Stanford University has the lowest acceptance rate among applicants of any college in the United States. Yet its acceptance rate is five times higher than the top-rated Orleans Parish public elementary school that can be applied to via the city's OneApp for families that don't have some kind of 'priority'.
That's right, the prestigious, 'Ivy-level,' west coast university accepts 5 percent of those who apply to its school. At Edward Hynes Charter Elementary 1,065 students applied to kindergarten. Only 69 students were accepted. But, of those who did not have a sibling or geographical priority, only 10 - less than 1 percent - were admitted to the school.
At Warren Easton High School, 3,028 students applied for 266 seats. Once the 'priority' students took 105 spots, only 161 of the 3,028 applicants found a spot there. That's 5.3 percent, which is slightly less 'picky' than Stanford.
THE OUTCRY OVER SCHOOL ADMISSIONS
Brittany Lewis drives Uptown every weekday morning from her New Orleans East home to bring her 5-year-old daughter to Audubon Charter School, a 15-mile trip.
“I know she was late a lot of times, me bringing her back and forth, with the traffic from the east to Uptown,” Lewis said.
Lewis’ daughter is one of nearly 11,000 students whose applications to local public schools went through the OneApp system for the 2018-2019 academic year. Many parents were upset when the results of the first round of school placements were announced in April because oftentimes they were assigned to schools far away from their homes -- or not placed in any school.
Those complaints caught the attention of state Rep. Joseph Bouie Jr. (D-New Orleans), who requested the state Legislative Auditor to look at the system.
The results reveal how hard it has become for students to get into a top performing public school -- a post-Katrina phenomenon -- and issues with a lottery-based placement system.
‘CONFUSING AND DISCOURAGING’
Before Katrina, most students attended a neighborhood school or applied to one of a handful of magnet schools. Those days -- and that process -- are long gone thanks in large part to charter schools.
Many parents of younger children must now navigate a lottery system of 60 elementary schools, a task they say can be daunting. A computer algorithm often results in unwanted school placements or no placement at all.
“It was very confusing because I really didn't understand it,” Lewis said of the OneApp system. “It’s very discouraging because at the end of the day you keep applying, and you end up getting the same results. So why keep trying?”
Meanwhile, single mother Britany Tillman and her 4-year-old daughter, Nadia, leave their Algiers home every weekday at 6 a.m. to catch an RTA bus to school. The uncertainty of the bus schedule forces Tillman to pay extra for before- and after-school care.
Tillman and her daughter ride past two schools that are closer to their home to get to Martin Behrman Charter, hopefully before the bell rings at 8:25 a.m. Tillman asked for her daughter to be placed closer to home. She said that request came with a warning: there was a chance Nadia would be placed at a school across the river.
“So I either take the placement or move,” an exasperated Tillman said.
MOST STUDENTS LEAVE NEIGHBORHOOD FOR SCHOOL
Because of the option to apply to schools across the city, the number of applications to top-rated schools often far outweighs the number of open seats.
The audit pointed out that 53.8 percent of students in Orleans Parish go to a school outside their neighborhood, a change from the days when they could walk to a school down the street.
But the audit also noted that half of parents’ first choices were schools outside of their neighborhood. Two-thirds of choices on all applications were also for schools outside of their neighborhoods. The end goal is often to get students into schools that perform better.
“The number one determinant in where students go to school is where they apply to go to school,” the Orleans Parish School Board said in a prepared statement in response to questions from WWL-TV.
Lewis said that last year she used OneApp to try to get her daughter in Audubon Gentilly, which is closer to her New Orleans East home. Audubon Gentilly is a new school under the same charter association that runs Audubon Charter in Uptown. That request went nowhere.
“I don’t understand that,” Lewis said.
Audubon Gentilly, however, had only 45 seats available with 484 students hoping to get into the school.
“Priorities come into play during the enrollment lottery if there are more applicants than there are open seats,” the OPSB said. “If there are enough open seats for all applicants, then there isn’t a need for priority.”
NO PLACEMENT AT ALL
The audit also mentioned 16.5 percent of applicants were not placed in a school at all during the first round. Of those 1,242 students, more than 90 percent did not list the maximum number of allowed schools on their application.
Instead, the average listing was 2.4 schools out of a potential 12 choices.
But Tillman said there is little incentive to do so.
“If you say put down 12 schools, there aren’t 12 schools in my area,” she said.
Parents also said they may not put down all 12 choices because of the school ratings.
“Why would you pick schools that have less than a C rating?” Tillman asked.
Of the OPSB’s 60 elementary schools in 2017, 26 have below a C rating.
“We always advise families who want or need to submit a OneApp to apply to their preferred schools in true order of preference, even if their top picks are very high-demand,” the OPSB said. “However, if a family only lists high-demand schools that cannot accommodate most applicants, there is a chance their child will not receive an assignment through the main round lottery.”
Officials said families should think about which schools they would consider if their child didn’t make their top choices and to list those schools.
“Listing more choices does not impact the chances of being assigned to a top-pick school,” the OPSB said.
As for Tillman, however, the new process is one that she said might drive her to a neighboring parish where the application process is less convoluted and more traditional.
“You’ve put me in a position where I’m literally thinking about moving away from Orleans Parish,” Tillman said. “The OneApp is a hindrance to the community. You live in that community, you support that community. Then when it’s time for you to go to school there, you can’t.”
Meanwhile, Lewis’ commute to get her daughter to school might be something of a trek, but she said it’s worth it for her to go to a top-rated school.
But what about the parents whose children are placed in lower-ranked schools?
“I still say try to get them in a good school to get them that good education that they deserve,” Lewis said. “No child should be left behind. Every child deserves a good education.”
Mary Staes can be reached at mstaes@wwltv.com and on Twitter @StaesNews.