Both white and minority children in Connecticut\u2019s magnet schools showed stronger connections to their peers of other races than students in their home districts, and city students made greater academic gains than students in non-magnet city schools, Casey Cobb and a team of colleagues found in research commissioned by the state.<\/p>\n
Cobb, associate professor of education policy and director of the\u00a0Center for Education Policy Analysis<\/a>\u00a0at the Neag School of Education, says an analysis of school climate variables indicating positive racial attitudes favored magnet school populations.<\/p>\n \u201cThe likelihood that they would interact with persons of other races was much higher,\u201d Cobb says. \u201cThat\u2019s the intent of magnet schools, to bring persons from different backgrounds to create a more vibrant community.\u201d<\/p>\n Cobb, whose research focuses on school choice, desegregation and accountability, collaborated with researchers from\u00a0Syracuse University<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Educational Testing Service<\/a>\u00a0on the report of how well magnet schools have given students in Hartford, New Haven and Waterbury access to less isolated environments, racially and economically. The colleagues are also finalizing a similar study of the state\u2019s\u00a0Open Choice program<\/a>.<\/p>\n Bruce E. Douglas, executive director of\u00a0Capitol Region Education Council<\/a>\u00a0in Hartford, said, \u201cI recognize and commend Dr. Cobb and his colleagues for the foundation research they did in looking at magnet schools\u2019 ability to measure up to their purpose. \u2026 It\u2019s been referenced at the\u00a0Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice<\/a>\u00a0at\u00a0Harvard University<\/a>\u00a0as one of the seminal pieces of research that verify integrated education through magnet schools works.\u201d<\/p>\n Since the 1996\u00a0Sheff v. O\u2019Neill<\/em>\u00a0court mandate, voluntary enrollment magnet schools have become a primary strategy to comply with the order, spawning dozens of the popular schools with themes such as science, the classics and the arts.<\/p>\n Cobb\u2019s team showed that city students attending magnets scored higher on state tests, had less absenteeism, higher college aspirations and lower dropout rates. Overall, the magnet climate was more in step with that of a wealthy, suburban non-magnet high school.<\/p>\n Although, racial attitudes differed little between ninth-graders in magnet schools and their peers in non-magnets, 12th<\/sup>-grade students of color in magnets felt significantly closer to white students and more likely to have white friends, the report concluded.\u00a0 Likewise, white magnet students felt significantly closer to students of color and reported having multiple friends of color.<\/p>\n The researchers did note that magnet school students in the lower grades reflected some discomfort about teacher-student relationships and the sense of safety and belonging in their new schools, but those issues disappeared among students in the later grades.<\/p>\n Taking advantage of oversubscribed admissions lotteries for magnets and state test scores, the researchers were able to compare students randomly offered a magnet school seat to those who were not. In addition, statistical controls were used to expand their sample. The results, which appeared in the December issue of the\u00a0Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis<\/em>\u00a0journal, showed that magnet students significantly outperformed non-magnet students on high school tests in reading and math, and on middle school tests in reading.<\/p>\n Cobb says magnet schools can be costly investments and serve a small percentage of children in isolated circumstances, but their successes cannot be denied as decision makers debate how to build on desegregation efforts in the future.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to pay attention in looking at the magnet school model as a viable option. They can be expensive, but they certainly have some tangible benefits,\u201d Cobb says.<\/p>\n Bifulco, R., Cobb, C. D. & Bell, C. (2009). Can Interdistrict Choice Boost Student Achievement? The Case of Connecticut\u2019s Interdistrict Magnet School Program.\u00a0Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 31<\/em>(4), 323-345. doi: 10.3102\/0162373709340917<\/p>\n This article is available only if your library pays for access rights to the journal. Please contact the author if you have any questions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Both white and minority children in Connecticut\u2019s magnet schools showed stronger connections to their peers of other races than students in their home districts, and city students made greater academic gains than students in non-magnet city schools, Casey Cobb and a team of colleagues found in research commissioned by the state. Cobb, associate professor of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":206951,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1855],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2455],"class_list":["post-206950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-neag"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-06 19:19:50","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206950"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":206952,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206950\/revisions\/206952"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/206951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206950"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=206950"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=206950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}