Assessing whether Wake County's magnet schools are aligned to the program's principles

Which Wake County magnet schools, if any, should be worrying about losing their magnet status?

During Tuesday's school board work session, Deputy Superintendent Cathy Moore said the determination on demagnetization is a longer more drawn out process that they weren't going to discuss yet. She wanted the board to focus on the adoption of the magnet principles and which schools to include in the magnet grant.

But this color-coded chart showing how the existing magnets fare under the magnet principles could give an indication of which schools might be at higher risk. Green indicates strongly aligned with the magnet principles, yellow is moderately aligned and red and white both mean not aligned.

Roger Regan, senior administrator for data and accountability, said he used  two different colors for not aligned because the schools are sharply different. The red schools tend to be schools with high percentages of minority and free and reduced lunch (FRL) students while the white schools are the opposite.

Here's some additional charts.

Click here for an explanation of the measures.

Click here to compare the difference between each magnet school's base and overall FRL percentage.

Click here to compare the difference between each magnet school's base and overall minority percentage.

Click here to see the crowding percentage at each magnet school.

Click here to see the percentage of magnet students at each magnet school over the last seven years.

In terms of principal one, schools were assessed on three measures:
* The extent to which magnet students have reduced the FRL percentage of the magnet school.
* The extent to which magnet students have reduced the minority student percentage of the magnet school.
* Does the magnet school have a lower FRL percentage and less racial isolation than it would have if it were populated by proximity students?

Ten of the 31 magnet schools have all green. Thirteen have at least one yellow.

Eight have at least one red (Brentwood, Conn, Millbrook, Smith and Zebulon elementary schools, East Garner and Zebulon middle schools and Garner High School).

Seven have at least one white (Brooks, Farmington Woods, Joyner, Underwood and Wiley elementary schools, Martin Middle School and Millbrook High School).

On principle two of maximizing use of school facilities, 23 were green and three were yellow. The five red schools were Wendell and Zebulon elementary schools, Zebulon Middle School and Garner and Millbrook high schools.

On principle three, schools were measured by to what extent have magnet schools provided access to students districtwide and to what extent are students given access to magnet theme educational opportunities.

Seventeen schools were all green, 14 have at least one yellow and two have at least one red (Zebulon Middle and Garner High.)

Regan explained why some schools are "misaligned" with the magnet principles.

Regan said the magnet percentage at some schools is too small to reduce high concentrations of poverty or minority students. This group includes Brentwood, Smith, Wendell and Zebulon elementary schools, East Garner and East Millbrook middle schools and Garner High.

Regan said the demographic characteristics of magnet students at some schools are similar to base students. This includes Brentwood, Millbrook and Smith elementary schools, East Garner and East Millbrook middle schools and Garner and Southeast Raleigh high schools.

Regan said the demographics of base students at some magnet schools are similar to district demographics, meaning there's no high concentration of poverty or minority students. This includes Brooks, Joyner and Wiley elementary schools.

Considering that one of the magnet principles is to reduce concentrations of poverty, it's probably less likely that the board would demagnetize a high-poverty school.

It's more likely that the board would demagnetize a school with relatively low percentages of FRL students. That's what happened when the board demagnetized Lincoln Heights, Olds, Root and Wake Forest elementary schools in 2007 and Broughton High School and Daniels Middle School in 2008.

But there can be exceptions. For instance, the board in 2007 didn't demagnetize Brooks or Douglas elementary schools even though they ranked lower on the district’s magnet criteria than those that were demagnetized.

In 2007, administrators said they did not recommend Brooks and Douglas because they were concerned about what would happen to the schools if they lost their magnet programs.