NORTHAMPTON — A new lottery system slated to change vocational school admissions for the 2026-2027 school year has goals of creating a more equal process for students vying for these schools’ highly sought-after seats. But some administrators worry that a random lottery will do away with the standards of hard work associated with admission to a vocational high school, without solving the real problem.
At Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School in Northampton, around 300 applications flood the admissions office each year from students throughout Hampshire County. But the school has only 150 seats to offer incoming freshmen.
“It means you have 150 students on the outside looking in,” said Andrew Linkenhoker, superintendent of Smith Vocational. “They don’t receive the offer.”
This outsize interest for a limited number of open slots is a common problem at vocational schools across the commonwealth, which led to calls for a lottery system when applications exceed availability, to ensure fairness for all applicants. According to a Lawyers for Civil Rights federal civil rights complaint, which sparked state conversations around the lottery reform, 18,500 rising ninth graders applied for just 10,616 available slots in Massachusetts career and technical education schools during the 2020-2021 school year.
Career and technical education schools have been growing in popularity in the state because of the training they offer in high-demand fields. These schools offer programs in areas such as cosmetology, nursing, dental assisting, automotive repair and more.
Despite the added fairness lauded by proponents of the lottery system, some concerns have arisen regarding what a lottery will mean for student preparedness, and whether it is addressing the wrong problem.
“The concern that many of us have is that this does not solve the problem at hand,” said Linkenhoker. “The problem at hand is that we have too many students who want vocational education and not enough seats.”
Linkenhoker also noted that, while the lottery system espouses equity, there are concerns that Smith Vocational’s use of a lottery could mean admitting fewer students with disabilities, of which the school has a “large percentage.”
“We run the risk of that percentage going down,” he said.
However, proponents of the reform in the state Legislature have argued that current admissions processes leave limited slots for students with disabilities, students of color, English language learners and students from low-income families, and believe that the lottery will be more equal for those students.
Linkenhoker also expressed worry that a lottery-based admissions process would eliminate the need for hard work, and set unrealistic expectations for students as college and job applications are not accepted or denied on a lottery basis.
“Fundamentally, in society, do you want to teach the next generation that working hard means nothing?” he asked.
Currently, Smith Vocational’s admissions process relies on a “scoring” process. Applicants are assessed based on their seventh and eighth grade attendance, grades and disciplinary records, as well as a recommendation from a counselor, instructor or other person familiar with their academic work. The applicant pool is then ranked by their scores, and the “top 150” students are offered admission, Linkenhoker explained.
When a student offered admission declines to enroll, the school moves down the list until they’ve filled those 150 seats. Linkenhoker anticipates the lottery process looking somewhat similar in this respect.
The state admissions reforms recently approved by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education don’t mandate a blind lottery for every school. Rather, schools are allowed to adopt “weights” that will influence the lottery admissions based on certain criteria.
One such weight has to do with “student awareness,” which monitors whether applicants have attended events like open houses, tours or information sessions. Another considers “student interest,” such as whether students submitted essays or interviewed with the school.
Schools can also opt in to considering middle school attendance and discipline records in the lottery, with extra “weight” added to their application if they meet certain thresholds.
“If a student meets those thresholds, they basically get another ticket into the lottery,” Linkenhoker said.
Linkenhoker added that weights such as these are important because attendance and disciplinary records can determine if students are ready for the different educational format offered at vocational and technical high schools. For example, he said a student might be a hundred feet in the air with a chainsaw on a normal day at Smith Vocational, so their ability to follow safety expectations and attend class regularly to learn necessary skills is extremely important.
Attendance and discipline data from before a student’s seventh grade year will not be considered in the weighting process.
But at their core, applications will be reviewed for completeness and interest, which has led to some unease at Smith Vocational.
While state education officials voted to approve these reforms, their fate depends on the outcome of state budget talks. The House is also pursuing a legislative intervention to stop the “admissions overhaul,” according to the State House News Service.
Linkenhoker said it is too early right now to know exactly how Smith Vocational will implement these admissions reforms once they are solidified. However, he assured next school year’s incoming freshmen that the reforms will not impact their application process. Rather, the lottery would be implemented for next year’s incoming pool of applicants in the 2026-2027 school year.
Between now and the middle of November, he said, Smith Vocational administrative officials will be meeting to determine how they want to go about adopting the lottery system.
Alexa Lewis can be reached at alewis@gazettenet.com.