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Magnet Schools Research Paper

Decent Essays

What is a Magnet School?

In contrast with charter and private schools, a magnet school is an exclusive part of the local public school system. Normal public schools use geographic zones to determine where students will attend school. This means that students attend the school that is closest to where they live. Magnet schools operate outside of zoned school boundaries, but remain under the same administration and part of the local public school system. The U.S. Department of Education provides financial assistance for these schools through their Magnet Schools Assistance program.

http://www2.ed.gov/programs/magnet/index.html

What is the Purpose of Magnet Schools?
Magnet schools originally began as part of a mass effort to desegregate public schools. Today, they serve the same mission by giving students opportunities to select schools that best fit their needs. Ideally, these same students will enrich the school’s demographic makeup by representing different social and ethnic backgrounds. When it comes to the curriculum, almost all magnet schools use special course loads to incentivize students from various neighborhoods to attend. The goal …show more content…

To illustrate, both charter and magnet schools are technically public schools, but charter schools are not required to follow the same state rules and regulations that public and magnet schools must follow. Instead, charter schools are free to select which textbooks to use, which courses to teach and which teachers to hire. That is, they are allowed to hire teachers who do not meet the state’s minimum licensing qualifications. Magnet and public schools are managed by the school district, but charter schools are controlled by an internal board of directors. The admissions processes in magnet schools is often quite rigorous and competitive, but charter schools use open enrollment admission and maintain long wait

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