Improving Urban Education with Magnet Schools. Magnets were developed in large urban universities in the 1970s primarily as an aid in desegregating schools. The idea was to create schools so good that they would draw a racial cross-section of students out of the segregated neighborhood boundaries, avoiding the political opposition engendered by mandatory busing. Virtually all magnets now have long waiting lists, despite that in many, students have to travel long distances to school, the class day is longer, and the work is harder than in nonmagnets. This digest suggests ways that magnet schools are perceived to provide a superior education.
Magnets have a specialized core curriculum or specialized pedagogy.
The consistency of the theme or method of teaching, and the identification of staff with its theme, curriculum, methods, goals, and activities all mesh to form a coherent whole. Magnets have a strong commitment to parent involvement and they try to mold student attitudes and values. As a result, magnets attract better-motivated students, which reinforces the favorable school atmosphere. A sense of shared enterprise and a committed, enthusiastic faculty and student body. Because of the school's nurturing atmosphere and its image of excellence, and because more students apply than get accepted, students who are admitted, and teachers who teach in a magnet, feel special about themselves and their school.