When it came time for Heather Frese’s son to register for kindergarten, the Wake County, North Carolina-based mom went into full-on research mode. Like most parents, she wanted to set her kid up for the best education possible, and for her, that meant looking beyond his assigned base school to the local magnet programs.
“Magnet schools are public schools that students can choose to attend that are typically operated by a local education agency (LEA) or school district,” explains Sarah Allender, a senior research associate and area director for school choice (which includes magnet schools) at WestEd. “Most magnet schools offer unique courses or programs, often with a focus on a specific area like performing arts or the sciences.”
Frese, who desired a unique learning environment, as well as a diverse student population, had her work cut out for her. In her district, there were about 20 programs to choose from — each with their own unique themes, schedules, locations and transportation options. Once she’d narrowed down the choices, it was just a matter of getting in after applying through a local lottery. Frese’s son is now enrolled at their first-choice magnet school.
Boasting high academic standards, innovative curricula and inclusion, magnet schools, which are available at the elementary, middle and high school level, are in demand across the country, but many parents have questions about how they operate, whether they’re good for the community and if they’re worth the extra effort of applying. Here’s what you need to know about magnet schools to determine if they’re the best option for your family.
What is a magnet school?
A magnet school is a type of public school that offers specialized programs or curriculums, often with a focus on themes such as science, arts, or technology. These schools are designed to attract a diverse student body from across a district, emphasizing innovative instructional approaches like project-based learning.
The goal, notes Christopher Hathaway, academic expert and founder of Ivy Advantage Tutoring, is for students to be able to dive deep in a particular area of study or practice — something they can’t always do in a conventional school.
Some of the most common themes offered by magnet schools, according to Magnet Schools of America, are:
- Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM).
- Fine and Performing Arts.
- International Baccalaureate, International Studies.
- Career and Technical Education (CTE).
- World Languages (immersion and non-immersion).
Magnet school vs. traditional school
“Traditional public schools provide students with a well-rounded education focused on reaching particular knowledge thresholds in a range of subjects,” explains Hathaway. “magnet schools provide a similarly balanced curriculum but also offer the opportunity for students to enjoy a more specialized curriculum. Additionally, because magnet schools pull from different school districts, they enjoy the added benefit of being more diverse than traditional public schools.”
The other big difference, according to Allender, is how students enroll. Whereas students are automatically enrolled in traditional schools in their district, magnet schools are “schools of choice” — meaning students are choosing to attend — which means they must apply for enrollment (more on this shortly).
Benefits of attending a magnet school?
In addition to the rewards of specialization and allowing kids to focus on a particular area of interest, both Hathaway and Allender note that the “inherent filter” that exists in magnet schools — both students and teachers are opting to be there — is a big benefit.
“In choosing to attend or teach at a magnet school, both students and staff play a more active role in the schooling experience,” explains Allender. “Many feel like this demonstration of ‘buy-in’ provides for a more effective teaching and learning environment. That is, both students and teachers alike have chosen to be there and may be more invested in the experience. But as with everything in education, this is not a guaranteed experience. Results will vary based on the individual school and local context.”
Hathaway adds that, through grants and donations, magnet schools — which are tuition-free — are better funded than traditional schools, which allows them to “maintain smaller class sizes, employ excellent teachers and offer additional resources to students.”
“In choosing to attend or teach at a magnet school, both students and staff play a more active role in the schooling experience.”
— Sarah Allender, a senior research associate and area director for school choice at WestEd
Downsides of magnet schools?
While magnet schools have an inclusion mission tied to their history, which dates back to the Civil Rights era, when they were designed to help desegregate schools, they may have strayed from their original goal.
A 2015 study of magnet schools by the American Institutes for Research found that, although magnet schools do boost diversity, they still struggle to achieve a student population representing a full balance of backgrounds and academic levels.
In St. Louis, Missouri, Emily Hubbard worries that magnet schools are keeping public schools segregated. Although her family’s school district is 80% Black, she says the gifted schools are at least 60% white.
“The magnet schools let white people who use them feel good about themselves for using the public schools but end up sequestering resources away from the kids who need them the most,” says Hubbard, a mom of four.
Other downsides:
- Distance and transportation. “Transportation plans for magnet schools vary by district,” Allender says. “However, because students typically come from outside the neighborhood or community, transportation needs for magnet students may be more complex.” In other words: You may have to drive your child to and from school each day (and it may not be around the corner!).
- Local community separation. Naomi Lindt, a mom in Asheville, North Carolina, has taken note of how the magnet school system has impacted the local community. “On our block, there are three families with elementary school-aged kids,” she says. “The kids are all at different schools. We rarely see each other during the school year. It’s sad for the kids and their friendships. The system fractures the relationships my kids have in their immediate surroundings. Sometimes I feel we traded academic freedom for social cohesion and a sense of belonging in the community, and I’m not sure which one is more important — or what’s actually best for the kids!”
- Students may not improve academically. A 2016 study from the University Wisconsin-Milwaukee that researched how students fared from tenth grade to twelfth found that, overall, students didn’t improve academically at magnet schools. “Magnet schools did not show an impact on the educational outcomes studied except for several findings among Asian students who experienced higher test scores and educational expectations than their non-magnet counterparts,” the study notes.
How do students get admitted?
According to Hathaway, each magnet school is different in the way it evaluates students (all of whom have to apply). “Some operate on a first-come, first-served basis, while others rely on a lottery system,” he says. “However, most employ some evaluative tool, such as testing, auditions or interviews. This ensures students are capable of succeeding in a more demanding environment.”
For Frese’s district, entrance to a magnet program is based on a weighted lottery. “You get a ranking based on the socioeconomic status of both your neighborhood and your base school,” she says. “We ended up getting a medium on both statuses, so we weren’t really sure of our chances. Once our base school was identified, we could access the list of magnet schools we were eligible to apply to.”
“Lotteries are typically conducted according to specific district policies and with appropriate witnesses,” Allender adds. “And some schools will use preferences in their lotteries, often for siblings of students who already attend or were accepted via the lottery or for children of staff.”
Are magnet schools only for academically gifted students?
Allender notes that “selective magnet schools have some sort of academic or performance entrance requirement, but these types of magnet schools represent only a small fraction of all magnet schools.”
“A more common type of magnet school is not selective in its admissions requirements,” she says, “and is instead focused on providing a unique instructional program to a diverse set of students.”
Either way, Hathaway notes, magnet schools tend to attract students with “demonstrated interest and talent in the particular area of study, and who have a proven work ethic.” Some are academic, others are focused on the arts.
How do magnet schools promote diversity and inclusion?
While, no doubt, more needs to be done to promote inclusion, the goal for many non-selective magnet schools is to “reduce or prevent minority group isolation,” Allender says.
“Many of these magnet schools have specific and targeted recruitment efforts intended to help attract a diverse pool of applicants,” she continues. “For example, this could include efforts to attract more girls to a STEM program or efforts to attract students from a specific neighborhood or community.”
Can students from outside the school district attend?
“Magnet schools pull from a number of school districts,” says Hathaway. “Each magnet school has a particular zone from which it pulls.”
Student eligibility, however, varies by district and, says Allender, depends on what, if any, agreements exist between school districts.
Are magnet schools suitable for kids with special needs?
By law, magnet schools, which are publicly-funded, are required to serve children with special needs. “While suitability is school dependent, special needs students may be better served by magnet schools,” notes Hathaway, “which are often smaller than traditional public schools, and which can sometimes deliver access to specialists capable of tailoring the educational environment to a student’s individual needs.”
So is a magnet school right for your child?
Every magnet school is unique, so it’s important to do your research to make sure a school is a good fit for your child before applying. Frese says she toured about a dozen schools before narrowing her choices down to her top five.
“It was really important to me to get a feel for the school and not base decisions entirely on test scores or what looked good on paper,” she says. “Practicality had a measure of impact on the decision, too. If a school started at the same time as my daughter’s preschool and had no transportation and was across town, I had to rule it out.”
She wound up selecting a Gifted and Talented/Academically and Intellectually Gifted Basics (GT/AIG) school as her top choice, and her son got in. “My son loves it,” Frese says. “There’s a huge variety of electives so he can explore lots of different topics along with the usual curriculum. So far he’s taken coding, sculpture, robotics, sports and a class on the life cycles of plants that incorporated Spanish. He also joined the school chess club and is generally thriving!”
Additional reporting by Erica Jackson Curran
