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What is a magnet school and is it the best option for your child’s education?

When it came time for Heather Frese’s son to register for kindergarten, the Wake County, North Carolina-based mom went into full-on research mode. Like most parents, she wanted to set her kid up for the best education possible, and for her, that meant looking beyond his assigned base school to the local magnet programs.

Magnet schools are free public schools that are operated by a particular school district or group of districts. Each school tends to focus on an individual theme, such as STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math), fine and performing arts, world languages or career and technical education.

“We wanted to spark a lifelong love of learning in the most interesting environment possible,” Frese says of being drawn to her local magnet schools. “A diverse student population was also important to us.”

With about 20 programs to choose from in their district — each with their own unique themes, schedules, locations and transportation options — Frese had her work cut out for her. Once she’d narrowed down the choices, it was just a matter of getting in after applying through a local lottery. Frese’s son is now enrolled at their first-choice magnet school.

Boasting high academic standards, innovative curricula and an inclusive mission, magnet schools are in demand across the country, but many parents still have questions about how they operate, whether they’re good for the community overall and whether they’re worth the extra effort of applying. Here’s what you need to know about magnet schools to determine if they’re the best option for your family.

What are the benefits of magnet schools?

Kelly Bucherie, the Magnet Schools of America’s director of magnet school leadership, says magnet schools offer a unique opportunity for students whose traditional neighborhood school doesn’t offer the engagement they need.

“Traditional schools are great for a lot of students, but magnet schools offer the theme-based education that is really about hooking them, engaging them, getting them to want to go to school every day,” Bucherie says. “We also see that this is a great way to capture kids who are falling through the cracks, who don’t have opportunities outside of school.”

Most magnet schools also teach skills like interaction, cooperation and team-building that students can carry with them into college and beyond.

Who can go to a magnet school?

The inclusive mission of magnet schools is very tied to their history, which dates back to the Civil Rights era, when they were designed to help desegregate schools. As a key part of the admissions process today, most programs work toward becoming more inclusive and diverse in terms of:

• Racial and ethnic diversity

• Economic diversity

• Academic achievement levels

Katie Dohman, a mom based in St. Paul, Minnesota, appreciates the diversity at her daughter’s magnet school.

“I love that my daughter is side-by-side with kids of all cultures and backgrounds,” Dohman says. “I see that she has already absorbed a lot of great lessons about equality and appreciating others’ differences.”

How do you get into a magnet school?

The application process varies by school and district, but most are based on a lottery system, and parents must apply for a chance to earn their child a spot. For Frese’s district, entrance to a magnet program is based on a weighted lottery.

“You get a ranking based on the socioeconomic status of both your neighborhood and your base school,” she says. “We ended up getting a medium on both statuses, so we weren’t really sure of our chances. Once our base school was identified, we could access the list of magnet schools we were eligible to apply to.”

In St. Paul, two of the five elementary schools in Dohman’s district are magnet schools, and she happened to move to the right neighborhood just in time to get her daughter into their preferred school.

Is magnet school better than standard public school?

While magnet schools are operated by the same district administration and school board as public schools — and they must adhere to the same state requirements — they have their own focus and approach to learning, and, according to Magnet Schools of America, they often exceed state standards.

Beyond academic enrichment, Magnet Schools of America asserts that magnet schools have a positive effect on the community at large by encouraging more harmonious relationships with people of different cultures and socio-economic backgrounds.

Dohman, whose daughter attends an environmentally focused magnet school, has been thrilled with the experience.

“Our school has won awards for their innovation, the teachers and staff are passionate about the focus, and there so many opportunities for the kids to learn through real experience,” she says. “Additionally, she has attended school with a student body that reflects the actual community she lives in.”

Are there downsides to magnet schools?

While many parents and educators sing the praises of magnet schools, others question whether they are doing our public educational system more harm than good — and whether they have strayed from their original goals. A 2015 study of magnet schools by the American Institutes for Research found that, although magnet schools do boost diversity, they still struggle to achieve a student population representing a full balance of backgrounds and academic levels.

In St. Louis, Missouri, Emily Hubbard worries that magnet schools are keeping public schools segregated. Although her family’s school district is 80% black, she says the gifted schools are at least 60% white.

“The magnet schools let white people who use them feel good about themselves for using the public schools but end up sequestering resources away from the kids who need them the most,” says Hubbard, a mom of four.  

She also claims that magnet schools aren’t always easily accessible to students who could most benefit from them.

“The whole process is confusing and geared toward the parents and families who actually need the magnet school resources the least,” she says.

And in Asheville, North Carolina, Naomi Lindt says she worries about how the magnet school system impacts the local community.

“On our block, there are three families with elementary school-aged kids,” she says. “The kids are all at different schools. We rarely see each other during the school year. It’s sad for the kids and their friendships. The system fractures the relationships my kids have in their immediate surroundings. Sometimes I feel we traded academic freedom for social cohesion and a sense of belonging in the community, and I̵7;m not sure which one is more important — or what’s actually best for the kids!”

What’s the difference between magnet schools and charter schools?

They’re both part of the public school system, but magnet schools and charter schools differ in some key ways. For one thing, charter schools may be operated by the state or local school board, a local university and/or a private entity, unlike magnet schools, which are operated by the same administration as public schools. Charter schools may be exempt from state requirements, whereas magnet schools must adhere to those standards. And while they’re both free, charter schools can be for-profit while magnet schools are nonprofit.

How does a magnet school work?

Every magnet school is unique, so it’s important to do your research to make sure a school is a good fit for your child before applying. Frese says she toured about a dozen schools before narrowing her choices down to her top five.

“It was really important to me to get a feel for the school and not base decisions entirely on test scores or what looked good on paper,” she says. “Practicality had a measure of impact on the decision, too. If a school started at the same time as my daughter’s preschool and had no transportation and was across town, I had to rule it out.”

She wound up selecting a Gifted and Talented/Academically and Intellectually Gifted Basics (GT/AIG) school as her top choice, and her son got in.

“My son loves it,” Frese says. “There’s a huge variety of electives so he can explore lots of different topics along with the usual curriculum. So far he’s taken coding, sculpture, robotics, sports and a class on the life cycles of plants that incorporated Spanish. He also joined the school Chess Club and is generally thriving!”