Reply to Fairness of Common Lottery?

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Reply to "Fairness of Common Lottery?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This has been a good discussion, and it's interesting that several people want to make this bizarre (to me) distinction between "your first choice school" and "the school you think you have the best odds of getting into" and that opting for #2 is somehow an awful, horrible thing for a system to support.

But you know what?  If I decide that the most important thing for my kids (and my sanity as a parent) is to get into what I consider a very good match for my kids, even if it's not my dream school, that school BECOMES my first choice if I'm valuing the odds of getting in.  Who are you (people so concerned with "gaming the system") to decide that I am doing something bad or wrong or that the outcome will be better if I rank my #1 dream school #1, get shut out, and then have such a crappy number that I get into none of my 12 schools or only #12?  Why are you happier with that system than a system that says that at least all those accepted to the most popular schools each had to choose (because remember: you can only choose ONE school as #1!)?

The whole idea that you're "gaming" because you're including in your considerations whether you have a better shot at one school than another is both obnoxious and still not explained in a way that makes sense.  Are you also going to insist that parents not consider commute, or whether it's got good special ed services, because that is gaming the system too?  The definition of "#1 pick" is that it's the school you want to put as #1, for whatever your reasons are.  We may be overly optimistic, discussing ways we think the current system can improve,, but the conversation about parents being "strategic" about rankings is just bizarre as hell.  No one, not even a Nobel Laureate, can create an algorithm that prevents parents from "being strategic", even the current system.  Feeling that IT/MV/TR or whatever as my first pick IS strategic.[/quote]

Whoa, there. No reason to get upset by the term "gaming." It's only used to help users understand how the lottery works. Of course you are expected to take all of the various factors into consideration when you make your rankings - commute, services, aftercare, curriculum, etc. That's not gaming; that's making an intelligent assessment of what would be best for your child!

The current system does not provide for gaming. The only thing that matters is your lottery number, your preferences (IB, sibling, etc), and whether or not there is room in the grade and schools you ranked by the time your lottery number comes up.[/quote]

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