tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3007386053548445250.post5259284775678541900..comments2023-10-20T01:06:40.021-07:00Comments on San Francisco Student Assignment: The SFUSD assignment processChad Lesterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06369126455558694121noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3007386053548445250.post-8192736245498653992009-06-03T12:21:42.766-07:002009-06-03T12:21:42.766-07:00The more I read and think about the school assignm...The more I read and think about the school assignment redesign, the more I'm convinced that the board is being quixotic. They're pretty upfront about attacking the achievement gap as their #1 priority. And, frankly, I support them in that goal, even if they can be abrasive and insensitve to the concerns of some parents.<br /><br />But I don't think they'll find a magic recipe and I worry that they'll make matters worse. (My favorite way of putting this is that I rank the educational value of time spent in a bus below watching TV.) <br /><br />For example, the last few meetings have brought up the topic of discontiguous attendance area maps and this suggests that they're looking very hard for a way to decrease the achievement gap through jimmying the diversity numbers. I don't think they'll find what they're looking for.<br /><br />I guess I'm saying this because I really doubt that it's possible to change their minds on this topic. But I do think that there is a way to significantly reduce the anxiety of parents engaged in the assignment process and that is to reform the EPC.<br /><br />It seems like the EPC does a lot of work manually. And while I've read and reread the algorithm description I suspect that it's implemented differently and covers only a portion of the scope of the problem. At the R2/open enrollment stage it seems that a lot of issues are resolved by waiting in lines and walking paperwork around an office.<br /><br />My hope is that with the rollout of SchoolLoop, the District will (someday) automate the rest of the enrollment & assignment processes to the point where the EPC would perform an advisory role rather than an operational role. Moreover, taking the final registration process out of the hands of local schools and centralizing it would offload overworked local school administrators.<br /><br />The result would be a more efficient and transparent system. And I would hope that would reduce parent anxiety.Daniel Searshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17114122784062407567noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3007386053548445250.post-69761941369461286372009-05-31T16:27:49.452-07:002009-05-31T16:27:49.452-07:00The technical description of the assignment algori...The technical description of the assignment algorithm seems to indicate that assignments are indeed sticky, see bottom of page 5 in http://portal.sfusd.edu/data/epc/DI_Handout_Combo.pdf Once a student is assigned (based on the fact that they contribute positively to the CDI), there is no clause for dislodging them later.luptonixhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09447848922571835023noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3007386053548445250.post-65802983392860041462009-05-31T16:23:29.705-07:002009-05-31T16:23:29.705-07:00> if my assignment area school is Grattan and
&...> if my assignment area school is Grattan and<br />> I don't include it in my 7 choices, would I<br />> effectively enter the lottery at step 3d<br /><br />Yes. The attendance area information is only relevant to the extent that you have that attendance area on your application.<br /><br />> In an earlier post, you call this a greedy <br />> algorithm. Do you mean that assignments are <br />> sticky?<br /><br />I believe assignments are indeed sticky in the way you describe, but I am not 100% certain about it.<br /><br />> Does the assignment area school have to be <br />> in the first 7 choices or only the first <br />> choice to get the treatment of steps 3a-c<br /><br />The assignment area criterion is applied anywhere among the 7 choices, so long as you live in the assignment area.<br /><br />In general, my understanding is that the assignment area does not help much if at all because most applicants who come from the assignment area are very uniform in their diversity profile, so it ends up being, effectively, useless for them.luptonixhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09447848922571835023noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3007386053548445250.post-19856778564753956622009-05-26T20:05:30.116-07:002009-05-26T20:05:30.116-07:00A follow-up question: Does the assignment area sch...A follow-up question: Does the assignment area school have to be in the first 7 choices or only the first choice to get the treatment of steps 3a-c?Daniel Searshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17114122784062407567noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3007386053548445250.post-74230013265113987892009-05-26T13:11:53.158-07:002009-05-26T13:11:53.158-07:00Do steps 3a-c pretain only to students who both li...Do steps 3a-c pretain only to students who both live in an assignment area and choose the assignment area school? For example, if my assignment area school is Grattan and I don't include it in my 7 choices, would I effectively enter the lottery at step 3d? To put this another way, leaving aside preferences like siblings, special needs and attendance areas, for most students does the lottery effectively begin at step 3d?<br /><br />In an earlier post, you call this a greedy algorithm. Do you mean that assignments are sticky? That is to say, if an attendance area student is selected in steps 3a-c, but in step 3d a more diverse student is available, could the first student replace the second? Or would the only scenario for a student to be dislodged be if they are assigned to more than one school and the system would then use the student's own preferences to make choices?Daniel Searshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17114122784062407567noreply@blogger.com