Seattle plans new system for student assignment

By September 2008, the Seattle School District hopes to roll out a new student-assignment plan to replace one that officials say is too complicated and too expensive and leaves too many students in poorly performing schools.

And sometimes, demographic quirks create over-enrolled schools, leaving parents fuming.

There are 306 students on the waiting list for Roosevelt High School next year, and getting in is akin to winning membership to a country club, said Cindy Bouldin, vice president of the Eckstein Middle School PTSA. "It's the talk of the town."

District officials are asking for public comments on how to proceed with a new system, but they are saying little about what that may look like.

Seattle's current "open-choice" system works like this:

Parents enroll their student in the district and list at least three choices of schools.

If there isn't enough space, a series of tiebreakers goes into effect to grant students admission to overbooked schools. The first tiebreaker is a sibling enrolled at the same school, followed by geographic region for elementary and middle school only (high schools are open citywide); special programs such as language immersion; distance from school; and lottery.

Until 2002, the district also used a student's race as a tiebreaker at the high-school level. That approach is the subject of a lawsuit before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Last month, School Board member Michael DeBell began circulating a proposal that would assign every household an elementary, middle and high school, though parents could apply to send their kids to other schools. That would provide families with predictability, which DeBell said today's system lacks.

Schools with excess demand would set aside 10 to 20 percent of seats for open choice by citywide lottery. Schools that aren't attracting enough students must come up with a way to improve.

Seven years ago, the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle offered a plan similar to DeBell's.

Focusing on high schools, the civil-rights group proposed that each school offer magnet programs in specific areas such as biotech or aviation technology that could attract kids from all over the city. Students would be assigned to high schools based on their neighborhood, but they could apply anywhere.

While he supports the district's diversity tiebreaker, James Kelly, president of the Urban League, said race has dominated the discussion about education, and it's time to focus on improving academics for all students.

"I don't care what color you are, children deserve to be more than a formula," Kelly said. "Whatever the outcome in the Supreme Court, we can't continue to formulize kids. We need 10 high-performing, high-quality high schools."

In its 2000 proposal, the Urban League said five high schools were generally viewed as not as good as others in the district: Cleveland, Ingraham, West Seattle, Chief Sealth and Rainier Beach.

Rankings of student choice highlight differences among schools.

This year at Roosevelt, 83 percent of the ninth-graders listed the school as their first choice. By comparison, only 15 percent of Cleveland High School ninth-graders listed it as their first choice.

The current system also comes with high transportation costs. DeBell noted that Seattle spends about $27 million on transportation, much more than other districts.

But expenses aren't driving the current push for change, he said. Instead, it's a question of fairness.

"I don't think it's an equitable system," he said.

Because state funding is allocated on a per-student basis, DeBell said, schools with declining enrollment receive less money, which limits offerings such as art, music or tutoring.

And the system is perceived to be unfriendly to middle-class parents, which hurts the district's market share, he said.

A 1 percent gain or loss in market share represents about 600 students, which carries $6 million in funding.

Alex Fryer: 206-464-8124 or afryer@seattletimes.com