Current Status:
Underway
Duration:
September 2017 – May 2025
Cost:
$3,466,240
Contract Number:
ED-IES-17-C-0066
Contractor(s):
Mathematica Policy Research
Social Policy Research Associates
Vanderbilt University
Contact:
Decades after the Supreme Court declared racial segregation in public schools to be unconstitutional, concentration in schools by race, ethnicity, and poverty persists. The federal Magnet Schools Assistance Program (MSAP) supports districts and schools in their efforts to reduce group isolation and improve student achievement through increased school choice options for families. MSAP schools seek to attract a diverse set of students and provide high quality academic programs, typically by organizing recruitment and instruction around one or more themes. With growth in school choice more broadly and specifically in magnet schools since 2000, it is important to understand how well these federally-funded schools achieve their goals and how they work. This evaluation takes advantage of new opportunities to rigorously assess MSAP schools but with low burden. It draws on lotteries most MSAP districts now use to admit students to their magnet schools. By comparing the achievement and school characteristics of applicants who were and were not given a seat by chance, the study will determine the impact of the MSAP and examine how specific school features relate to effectiveness.
This impact evaluation will include over 14,500 students who entered MSAP admissions lotteries in 2018 or 2019. Data will be collected for both students who were and were not offered placement, including district records containing student characteristics, enrollment, and test scores, and a survey of students' school principals about school organization and instruction. The academic progress and experiences of students in the two groups will be compared for the four years following their admissions lottery (through 2023).
A snapshot, titled Drawing Across School Boundaries: How Federally Funded Magnet Schools Recruit and Admit Students, was released in January 2021.
A report examining the characteristics of districts and schools that received MSAP grants and the impact of admission to MSAP-funded schools on school diversity is expected in 2024.