{"id":1597,"date":"2026-06-26T12:10:52","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T12:10:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/corporate-movers-usa.com\/?p=1597"},"modified":"2026-06-26T12:10:52","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T12:10:52","slug":"lotteries-and-other-school-equity-reforms-can-have-mixed-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/corporate-movers-usa.com\/?p=1597","title":{"rendered":"Lotteries and other school equity reforms can have mixed results"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As final grades post, lockers empty and end-of-year celebrations draw to a close, anxiety about the future looms. For many children in Philadelphia a lottery determined where they\u2019ll head to school next year. The city is far from alone in adopting a practice that one online forum likened to \u201cwading through some kind of toxic gas.\u201d The goal, broadly speaking, is to ensure that any student anywhere can benefit from excellent schools despite entrenched housing segregation in many of America\u2019s cities. <\/p>\n

Read more \ud83c\udfd6\ufe0f Know before you Shore | Outdoorsy Newsletter<\/a><\/p>\n

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Yet, despite the endorsement of the committee, the question of whether these lotteries actually enhance equity is complicated. <\/p>\n

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Consider the case of Washington D.C., where 76% of the public school system is Black and Hispanic, 43% of students are designated as \u201cat risk\u201d academically and 15% are English language learners. For more than a decade, the city has embraced what is called the “common lottery.” Families enter for a variety of reasons, including seeking a particular type of education\u2014dual language immersion, or an arts-centric curriculum\u2014or even looking for a school in close proximity to a caregiver\u2019s workplace. For some students, the lottery has offered a ticket to a superior educational experience than the one at their neighborhood school. The history informing the adaptation of the common lottery, however, suggests that such a fix can both promote and evade equity, serving as a bandaid to old, not fully healed wounds. <\/p>\n

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Over a half century ago, Washingtonians came together to rethink how place determined the quality of education. In 1967, local activist Julius Hobson successfully sued the superintendent of schools for discriminating against Black and poor public school children. Federal Judge J. Skelly Wright, who previously desegregated schools in New Orleans, ordered multiple remedies, including boundary revisions to foster racial and socioeconomic integration. <\/p>\n

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To fulfill one of the court\u2019s mandates, in February 1968, a group of 35 civic-minded residents from every section of the city to redraw how the district set attendance boundaries. After several weeks of deliberation, the committee produced six maps and settled on two, one for junior high schools and one for high schools, to present to the board of education. On May 8, 1968, the nine-member board approved the changes, affecting approximately 9,000 of the District\u2019s 146,000 students.<\/p>\n

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Yet, the ink had barely dried on the new maps when the school board considered to school assignments. Enrollment patterns explained some of the changes, such as long-awaited school construction to alleviate overcrowding. But other changes looked more like carving out loopholes, blurring the lines between families\u2019 legitimate appeals and race and class biases. <\/p>\n

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In July 1969, the school board laid out the list of reasons that might justify a student transferring from their assigned school to one outside of their assigned geographic boundary. They included \u201cmedical reasons,\u201d \u201cdiplomatic requests\u201d and \u201cgross inconvenience to parents and\/or family routine.\u201d <\/p>\n

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The board also shifting 21 students, 18 white and three Black, from Gordon Junior High, located in Georgetown, to Alice Deal Junior High in upper Northwest, a historically white and affluent area of the city.In 1970, Gordon Junior High was only 53% white, whereas Alice Deal was 60% white. School board member Albert Rosenfield proposed the change on behalf of his well-to-do, well-connected constituents. For Rosenfield, the city \u201cmust have a tax base,\u201d and appeasing a few families, some with seats in Congress, could prevent their exit and help sustain the city\u2019s coffers.<\/p>\n

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Concerned white parents who believed the transfers \u201cenhance[d] segregation\u201d quickly sued the board, and the court agreed. <\/p>\n

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Yet, the legal victory didn\u2019t stop the school board from implementing quieter administrative measures which enabled parents to justify transferring their children to schools outside of their assigned boundaries to alleviate a purported burden. For the 1971-1972 school year, families submitted 700 appeals at the elementary school level and 1,639 for junior high and high school. The district approved 90% of transfer requests for elementary school students and over half of those coming from secondary students.<\/p>\n

Read more The death of Edward Weinrich, longtime owner of Weinrich\u2019s Bakery in Willow Grove, has sparked an outpouring of support<\/a><\/p>\n

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And so, by the 1980s, even though the boundary changes were supposed to help equalize educational opportunities regardless of one\u2019s address, a system of widespread exemptions had created had made that promise illusory for many families. For example, in the spring of 1983, a third of Alice Deal\u2019s 987 students were from outside of the school\u2019s geographic boundaries. Their families had successfully navigated the sysem, which now determined which students could get exemptions on a first come, first served basis. Parents could even claim that \u201ccurriculum offerings\u201d necessitated a transfer. This approach to fairness spurred competition for entrance into some prestigious schools. In 1986, approximately 175 parents assembled overnight outside of district offices for a chance to claim a coveted spot in their school of choice.<\/p>\n

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Over the next 40 years, families\u2019 ability to navigate the public school system only grew more complicated: controversial school closures, expanding citywide (or magnet) school options and the emergence of charter schools all affected how students could pursue a public education. Recognizing the burden to families and school administrators, in 2014, D.C. Public Schools and most charter schools turned to a common lottery to streamline the application process. (That same year, the district also accepted recommendations for boundary revisions, the first since 1968.)<\/p>\n

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The lottery was a well-intentioned step toward expanding educational opportunity\u2014and it has worked for many families. For the 2026-2027 school year, 74% of the 20,987 families who tested their luck received good news: a chance to enroll at one of their selected schools. And in recent years, the district\u2019s new gives students who are \u201cat-risk\u201d academically a higher chance of success on lottery day. <\/p>\n

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Of course, none of this matters for some families; indeed, according to the D.C. Policy Center, residents in the city\u2019s Jackson-Reed High School feeder pattern were the least likely to use the lottery, opting instead to attend their in-boundary school assignment, or a private school. But for those who want, or need, the lottery, as the state superintendent remarks, it provides a chance to take advantage of \u201cthe strength of so many D.C. education programs and the meaningful learning experiences they create.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Still, luck isn\u2019t a guaranteed pathway to equity. The lottery made no matches for one quarter of this year\u2019s applicants, who may or may not get off of waitlists. <\/p>\n

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The good news is the district has witnessed the dividends of more systemic efforts to nurture students. In math, researchers recently crowned the nation\u2019s capital first among 38 states for \u201cacademic recovery\u201d following the Covid-19 pandemic; and the same goes for reading performance among 35 states. But the work continues. As the city prepares to search for new leadership over D.C. Public Schools, the district is still chasing pre-pandemic benchmarks, and despite evidence of progress, nationally, math (ranked 27th<\/sup>) and reading (ranked 45th<\/sup>) are two subjects ripe for growth. <\/p>\n

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Philadelphia public schools, which also offers a lottery, is currently bracing for school closures and hundreds of teacher and staff cuts in response to a budget deficit. Lotteries can be useful additions to the equity landscape, but they can only do so much to reach the most vulnerable students.<\/p>\n

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Erica Sterling is an assistant professor of history at the University of Virginia.<\/i><\/p>\n

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Made by History<\/i> takes readers beyond the headlines with articles written and edited by professional historians. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of The Inquirer.<\/i><\/p>\n

Read more Collingswood might lift booze ban | Inquirer South Jersey<\/a><\/p>\n

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Districts like Philly and Washington D.C. have embraced lotteries for equity, but history suggests that well-intentioned fixes alone can’t solve our most entrenched iniquities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1596,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nLotteries and other school equity reforms can have mixed results - Corporate Movers USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/corporate-movers-usa.com\/?p=1597\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lotteries and other school equity reforms can have mixed results - 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