Massachusetts Charter School Waitlist Report for 2014-2015

May 2014

This annual report provides information regarding students on charter school waitlists for admission for the 2014-2015 school year. For more information on waitlist policy and procedures and the number of students found on previous cycles of charter school waitlists, see last year's two reports: July 2013 and May 2014 .

The Department requested the submission of 2014-2015 waitlist data in March 2014. Charter school waitlist data are recorded and maintained through each school's own mechanisms, separate from their student information management systems (SIMs). Accordingly, the Department collected the data through the upload of spreadsheet files using its security portal. Seventy-six of the 84 charter schools submitted data. Of the eight charter schools that did not submit data, six did not have a sufficient number of applicants to require a waitlist. Match Charter Public School submitted a combined waitlist with Match Community Day Charter Public School, since both schools will be operated as the consolidated Match Charter Public School as of July 1, 2014. The remaining school has an extended planning period and is set to open FY16.

The Department's Education Data Services Office conducted the matching process, using students' names (first, middle, last), dates of birth, towns of residence, and grades. Partial matches were manually reviewed to identify obvious data entry errors, such as transposition of digits in dates of birth¹.

The 76 waitlists that were submitted contained 58,906 entries, distributed by grade as shown in this table:

Grade	Number of Students
PK	3,009
K	6,553
1	5,254
2	5,436
3	5,331
4	4,077
5	6,834
6	6,233
7	4,351
8	3,376
9	5,621
10	1,313
11	986
12	517
No grade²	15
Total	58,906

The matching process identified 44,876 students within the 58,906 entries. Of these 44,876 students, 7,526 students (16.7%) appeared on more than one waitlist:

Number of Students (N)	Number of Waitlists A Student Appears On (W)	Total Entries of All Waitlists (W * N)
37,350	1	37,350
4,093	2	8,186
1,901	3	5,703
790	4	3,160
366	5	1,830
173	6	1,038
99	7	693
50	8	400
26	9	234
10	10	100
9	11	99
5	12	60
3	13	39
1	14	14
44,876	Total	58,906

It is important to note that not every student on a charter school waitlist would accept an offer of admission if it were proffered. Some students may have been admitted to other schools that meet their needs, while others may be reluctant to switch schools after the beginning of the school year. Therefore, the number of students found on each charter school's waitlist may not accurately represent the number of students actively waiting for enrollment to that school. This is particularly true for those charter schools that carry their waitlists from one year to the next, so that students can remain on the waitlist for several years.³ It is impossible to quantify this factor without making speculative and arbitrary assumptions, which we have chosen not to do. As a result, the unduplicated waitlist counts should be taken as rough approximations of demand rather than exact numbers.

This report will be updated in the fall after Oct. 1, 2014. The Department continues to explore other methods for collecting waitlist information because the current collection process requires significant resources from both the charter schools and the Department.

The appendix to this report can be found in the attached Excel file, which contains:

the total and unduplicated numbers of students on waitlists for charter schools by city and town;
the total and unduplicated numbers of students on waitlists for each charter school; and
the total and unduplicated cross-tabulation breakdown of the number of students on waitlists for each charter school by each city and town.

For further information regarding this report, please contact charterschools@doe.mass.edu .

Attachment

Appendix

¹ It is likely that at least some matches were not identified due to less obvious transcription or data entry errors.

² Boston Day and Evening Academy Charter School submitted ungraded waitlist information.

³ Changes to the charter school regulations adopted in March 2014 by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (see 603 CMR 1.05(10)(a)), will affect future collections of waitlist data. Under the amended regulations, charter schools shall maintain waitlists only for the school year for which the students applied (i.e., carrying over student names from new enrollment lotteries from one year to another will no longer be permitted). Provided that a charter school may choose to maintain any waitlists that were established prior to March 31, 2014 until such waitlists are exhausted, provided that such maintenance is clearly articulated in the school's enrollment policy approved by the Department.

Last Updated: February 4, 2019