Why Are Magnet Schools Important to School Integration?

“Why are magnet schools important to school integration” is a question that has not been top of mind among families with students in public schools, many who work in public education, or consume daily public education media. Other important topics, such as learning loss, opportunities gaps, and teacher shortages, have been more mainstreamed in conversations about public education and taken up a significant portion of education funding following the pandemic. But we believe the question of school integration is central to public education. It’s one we grapple with and promote every day, working in partnership with districts across the country.

For the past 36 years, the team at Metis has examined the issue of school integration, starting in 1988 with our first federal Magnet Schools Assistance Program (MSAP) grant writing engagement for Community School District 1 in New York City. This work opened doors for us in other NYC districts, leading to a three-decade partnership in grant writing and evaluation of magnet programs with New York City Public Schools. In 1998, we expanded our reach to magnet programs beyond the city, starting first with Beacon, NY, then Baltimore County, MD and Little Rock, AR. Soon, we were part of the national conversation about magnet schools and school integration, working with more than 35 districts across 10 states and in almost every region of the country. 

Over these years, we have dedicated tens of thousands of hours to thinking about magnet schools and assessing their impact on school integration and equitable access to rigorous and innovative learning for all students. We’ve learned that their impact on creating racially and ethnically diverse learning environments that address the learning interests and needs of students can be transformational.     

The origins of school integration

The legal precedent for school desegregation was set in 1954 with the groundbreaking Brown v. Board of Education decision, mandating that Black and white students could not be legally required to attend separate schools. However, the fight for equal access to public education began much earlier with numerous cases, such as the Kansas cases—suits brought by families across the state against segregation—and Mendez v. Westminster, where Mexican American families challenged Orange County, California for equal school access. In 2024, the year of the 70th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education offers an opportunity for us to reflect on the progress in achieving the decision’s mandate. Specifically, we are called to examine the role magnet schools have played in advancing school integration. 

Just as the fight for integrated schools did not begin with Brown, it did not end with Brown. After the decision, many school districts and communities across the country developed strategies to resist the legal mandate. One of the most egregious tactics was the flight of white families from public schools to “segregation academies,” which diverted taxpayer money from public education and left Black children in under-resourced, racially isolated schools. 

One example came in New Orleans, Louisiana where four first-grade African American girls, now known as the New Orleans Four, among them the well-known Ruby Bridges, led the way in integrating public schools. On the morning of November 14, 1960, federal marshals escorted the four girls into one of two newly integrated schools through crowds of angry people. By the end of the school day, however, the four girls were alone in the buildings, as white parents came throughout the school day to take their children out of the schools to avoid integration. The girls remained alone for a year and a half, as white families refused to return to an integrated school.

The introduction of magnet schools

The resistance to the legal mandate for school desegregation led the federal government to enforce the law more strictly. Throughout the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, hundreds of school districts were placed under court-ordered desegregation plans. These plans required school districts to develop and implement tangible strategies to desegregate schools, with accountability for outcomes enforced by the federal government. Once the goals of the plans were deemed achieved, the districts were granted unitary status and released from federal oversight. Court-ordered desegregation had widespread effects; by the mid-1980s, school segregation across all regions of the U.S. reached an all-time low, and hundreds of districts attained unitary status (Frankenberg &Lee, 2002).

A key strategy adopted by many districts under court-ordered desegregation plans, as well as by communities seeking to voluntarily accelerate school desegregation, was the establishment of magnet schools. Magnet schools are public schools that offer unique and specialized instruction and programs to attract a diverse student population from outside the school’s attendance boundaries. The term “magnet” reflects the voluntary nature of school selection, as these schools rely on families choosing to enroll their children due to the school’s distinctive instructional programs or themes. McCarver Elementary School in Tacoma, Washington, is often cited by researchers as the first magnet school, established in 1968. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, today there are more than 3,000 magnet schools nationwide.

As magnet schools proliferated through district initiatives or federal investment, they evolved to fit various local contexts. Some magnet schools continued as whole-school initiatives, bringing together students of different races and ethnicities in the same classrooms. Others emerged as programs within schools where magnet students enrolled in separate classes, often determined by academic criteria. While these programs supported school desegregation by merging students of diverse backgrounds under one roof, they also created within-school segregation, where Black and white students did not mix within individual classrooms. 

Some magnet schools adopted school-wide academic criteria, such as gifted and talented designations, which hindered integration due to racial biases in the identification process. This evolution caused the term “magnet school” to take on new meanings, becoming synonymous with “gifted and talented” or “specialized.” As a result, the impact of magnet schools as a whole on school integration was undermined.

The Magnet Schools Assistance Program (MSAP)

In 1984, 30 years after the Brown v. Board of Education decision, the federal government launched the Magnet Schools Assistance Program (MSAP), officially endorsing magnet schools as a key strategy for desegregating schools. The MSAP offers grants to local educational agencies to create new magnet programs or significantly review existing ones. These grants aim to promote diversity and equity by reducing “minority group isolation” in schools, enhancing student achievement, and building schools’ capacity for sustainable programs through professional development and planning. To address the rise in academically selective programs and within-school segregation, the MSAP created priorities to give preference to grant applicants that implement whole-school magnet programs and that use admissions processes not involving academic criteria.

The MSAP has facilitated the creation of thousands of magnet schools dedicated to desegregation. These schools set annual enrollment targets to reduce minority group isolation and must report their progress biannually. To meet these goals, districts and schools develop comprehensive marketing and recruitment plans, introduce innovative instructional programs that attract students and families, and invest in cutting-edge, appealing learning environments. Many districts also use race-neutral, weighted lotteries to ensure diverse enrollment. Additionally, the grants support efforts to improve teaching and learning thereby enhancing student outcomes and making the schools more attractive to prospective families.

Impact of magnet schools on desegregation

Since 1991, Metis has evaluated close to 50 MSAP grants and has conducted district-wide studies of magnet and special programs for four large urban school districts. A central question in all evaluations is, “What impact does the creation of the magnet school have on supporting racial and ethnic desegregation?” And, not surprisingly, the answer varies. 

We have found substantial impacts in some areas and limited impacts in others. Outcomes tend to be more favorable in districts with magnet application and lottery systems that strategically support desegregation through weights or preferences and that provide transportation for students to attend magnet schools (recently the US Department of Education approved the use of transportation as an eligible grant expenditure). Other factors may also influence outcomes, including if the school establishes a dedicated recruitment team and multi-year plan, effectively uses digital and social media on platforms that the community prefers, offers a range of recruitment methods and schedules them at varied times throughout the day and year. And of course, changes in residential patterns in communities or school attendance boundaries can also play a role.

In our experience though, magnet schools, in general, experience success with desegregation. For example, across the seven MSAP grants that Metis evaluated during the recently completed FY 2017 funding cycle, two-thirds of the 27 funded magnet schools successfully reduced minority group isolation and promoted desegregation over the five years of the grant. Across these schools, the reduction in minority group isolation ranged from 0.7 to 23.4 percentage points, with an average reduction of 8.9 percentage points.

These outcomes were achieved in part by keeping desegregation as a primary goal of the school. The schools and districts engaged in targeted outreach, marketing, branding, and communication efforts and they tracked enrollment data to assess their progress. District and school staff also participated in diversity and equity training, attended local and national conferences on school desegregation and magnet schools, and communicated their desegregation goals to the school and local community.

These activities ensured that desegregation remained a prominent and important educational objective within the community. Even if schools or districts faced challenges in meeting their goals, their ongoing efforts to promote desegregation was a significant achievement in itself, highlighting the importance and impact of magnet schools.

Moving from desegregation to integration

Another significant outcome of desegregating schools is the necessity to address the needs of a diverse group of learners and develop strategies to integrate students from different backgrounds within the school and classroom. This shift changes the focus from mere desegregation to true integration. Although these terms may seem similar, the distinction is crucial: Desegregation refers to the presence of diverse groups in a space, while integration emphasizes positive interactions among these diverse groups.

The MSAP emphasizes the importance of integration by requiring grant applicants to outline strategies for fostering positive interactions among students from different backgrounds within classrooms. This approach encourages magnet schools to focus on both desegregation and integration, ensuring they create not only diverse but also inclusive learning environments. Many schools use MSAP funding to educate district and school staff about culturally responsive and sustainable education, allocate time for teachers to review student data through an equity lens, and build partnerships with local organizations that bring relevance and representation to learning. The impact of these efforts is evident in both qualitative and quantitative outcomes.

Students in magnet schools often express gaining a deeper understanding of the purpose of their learning and an appreciation for peers from different backgrounds. Test scores reflect this progress as well. Among the FY 2017 magnet schools we evaluated, half showed increased proportions of African American and/or Hispanic students scoring proficient in English Language Arts, and 42% demonstrated similar gains in math. Additionally, in all 17 schools where skills like critical thinking, collaboration, and creativity were assessed, the proportion of students mastering these skills increased over the five-year grant period. 

How can we enhance the role of magnet schools in promoting integration?

As we assess the progress made by magnet schools, we also have an opportunity to set new goals for school integration. In recent years, integration has gained momentum in local and national politics, education advocacy, and research. For example, here in New York, the state education department recently invested in a grant program to help school districts plan and implement integration strategies. Additionally, organizations like The Century Foundation and the Diverse Charter Schools Coalition have created communities of practice, where school districts and other local entities can convene, learn from each other, and develop tangible plans for integrating schools and communities. Local advocacy efforts, such as Integrated Schools, New York and Texas Appleseed, as well as national efforts led by the National Coalition on School Diversity, have all contributed to this movement. Importantly, student advocacy groups, such as IntegrateNYC, have taken a leading role in the school integration debate.

These efforts have reached the national stage with the establishment of the Fostering Diverse Schools (FDS) grant program in 2023 under the Biden Administration, making MSAP no longer the sole federal investment in school desegregation.

The increased focus on the benefits of school integration is encouraging. However, it is crucial not to lose sight of a key driver of desegregation and integration over the past 50+ years—magnet schools. Discussions about school integration should highlight the role of magnet schools. While not a panacea for school segregation, they provide a strong foundation to build upon. Magnet schools have open attendance boundaries, operate under a mandate of innovation and equity, offer appealing and contemporary themes and experiences, and receive federal and local support. Most importantly, they have proven effective in achieving integration.

We should not stop at magnet schools, but we must ensure they remain a key component in the broader effort to integrate schools. If you’re considering pursuing an MSAP grant, please reach out. We’d love to start a conversation.

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