Reports on part of a larger study of how 11- and 12-year-old students construct knowledge of electricity and magnetism by drawing on aspects of their experiences during the course of a school visit to an interactive science museum and subsequent classroom activities linked to the science museum exhibits. (Contains 24 references.) (Author/YDS)

Collected Stanford Achievement Test, Eighth Edition scores for 560 elementary school students in a mid-southern urban school district, two-thirds of whom were black, and half of whom were magnet school participants. Findings show statistically significant differences for magnet/nonmagnet and black/white groups. Adjusted posttest scores of black…

Used a national-level data set to investigate four elements of teacher professionalization in both magnet and traditional urban secondary schools and examine the impact of school organization on teacher professionalization. Results indicated that the magnet school context is noteworthy in the areas of autonomy, classroom control, influence on…

Compares self-reported survey data from magnet-school principals to those of neighborhood school principals to ascertain if administrator roles differ in choice environments. Despite market theorists' predictions, findings suggest that magnet schools do little to alter principal roles (as entrepreneurs, middle managers, or instructional leaders).…

Locates school choice's theoretical underpinnings in market theory and communitarianism. Explains contributions of magnet schools, charter schools, and voucher systems to the choice movement. Summarizes preliminary findings for voucher plans, highlighting minority participation, family and teacher satisfaction, student mobility, and college…

Explores differences in race, socioeconomic status, and reasons for choice among parents in an urban school district with a controlled-choice plan. Parental background characteristics, parents' reasons for choosing a school, satisfaction with public schools, and geographical distance differentiate among parents choosing magnets, those choosing…

River Oaks Elementary is a public school in Houston Independent School District's Vanguard Magnet Program. Magnet programs are one of the district's ways of providing parents with choice in public education. The Vanguard program serves students who have been identified as potentially gifted and talented in intellectual ability, creativity, or…

The author recently had the same conversation about local school reform with two superintendents--one from a large, urban district in the East and the other from a small district in the Midwest. Both superintendents were working with their respective boards to approve, design and fund reading initiatives consistent with the new federal guidelines.…

This article explores the history of school desegregation in Kansas City, Missouri. It examines the development of the school district's initial 1955 desegregation plan based on neighborhood schools, and the impact of that plan. Extensive analysis is devoted to the plan's shortcomings, particularly the provisions allowing students to transfer…

Drawing on six years of historical research, this article presents a theoretical representation of the social mechanisms at work in the 30-year history of an ethnically diverse, public, magnet arts high school in an urban U.S. school district. Students' sense of belonging has been a significant factor in creation and maintenance of social capital…

This paper compares the sense of belonging of students at the Maine School of Science and Mathematics (MSSM), a boarding magnet school in rural Maine, with that of students at a rural consolidated public high school serving two towns. This type of structure is known as a Maine School Administrative District (SAD). The school is identified as SAD…

This paper builds on previous research by exploring how the combination of white in-migration and recent school reform has affected the relationship between the formation, adoption, and implementation of educational policy in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district (North Carolina) and the district's African American citizens. The unexpected…

In spite of a widespread commitment to the comprehensive high school, the nation has long had specialty or theme schools and schools that target particular children. Magnet schools, alternative schools, and Catholic schools illustrate that the idea of specialized schools is not new. Recently, the concept has received a boost from a study by the…

This paper considers the distinctive issues demographers face when they must forecast enrollments in a context of court-ordered desegregation. Specifically, it examines whether magnet schools strengthen a district's overall attractiveness to enrollees from outside, or whether they only siphon students away from other nonmagnet schools within the…

The 1993-94 school year marked the first year of the federally-assisted magnet program implemented by Charlotte-Mecklenberg (North Carolina) Schools (CMS). This paper presents the program's goals, the measurable objectives developed to meet the goals, and first-year outcomes. The goals were to reduce, eliminate, or prevent minority group isolation…