Notes that magnet schools are part of reform desegregation efforts in many school districts. Describes a study that explored perceptions of isolation among parents of students from different races in upper elementary and middle school magnet programs. Characterized the sensitivity of teachers to isolation in their schools. (Author/LPP)

Describes the building design of the award-winning West Metro Education Program Interdistrict Downtown School in Minneapolis, including the educational context and design goals. Includes information on the size, construction costs, architects, and contractors. Also includes floor plans and photographs. (EV)

This article features the Challenge School, a magnet school in the CherryCreek School District in Colorado that focuses on academically advanced, motivated, and gifted students. The school was developed as an alternative to best meet the needs of these students. The Challenge School focuses on high student achievement and commensurate academic…

This paper reports on a 3-year study of a half-day urban magnet high school founded upon a desire to provide rigorous science, math, and technology experiences to students who would not otherwise have access to such educational opportunities. Using the theoretical lens of how a model of an educated person gets culturally produced within the school…

A partnership between a university and a science and technology magnet school brings a renowned herpetologist. Dr. Meg Stewart, to involve third-graders in her studies of coqui frogs. These students prepared to meet this scientist with a series of lesson plans (eight activities and four lab lessons) to learn the anatomy, behavior, and diversity of…

Inter- and intra-district public school choice, vouchers, tuition tax credits and other forms of school choice have been advocated for decades, in large part on grounds that the market forces engendered will improve public education. There are many studies of school choice policies and programs and a large theoretical literature on school choice,…

Although the school-choice movement has spread quickly, little time has been taken to assess whether the claimed benefits of school choice have actually been realized. This policy brief summarizes empirical evidence to date and addresses the following questions: Who gains from school choice and who loses? Do innovative school organizations arise…

Despite their common goal, reformers promoting school choice and those seeking ways to improve schools through more effective principal leadership have remained for the most part disconnected. This paper presents findings of a study that examined differences in teachers' ratings of effective principal leadership in magnet and nonmagnet schools in…

The perceptions of students about caring teachers were studied in secondary Catholic and public magnet schools. Both types of schools were schools of choice, attended through student and family choice and not assignment by neighborhood. The sample for the study came from a national, federally funded project that studied the relationship between…

Pleasant View School for the Arts is a magnet school in northeast Ohio that draws from each level of the social strata and offers options for traditional grouping and tracking strategies in unique and effective ways. The school houses two basic programs: (1) the arts; and (2) gifted education, called the Kaleidoscope program. The arts program…

By playing with toys, children sometimes wonder how and why toys do what they do. At the moment of curiosity, interest can be captured and thinking can be influenced. This is a good time to focus on natural phenomena, provoke imagination, and promote scientific thinking. This book presents 53 classroom-tested activities to teach science with toys.…

This paper describes magnet school programs offering a special or enhanced curricula to attract an ethnically diverse population at all grade levels in the Houston (Texas) Independent School District (HISD). Researchers collected data through interviews, site visits, brochures, campus programs summaries, and an analysis of the Student Master File.…

The second year of an individualized multimedia bilingual magnet school project for non-English speaking background students in Philadelphia was evaluated. Approximately 275 students participated in programs at two sites. Bilingual multimedia learning centers containing materials for individual and small-group instruction and computer terminals…

The third year of an individualized multimedia bilingual magnet school project for limited English proficient students in Philadelphia was evaluated. Bilingual multimedia learning centers were operated at each of the two sites. At the elementary site, pupils from Korean, Spanish, and Portuguese backgrounds received bilingual instruction and were…

Do social policy intellectuals and their research help to strengthen quality education? Was the 1954 decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in Brown v. Topeka Board of Education, which relied heavily on social science research, flawed in its reasoning on school desegregation, equal educational opportunity, and quality education for African Americans?…