Now is the time to act. The BOE is conducting their magnet review to determine which schools, if any, are not fulfilling the goals of the magnet program. Remember, the goals are to:
1) Reduce high concentrations of poverty and support diverse populations
We are generally led to believe that magnets are located in such high poverty areas that they must use special programs to entice non-F&R students to attend. Therefore, magnet schools should be located in high poverty areas and have F&R base populations. I would further propose that elementary magnets should be at or near the 40% F&R threshhold set by the BOE for healthy schools and that middle and high magnets be at or near the county average. Magnets receive extra funds to provide their programs and magnet families are generally involved and motivated to see their children succeed. A magnet with 40% F&R has an advantage over a non-magnet with the same 40% F&R.
2) Maximize use of school facilities
The idea behind this is that some of these older schools are in neighborhoods that have aged out. There aren't enough kids in the surrounding areas to fill the school so a magnet program must be in place to attract other students.
3) Provide expanded educational opportunities
I interpret this to mean expanded opportunities to all students in WCPSS.
So which schools aren't living up to these goals and why?
Elementary Schools
Underwood
As illustrated in a previous post, Underwood is not located in a low income area. Instead, it draws its low income students from downtown. The two base nodes directly next to Underwood have no F&R students and the median single family home price is around $400,000.
Underwood is overcrowded so 2 low income nodes were removed in last year's reassignment plan. In that same plan Growth Management noted that at 29%, Underwood's F&R is "slightly lower than desirable for a magnet school. However, staff did not identify a change in base area to recommend at this time". Perhaps they should have removed the higher income nodes near the school and let the low income nodes stay. And by the way, the 2 low income nodes were moved to Green Hope Elementary--18 miles away.
Joyner
Again, refer to the previous post on Underwood and Joyner. Joyner has 4 base nodes with median home prices ranging from a low of $390,000 to a high $760,000. While this school does have some low income areas assigned to it, I question why it is a magnet school.
Solution? De-magnetize Joyner and assign the non-F&R base nodes from Underwood to Joyner. There is legitimate concern that if both Underwood and Joyner were de-magnetized, there wouldn't be enough students in that area to fill the 2 schools while keeping them both under 40%. Since Underwood only has the 2 non-F&R base nodes it would be easier to move them over to Joyner.
Wiley
Although I haven't done all the research on Wiley's nodes like I did for the other schools, a quick look at zillow.com shows very similar home prices, so I think this school is worth mentioning. Wiley has an F&R of only 28% and like Underwood, Growth Managment recognizes that it is too low for a magnet. But like Underwood, they were unable to recommend a change to the base area. May I suggest that if Growth Management can't come up with a way to raise Wiley's F&R, then perhaps it should no longer be a magnet? Wiley could draw new base nodes from Lacy, which is overcrowded and already shares an assignment boundary with Wiley.
Middle Schools
Daniels Daniels has an 80% base population yet only has an F&R of 30%. Clearly, Daniels is not located in a high-poverty area, especially when compared to E Millbrook MS, which is 74% base and 44% F&R. Some of the most expensive and elite areas of central Raleigh are assigned to Daniels. See my previous entry on Joyner and Underwood nodes for an example--those nodes are all assigned to Daniels.
While your child has to choose between taking Band and Spanish or between Spanish and Art, students at Daniels get 2 elective periods each day. Daniels runs on a tri-mester schedule so students can take up to 6 different electives each school year, which helps with fitting in the Keyboarding course that middle school students must take.
Martin Martin has a 36% base and only 23% F&R, well below the WCPSS middle school average of 29%. Additionally, Martin pulls in low income nodes from downtown/SE Raleigh, a sign that it isn't located in a high-poverty area. You can see the price ranges for homes in Martin's base nodes in my previous post.
Martin is a gifted & talented magnet and offers an incredibly wide array of electives, including four different foreign languages. Martin students have 3 elective periods each day and electives are either year long, semester long, or quarter long giving students the opportunity to take up to 12 electives each year.
Solution?
De-magnetize Daniels and transfer the non-F&R base population from Martin to Daniels. Nodes that have both lower-income apartment complexes and homes selling for an average $500,000 should be split to allow the lower income children to stay at Martin. I would also increase Martin's low income base to bring it closer to 30% F&R.
High Schools
Well, there's only one high school to address, and that's Broughton. I cannot figure out why Broughton was made a magnet in the first place since it has always been the base school for the most expensive and elite areas of Raleigh. With a 67% base and a 21% F&R it doesn't appear to be a magnet candidate. I have heard rumblings for a few years now that Broughton is up on the magnet chopping block. One solution I have heard is to move the IB program to Millbrook High, which has been hurting in recent years. At 29% F&R, its not struggling as much as East Wake, Garner or Knightdale High but it is located down the street from East Millbrook Middle which has an IB program. So it would be a logical choice.
Additionally, Broughton has a very supportive alumni foundation that raised almost $500,000 in 2007. Given our limited funds, there are high schools that need a magnet program more than Broughton.
That's it for this post, although I could go on--and I will in the next entry. :-)
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5 comments:
I appreciate your efforts in favor of greater equity. I think an important part of any solution to increasing the F&R populutions at schools like Lacy, Root, Underwood, Wiley, Olds, etc.---or reducing them at OTB "rim" schools--is for the school board to get over its allergy to having students travel under/over the Beltline to get to some of these ITB elementary schools.
The rim elementary schools have high F&R numbers and there are already one or more ITB schools that draw from OTB (at least they did two yers ago when I looked). But my sense is that the board is moving away from that and trying to make the Beltline a firm "line in the sand," at least for some ITB schools. Of course, they have no problem busing the "downtown" kids far into N. Raleigh.
Allowing rim kids into ITB schools would also be a way for more F&R kids to experience the benefits of a magnet school.
One final point on Martin MS. A significant % of the population magnets in so I'm not sure that your argument about non-F&R base kid benefits is as powerful as it is regarding Daniels. Perhaps the school district should focus on getting more F&R kids to apply to Martin and Daniels...and on getting Daniels to admit more magnet students?
The more I look at the Magnet system in this county, the more it is apparent how grossly inequitable it is - to both the F&R students that it was designed to serve and those who live outside the beltline. It's discrimination pure and simple (not racial but geographic) and in a county-wide school system that has got to be illegal. Apparently the only children who deserve access to a quality education in the county live inside the beltine....
Excellent analysis, Jen.
Another issue that WCPSS ignores is the fact that magnet schools INCREASE F&R concentrations in rim schools. For instance, I've heard that a magnet program is planned for Smith. Certainly, Smith is one of the rim schools where the F&R percentage has been allowed to skyrocket above the supposed 40% limit, and faces real challenges.
However, I question whether throwing a magnet at it will change things for the better. Are they going to change the base population to allow a more diverse (in this case, more affluent) population to magnet in? If they don't, then just adding a magnet will not be likely to help the situation. Since the population needs help with the basic coursework, adding on MORE non-basics curricula is unlikely to help them.
So, then let's assume that they'll be assigning some kids out, to make room for those affluent kids with their involved parents to move in. Where will these kids come from? From the other rim schools in the Garner area, which by and large tend to have pretty high F&R populations themselves. Yes, the magnet may drop Smith's very high F&R percentage by 10 percentage points or so ---- but it's going to do it by raising the F&R percentages at the surrounding schools. They'll be losing their involved parents, and not getting any new programs in return.
It's a dominoes game. The winners are the ones inside the beltline, because they got their loose ends tied up in the beginning. As you get further and further out, there are fewer options to fill your needs.
To the first anonymous--I love the 'allergy' comment. How true. Lacy and Stough are a perfect example of that. Stough's F&R of 46% last year was more than twice that of Lacy's 21%. The two schools are less than 2 miles away from each other and already share assignment boundaries. Yet nothing was done to make these two schools more 'comparable' which is even more incredible when you consider that Stough is underenrolled and Lacy is overcrowded.
I do agree with you that the case for Martin was not as strong as the one for Daniels. I would only consider de-magnetizing Daniels, not Martin. I would just move the higher income Martin nodes into Daniels to take up seats vacated by former magnet students.
To the third anonymous--I agree that it is a dominos game. Maybe magnets aren't the answer at all and the program should be scrapped. Perhaps we should turn some of the magnets into true AG centers like Johnston County has. Once a week, kids who qualify for AG services get to go to the AG center for advanced coursework and electives.
At least that way *all* AG students would get access to the best the county has to offer.
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