by Stephanie Faraci
The Faraci family is navigating the Champaign School of Choice program. Photo provided.
Is anyone else terrified of the Champaign School of Choice program?
OK, maybe terrified is a strong word. But the next few months of researching and selecting a Kindergarten is something I’ve had on my mind since having my daughter Ellie almost five years ago.
On Tuesday I attended the first information night for Unit 4’s School of Choice lottery; the presentation was a breakdown of how the process works and what types of factors are weighted in the school-choice algorithm. Here are my “Cliff’s Notes” from last night’s meeting.
Parents with Kindergarteners or transfer students fill out a form listing their top five school choices (there are 11 elementaries). Last year, out of 700-plus students, 55 students were left unassigned — prompting the School Board to go to a five-school preference process instead of three (www.champaignschools.org outlines all necessary forms and links to each school in the district.).
Superintendent of Schools Arthur Culver started the evening by saying this will help “more parents get their first choice.” Call me a skeptical Sally, but I’m guessing in practice that just translates to “more parents will get a choice.”
That’s not a terrible thing; I can’t imagine going through this process, choosing my top three schools and not getting in to any. If, on March 31 when the lottery application process ends, I can sleep knowing my pride and joy will end up at a school I’ve consciously chosen.
The lottery is based on:
- Sibling preference (highest weight).
- Ninety percent of kids with a sibling in the school end up in the same school.
- Proximity A Status (second highest weight).
- If you live within 1.5 miles of a particular school, you can technically walk and are less of a burden on the bus system.
- Proximity B is the school closest to you (but more than 1.5 miles away).
- Seat Availability (third highest weight).
- Each school only has so many spots open.
- Socio Economic Status Guidelines.
A certain percentage of each school must be reserved for a certain percentage of low-income, free and reduced-price lunch students. This was unclear because the administrators didn’t have specific percentages each school must maintain to be compliant with SES Guidelines.
BT Washington and Garden Hills both have Magnet School designation, and are offering an early lottery for those school choices from Jan. 26 through Feb. 27. A consultant puts all applications in the database (insert “beeble bobble beebo beep” sounds here) and letters are sent out on March 1 so you can participate in the regular lottery should you not get in to either of those schools.
According to the administrator presenting, there is no preferential treatment for parents that submit their lottery forms sooner in the application process. Forms processed on March 1 will have the same weight as those turned in on March 31. Once again, the consultant puts all applications in the database (insert “beeble bobble beebo beep” sounds again) and letters are sent out on April 1.
Parents participating in the lottery should receive their letters by April 3. If you do not receive your first choice, you can accept your second through fifth choice and still remain on a waiting list.
According to the presenters, between 80-84 percent in Proximity A get their first choice and 92 percent get first, second or third choice.
So this brings me to my point: If 80-84 percent of all applicants get their first choice, why am I so terrified? How is it, that over the last four-plus years, I have managed to have conversations with the 16-20 percent of parents that didn’t get their first choice? We’ve all heard variations of school horror stories.
Like the one about the family that lived across the street from a highly sought-after school and still couldn’t get in. Or the story about triplets split up between two different schools.
Are these just urban legends? With 700-plus Kindergarteners going through this process every year, there have to be parents that have had relatively good experiences, right?
Right?
If there are, please let me know so I can stop breathing into this brown paper bag.
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Now that I understand the lottery process, how do I choose my top five? I don’t have a Proximity A school. I have no other children in the public schools to give me sibling preference. And my socio economic status is decent (besides single handedly keeping Target in business), giving me no weight in that category either.
Last night, in speaking with each lovely principal, I noticed s/he either started or ended the conversation with “wherever you end up will be great.” I appreciate the diplomacy, I do. But that doesn’t help me! I’m a Type A control freak and was hoping not to have to schedule multiple tours of each facility to be able to make an educated decision. When Unit 4 put the supplemental ad section in the News-Gazette this past December, I realized I needed a tool to help me decipher all of the different schools. So I came up with the chart.
Did I mention I was a Type-A Control freak?
In chatting with the principals (and sometimes also one of the school’s Kindergarten teachers or assistant principal) I asked the same question.
My question was: “What is one aspect of your school that makes you stand apart from the other schools?” The responses provided a quick glimpse of the culture, mission and/or goals of the school depending on who I spoke with.
Now that I’ll be scheduling tours at a handful of schools, I decided I might need to be armed with a few more questions. “Will any of your character development lessons be based on Hannah Montana? My kid is a huge fan,” would probably illicit and eyebrow raise or two, so here are some things I am curious about.
1. How regularly does your school communicate with parents?
2. What is the balance between academic and non-academic (social skills, character development) skill building? Are those two things integrated? How so?
3. What are the ways your school focuses on the individual student? How do you accommodate different students learning at different paces?
4. Budget cuts are occurring around the state in many different sectors. Is this something your school particularly has faced recently? What was modified?
5. How does your school foster a spirit of curiosity?
6. What are your school lunches like? Do you have any curriculum that helps kids learn about personal health, nutrition and fitness?
7. Blackboards were probably really cool in 1862. Do you have any newer technologies available in the classroom? If yes, what are they? How are they incorporated in lessons? How often?
8. How is the day broken down? Example: Are the kids sitting for more than 30 minutes at a time focused only on one subject?
9. Do you have a mission statement? How do you see that mission statement come to life every day?
10. What makes you excited to come here to [Insert school name here] to work every day?
11. Do you have a strong art and music program? Library resources? Are there any extracurricular activities offered to students at this school?
12. Are any other languages taught/spoken at this school?
13. How do teachers stay on top of their game? Are development opportunities offered here locally? How often is curriculum developed?
14. What accomplishments has this school achieved? What are you most proud of?
Stephanie Faraci has lived in Champaign with her husband Paul since 2004 and has contemplated the public school system since giving birth to her daughter Ellie over four years ago. She is currently the Provena Health System Manager of Advocacy, coordinating government relations issues for the six-hospital system. In her spare time, she is preparing to run her first half marathon in April and attempting to potty train the family puppy Ham Sandwich.
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Thank you for this write-up. We were not able to make it to the meeting, so it was nice to get an inside view. The chart would not print for me. I found the chart very helpful, considering that I didn’t even know there were 11 elementary schools in Champaign! Thanks again for the notes.
We got our 1st choice 3 years ago with no proximity A school and no siblings. Race was the other indicator at that time and that did not have impact for us. The school we chose is typically an “over chosen” school. The lottery worked for us. I agree that it is an unsettling process. Good luck.
I have a few years until i will be dealing with this, but just wanted to ask, what is a magnet school?
We have three kids and have gone through the process three times. We got our first choice each time (the first kid we selected a non-proximity school with no sibling preference). And it really is true, all the Unit 4 schools are great. Most kids will thrive at any of the schools, especially if they have parents who are involved and spend the time keeping up with their kids’ schools.
In answer to lots of your questions above, you can go online and find the answers to lots of them…which will narrow your search before you visit them. Lunch menus are district-wide and online.
I would recommend selecting schools you, as a parent, match with. Do you want to be in the PTA? Can you volunteer regularly? Is the school too big or small for you? How do the start and end times work with your family? Is the bus available? Is the school convenient to your home or work?
Best wishes!
I have 5-year-old twins and will be going through this process for the first time as well. I’ve asked a couple of times about multiples getting split up into different schools, and each time I’ve been assured that that wouldn’t happen. So I’m curious about the triplets who got placed into two schools…
I hate this whole process. I want my kids to go to the closest school to us, which is our only Proximity A school. It happens to be the most overchosen school, so I will be stressing about this for the next several months.
There is one thing I didn’t quite understand in this so called “controlled choice” system, and that’s although I’m pretty involved in the process.
I wasn’t present myself at the information night meeting but my wife was there and she also wasn’t able to get a straight answer to this question-
What if we don’t want the only one proximity A school we have? Since this is the second most important factor in the lottery system we are pretty much going to get only the leftovers, isn’t that right? Yes, we can rank all others schools that we want from 1 to 5 but they’re all going to be proximity B schools for us. We don’t have another son/daughter in another school here.
From what I got so far it seems like unless we go with the magnet schools the chances for us to enroll our daughter to one of the top 3 schools in our list (which are obviously over-chosen schools)are pretty much at ZERO.
So how come this system claims to give me a choice? How does it accommodate the choices of people that DON’T HAVE A PROXIMITY A SCHOOL available?
This is the first time we are participating in this process and it is definitely a frustrating experience so far!
I would appreciate any responses addressing this question.
Thanks,
Sharon.
Me again- just to clarify the question I put in the end “…How does it accommodate the choices of people that DON’T HAVE A PROXIMITY A SCHOOL available?…”
I actually meant- What if we don’t want the only one proximity A school we have available for us based on our residence location?
If someone has an answer for that it would be great.
@Sharon – No one says that you have to select your proximity school. If you don’t want it, you don’t want it. That’s my take on it but I’m not an expert!
@Mary – the district has designated two schools as magnet schools. Here’s more info on that from the N-G: http://www.news-gazette.com/news/education/2011-01-16/champaign-wants-spur-interest-magnet-programs.html
Hi Laura,
I know I don’t have to choose it. The problem is that people that have their most wanted school in their proximity A area have a much higher chance of getting it compared to me! This obviously selects for the most close-to-school populations to get a much higher chance of getting first into an over chosen school for example.
My chances to get a school that I want for my daughter go down to 18% (or even much less then that, maybe even zero for over-chosen schools) just because I’ll be a proximity B entrant on the lottery on all of my choices.
Or maybe I’m getting it all wrong?
Anyone, please correct me if I am.
@Sharon — What you are expressing is exactly why so many parents are concerned (Stephanie, who wrote this post above, does not have a proximity A school). The system has weights, as Stephanie reported in great detail. It’s not “Equal Choice,” that’s for certain! However, I know many parents who have Proximity A schools who are also very concerned that their child won’t get that school regardless of the weight — and that does happen. I think we’ll all need some time in the spa once this is over!
I went through this last year. It was Top 3, not 5. All 3 of the schools we chose were over chosen. We could of went on a wait list, but I decided that since I loved all 3 schools I was just going to stick with our second choice. I am happy we did. I will have to do this again next year and I really hope there is no issue getting my kids in to the same school.
I am always curious about the Socio-Economic status information. Where do they get that from? Do we fill it in somewhere? If not, how are they really using this as a factor??
Hi GP,
You actually put that information on your application and sign at the bottom that all your information is accurate and true.
Hi,
Last year my partner and I went through the school of choice process. We ended up getting our third choice. At first we were disappointed, but we lived with it. We are committed to public education. It ended up that the school and teachers are fantastic and we love it. It is one of those schools that is “under-chosen.” So, anybody looking for a great public elementary school, look at Dr. Howard. We are also fortunate that we can walk there.
As flawed and annoying as it is, I believe the school of choice design was intended to deal with issues of equity, which I believe, also translate into covert racism. The school system here, as in so many other metropolitan areas, is plagued by social trends and structures which keep many schools with a high white population in better condition (resources, facilities, programs, etc.) Then, well-off parents flock to those schools and the whole process reinforces itself. I was one of those parents and I’m glad to say my “choice” was thwarted.
The school of choice process is ridiculous but the problems it is meant to address are real. I say, have some faith in the school your kids end up in, get involved, and don’t flee from the public schools. For many of us, this will be the first time that adults other than ourselves have consistent and sanctioned authority over our children. But this is also how they enter the wider world. In public school, they get the chance to learn with and about kids from many different walks of life. They also learn to get along with other people. You can’t buy that.
it’s not just the “getting in” that you have to worry about. A much bigger problem the district is facing is the lack of accountability some teachers and administrators have to the students, parents and community at large. Our family did get into our chosen school which we thought was a blessing. It turns out that one of our children is thriving while the other’s education is slipping away because there is simply no one being held accountable for what is basically a wasted year for him and him classmates.
Is it really fair to our children that their education be based on the luck of the draw? Now that we’re considering transferring to a different school, which we’ve heard is better, I was told by one parent, there are still a few teachers you need to “steer clear of.” While I do appreciate the advice, that’s not a gamble I want to make! What if I my children do end up with those teachers and end up wasting yet ANOTHER year of schooling? At least I, as an educator, can tutor them to catch up from what their teacher failed to teach them. What about the students whose parents are not educators and have no clue how to help them? Not to mention the kids who have worse problems than that! Who is standing up for their rights?
And lastly, the issue no one seems to have brought up is that in this choice program, there are still so many children whose parents will not even get involved. The magnet schools will market to the higher-income families, and the “white flight” will begin, as it has in the private sector, leaving the poorest children in the worst schools. Rather, why not demand the best of EVERY teacher and EVERY administrator at EVERY school via public school reform? I encourage everyone to at least take a look at studentsfirst.org and see what types of changes are beginning to take place around the country. Improving our schools is going to require an honest debate about what the problems are in our community; it’s not about politics.
*him and his classmates*
Hello All:
Okay, I admit it. I am impatient. But just wondering if anyone could clarify for me when the letters will be sent out. This article says they were to go out April 1, but I’ve also heard “mid-April”, which I believe is what they said at the forum I attended. Anyone here a more specific date?
There is no specific date.I just wrote about this – you can find it here: http://www.chambanamoms.com/2011/04/04/at-the-editors-desk-waiting-is-the-hardest-part/
Thanks, Laura! I found your article right after I posted… I wish Unit 4′s own website were as informative as this site. Keep it up!!
So this school of choice system leaves proximity b people with no choice at all. So what happens if you get no schools and are on the wait list for a over picked school and you do not get into that school either. Do they just put you into any school that has an opening. This process is very frustrating i would like to here from others who did not get any of there five schools either.