Bristow - Student Selection Process

For the 2010-2011 School Year

Bristow Middle School announces its enrollment for the 2010-2011 school year.  The enrollment for incoming 6^th grade students will be held in January.

All students who are attending West Hartford Public School or are West Hartford residents attending the University of Hartford Magnet School are automatically included in the process.

Students who reside in West Hartford, but are not enrolled in the above public schools must apply to be included in the process. 

We also expect to have a limited number of openings for incoming 7^th and 8^th grade students.  All students, whether attending West Hartford Public School, or residing in West Hartford and not attending our public schools, must apply for these 7^th and 8^th grade openings.

Please click either of the links below if you need an application form.

Application form for incoming 6^th , 7^th and 8^th  graders who do not attend West Hartford Public Schools or are West Hartford residents attending the University of Hartford Magnet School CLICK HERE.

Application form for incoming 7^th and 8^th graders who currently attend King Philip and Sedgwick Middle Schools  CLICK HERE.

Below are the selection procedures and timelines for the process.
5^th to 6^th grade 2010-2011
We will run 11 different processes – one for each elementary school. We will admit 70 students from King Philip feeder schools and 70 students from Sedgwick feeder schools.  The table below shows the number of slots for each school.  These are subject to change based on enrollments at the time that the process is run. 

We will randomly assign each student who attends the school a number.

The process will also include non-public students who apply for admission.  These students will be assigned to an elementary school based on the elementary attendance zone they live in.

We will check the demographics of each school’s random sample to ensure that the balance is maintained through out the sample. For example, we will check for balance among the following characteristics:
Gender
Race/Ethnicity
Special/Regular education
Free/reduced lunch status

The purpose is to make sure that students are split equally across the sample (e.g. the first 10 students are not all boys.)  If the first random sample is not uniform then a different random sample is drawn until the sample is uniform.  In practice it takes 50 to 100 random samples to achieve a uniform sample.

 We will communicate the results to parents.  Based on the results of the 2008-09 and 2009-10 enrollments, here are the expected cut off numbers for each elementary school. If a student receives a number equal to or less than the number of the Bristow slots, then the student is guaranteed the choice of going to Bristow.  If a student receives a number less than the projected cutoff number then that student has a good chance of being able to choose Bristow, if not in the first round, then off of the waitlist.  Hopefully, these cutoffs will help parents decide which middle school information sessions to attend.

Special situations:

Siblings of current Bristow 6^th and 7^th grade students will be automatically assigned the lowest numbers from their respective schools

Students who live on Highland Street or at 684 Farmington Avenue are not included in the process, but can choose to go to Bristow in addition to the 140 students from KP and Sedgwick.

Twins or triplets will be considered as a single student for the process and will be assigned the same number.

6^th to 7^th  and 7^th to 8^th grade 2010-11 process

We will take applications from students interested in filling the small number of vacancies we anticipate at grade 7 and grade 8 in the 2010-11 school year. This process will be run later than the grade 6 process.  Applications are due by March 26, 2010.  If you do not apply, you will not be considered.

This enrollment process will be a simple random process. All students will be randomly assigned a number from 1 to the total number of entries and we will use that order to fill the vacancies that arise.

The number of vacancies for grade 7 and grade 8 are both small and variable. For the 2009-10 school year, we admitted approximately five 7^th graders and four 8^th graders.  During the parent information sessions in March of 2010, we will be able to provide you with more information as to the expected number of slots for the 2010-11 school year at grades 7 and 8.

Special situations: 

Siblings of current Bristow 6^th and 7^th grade students will be automatically assigned the lowest numbers.

Siblings of current 5^th grade students who indicate they are coming to Bristow prior to March 26th, will be automatically assigned the lowest numbers.

Students who live on Highland Street or at 684 Farmington Avenue are automatically admitted. 

Twins or triplets will be considered as a single student for the process and will be assigned the same number.

Last Update Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Questions or Comments:  allayne_sundt@whps.org