. No ranking of algorithm will change that. So, if there are 10 open spots with 10 siblings to fill them, you will never get one of those 10 spots. Period.

Post that law.

[Anonymous]

Questions? Call the My School DC Hotline: [phone]

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ranking matters, but you don't get PRIORITY for it. You could rank a school #1, but that doesn't mean you get in of you're pulled later in the draw. People,pulled before you will get a spot first if its at the top of their list (even if the top of their list is now their #10 ranked school because their 1-9 is filled.)

Someone earlier up the thread insinuated that if you put a less-desirable school as#1 you'd have a better chance of getting in even if you're a late draw because you ranked it #1. In other words, game the system by ranking a school with more slots (fewer preferenced spots) or that is just less popular as your #1 because this will somehow guarantee you a spot. This is not the case and it only decreases your chances (or removes the chances all together) of getting into your true "preferred schools."

Please people. The computer does not know what your "real" preferences are it only knows what you indicated on your application. What the person said on the earlier thread is absolutely true. A person who ranks their schools this way is simply concerned with getting into an acceptable school immediately after the lottery. If the school is an acceptable school and less popular I see nothing wrong with ranking it higher on your list as long as you understand you will be dropped of the waitlist at your lower ranked school if you are offered a seat. This is not gaming the system, but ranking your schools in an order that reflects the needs of your family.

Yes, there's nothing wrong with it as long as you realize that you don't increase your chances of getting into any particular school by ranking it higher. You simply omit the possibility of getting into another school first.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Questions? Call the My School DC Hotline: [phone]

Thank you. I'm calling because something seems fishy here and it's one of the few times that this board being anonymous seems really a problem. I want this explained to me by the people who are actually running it.

[Anonymous]

It would be nice if this thread was just obliterated and replaced with one full of facts directly from the MySchoolDC Team.

Anyway, this is article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/dc-rolls-out-unified-enrollment-lottery-for-traditional-charter-schools/2013/11/19/448ee1e0-4ca7-11e3-9890-a1e0997fb0c0_story.html

Leads me to this website:
http://iipsc.org/publications.htm

Which leads me to this article:
http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2012/04/centralized_enrollment_in_reco.html

which seems to spell it out pretty clear:

You rank the schools. The schools rank you. The two are weighed against each other in a sorting algorithm and the optimal placement is achieved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It would be nice if this thread was just obliterated and replaced with one full of facts directly from the MySchoolDC Team.

Anyway, this is article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/dc-rolls-out-unified-enrollment-lottery-for-traditional-charter-schools/2013/11/19/448ee1e0-4ca7-11e3-9890-a1e0997fb0c0_story.html

Leads me to this website:
http://iipsc.org/publications.htm

Which leads me to this article:
http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2012/04/centralized_enrollment_in_reco.html

which seems to spell it out pretty clear:

You rank the schools. The schools rank you. The two are weighed against each other in a sorting algorithm and the optimal placement is achieved.

Thanks for the link, the key there for me to understand it was in the graphic, where it describes the process. "highest rank for THAT PARTICULAR SCHOOL...based on that student's random lottery number, sibling preference, and proximity" Therefore, this is how I see it:

1. All of the students who apply for a particular school are ordered by their preference group, and then randomly ordered inside each preference group. In that way, yes, there is a lottery for each school independently. You aren't given a system-wide lottery number that places you really high on all of the schools or really low.

2. This gives the school an ordered list of IT'S priorities, based on preference groups and then random assignments inside each group.

3. Then the matching process starts as in the diagram.

I wrote yesterday about the idea of "first going through all of the students who ranked the school first, then all of them who ranked it second, etc". I don't think that is right now. It still matters how you ranked your schools. But if you are first in the random lottery for a particular school and have it listed 10th, you will get in, as long as you don't get in to the 9 schools above it.

That's how I read it. Could be wrong.

[Anonymous]

Sure would be nice if the Post or some other DC news outlet could do a little investigative work here and provide the community a service by explaining the DC lottery methodology ala the Times Picayune. Come on!

[Anonymous]

While I really would like to understand this myself, how do the details change anything about what each of us does as parents? The main issue I needed to resolve for myself was whether my ranking of the schools matters. It does, a lot, even though there are other factors that also matter or maybe even matter more.

So if you make sure you rank the schools according to which school you want the most, next most, etc, do the details of how the algorithm works change anything about what we do when we apply?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:While I really would like to understand this myself, how do the details change anything about what each of us does as parents? The main issue I needed to resolve for myself was whether my ranking of the schools matters. It does, a lot, even though there are other factors that also matter or maybe even matter more.

So if you make sure you rank the schools according to which school you want the most, next most, etc, do the details of how the algorithm works change anything about what we do when we apply?

Yes, thank you. People getting their panties in a bunch when the simple advice, repeated over and over again here and by lottery folks, to rank in order in which you wish to attend holds true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So if you make sure you rank the schools according to which school you want the most, next most, etc, do the details of how the algorithm works change anything about what we do when we apply?

Yes, how you rank the schools has an affect on which schools you can be selected in. Since you can't be chosen for more than one school the algorithm will works it's way through (using this "deferred acceptance" model) until all students are placed at their highest possible rankings. So, not only do your rankings matter to you - they also matter to everyone else who selected that school. Again , keep in mind that the rankings of the students from the school (using the assigned preferences) matter just as much to you and your neighbors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:While I really would like to understand this myself, how do the details change anything about what each of us does as parents? The main issue I needed to resolve for myself was whether my ranking of the schools matters. It does, a lot, even though there are other factors that also matter or maybe even matter more.

So if you make sure you rank the schools according to which school you want the most, next most, etc, do the details of how the algorithm works change anything about what we do when we apply?

Yes, thank you. People getting their panties in a bunch when the simple advice, repeated over and over again here and by lottery folks, to rank in order in which you wish to attend holds true.

Indeed. And I think the other piece of advice is the same as it has been in the past: don't waste one of your 12 slots on a school that you have literally no chance of getting in to, because it does not have space for out-of-boundary or non-sibling kids. This only really applies to a couple of DCPS schools, and maybe one or two charters. Just because you put Janney as your number 1 slot for PK4, if you don't live in the boundary you will not get in. And by doing that you knock off a school that you might have a chance at, even it's small, like a Capital City or LAMB.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:While I really would like to understand this myself, how do the details change anything about what each of us does as parents? The main issue I needed to resolve for myself was whether my ranking of the schools matters. It does, a lot, even though there are other factors that also matter or maybe even matter more.

So if you make sure you rank the schools according to which school you want the most, next most, etc, do the details of how the algorithm works change anything about what we do when we apply?

Yes, thank you. People getting their panties in a bunch when the simple advice, repeated over and over again here and by lottery folks, to rank in order in which you wish to attend holds true.

Indeed. And I think the other piece of advice is the same as it has been in the past: don't waste one of your 12 slots on a school that you have literally no chance of getting in to, because it does not have space for out-of-boundary or non-sibling kids. This only really applies to a couple of DCPS schools, and maybe one or two charters. Just because you put Janney as your number 1 slot for PK4, if you don't live in the boundary you will not get in. And by doing that you knock off a school that you might have a chance at, even it's small, like a Capital City or LAMB.

I don't know. I kind of have a different approach to that. If you really really really like Janney and want a chance at it, while also not being that upset with your IB selection I would rank Janney above my IB. That way if I get my IB I'll still be on the Janney waitlist, otherwise if I put my IB as #1 I'd miss out on the opportunity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:While I really would like to understand this myself, how do the details change anything about what each of us does as parents? The main issue I needed to resolve for myself was whether my ranking of the schools matters. It does, a lot, even though there are other factors that also matter or maybe even matter more.

So if you make sure you rank the schools according to which school you want the most, next most, etc, do the details of how the algorithm works change anything about what we do when we apply?

Yes, thank you. People getting their panties in a bunch when the simple advice, repeated over and over again here and by lottery folks, to rank in order in which you wish to attend holds true.

Indeed. And I think the other piece of advice is the same as it has been in the past: don't waste one of your 12 slots on a school that you have literally no chance of getting in to, because it does not have space for out-of-boundary or non-sibling kids. This only really applies to a couple of DCPS schools, and maybe one or two charters. Just because you put Janney as your number 1 slot for PK4, if you don't live in the boundary you will not get in. And by doing that you knock off a school that you might have a chance at, even it's small, like a Capital City or LAMB.

I don't know. I kind of have a different approach to that. If you really really really like Janney and want a chance at it, while also not being that upset with your IB selection I would rank Janney above my IB. That way if I get my IB I'll still be on the Janney waitlist, otherwise if I put my IB as #1 I'd miss out on the opportunity.

That's fine for charters which have 5 non-sibling spots, or schools likes Eaton which will admit or small number of out-of-boundary kids. Your odds are long, but hey, why not take a shot. But for Janney, Lafayette, Mann, Key (any others?), you literally have no chance if you don't live in-boundary. Those schools have no room for out-of-boundary kids. All you do if you put one of those is waste a chance at a safer option.