In order to facilitate the transition to a multiracial community and to meet the prevailing desire for academic excellence, magnet schools have arisen in urban areas throughout the country. These schools meet racial quotas through voluntary enrollment and open access, promote integration through cooperative learning practices, emphasize personal goals rather than competition, and facilitate individualized instruction. As a result, they improve minority achievement without hurting white achievement, and challenge the assumption that standardization is the most equitable system. Magnet schools are criticized, however, for undermining the concept of fairness through standardization and for tokenism, since they draw only the best students and leave most minority students worse off than before. Magnet schools must therefore appear attractive but not elitist by appealing to interest rather than ability, and diverse but not second-rate by providing sound criteria and objectives. To avoid tokenism, a broad array of magnets should be established so that all children have the real option to attend schools of their choice. (TE)