Lessons Learned From Two Years of Running a Common Enrollment System for Newark Charters

Now that we are in our third year of running a common enrollment system that serves over 20,000 charter students in the City of Newark, we are ready to share our data, what we’ve learned, and what we’re looking forward to in the future.

First, let’s remember what we aimed to do when we started: We wanted to provide Newark families an easier way to pick among a large number of schools. We wanted to ensure schools were enrolling students equitably and increasing their enrollment of students with special needs and multilingual learners. And we wanted to stay open to feedback from both families and schools, so that we could improve the overall experience year after year.

We are proud to say that we have hit those goals and then some. Come take a look at what we’ve learned over the course of the last two years.

The number of families looking for seats in charter schools continues to far outpace the number of seats available.

More and more families are flocking to charter schools.

We are also learning that as much as we would love for families to register for the next school year in the Spring, we must be ready and prepared for when families actually do make decisions, and in this past year, that was more likely to be in August than in any other month.

Most of the applicants received their first choice in the lottery.

Nearly 1,000 applicants reported a primary language other than English

Most importantly, enrollment in participating charter schools resulted in an increase in students with special needs, free and reduced price lunch, English language learners, and homeless students.

The vast majority of families using the system report a positive experience.