This blog is about 3 stories.

1. The start-up year for a very different sort of Graduate School of Education. It's a tiny subset of...
2. ...The much larger, national effort to transform teaching and teachers. That is a big subset of...
3. ...A multi-kajillion-dollar effort to improve the ludicrous odds (7% or so) of a poor kid ever getting a college diploma.

Camping Out

Posted: November 28th, 2012 | Author: | | 3 Comments »

Once upon a time, I camped out to watch basketball games at Cameron. (Reminds me: Big Duke game tonight against Ohio State. Obstacle: Team Umizoomi on Nick Junior, popular with other members of our household. Hmm.)

But I’ve never heard of this: camping out for a spot in a magnet school.

Read this: fascinating blog by Elisa Hoffman.

Here’s an article about it, on Cincinnati.com

3 Comments on “Camping Out”

  1. 1: Jen said at 6:45 pm on November 28th, 2012:

    Used to happen in Pittsburgh. But they changed at least 15-20 years ago to a lottery system. Then within the last 5 years it’s changed again — now there are “extra chances” in the lottery for various things (high grades, good attendance, free/reduced lunch status) and some preferences given for locality.

    It used to be you could attend the lottery at the school you hoped to attend and watch them actually pick the names out. Now however, there’s that more mysterious weighted formula and a computer spits out results.

  2. 2: Michael Goldstein said at 10:54 am on November 29th, 2012:

    Jen, do you prefer the “watch them pick the names out” process? (That’s what we do).

  3. 3: Jen said at 10:57 am on November 29th, 2012:

    Yes — the current system feels like it’s a lie. It may not be, but there’s certainly no way to tell if it’s being fixed/manipulated — especially since no one (in the public) really understands how it works.

    Transparency is better!

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