Best Practices
Within each issue, Florida's Choice will spotlight a Florida school district that displays "Best Practices" in their school choice implementation. Nova Southeastern University 's Florida School Choice Resource Center (FSCRC) completed a 2005 study of the best practices demonstrated at the State's school choice mentor and mentee districts. Throughout this survey the FSCRC team had the opportunity to visit these districts and get an up-close-and-personal look at the innovative and creative strategies to bring school choice to every student in their schools. We hope this newsletter feature will help share these practices with districts throughout the State and will inspire their school choice practitioners to build even more creative and innovative ways to deliver excellence, equity, and diversity to every student in your system.
Twenty-two Florida school districts ultimately accepted the FLDOE's mantle of mentor or mentee, and agreed to serve a key leadership role in expanding school choice options for Florida families. Lee County Schools, located in Ft. Myers , is a mentee district with eight years experience implementing school choice. This mid-sized Florida district serves over 75,000 students and is proud to offer a rich variety of school choice options to nearly 96 percent of its families. And to make this outstanding feat exemplary, 93 percent of those families received their first choice school. All schools in Lee County School District are Choice Schools. Now that's "choice"!
The district's choice program is made up of controlled open enrollment and special programs. Lee County effectively uses school choice to fulfill its commitment to racial and ethnic diversity. Lee County school board and district leaders understand that school excellence cannot be achieved in a vacuum - excellence, diversity, and equity must be achieved simultaneously. School choice spawns academic improvement through constructive competition and school differentiation.
School Choice Application Process
Equity is embodied in the district's school choice application process . All Lee County students are required to make school choices when they enter the district or when they move from one level to the next. Between February and the end of each school year, the District accumulates student applications for the next school year and processes them in two different lottery periods. The first period runs from February through the end of March. All of the applications accumulated in this period are assigned a random number and are processed in numbered order to assure fair and equitable treatment. The random number incorporates certain preferences that the District awards for students who require assignment in special education programs, for siblings who want to be assigned together at the same schools and for students who live in close proximity to their school of choice. Among the students with similar circumstances (siblings, students with proximity preference, etc .) the random lottery number is the tie-breaker in cases when there are more applicants than there are seats available in a particular school at a particular grade level. The lottery process assigns students to schools up to the educational capacity of each school, until all students are assigned. Students who are not assigned their first choice school are automatically placed in an eligibility pool for possible transfer later if or when a seat in their particular program and grade becomes available. Position in the eligibility pool is governed by the same random lottery number order as the lottery process.
School Choice Application Process
Families who cannot or do not participate in the first batch are encouraged to participate in the second application period which commences on the first working day of April and concludes on the last day of the school year. participants in the second batch often find that space in the most popular schools are already filled by applicants in the earlier batch. Placement in the eligibility pool also follows the same procedural guidelines except that second batch applicants follow first batch applicants in the ranking.
During the summer break between school years, the district strives to place students within 24 hours of completing their choice application. Applications are then processed on a walk-in, first-come, first-served basis.
The District is proactive in filling vacancies at schools through the first twenty days of each new school year. Only students in eligibility pools are given the opportunity to fill vacancies at popular schools during this period. On the twenty-first day of the school year; however, proactive filling of vacancies by the District ends and vacancies are filled first-come, first-served by applicants new to the district or by those who continue to pursue a transfer.
Parental/Guardian Participation
Parental/guardian participation is mandatory for enrolling and changing schools in the School District of Lee County. Parents and guardians are required to rank order all the school options available to them within a zone-not just their first or top three choices. This encourages parents to inquire and learn about their options and to make deliberate decisions that meet the needs of their children and families.
Prior to the early application period (first batch) the District contacts the parents or guardians of every pre-kindergarten, fifth and eighth grade student via the U.S. mail to inform them of their rights and responsibilities under the student assignment system. These are the only parents that receive applications sent by the district for this period. While not directly contacted, the parents of students in other grades have already participated earlier and have come to know the schedule of opportunities for making choices and transferring between schools. In addition, Lee County provides two Parent Information Offices to provide information, guidance, and resources on making wise school choices for their children. Remarkably, less than 6 percent of all students in grades other than KG, 6 and 9 are typically entered into the application process, proving that the vast majority of Lee County students are substantially satisfied with their current assignments.
"When parents and families get personally
involved in education, their children do better in
school and grow up to be more successful in life."
School Choice Marketing
The Lee County School District realizes that families may not always have information necessary to make informed choices. It is therefore the responsibility of the District to provide information and assistance to all parents and guardians as they make choices for their children. Special marketing efforts are implemented to promote under selected schools. District staff will implement some marketing strategies while others will be implemented at the school level with support from District staff. Of course, marketing does not exist in a vacuum and the District, site administrators, and staff must continue to develop and maintain high quality educational programs at each school and must provide adequate facilities, faculty, and resources to attract and retain students and faculty.
Other school choice marketing strategies implemented by Lee County :
- Video explaining the student assignment plan and school choice options
- Brochures, posters, and related materials - with focus on attractive, readily understandable, multiple language materials.
- Venues - throughout the community (neighborhood stores, churches, health clinics, immigration advocacy agencies, hospitals, and supermarkets).
- Hosting and widely publicizing annual showcases or open houses in order to provide families with the opportunity to learn about programs and services offered at different schools and to meet school administrators and teachers;
- Utilizing the Department of Communications to inform parents and guardians about programs in Lee County schools;
- Providing professional development opportunities to school-based staff in strategies for marketing each school's programs and special features to prospective applicants;
- Encouraging principals to develop and implement strategies and campaigns to attract a diverse student population.
School Choice Transportation - New plan projected to save $5.9 million!
The School District of Lee County is committed to offering transportation for school choice to all students. The district offers transportation to students within the large attendance zones where they live. During 2004-05, the District has transported more than 40,000 students, approximately 57 percent of total enrollment, more than 16,537,438 miles, in 664 buses. Given that 96 percent of students in Lee County attend "schools of choice," the transportation system is almost entirely dedicated to supporting the school choice effort. During this period, no Lee County students were required to transfer from one bus to another.
Each residential zone is divided into three sub-zones and students are assigned only to schools within their own sub-zone of residence or to the next contiguous sub-zone within their zone. It is anticipated that this will reduce the number of buses needed to serve students and reduce the riding time for many. Coupled with the discontinuance of cross-zone transportation, it is anticipated that the need for 125 buses will be eliminated - a $5.9 million savings. It is further anticipated that student ride times will be well contained within the state's 55 minutes for elementary students, and 65 minutes for middle and high school students.
The 2005-2006 school year represented the eighth year of School Choice as the alternative to assigning students via attendance boundaries. Since school started in August 2004, every student enrolled in the School District of Lee County has been assigned to a school selected by their parents.
This achievement, and the strategies that make it possible, makes Lee County School District a school worthy of "Best Practice" recognition. Through their centralized application process and careful analysis of school choice student data, wise decisions and action plans are implemented to meet the district's ambitious goals. Popular programs are replicated in all attendance zones to ensure choice options are equitable and school populations are diverse. Under selected schools receive enhanced marketing efforts and technical improvement assistance from the district. Outstanding "Customer Service" practices are part of professional development initiatives and district-wide collaboration ensures everyone is "on-message". Effective partnerships with community organizations enhance the district's school choice initiatives.
Congratulations, Lee County School District , for being selected as the Florida's Choice On-Line Newsletter's first "Best Practice District".