Random allocations
Posted: Thu Sep 02, 2010 6:17 am
Shall we take Sally-Anne's bait?Sally-Anne wrote:One option under consideration at present, after a review by an independent advisor, is the possibility of "random allocations within catchment". If anyone has a further interest in discussing that I suggest that it should be a new thread, because it would be wrong to categorise it purely as a solution to fraudulent applications. It would potentially help with that issue, but it would more generally be aimed at reducing the overall level of dissatisfaction with allocations among parents in certain pressurised catchment areas.
http://www.buckscc.gov.uk/bcc/schools/s ... eview.page?
Here are a couple of points from the report that was commissioned:
77. There is a further possibility for a different approach to grammar school admissions, which would go a long way to solve existing problems and meet the aspiration of parents. It is, however, one that was advocated by none of the individuals who made representations to me and explicitly rejected by some. This would be to use an element of random allocation or, what is generally referred to as a "lottery".
78. I was not entirely surprised by the general reaction to the idea of a lottery, because parents planning for the education of their children are reluctant to consign their future to a ‘game of chance’. They may also be reacting to a degree of negativity in media publicity. On this last point, one participant in a meeting indicated that they had "heard very bad things about Brighton". The change to admission arrangements in the City of Brighton, was controversial, and received a lot of media attention, much of it negative, at the time the changes were being introduced. However, a professional assessment of the outcome, now that the dust has settled and there has been practical experience of the system in operation, is that it has been highly successful.
79. Partly as a response to media interest, the Secretary of State asked the Chief Schools Adjudicator on 2 March 2009 to undertake an investigation and report on the use of random allocation as an oversubscription criterion. The report was presented to the Secretary of State on 1 September and a summary of it was incorporated in the Chief Adjudicator's annual report, which was published on 1 November 2009.
80. One of the main findings was that "Only three LAs appear to use random allocation in any significant way as an oversubscription criterion. All three say they do so to increase fairness of access for parents who would otherwise stand little chance of securing a school place at certain schools. Two LAs use it only to allocate places in single sex schools; the third uses it in combination with catchment areas to allocate places when oversubscribed within those areas.” The conclusion of the report was that “Current legislation and guidance in the Code is appropriate and does not currently need to change”.
81. It will be noted from the above quotations that the circumstances in which random allocation has been successfully used elsewhere have similarities with those that now face Buckinghamshire.