A recent column written by Jay Matthews and published by the Washington Post put forth a question with heavy implications from a retired D.C. public school teacher: Are charter lotteries really random?

The release of quality ratings, showing that 22 D.C. charter schools are now considered Tier 1, prompted the question from retired Wilson teacher Erich Martel, who wondered aloud how some of these schools have a high percentage of white students.

He told me those school directors should produce evidence that “their student demographic data are the results of random lotteries” and not caused by sneaking more affluent white kids onto their rolls when the D.C. school admissions officials aren’t looking.

“I have enough experience documenting alteration of records [and] creation of euphemistic proxies of achievement . . . to question the integrity of the charter lotteries and the process of replacing students who have been transferred from charters,” he said.

The D.C. Public Charter School Board shot the “conspiracy theory” down: “Every one of the eight schools Mathews and former teacher cite currently participates in My School DC, the single, random lottery that determines placement for new public and public charter students. My School DC reports to a committee chaired by the Deputy Mayor of Education and made up of DC Public School and charter school leaders.”

The statement also included maps showing where D.C. charter school students live in relation to their school.

Over 90 percent of students at D.C. Prep PCS-Edgewood Middle, the school with the highest Performance Management Framework score, are African American.

At Tier 1 school KIPP DC- KEY Academy PCS, 98.8 percent of students are African American and primarily live east of the Anacostia River.

Compare the maps below with the rankings that can be seen here.

2014 Student Location Maps by DC Public Charter School Board