Deferred acceptance with a single best offer¶

Theory · All theories
Evidence · 2 claims (2 for) · 2 studies (2 associational), q2 · 0 of 2 report an effect size · 2 claims rest on one study

Description¶

GoCPS assigns students via a computerized deferred acceptance process, also used to match medical residents to hospitals, in which each applicant is considered for the highest-ranked eligible program with available seats. The report explains the mechanism's key property: "no student loses a seat at a preferred program to a student who is ordered below them in terms of priority group, lottery number, or points." Because of this, students benefit most from ranking programs in their true preference order, so there is no need to game the system. Most choice programs admitted by random lottery while points-based programs admitted highest-scoring applicants first.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• A computerized selection process implementing deferred acceptance across all participating programs
• Program capacity, priority groups, and eligibility rules defined in advance

Constraints¶

• The strategy-proofness property relies on students being allowed to order all available programs, but GoCPS caps rankings at 20 choice and 6 SEHS programs

Target Learners¶

• incoming ninth-grade applicants in a unified enrollment system

Target Learning Objectives¶

• fair and transparent assignment of students to preferred school programs

Claims¶

• Gocps Most Applicants Top Three Offers [+M]
• Most GoCPS applicants received an offer from a program they ranked: 93 percent in round 1 (51 percent at their top choice) and 85 percent in round 2 (61 percent at their top choice) [+W]

Related Theories¶

• Gocs Centralized Application Platform
• Deferred acceptance assignment with strategy-proof ranking

Examples¶

• GoCPS centralized application and single-best-offer platform

Key Sources¶

• Barrow, L., & Sartain, L. (2019). GoCPS: A first look at ninth-grade applications, offers, and enrollment. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Consortium on School Research. https://consortium.uchicago.edu