Chosen Few Emerge From Philadelphia High-Tech Charter School Lottery
By Mike DeNardo
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Thousands of parents learned Tuesday whether their child was awarded a spot in one of the city's most in-demand charter schools.
The K-12 Math, Science & Technology charter in far Northeast Philadelphia got 7,165 applications for 96 available seats. There were so many applicants that parents were discouraged from attending the admissions lottery at the school, according to MaST CEO John Swoyer. Instead, he says, they found out online after the entries were run through random.org.
"We used to literally do a jar with names. And it's a lot of pieces of paper, and it takes forever to do," Swoyer said. "So this process is pretty quick. And it also authenticates the integrity of the lottery, so people can see that we're using a randomizer."
MaST was one of five charter operators that the Philadelphia School Reform Commission, last week, gave the conditional okay to open new schools.
