By Anonymous
Filed Saturday, January 21 at 4:02 PM
by Peter Downs
The St. Louis Board of Education on January 17 approved a fundamental change in the way students are admitted to magnet schools. The board voted 4-1 to give preference for admission to magnet schools to students who live within walking distance of the schools.
Superintendent Creg Williams said the new neighborhood preference "will tell Whites that they have access to magnet schools." The majority of magnet schools are said to be in majority White neighborhoods. Williams said the neighborhood preference will kick in after the continuity preference, which allows students in a magnet program to advance in that same program, and the sibling preference, which allows brothers and sisters of a magnet school student into the same school.
The new neighborhood preference sets aside 35% of the seats in each magnet school to students who live within walking distance of the school. Louis Kruger, director of recruitment and counseling for St. Louis Public Schools, said "if we reach the 35% level [for neighborhood residents], then we will go on to the general applicants."
Williams said the change was necessary to fill the magnet schools. Under the settlement of the desegregation lawsuit filed in 1980, the school district is supposed to have 14,100 seats in magnet programs to promote integration. The school district classifies students as either "white" or "black," and tries to maintain a student ratio in each school of 40% "white" students and 60% "black."
Kruger said there are approximately 3,300 empty seats in magnet schools, but approximately 4,000 students on the waiting list to get into magnet schools. Williams said the seats remain empty because white students are not applying to magnet schools, so the district has to exclude interested black students in order to maintain the 40/60 ratio. Williams illogically insisted that the state absence of white applicants shows that whites do not have access to the schools.
School board member Bill Purdy said that if Williams' explanation for the empty seats is true, then whites in the neighborhoods could get into magnet schools now if they want to, so there is no reason to think that the new set-aside program will increase the number of white applicants.
Kruger, however, reported that black applicants account for about three-quarters of the waiting list, which means there are nearly 1,000 white students waiting to get into magnet schools.
Several board members asked good questions about the proposal. Ron Jackson asked how many children applied to get into their the magnet school in their neighborhood. Kruger said, "We don't know."
Flint Fowler asked how much the vacancies were tied to particular types of magnet schools, and the waiting lists to other types. Williams said he could not answer that question.
Robert Archibald was the only board member to voice whole-hearted support for neighborhood set asides, claiming that they will fill seats, pull down barriers, and serve more African Americans.
Purdy, who called the proposal "tinkering around the edges of the problem," wanted the board to table the proposal and take a closer look at problems in the magnet programs, and then decide how best to address those programs. Although Fowler and Jackson questioned the rationale for neighborhood set asides, and voiced support for Purdy's call for a thorough look into the magnet programs, they voted with Archibald to approve the set asides. Darnetta Clinkscale cast the fourth vote for set-asides. No one offered a resolution directing the administration to sort applications, waiting lists, and vacancies by type of magnet program and report it back to the school board at a future meeting.
2 Comments:
This 35% "neighborhood" set-aside is a really dumb idea.
It's compounded by this administration's decisions to move two magnet schools out of the Northside - Bunche and Central - to the Southwest High School building.
At this point, Ames VPA is the only true magnet school located north of Page/Cass. (I don't count the so-called "MEGA" magnets which are really neighborhood schools with a limited magnet component.)
The reality is that most white families in SW City - where a good chunk of the magnet schools are concentrated - prefer Catholic and Lutheran schools. This plan will NOT increase white enrollment.
While I think integration is a laudable goal, as a product of the magnet schools myself, I don't think this is a real smart way to get there. Even in the 1980s when I was a student, my elementary school (Mallinckrodt) located in a largely white neighborhood was probably 65% African-American most of the time.
If magnet schools were even distributed across the city, this might be a good idea. But they aren't.
And there's no way this would work at the gifted schools, unless they plan to waive the IQ testing requirement for neighborhood kids. That would be a bad idea, too.
Monday, January 23, 2006 11:40:00 AM
Peter
Do neighborhood kids have to meet the same criteria as the out-of-neighborhood kids?
If the neighborhood kids have to meet the same criteria, then there will be no (or very few) new applicants.
Additionally, if there are currently openings, then the program will do nothing at all, not even shift toward neighborhood kids.
If there is a lower bar for neighborhood kids, I would like to understand more about that.
To increase enrollment institute and appeals process for the open seats. So, if you have open seats look at the kids who scored 110 to 125. My son is a white, neighborhood, sibling of an honors student, who missed the cut but whose Stanford scores, and school grades clearly show that he would also be an honors student like his brother.
- Bob
Saturday, June 10, 2006 9:51:00 PM
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