A study compared the ninth-grade performance of students who were randomly admitted to New York City career magnet high schools to those who were randomly not offered seats in those schools. The research measured the effect of career magnets on students of average and low reading ability whose academic records were not strong enough to gain them admission to a selective magnet school. Analysis was based on results for 3,272 students with average reading scores and 986 students whose reading tests put them in the bottom 16 percent. Some of the results of the study were the following: (1) there was an extraordinarily high increase in high school enrollment of low readers who were assigned to freestanding career magnet programs; (2) in freestanding career magnets, low readers were two to four times more likely to pass the Regents mathematics test than similar students in comprehensive schools; (3) average readers in magnet schools increased their reading skills more than twice as much as comparable students in regular comprehensive schools; (4) average readers in freestanding magnets earned one-fourth more course credits than average students in comprehensive schools; and (5) poor readers in magnet schools did less well than their counterparts in comprehensive schools in reading ability and credits earned. Poor readers in magnet schools also had more absenteeism, probably because they had to transport themselves across the city using public transportation. The study concluded that career magnet programs lead to higher achievement and lower dropout rates for inner-city youth and that the random assignment press provides substantial opportunities for students who are usually turned away by magnet school admission committees. (KC)