The encyclopedia · Strategy & Leadership · Strategic decision · 2012–2017
New Orleans unified charter and district schools into one algorithm-based offer (2012)
In 2012 the Recovery School District launched OneApp, the first US single-offer assignment unifying charter and district schools via top trading cycles.
New Orleans Recovery School District
the move
After New Orleans' schools became a mix of charter and district-run institutions, each school or network ran its own admissions, so families applied separately and juggled multiple offers. In 2012 the Recovery School District launched OneApp, a unified enrollment system for Orleans Parish.
OneApp was the first US assignment mechanism to unify charter and traditional public school admissions in a single offer, and the first district mechanism based on top trading cycles. Families submit one ranked application; the algorithm assigns at most one school per student, with lotteries breaking ties when applicants exceed seats.
The design was developed with market-design researchers. Their NBER working paper later proved the mechanism minimizes justified envy among all Pareto-efficient, strategy-proof rules — as fair as such a rule can be in a constrained school-choice problem.
why it works
- A single application removes the multiple-offers-or-none risk that fragmented lotteries create.
- TTC-based assignment is strategy-proof, so families can rank schools honestly.
- Centralizing admissions made the system observable, auditable and improvable.
what transfers
When many independent providers serve one population, a single-offer clearinghouse beats separate lotteries: no multiple admissions or none, and families can read the system.
what came after
OneApp expanded over successive enrollment cycles and became a national reference for unified enrollment. The academic analysis was published in 2020 in American Economic Review: Insights, establishing New Orleans as a landmark in the practice of market design.
references
- Minimizing Justified Envy in School Choice: The Design of New Orleans' OneApp (NBER Working Paper 23265)
- Plan would allow some charter schools to reserve seats while taking part in OneApp
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