This paper considers the distinctive issues demographers face when they must forecast enrollments in a context of court-ordered desegregation. Specifically, it examines whether magnet schools strengthen a district's overall attractiveness to enrollees from outside, or whether they only siphon students away from other nonmagnet schools within the…

The 1993-94 school year marked the first year of the federally-assisted magnet program implemented by Charlotte-Mecklenberg (North Carolina) Schools (CMS). This paper presents the program's goals, the measurable objectives developed to meet the goals, and first-year outcomes. The goals were to reduce, eliminate, or prevent minority group isolation…

This report recounts the enrollment and participation of minority and nonminority students in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) Magnet Program. The 1994-95 school year was the second year in which federal support was received. The magnet program is part of a 5-year Student Assignment Plan that seeks to eliminate racial isolation and to…

A magnet school has four essential ingredients: a distinctive curriculum; a unique district purpose for voluntary desegregation; an opportunity for school choice; and access to students beyond a district attendance zone. Most magnet schools have one of five types of curricular themes: the fine, applied, or performing arts; the sciences; social…

Two papers by B. C. Clewell and M. F. Joy and one paper by the Educational Commission of the States discuss the frequently debated questions of parental choice of the public schools their children attend. The first paper, "Montclair--A Model Magnet," describes the experience of the Montclair (New Jersey) school system in using a…

Based on a conference held in November 1982, this document attempts to distill and include those thoughts, arguments, and data judged to be most helpful in formulating a plan for improving and expanding voluntary interdistrict school integration in New York State. The first 3 sections describe trends over 30 years in the amount of segregation,…

This paper examines the range of resources required to plan, develop and implement magnet schools. Information is based on a comparative study of the relative costs of magnet and regular schools in a large, urban school district over a six-year period. Using traditional measures of per student costs, the study found that real spending per pupil…

This paper, based on a recent comparative study of magnet schools conducted by the Department of Education, describes the features of successfully designed magnet schools. First, the paper highlights some of the major findings from the study on which it is based. Although there is a wide degree of variation in the design, development, and…

Information sources used by parents of majority and minority students in making decisions about school choice, with a focus on busing, are examined in this report. A mailed survey of parents of approximately 8,431 students in the San Jose Unified School District (California) yielded 934 responses, of which minority households comprised 60 percent…

In order to provide high quality specialized instruction and to achieve voluntary integration, a magnet program was developoed in the Fort Worth (Texas) Independent School District. The program is in its third year of implementation and currently is underway in two high schools, two middle schools, and an elementary school. Program features…

This interim report about the court's order for voluntary, interdistrict desegregation in the St. Louis, Missouri public schools was filed by the Desegregation Monitoring and Advisory Committee. The report discusses the problems of defining the relationship between "voluntary" and "mandatory," and developing alternative…

Presented here are the remarks of William Bradford Reynolds, Assistant Attorney General, Civil Rights Division at the Education Commission of the States National Project on Desegregation Strategies' Workshop. Reynolds states that mandatory busing and other remedial techniques to achieve racial balance in schools (measures tentatively sanctioned by…

The state of Missouri opposed the desegregation plan in St. Louis but the court approved it. Three components of the plan are the following: (1) voluntary interdistrict transfers; (2) magnet schools; and (3) improvement of the quality of education and major capital improvements. Implementation and achievements are described. (VM)

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)

Reviews the development of magnet schools as an alternative to the politics that accompany other desegregation tactics, and discusses arguments for and against magnets. Focuses on the successful magnet schools of Kankakee, Illinois, a city with a small but socioeconomically diverse population, where desegregation was voluntary and parental…