Middle School Enrollment

History of the Lottery
The City School District of Albany's Middle School Enrollment Committee is made up of parents, community members, teachers, staff, and administrators.

The City School District of Albany's Middle School Enrollment Committee was formed in 2000 and is made up of parents, community members, teachers, staff, and administrators.

The Enrollment Committee explored three enrollment options: Neighborhood, Feeder, and Lottery. The committee concluded that a feeder system would not give the district the balance it is seeking, at least not in the short term. This conclusion, along with academic and logistical considerations, led the committee to the conclusion that the lottery system might be the best way for the district to meet its goals for the 2005-2006 school year, with the understanding that its recommendation be revisited the following year.

The committee also recognized that families prefer to know ahead of time where their children will attend school and that students want to move on to middle school with their peers.

Based on its research and recommendations, the City School District of Albany held a random, computerized lottery to enroll grades 6 and 7 at the new Stephen & Harriet Myers Middle School.

At its May 29, 2005 meeting, the Board of Education approved the district's proposal to enroll approximately 215 eighth-grade students at the new Stephen & Harriet Myers Middle School. The original interim enrollment plan called for 8th graders to remain at their current middle school.

However, in an effort to be proactive with regard to NCLB and to support small schools, it was determined that Grade 8 students should be included in the new middle school population. An "opt-out" lottery was held that included all eighth graders, save those who requested to remain at their middle schools. For more information about the lottery process, click here.

The district's current middle school enrollment process is as follows:

Randomized selection
Student assignment is based on a computerized lottery selection process.  Should your child not receive an assignment at the time of the lottery, your child will be placed on a ranked waiting list for the 2007-2008 school year.  If seats become available prior to or during the school year, students will be selected , in order, from the waiting list.  For example, the first available seat will be offered to the first student on the list, the second seat to the second student on the list, etc. No additional lotteries will be held as in the past years. 

NCLB Choice
No Child Left Behind Legislation allows parents the option of school choice if their child currently attends a school in improvement status. To that end, twenty percent (20%) of available seats will be reserved for school choice.  Requests for consideration under the school choice option should be formally submitted, in writing, to ATTN: Linda Rudnick, Office of Instruction, Academy Park, Albany, New York, 12207.   A separate lottery will be drawn from the submitted requests received.

Neighborhood Attendance Zone
Applications for students who legally reside 0.5 miles or less from the school, for which they are applying for admittance, will be given a preference. 

Siblings
Students who live with a sibling already attending the school for which they are applying should note this on their application and a strong effort will be made to make the accommodations where space is available. 

Enrollment Pros & Cons
A more detailed look at the pros and cons of the Neighborhood, Feeder, and Lottery enrollment options:

Neighborhood System
Under this system, students are assigned to a middle school based on where they live. Essentially, this is the system the district currently has in place (modified with the option of "open enrollment"). The Enrollment Committee rejected this approach early on because it produces an imbalance in school size and student population.

Feeder System
This system allows children to move into an assigned middle school with their elementary school peers, giving families the certainty of knowing which school their child will attend.

In theory, this system contributes to greater socio-economic balance in each middle school. In practice, however, this is not the case, at least not in the initial stage of the district's transition from two to three middle schools and one Pre-K-8 school. A major complicating factor is that the district is considering a varied phase-in of the new K-5, 6-8 grade configuration (description below).

Weighted Lottery System
This system, in use in the district's magnet schools, gives every student an equal chance to attend the middle school of his or her choice. Because each student entering the lottery is weighted according to ethnicity, socio-economic status, and academic performance, it allows the district to balance student populations in each middle school.

On the other hand, it does not provide children with the same sense of togetherness of automatically moving on to the same middle school as their peers. Such fears might be eliminated by holding the lottery far in advance in an effort to give parents notice of where their child will attend middle school and to offer the child's sibling/s guaranteed spots in the same middle school.

Complicating Factors
Enrollment Committee members noted several complicating factors that make it difficult to implement a feeder system at this time:

Varied Phase-In of New Grade Configurations
The facilities plan calls for 11 elementary schools consisting of grades K-5, one elementary/middle school consisting of grades K-8, and three middle schools consisting of grades 6-8. However, district officials would prefer not to move this year's seventh graders into new or different buildings next year, noting that it would disrupt the "looping" process (whereby teachers and students stay together in seventh and eighth grade) and would make it more difficult to prepare the youngsters for the all-important state tests they must take in eighth grade. For that reason, the Enrollment Committee is recommending that for the time being, Hackett and Livingston should continue as 6-8 schools, while the new middle school should house grades 6-7, and this year's seventh graders would remain in their present school next year for eighth grade. 

This in turn creates space issues at Hackett and Livingston that can only be resolved by limiting the number of incoming sixth graders. As a result, the Enrollment Committee is recommending that only half of the sixth graders be sent on to middle school next year. These students would come from those elementary schools that have recently been rebuilt or are scheduled to be renovated in the next year: School 16, School 18, School 27, Montessori, Schuyler Academy and Sheridan. The following schools, which have not yet undergone any renovation, would temporarily remain as K-6 buildings: Arbor Hill, ASH, Giffen, TOAST, and School 19. A newly renovated and expanded School 20 will open as a K-7 building next year and K-8 the following year (with students also having the option of going to one of the middle schools). 

During this phase-in process, it would be practically impossible to set up a permanent middle school feeder system that would provide equity in size and student populations.

Other Issues
Academic & Ethnic Balance
There are other issues that make it difficult to achieve balance through a feeder system. One is the constant student mobility within the district. Another is the changing elementary school performance-- with some of the district's low performing schools now becoming rising stars. Also still unknown is the impact of two new charter schools on middle school enrollment. In fact, they could house up to 500 students by 2008. This means that at some point the district might need to go back to operating with two middle schools, which is a key reason why no renovations are planned for Livingston. Then of course there are the complexities of the NCLB (No Child Left Behind) transfer requirements. Together, these issues could wreak havoc with even the best laid feeder plan. A lottery system, on the other hand, would allow the district to factor in all these variables.

Community Feedback 
At the December 1, 2004 forum, a variety of valid and important questions were asked, and comments and concerns were shared with the committee. Questions and comments ranged from teacher placements at each middle school and academic program questions (themes, special education) to requests for more specific information about a lottery process, weighting of the lottery system, and the timeline for letting parents and students know where they will be attending middle schools.

There were some concerns raised that a lottery system couldn't be implemented before the end of this school year, as well as concerns that a lottery system might result in more parents enrolling their children in private/parochial schools. Others were concerned that a feeder system would have to be revisited and reconfigured each year to keep the schools balanced, which could contribute to an even greater amount of upheaval in the district. Proponents of a lottery system felt that it would give the district better control over school size and makeup and expressed the view that it should be implemented as a short-term and long-term option.

The Enrollment Committee is now reviewing its recommendations in light of the community input.

Timeline
After the board adopts a plan, the district will implement the steps necessary to ensure that this year's fifth graders, and their parents, know which middle school they will attend as sixth graders in September 2005.

Program, Staff & Budget Distribution
In addition to finalizing a plan for student enrollment at the middle schools, administrators are working on plans for program development, staffing assignments, and budget reallocations. More information about this plan will be available after an enrollment option is finalized.