Wait pool spreadsheet
Update: Newer info (9/16) here
The district recently published their "wait pool" data for all schools as of August 1st. It gives a detailed breakdown of the number of students on wait lists for each grade at all schools/programs/grades where there is a wait pool. It may not have made any of the waiting families happy, but it was a welcome sliver of helpful information and transparency amid a nightmarish enrollment endgame.
That was before the "Flynn-Arado" mess landed with a thud. By now, some two weeks later, the data is almost certainly stale. Seats were opened to accommodate displaced families. They've received new assignments. Lots ofpawns students have moved around in this game of musical chairs.
But it is an interesting souvenir of this years punishing enrollment marathon. And I may have added value by liberating the data from the district PDF. I converted the file into a spreadsheet, sorted it by grade and total waitpool count, and published it here:
And the schools with the longest Kindergarten wait lists? Fong Yu, Rooftop, Lilienthal, Clarendon, Lawton. Yes, the district has many more appealing schools todesperately compete for choose from. But the same "alternative" schools that have always been the most coveted still attract the most moths to the flame.
The district recently published their "wait pool" data for all schools as of August 1st. It gives a detailed breakdown of the number of students on wait lists for each grade at all schools/programs/grades where there is a wait pool. It may not have made any of the waiting families happy, but it was a welcome sliver of helpful information and transparency amid a nightmarish enrollment endgame.
That was before the "Flynn-Arado" mess landed with a thud. By now, some two weeks later, the data is almost certainly stale. Seats were opened to accommodate displaced families. They've received new assignments. Lots of
But it is an interesting souvenir of this years punishing enrollment marathon. And I may have added value by liberating the data from the district PDF. I converted the file into a spreadsheet, sorted it by grade and total waitpool count, and published it here:
SFUSD Wait Pool August 1, 2008What leaps out? The district clearly did not prepare for this incoming class. There were, according to this document, 90 different Kindergarten schools/programs with waiting lists, with a total of 953 applications. There is no way to know how many wait pools each Kindergartner is on, so we can't tell how many kids are left wanting and waiting. Clearly, there are too many.
And the schools with the longest Kindergarten wait lists? Fong Yu, Rooftop, Lilienthal, Clarendon, Lawton. Yes, the district has many more appealing schools to
Labels: Enrollment
4 Comments:
Actually, don't we know how many wait pools each Kinder is on? I think you are only allowed to have one wait pool school.
That is correct: you can only list one waitpool school.
The numbers may also be misleading in terms of indicating popularity of a school, as more "popular" schools can also have more movement during the 10 day count. So, for example, the fact that Sunset elementary school has many fewer people in its waitpool may have more to do with the fact that they are overenrolled, and had almost no movement during previous rounds (and aren't likely to this round, either). The waitpool was much larger before, but most people have since moved onto schools which --even though they have larger waitpools -- have a better chance of people dropping out or not showing up in the 10 day count.
Just one pool? Really? So 953 oout of 4330 total K applicants are unhappy with their placements? %22? That is really astounding.
I agree that waitpool count is a weak proxy for school popularity - but I'm not so sure that there are significantly more no-shows in the alternative schools than in others. I would sooner believe that many of the kids in those long wait lists are actually enrolled in private school with only the feintest hope of attending SFUSD
What's amazing to me about the list is that 406 people in the waitpool didn't get any of their choices in Round I at all. I imagine that some people will stick with what they got in Round II or in open enrollment, but it's still a really large #.
I think that the idea about the "popular" schools with larger waitpools is that, because they are well-known, people list them and get them who actually have no intention of going (they're going private) and then don't show up. With smaller, neighborhood schools, most people listing them in their Round I form actually plan to go there.
Thanks for creating the spreadsheet! It is much clearer to read than the one posted on the EPC site.
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