In June 2007, the Educational Policy Improvement Center (EPIC) was awarded a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to develop the College Ready School Diagnostic, a web-based diagnostic instrument. The purpose of this tool is to provide individual school profiles and customized recommendations, enabling each institution to make…

The objective of the magnet schools concept is to create quality educational programs with distinctive features which can attract or retain pupils of various ethnic types, and thereby contribute to racial balance in the schools. Magnet schools are intended to promote desegregation by permitting parents to make voluntary choices among schools,…

The St. Louis Public Schools have used magnet schools to meet the goals of desegregating the system and improving the quality of education for students. The changes in the St. Louis Schools began in 1975 with the issuance of a Consent Judgement and Decree. The Consent Decree provides broad guidelines which allow the system to develop specific…

This paper reports on a study of a desegregated Individually Guided Education (IGE) middle school which drew volunteers from throughout a large, midwestern city. Findings are based on participant observation and interviews by the author. The author concludes that the school failed to incorporate all the features of IGE, which calls for alterations…

Against the backdrop of school choice as a pivotal element in educational reform, Hawaii has developd its own variant of the magnet school concept--the Learning Center Program, initiated in January 1987. Following a brief period of implementation at 14 high school sites, the program was evaluated and expanded to include 20 centers during the…

In many places across the country, public school students no longer automatically attend their neighborhood school. Instead, parents may decide that their child's needs are better met elsewhere, for example, at a small alternative school, an arts magnet school, a charter technology high school, or a media academy operating within a larger school.…