What do you think about lottery schools?

There are charter schools in the New Orleans area who have to use the lottery system because the desire to attend the schools is so high due to them being highly rated schools. I guess it just depends on the school….

If more students are trying to get in than the school can accommodate, it’s probably a pretty darn good school. The only way to know for sure, of course, is to research that particular school.

Charter schools work best the more schools their are in the area. It makes surrounding schools have to compete for public funds. It doesn’t work for the community if there are only a few schools because then public schools aren’t pressured to work harder to gain more students and so therefore more funding.

The alternative to the lottery is to give the school a catchment area. This means they draw students only from that area, instead of from the larger school district.

Is the school good because the students are good? It stands to reason that if you get smarter, more motivated students, they will do better and then the school looks like a good school. Perhaps if they only had the students in the catchment area, they would do a lot worse and look no different from any other school serving that population.

In my town, we do have some charter schools who have done well and who are committed to the neighborhoods they are in. They have been opening more and more schools and trying to maintain the quality of education and the benefit of the education. They’re putting their money where their mouths are. If it’s the system, then the kids in the neighborhood will do better. If it’s the students, then nothing will be different.

I think it’s worth trying to win the lottery. Even if the school isn’t actually better, you will be with more motivated students, and that makes a lot of difference. Of course, if the school is actually better, then you are even better off.

In my town we have catchment area schools, lottery schools and competitive schools. The latter two are open to anyone in the city. This is a city with a very large population living in poverty. However, the top two high schools send nearly all their kids to college. They are college prep public schools. They are competitive. If they didn’t exist, I think that half the mid to upper income families with high school age kids would have left the city.

It just enforces caste society, which tends to be pretty unproductive. Really good schools score above average letting anyone in.

@Zyx The lottery system is kind of the opposite of a caste system. Anyone can get in, but they don’t have room for everyone. Choosing by lottery is pure chance, rather than only taking those with the best grades, or who can pay the most.

@augustlan I might be completely wrong but aren’t admission standards for schools like that extremely high to begin with?

@Zyx Generally not. Many charter schools are general admission… anyone can attend, as long as there is space. The lottery comes into play when there isn’t enough room to accommodate everyone.

I did not know. But lotteries still exclude people based on nothing, which is just wrong.

I still think this kind of institution would be better off not discriminating at all. If education is the goal you should make specialisation available earlier on and let anyone attempt anything.