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)

Houston's High School for the Engineering Professions (HSEP) is a special curriculum, college preparatory school designed for students seeking engineering careers. HSEP is a magnet school intended to promote desegregation by offering academic and vocational programs that attract diverse students from the whole school district. (JOW)

At Houston's Dodson Elementary School, a magnet school with a Montesorri program, students work independently with an assortment of manipulable materials which help them teach themselves. (SK)

Describes an immersion program in the Milwaukee Public Schools in which children learn to understand, speak, read, and write two languages; by the time they finish sixth grade, they are functionally bilingual. Elements discussed include parental involvement, staffing and recruitment, acquiring materials, and program costs. (CT)

Created in response to desegregation problems, the Grimes Center for Creative Education is a magnet school which emphasizes parent participation, an interdisciplinary arts curriculum, and a learning-by-doing approach. The success of Grimes illustrates how community concern over desegregation can be transformed into community support for quality…