The Brookings Institution releases an annual Education Choice and Competition Index (ECCI) that chronicles how school choice is manifested in the nation's 100+ largest school districts. The ECCI scores and ranks districts on the degree to which families within the district's borders have access to: (1) maximum choice; (2) a choice process that…

In 1974, the federal court in Boston ordered busing and a massive effort to accelerate the pace of academic progress in the Boston schools. Included in the order was the creation of twenty-two magnet schools and an unprecedented level of parent participation with the vehicles to make it possible. (JOW)

Defends the exam school concept. Using Boston Tech as an example, argues that clearing the admittance-exam hurdle motivates students. Views the magnet school concept as an idealistic vision that Boston has not accepted. (LHW)

Federal court intervention to make Boston Latin School a magnet school rather than an exam school was beneficial to the life of the school. Academic elitism cannot be reconciled with the imperative to eliminate racial dualism. (LHW)

Reviews the strengths and weaknesses of the Boston magnet school program. The author concludes that integration in the 1980s will need to be metropolitan and voluntary. (Author/IRT)

Provides background information to two opposing viewpoints, presented in other articles in this issue, on the relative merits and problems of exam schools and magnet schools. The articles were prompted by events in the Boston public school system's elite schools. (LHW)

The King School in Dorchester, Massachusetts has come from being an educational basket case to succeeding in the remarkable feat of attracting and holding a city-wide population of students. (Author/AM)

Two short articles discuss Boston's English High School Magnet Art Program. The first describes the collaboration between English High School and the Massachusetts College of Art to develop the magnet program. The second describes a group ceramics project at the school. Part of a theme issue on multicultural art programs. (SJL)

Even as Goals 2000 (the latest manifestation of factory-model schooling) is being adopted nationwide, a smaller, but growing counter-movement aimed at decentralizing and democratizing public schools has emerged. Manifestations include magnet and charter schools and the new, smaller, autonomous institutions called in-district charter or pilot…

Presents and discusses enrollment statistics for nine Massachusetts school systems undergoing desegregation. Focuses on Boston, Worcester, Springfield, Lowell, and Cambridge. Describes each system as successfully promoting desegregation through magnet schools and parental choice. (KH)

Race desegregation in Massachusetts is a major enterprise. Desegregation realigns school assignments to bring together students from residential areas that are racially different to establish a truly "common school." Programs in specific towns and cities are detailed. (BJV)

An annual student referendum on desired ninth grade assignment in Boston is analyzed, and shows that students who express a first choice are quite likely to have that choice satisfied. The main distinction drawn by the analysis is not between district and citywide schools, but between schools which many students aspire to and schools which few do.…

Examines the effects of high school choice on high risk students in four large urban school districts. Finds that with the exception of some magnet school programs, admissions procedures and program consequences usually operate to the detriment of students at risk. (FMW)

This report presents a study of issues involving magnet schools in big city school districts. The study consisted of three parts: (1) an analysis of the attitudes of educators familiar with part-time desegregation; (2) an investigation of the role of magnet schools that have been making a positive contribution to the redevelopment of big city…