Charter Lottery Design for Equity and Enrollment with Lessons From Newark Charters

Charter Lottery Design for Equity and Enrollment with Lessons From Newark Charters


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BCEC, Meeting Room 153C

Newark charters have centralized their application and lottery with the Newark Common App, managed by New Jersey Children’s Foundation (NJCF). Join Sarah Yan, NJCF’s Head of School Support to dive into the transformative redesign of charter school lotteries in Newark. Sarah will share insights into NJCF’s innovative approach, which prioritizes equity and transparency to empower ALL Newark families, and how this has led to higher, more predictable, enrollment. Discover how different strategies for automated waitlists can streamline your enrollment processes and increase enrollment for homeless and displaced students, special education students, English learners and those who qualify for free school lunch. Sarah will also offer practical insights into how to best leverage lottery system data to offer transparent insights into enrollment outcomes, alongside best practices for waitlist management, including priorities, reserves, and set-asides.

Format:
Solution Session
Audience:
Operate
Content Focus:
Staffing and Fiscal Challenges
Learning Objective 1:
Participants will gain an understanding of the Single Best Offer and Deferred Acceptance approaches to automated waitlists, empowering them to optimize their enrollment processes.
Learning Objective 2:
Participants will learn how to utilize reserves and priorities to ensure equitable outcomes in their charter school lotteries, creating schools that are representative of the community.
Learning Objective 3:
Participants will discover how to leverage data from their lottery systems to provide transparent insights into enrollment outcomes, fostering trust and accountability within their communities.

Scroll down to view handouts.

Presenters


Photo
Sarah Yan
Director
Newark Common App

Sarah leads the Newark Common App, a common application for charter schools in Newark run by the New Jersey Children’s Foundation (NJCF). Previously she was the Deputy Director at the Newark Charter School fund and the Director of Recruitment and Staffing at Newark Public Schools as a Broad Resident (TBR 2017-2019). She was also a Business Operations Manager at Success Academy Charter Schools and a TFA Corps Member. Sarah studied at Cornell, Syracuse, and Harvard Universities.


Format:
Solution Session
Audience:
Operate
Content Focus:
Staffing and Fiscal Challenges
Learning Objective 1:
Participants will gain an understanding of the Single Best Offer and Deferred Acceptance approaches to automated waitlists, empowering them to optimize their enrollment processes.
Learning Objective 2:
Participants will learn how to utilize reserves and priorities to ensure equitable outcomes in their charter school lotteries, creating schools that are representative of the community.
Learning Objective 3:
Participants will discover how to leverage data from their lottery systems to provide transparent insights into enrollment outcomes, fostering trust and accountability within their communities.

Scroll down to view handouts.