Publications

Difficult Choices: Do Magnet Schools Serve Children in Need?

This report examines the dynamics and outcomes of efforts to increase parental choice among public schools. It focuses on the systemic use of magnet schools as an example of choice plans within and across public school districts.

Difficult Choices concludes that absent the magnet schools (and in one case, the interdistrict program) in the three communities studied -- St. Louis, Cincinnati and Nashville -- it is very unlikely that minority and poor children would have received comparable educational opportunities that have enabled many to succeed academically and to go on to college or productive employment.

The report goes on to make a number of recommendations that, properly implemented, can make an important contribution to the educational advancement of poor and minority children.