IDEA's Admission Lottery Today

IDEA Public Schools is touting that it has exceeded its enrollment target for IDEA Allan and had to go to a lottery to allocate seats. So how impressive are their numbers?

The lottery was scheduled for noon today at the AISD Skyline Campus: At a press briefing yesterday, IDEA Chief Growth Officer Matt Randazzo explained that IDEA had foregone the normal dramatic public lottery their campuses use in the Valley in favor of the computerized selection system that AISD uses for its magnet schools.

However, parents waiting for a letter from should probably note that the odds favor them getting a space. Statistically speaking, if you applied at any grade level, your child has a better than 84% chance of being accepted.

Grade	Seats	Applicants	Excess	Chance of Seat
K	125	146	21	85%
1	125	134	9	93%
2	125	127	2	98%
6	225	268	43	84%
Total	600	675	75	89%

Parents who miss out will still be placed on a wait list, just in case anyone drops out.

In total, only 175 of the 600 students enrolling will come from the Eastside Memorial Vertical Team: That's not great news, considering that the original logic for IDEA coming in was to rebuild Eastside.

The one big win for AISD is that 70 of the applicants are what Randazzo called "recaptures" – students that live within the district but were not educated at an AISD campus in the last year. Superintendent Meria Carstarphen has been very keen to use the in-district charter to lure back eligible students who have either been home-schooled or attended a charter or private school.

The more pressing issue may be hiring teachers: So far, only 12 teachers have been hired for the Fall to fill 37 positions. Sixth grade will require 12 teachers and two co-teaching position, whereas the K-2 academy has 25 posts: However, each has only hired six a piece.