{"id":12540,"date":"2015-05-03T17:39:26","date_gmt":"2015-05-03T21:39:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cssp\/?p=12540"},"modified":"2015-05-04T10:58:01","modified_gmt":"2015-05-04T14:58:01","slug":"the-not-so-dirty-dozen-plus-a-few","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cssp\/2015\/05\/03\/the-not-so-dirty-dozen-plus-a-few\/","title":{"rendered":"The “Not So Dirty” Dozen, Plus a Few: Ways Hartford Magnet Schools Influence Student Enrollment"},"content":{"rendered":"

How do magnet schools influence student enrollment? Kevin Welner previously published \u201cThe Dirty Dozen<\/a>,\u201d which describes ways charter schools influence student enrollment (Welner, 2013). Do magnet schools, which are founded upon different goals, use the same strategies to sway their student body? This essay aims to determine if and how Welner\u2019s \u201cdirty dozen\u201d also apply to magnet schools in Hartford, how they are used differently, and what additional approaches magnets use.<\/p>\n

Hartford Public Schools is an \u201call-choice\u201d program, in which families submit lottery applications to their preferred district school, including charter and magnet schools (Dougherty et al<\/a>., 2014). Charter schools aim to improve academic achievement, provide for educational innovation, provide vehicles for the reduction of racial, ethnic, and economic isolation, and provide a choice of public education programs for students and parents (Cotto & Feder<\/a>, 2014). Although charters can have their charter revoked if they do not attract, enroll, and retain low income, minority, emerging bilingual students, and students with disabilities, no standards exist to measure this (Cotto & Feder, 2014). Magnet schools aim to reduce, eliminate, or prevent the racial, ethnic, or economic isolation of public school students, and offer a high-quality curriculum that supports educational improvement (Cotto & Feder, 2014). Magnet schools provide special curricular themes to attract students from both city and suburban districts (Dougherty, 2015). Funds for magnets can be withheld if the student body does not contain between 25% and 75% students of color, as in accordance with the Sheff vs. O\u2019Neil standards (Cotto & Feder, 2014).<\/p>\n

Location and Transportation\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Welner argues that charter schools choose their location with the students they intend to serve in mind, taking into account the availability of transportation. The Capitol Region Education Center, CREC coordinates free transportation to magnet schools, even for students attending schools out-of-district (CREC Schools<\/a>, 2015), whereas charters only guarantee transportation to in-district students (Connecticut State Department of Education<\/a>, 2015). The wider transportation services offered to students attending magnet schools allows them to attract students from different backgrounds in order to uphold the Sheff standards, while charters are not held to such standards and so do not need to provide transportation to such a wide region<\/p>\n

\"RSCO<\/a>
RSCO transportation zone map (Source: Regional School Choice Office)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This theme is evident in field notes collected by my classmates from attending choice fairs and open houses. IF, at an open house, noted that the rep discussed \u201chow they provide transportation regardless of location.\u201d Additionally, when SS and JC spoke with a student attending a magnet school at the RSCO fair, the student \u201cvolunteered the information that buses are free.\u201d AL and SG, also at the RSCO magnet fair, described an area solely for providing information about transportation for families interested in magnet schools in the Hartford area. Thus, at least in Hartford, it appears that magnets are not trying to exclude students based on their location as charters allegedly may do; instead, they are accommodating students from the city and surrounding suburbs.<\/p>\n

Although these schools may be trying to accommodate far-away students, location will always play a role in enrollment. Students may opt out of a free but long commute to a magnet in favor of a quick commute to a neighborhood school. This location approach is not necessarily mal-intentioned, though. Charter schools in Hartford likely are not intentionally excluding certain students, but locating themselves in areas of high need.<\/p>\n

Advertisement\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>Welner\u2019s \u201cMad men\u201d approach argues that charters shape their school\u2019s demographics using advertising and images. Hartford magnets appear to use this approach more to achieve diversity and inclusiveness, while Welner implies that charters may target or deter specific student demographics. AM noted that the students who represented the magnet school he visited were of different races, white and Hispanic. AM described a video<\/a> shown that featured \u201can anecdote about a white girl and a black girl who became good friends through school,\u201d and another clip in which a teacher says \u201cnot one of my students look alike.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n