I see no information on the website regarding "ranking" per se. What I do see in the FAQs is this:

"I APPLIED FOR THREE PROGRAMS FOR MY CHILD; ONE IS MY FIRST CHOICE AND THE OTHERS ARE MY SECOND AND THIRD CHOICES. WHAT HAPPENS IF I GET MY SECOND OR THIRD CHOICE FIRST?

All choices are treated equally, however, if selected, you will only receive placement for one program. If you choose to decline your placement choice, at your request, you may be placed on the waiting list for the other options."

To me, a native speaker of English, this means that if my choices were (1) Goddard, (2) Pullen, and (3) Chavez, but the lottery results came in as (1) Pullen, (2) Goddard, and (3) Chavez, the available seats would be filled up in the order of the lottery results. In other words, no particular school would be "filled up first". We should have gotten a offer letter for Pullen (although we prefer and also "won" Goddard). Choices are treated equally...but placements are based on lottery results. Anything else is not a lottery, but something subjective.

Another part of PGCPS's website states: "The application form permits multiple Specialty Program choices per student. If more than one Specialty Program choice is selected, each choice will be treated equally and placement will be made according to the first available opening."

So, how is it possible to have a placement in the 70's knock out a placement in the 10's or 20's? We did everything according to the rules as written...this is extremely unfair.

Also, to answer a previous poster's question/comment: we chose Chavez as a "last resort" option because our local school is dismal. So, Chavez is a better option that what we have now. We had no idea that with a placement number in the 70's, it could bump us out of one of our other two choices.

I would have been perfectly happy with this process if we had been offered Chavez and our numbers for Goddard and Pullen were worse, like 110 & 120. However, we're getting offered our last in choice and last in lottery results. How can this be?

I'm having a bit of an out-of-body experience with all of this. Numbers are numbers...there should be no dispute.

I appreciate everyone's input. You can tell I'm not going quietly on this one.

I'm sorry, but there are many, many people who have long suspect that this is a corrupt process. There has been no transparency for years.

They may have decided to fill the Spanish program first, but so what. She number 100 for that space. Placements are supposed to be made on a space available basis. The first available opening should absolutely be a number 10 pick rather than a number 100 pick. I can clearly count to ten faster than I count to 100. Selections may be treated equally, but there is no way a 100 lottery slot should even be placed in a school that only has 2 classes of 25 unless

1. It's totally corrupt and they just skip numbers ahead.

2. The fact that her child speaks Spanish (although she also speaks English) vaults her into the top ten which is a clear violation of federal discrimination policy.

Anonymous wrote:Unfortunately, I suspect one of two possibilities. When you fill out the application for the student number, you need to indicate the language in the home. It doesn't show upon the lottery application, but it's in your file. Go back and check that paperwork.

1. Based on her last name (and maybe you said both languages at home on the original enrollment), they put her in the Spanish grouping. Last year they had to do another round of applications for Spanish, because not enough Latino families knew about the lottery.

2. There is some funny business going on, ie, they sent out letters to Spanish immersion first in the hopes of making it a more solid program.

Regardless, you should also be getting a spot at BOTH your other choices. There are only nine kids ahead of you for four? Kindergarten classrooms at Pullen and 14 or so for the three? Classrooms at Goddard. Definitely call first thing Monday and if they tell you otherwise, complain loudly.

I don't remember a space for ranking anything so even so how would they know what which choice is In the best interests of your family.

Have you visited all three classrooms? I'd do before finalizing a decision.

There was no ranking - it was clearly stated that all selections would be treated equally. Parents should have made the decision on what school would be the best interest of the family before applying.

Anonymous wrote:Me again, if you really don't want the Spanish immersion program and they have dissolved your previous lottery numbers, I'd file a complaint with the MD board of Education and consider hiring an attorney..

Save a screenshot of your lottery results.

File a complaint for what? It was clearly stated in the literature that all of the lottery choices would be considered equally and the parent would not get to choose. If she didn't want Spanish Immersion, she should not have selected it. Do you really think they are going to give people time to hem and haw over the choices while other people are waiting? Families should have decided which program they wanted before applying.

And yes, they are probably filling out the Spanish Immersion slots first, since it is the newest program.

Me again, if you really don't want the Spanish immersion program and they have dissolved your previous lottery numbers, I'd file a complaint with the MD board of Education and consider hiring an attorney..

Save a screenshot of your lottery results.

Unfortunately, I suspect one of two possibilities. When you fill out the application for the student number, you need to indicate the language in the home. It doesn't show upon the lottery application, but it's in your file. Go back and check that paperwork.

1. Based on her last name (and maybe you said both languages at home on the original enrollment), they put her in the Spanish grouping. Last year they had to do another round of applications for Spanish, because not enough Latino families knew about the lottery.

2. There is some funny business going on, ie, they sent out letters to Spanish immersion first in the hopes of making it a more solid program.

Regardless, you should also be getting a spot at BOTH your other choices. There are only nine kids ahead of you for four? Kindergarten classrooms at Pullen and 14 or so for the three? Classrooms at Goddard. Definitely call first thing Monday and if they tell you otherwise, complain loudly.

I don't remember a space for ranking anything so even so how would they know what which choice is In the best interests of your family.

Have you visited all three classrooms? I'd do before finalizing a decision.

This has really affected me today...I keep thinking something is wrong. My daughter is bilingual, but I don't recall a space for that on the lottery application. Her last name is hyphenated with a Spanish last name...did we get put in a different group because of her last name? I hope not, for obvious reasons. It just seems to me that if it's a lottery as described in everything I've read, they should have offered us Pullen first, RG second, and Chavez third...or just Pullen.

I'm glad others are confused by this...I felt like I was going crazy.

Anonymous wrote:15:57 poster again.

After checking into this, it seems that only one placement in one program is offered. Our spots are as follows:

- top 10 at Thomas Pullen
- top 15 at Robert Goddard
- top 100 in Cesar Chavez

We received a placement offer for Cesar Chavez. The website says that we the other options are no longer available. We can decline and be put on the wait list for the other options.

How can this happen? Who decides that we go to CC rather than RG, although we have a high placement number at RG? I don't get it...either it's a lottery, or it's not.

Does anyone have insight?

Thanks.

This totally baffles me. Is Spanish your first language? There are only three kindergarten classes at Cesar Chavez, half the spaces are for fluent Spanish speakers. You should definitely have gotten a space at Robert Goddard and Pullen based on those numbers and not gotten a space at Chavez. I'm wondering if PGCPS is trying to pull something strange with enrollment at Chavez.

This is all so interesting to me...

We chose Spanish which is Phyllis Williams Top 20 and Goddard (french) darn near 200... I am sure we will get P. Williams which I am happy to have... We also got a placement for CMIT. I am just feeling lucky to have at least 1 option as our older is having a tough time in our local and will probably have to go to private next year.

I didn't realize you couldn't pick if you got multiple placements. That part doesn't seem clear in anything I read. However, I still would have chosen three schools, since our home school is ranked 2 out of 10 (greatschools.org).

Does anyone know about the Spanish Dual Language at Cesar Chavez? I know it's a new program in a school ranked 3 out of 10 by greatschools.org, but this ranking isn't for the dual language program...so maybe it doesn't mean anything?

I appreciate any thoughts.

This is why we chose one school - because if you got multiple placements you couldn't pick, and you couldn't rank them when applying. I think they are trying to give more people a chance to get into the specialty schools.

15:57 poster again.

After checking into this, it seems that only one placement in one program is offered. Our spots are as follows:

- top 10 at Thomas Pullen
- top 15 at Robert Goddard
- top 100 in Cesar Chavez

We received a placement offer for Cesar Chavez. The website says that we the other options are no longer available. We can decline and be put on the wait list for the other options.

How can this happen? Who decides that we go to CC rather than RG, although we have a high placement number at RG? I don't get it...either it's a lottery, or it's not.

Does anyone have insight?

Thanks.

Hi everyone,

Does anyone know if you get multiple placement offer letters if you have very high placement numbers in three schools? We got in the top ten in one school, top twenty in another (preferred) school, and top 100 in a third (least preferred) school. We received an offer letter for the least preferred. Does anyone have any experience with this? Will we get more than one offer letter?

I read that some parents got offer letters for our preferred school, but their placement numbers were not as good as ours.

Thanks.

When we went through this 2 years ago we didn't get phone calls, only letters, for both wait list and acceptance.

Do all the schools call if you are admitted and not on wait list?