Magnet School Grants Spur Major IB Activity in U.S. School Districts
by Thomas M. Corwin, director, Division of Elementary, Secondary, and Vocational Analysis

The U.S. Department of Education recently announced competitive grants under the Magnet Schools Assistance Program (MSAP).  Nineteen of the 50 grantees will use at least some of their funds to create International Baccalaureate (IB) programmes in 41 different schools, just under 20 percent of the schools participating in these new grants

The Magnet Schools Assistance Program
Since 1984, the Department has operated the Magnet Schools Assistance Program (MSAP), whose purpose is to financially assist districts, via grants, in creating theme or specialized schools and programs. The goal for these specialized, or "magnet," schools is that they are capable of attracting students from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, that they be capable promoting diversity and increasing choices in public schools, and that they will provide students with a high-quality education that allows them to succeed academically. 

The magnet school concept originally took root in the early 1970s as a means of voluntary school desegregation (often in reaction to the challenges encountered in implementing mandatory busing plans). The original desegregation goal of magnet programs continues, but districts have also increasingly come to regard magnet schools as a vehicle for strengthening the academic offerings provided by their schools, and for giving parents and students greater choices in education.

School districts are eligible for MSAP grants if they are under a court-ordered desegregation agreement or have adopted a voluntary, U.S. Department-approved desegregation plan.  Districts can receive a grant of up to $4 million annually for up to three years. The annual congressional appropriation for the program has been, in recent years, approximately $109 million. The Department generally conducts a competition for these grants every three years, and these competitions are always very intense.

Fiscal Year 2004 Competition
In September, the Department completed the most recent MSAP competition, producing 50 new grants.  A major development for this round of grants is the large number of districts that will use their grant funds to create new IB programmes. Although previous competitions have funded some IB activity--for instance, the recently authorized PYP at Park International Magnet School in Hot Springs, AR, and the DP/MYP at Galileo High School in Danville, VA--the level of IB activity supported by the new 2004 grants is unprecedented.

A number of these grant-winning districts already have one or more IB programmes in place, typically a Diploma Programme. Some districts will use their MSAP funds to create Middle Years or Primary Years Programmes so that students are better prepared to enter the Diploma Programme in the 11th grade and can have a rigorous academic experience throughout their school years.  Other districts are seeking to extend IB to additional schools, often in response to parental demand.  In some cases, these districts are turning to IB as their strategy for turning around schools that have not made "adequate yearly progress," and have been identified as in need of improvement, under the No Child Left Behind Act.

The schools in which these districts will implement IB are typically heavily minority and low income.  Fourteen of the 41 schools have minority enrollment of 90 percent or greater.  The districts also face challenges in meeting the objectives of No Child Left Behind. Their MSAP grants, and the IB, provide them with a new source of optimism for meeting those challenges.

Examples of Local Programs
Among the school districts that successfully competed for MSAP grants this year and will now use those grants to create or expand IB are the following:

• The Minneapolis Public Schools will begin the Primary Years Programme at Hall and Whittier schools, marking the first time the PYP will be available in Minneapolis.  Establishment of the PYP is intended to strengthen these two racially and economically isolated schools and prepare their students to enter  Middle Year and Diploma Programmes available in Minneapolis high schools.
• The Chicago Public Schools, which already offers the Diploma Programme at 13 high schools and the Middle Years Programme at 19 schools, will use its grant to establish the PYP and MYP at the K-8 Wildwood Elementary School, the PYP at a new elementary school that will open in the second year of the project, and the MYP and DP (grades 6-12) at Clark High School. Wildwood and the new elementary school will offer the first Primary Years Programmes in the state of Illinois.
• The Wichita Falls (Texas) Independent School District will implement IB programmes at four schools, building on a Diploma Programme already in place at Hirschi-Math Science Magnet High School.  At each level, the programmes will focus on aerospace, the environment, multimedia and medicine as topics of study.

The other school districts that will use their MSAP funds for IB are:

California: Desert Sands, Fresno, San Jose, and San Mateo-Foster City; Connecticut: New Haven; Florida: Broward County, Duval County, and Pinellas County; Indiana: Indianapolis and South Bend; Minnesota: the Northwest Suburban Integration District; Mississippi: Cleveland; North Carolina: Charlotte-Mecklenburg and Winston-Salem/Forsyth County; Texas: Longview.  

Thomas M. Corwin is the director of the Division of Elementary, Secondary, and Vocational Analysis, Budget Service in the U.S. Department of Education (and the Department's liaison with the IBO Government Advisory Committee).  The statements made in this article do not necessarily reflect the positions of the U.S. Department of Education. [ return to top ]