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The purpose of this paper is to explore the range of benchmark applications associated with US magnet schools in urban areas.

The collection and critical analysis of secondary data from relevant publications are used to evaluate the results of America's magnet schools. Analysis of organizational and leadership theory has been utilized in order to benchmark future successful efforts.

The paper finds the following key issues: magnet schools have numerous mission goals that prevent them for having a clear strategy, magnet school structures should be customized for the specific communities and promote parental involvement, and magnet schools instruct students who are heavily influenced by pop culture values and challenge traditional values in the school culture.

The paper examines benchmarking applications that are exclusively relevant in US urban schools.

There are several implications for researchers and practitioners related to improving the academic success of low‐performing schools in urban areas in America.

This paper is significant because it presents a theoretical framework for interpreting the impacts of magnet schools in urban schools.

Although school choice programs are expected to alter the traditional roles and responsibilities of all stakeholders involved in the education of children, empirical evidence on differences between principals in schools of choice and traditional schools is scant. Relying primarily on the theoretical frameworks posited by Kerchner and Crow, this study compares self‐reported survey data from principals of magnet schools (i.e. schools of choice) to principals of nonmagnet schools (i.e. traditional neighborhood schools) to ascertain how the principal’s role may differ in choice environments. Despite the predictions of market theorists, collectively, the findings from this study suggest that magnet schools do little, if anything, to alter the role of the principal. Specifically, no significant differences were found in the extent to which the principals of these school types served as entrepreneurial leaders, middle managers, or instructional leaders. Potential explanations for the lack of differences in role are provided.

The No Child Left Behind Act (2002) and Race to the Top (2009) led to the highest rate of standardized-state testing in the history of the United States of America. As a result, the Every Student Succeeds Act (2015) aims to reevaluate standardized-state testing. Previous research has assessed its impact on schools, educators, and students; yet, youth’s voices are almost absent. Therefore, this qualitative analysis examines how youth of color perceive and experience standardized-state testing.

Seventy-three youth participated in a semistructured interview during the summer of 2015. The sample consists of 34 girls and 39 boys, 13–18 years of age, of African American, Latino/a, Jamaican American, multiracial/ethnic, and other descent. It includes 6–12th graders who attended 61 inter-district and intra-district schools during the 2014–2015 academic year in a Northeastern metropolitan area in the United States that is undergoing a racial/ethnic integration reform.

Youth experienced testing overload under conflicting adult authorities and within an academically stratified peer culture on an ever-shifting policy terrain. While the parent-adult authority remained in the periphery, the state-adult authority intrusively interrupted the teacher-student power dynamics and the disempowered teacher-adult authority held youth accountable through the “attentiveness” rhetoric. However, youth’s perspectives and lived experiences varied across grade levels, school modalities, and school-geographical locations.

In this adult-dominated society, the market approach to education reform ultimately placed the burden of teacher and school evaluation on youth. Most importantly, youth received variegated messages from their conflicting adult authorities that threatened their academic journeys.

This chapter offers practicable alternatives to some of the most pressing problems facing urban public education in the United States. The narrowing of the curriculum and the emphasis on “high stakes testing” and test preparation has contributed greatly to the high dropout rates in urban public schools. “Freedom Schooling: A New Approach to Federal-Local Cooperation in Public Education” was published in 1978 to address these problems by calling for an expansion of alternative public schools modeled after the innovative educational programs developed at urban magnet schools in the arts, music, science, foreign languages and cultures, sports and athletics, and other fields. Since that time, research on the public magnet schools has revealed that the innovative curricula increase student motivation, lower dropout rates, and produce levels of academic achievement higher than in traditional public schools. In calling for the development of “freedom schools” as alternatives to the traditional public schools, the goal is to motivate the students through the innovative content areas and have them pursue mastery of specific skills and talents in the arts, music, sports, technology, and other areas. Moving beyond the narrow emphasis on testing in reading and mathematics, students attending the “freedom schools” would be expected to demonstrate mastery of specific artistic forms, musical techniques, athletic practices, technological innovations, or other skills. The opening of “freedom schools,” focused on mastery learning, would address the academic failure in urban public schools by raising motivational levels and developing student mastery in specific areas of educational practice.

A large, predominantly undergraduate university in Tennessee partnered with a local magnet school aiming to assist high school seniors with their college-level research assignment. The partnership began as a pilot, but quickly expanded to include other high schools as a result of initial successes. This paper aims to describe the development of the partnership and its importance in fulfilling a key component of college preparedness for gifted high school students.

This paper describes how the Library partnership commenced as a service to a local high school that required its students to access college-level research materials. The paper details how both the Library and the high school recognized the impact of collaborating to expose these students to the information literacy skills needed for college readiness.

The paper presents the challenges encountered when attempting to provide college-level information literacy instruction to large groups of students visiting a college campus. It concludes with best practices and lessons learned, as well as plans for formal assessment and future initiatives.

The author has presented at Library Instruction West, July 2018. A review of the professional literature demonstrates that other academic libraries have partnered with local schools for a variety of library-related initiatives. Therefore, the concept of partnerships between the Library and local high schools is not unique. However, this paper aims to describe challenges encountered, best practices, lessons learned and suggestions for future directions, including formal assessment, all of which could be adapted by other academic libraries as applicable.

Observes, while most school site management personnel are familiar with the multitude of visual representations of statistical data, via graphs and charts, the value of visual representations of geographical information remains largely unknown in educational management. Explains that geographical information systems (GIS), in addition to determining the exact geographical street address location of a client, can also overlay important SES, thematic information such as demographic characteristics (per capita household income, percentage, minority, etc.), and man‐made, and when natural geographical barriers are combined a powerful visual representation or picture of a client service area emerges. Describes how these visual representations of educational service areas can then be used to support educational policy analysis and school site management. Presents several illustrations of how GIS mapping procedures can be applied to school site management, planning and policy analysis. Draws three illustrations of GIS mapping from the school management areas of co‐ordination of school site outreach services to educational policy areas of ensuring “equity” in access to instructional services. Explores extensions of GIS mapping procedures to other areas in educational policy analysis and school site management.

The purpose of this study was to examine the learning experiences of high school Black males participating in an academy of engineering that was configured as a magnet school. We followed a qualitative case study design to explore the experiences of 16 Black male academies of engineering students. We identified three recurring themes from the interviews with the Black male academy of engineering students: Promoting Interests in STEM, Drawing Connections to Core Academic Concepts, and An Affinity for Hands-on Learning through the Engineering Curriculum. The results of our study helped us to better understand how academies provide a platform for Black male students' interest in engineering as a viable college and career pathway.