Now in its third year, the OneApp program, which is part of the often baffling experiment in school reform taking place in New Orleans, aims to streamline the application process by letting families use one form to apply to many selective-enrollment schools, NOLA.com reports.
The Karr Band marches out of the Superdome, December 2013
The idea resembles the Common Application used by more than 500 colleges and universities around the world, most of which are private US colleges. By filling out one application, students can apply to several schools at once. They just direct that application to the different admissions offices.
In the New Orleans Recovery School District, students can pick as many as eight schools. Some schools, considered selective-enrollment schools, have additional entrance requirements. Many of the state’s charter schools, which are new to OneApp this year, are in this category.
Edna Karr High School is a public, tuition-free charter middle/high school. It used to be a magnet school but dropped its admissions requirements after Hurricane Katrina. It does, however, have a great marching band. Check out the flashy drum majors on the YouTube video above, which also provides an indication of the sound this band produces.
Since Karr dropped its admissions requirements, it’s no longer considered a selective-enrollment high school, but it still only has so much capacity, and lots of students want to be a part of that band. So, Karr participates in the OneApp program.
The school gives preference to kids who live in Algiers, near the school, in order to keep down complaints from local residents. And although schools can’t give preference to students based on their athletic ability, music is another thing entirely.
Therefore, eighth graders can audition for the band, which will give their OneApp a bit of a boost if they get a good enough score. In other words, all other things being equal, a kid with a good band audition is more likely to get into the school than one with a low score on a band audition.
Overall progress
In the Recovery School District, all but about 10 of the 90 public schools participate in the OneApp program, which uses a computer program to match students with available seats in schools that seem to be a good match for the student applicants. By Dec 20, 3,773 applications had come in, and more were expected before the main deadline on Feb 28.
“We were really excited to see how many applications came in” for non-selective programs, Gabriela Fighetti, the Recovery School District’s executive director of enrollment, was quoted as saying. “We interpret it as them being excited to get started with their choice process.”
Among the selective programs, the most popular were elementary language immersion. The International School of Louisiana received 632 applications for its Spanish track, 308 for French. But the Karr band program tops the list for applications at non-selective schools.
OneApp has its detractors—many of them. In fact, the Orleans Parish School Board voted last summer to pull back on the program after finding out that the computer program used to assign students to schools, based in some part on test scores at some schools, didn’t give many of them their first choice.
“When a computer picks your students, you may not end up with the football team you’re used to, or enough trumpeters in the band,” wrote Danielle Dreilinger in The Times-Picayune. “If student athletes end up attending schools that don’t offer their sports — post-Katrina, not all schools offer all programs — they risk losing out on scholarships.”
Applicants for Assorted Programs This Year
- International School of Louisiana, Camp St, Spanish immersion, 414
- International School of Louisiana, Camp St, French immersion, 308
- International School of Louisiana: Olivier St, Spanish immersion, 218
- Edna Karr High School, Band Program, 102
- McDonogh #35 College Preparatory HS, STEM Magnet Acad, 88
