Elm City magnet schools attract

The Yale campus is situated near the center of New Haven; more than 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students scurry around the grounds of one of the finest academic institutions in the world, often unaware of the city that surrounds them. Yalies, however, only account for a small fraction of the city's total student population, as nearly 20,000 children attend New Haven's public schools each day.

The majority of Yale students are fortunate enough to have strong educational backgrounds; many attended private secondary schools, while others hail from some of the nation's strongest public school systems. When one is able to take for granted the existence of high quality schooling, it is easy to become disinterested in the workings and innovations which take place in secondary education. Accordingly, few Yale students can profess a working knowledge of the New Haven public school system, which includes ten different high schools, and a diverse array of program choices for its students.

Finding a Spot in the System

New Haven high schools are divided into distinct categories; three fall under the heading of transitional programs, and are attended by students who require more specialized, individual attention. Of the remaining seven, two are comprehensive high schools and five are magnet schools.

In New Haven, the term `magnet' is applied to schools which have a unique design focusing on a particular theme of instruction. The title, however, carries connotations of elitism and administrative favor, due to the modes of operation of similar programs in other cities. According to Peter Villano, supervisor of instruction for high schools, this is not the case in New Haven.

"Other than how we accept students into these programs, the schools are almost identical in terms of the services we provide and the support we give them from the central office," Villano said. "We don't look at the magnet schools any differently than we look at [Wilbur] Cross or Hillhouse, which are comprehensive high schools."

Random, but Controlled, Placement

While the fact that a student must apply for admittance into one of the magnet schools suggests a highly selective and competitive environment, the actual process does not consider any notion of merit. Interested students must fill out a form on which they indicate up to three magnet school preferences. The names, demographic data, and school choices are then entered into a computer which randomly places the children within a controlled framework. A certain percentage of slots is designated based on race and gender. The only automatic preference is given to individuals who have an older sibling currently enrolled in their first-choice magnet school.

The computer assigns the student to one location, and that placement is final. This approach recently replaced a more subjective process, whereby each of the magnet schools devised its own admissions policy. Edward Linehan, coordinator of magnet school programs in New Haven, recognized the shortcomings of the former process. "Whether it was true or not, it suggested to parents that since it was not an intelligible system, it must have been riddled with inequities and cheating--so we made the decision to centralize the student selection process," Linehan said.

While the new method insures fairer decision-making, with more than two applicants for every available seat in the entire magnet school system, many students are inevitably left out. Linehan said, "On the day of the lottery, we make anywhere from fourteen to sixteen hundred students very happy and we make at least an equal number quite disappointed."

The Beginning

The first of New Haven's magnet schools was founded in 1970, in part as a response to what Linehan terms a "racial disturbance" at the comprehensive Hillhouse High School in December, 1967. Linehan feels that this incident embodied the need to reassess. "The notion of the comprehensive school being able to meet the needs of all students," he said.

Two factions emerged in response to the problems at Hillhouse. One staunchly embraced the unified, comprehensive school model, while another smaller group advocated an expansion of student options within the public school system. This idea led to the creation of The High School in the Community (HSC), which featured an innovative educational philosophy and pedagogical approach. Linehan, who was a faculty member at the original HSC, recalled the school's formative years. "HSC really was the anti-comprehensive school. Where the comprehensive school was large, this was small. Where the comprehensive school was compartmentalized, there everybody did all jobs," he explained. "It was a school that tried to have a very different organizational approach, as well as a different relationship between students and staff."

Nearly a decade passed before the next magnet school, the Hamden-New Haven Cooperative High School (now Cooperative Arts and Humanities (Co-op) High School), started. The founding of The Sound School and Career High School followed shortly thereafter. The fifth magnet program, The Hyde Leadership School, was created in the early '90s.

Nuts and Bolts

Each magnet program is organized around a particular theme that permeates almost every level of the instruction process. Co-op High School, for example, concentrates on educating students in the visual and performing arts, whereas The Sound School is geared toward the teaching of vocational aquaculture and agriculture.

While all of the institutions are required to offer basic academic programs in English, math, science, and social studies, the curricula differ substantially. "For instance, in a Co-op high school, when they're doing English, they study plays and go to theater productions," Villano said. "At a school like Career, which focuses on business and allied health, they do English, but they focus on things that touch upon that particular field."

Though the magnet schools are clearly tailored to students who possess specific, well-defined interests, the specialization does not necessarily preclude a multi-dimensional education. "A good biology class at Co-op, where I was principal for eight years, would be for the most part indistinguishable from a good biology class taught elsewhere," Linehan explained.

Uniting `The Two Connecticuts'

About ten years ago, then Commissioner of Education in Connecticut and former Superintendent of Schools in New Haven Gerald Tirozzi issued a report referring to "the two Connecticuts", divided along economic and racial lines.

An overwhelming high percentage of minority students can be found in only a handful of the state's 167 school districts. Of the 20,000 students who currently attend school in New Haven, 89 percent are minorities. In the 14 outlying districts with whom New Haven has scholastic partnerships, however, 90 percent of the approximately 57,000 students are Caucasian. Minority representation in those districts ranges from two percent to 29 percent, an obvious confirmation of Tirozzi's claim of de facto segregation throughout the state. This data heightened awareness for the need for racial balance and greater interaction between urban and suburban school districts.

New Haven's inter-district magnet program, an effort to diversify city schools, is now in its third year. The program is unconventional in that, instead of sending students out of the city, it brings them in from the suburbs. "The fact that New Haven is receiving students from the suburbs is unusual, and not what is expected by anyone," Linehan said.

Though the idea of suburban students opting for inner-city schooling might seem counterintuitive, Villano explained the appeal. "We're surrounded by small suburban towns with student populations of 3,000 to 3,500 for K through 12 that aren't in a position to build an aquaculture school, or a Co-op high school," he said. The diverse opportunities offered in New Haven provide a level of instruction that suburban families had previously sought only in private institutions.

Today, a total of 225 suburban students are enrolled in the three high schools and one elementary school that participate in the regional program. Linehan expects that figure to exceed 400 for the 1998-99 academic year. Suburban kids have reserved slots in the application lottery. Of the 123 available regional seats in the 1997-98 academic year, 90 percent were reserved for Caucasian students, with 10 percent allocated to suburban minorities.

"Because New Haven already had the philosophical foundations and the quality programs in place, when the state made its proposals not thinking about kids moving into the urban centers but thinking about giving urban kids options to go to other schools, we were in a position to take advantage, and to desegregate New Haven by taking people in," Linehan said.

Long-term plans of reciprocity are in place to expand the exchange program: students from the city will be sent to outer areas as individuals from the suburbs are brought in. "Hopefully, down the road, we'll reach some kind of a midpoint where everybody feels like we don't have a 100 percent minority school system or a 100 percent Caucasian school system," Villano commented.

The Economic Incentive

For the city, there is a distinct financial advantage to be gained by encouraging both inter-city and inter-district programs, as individual schools receive substantial grants from the state based on student enrollment in these magnet programs. Sixty-six suburban students attend HSC, accounting for 20 percent of the student population. HSC receives $664,000 from the state every year--a combination of funding for suburbanite slots as well as `tuition supports' for other students who are part of the inter-district school system. Rather than entering the school district for administrative redistribution, the state monies are given directly to the high schools, which have complete control over the allocation of the resources. HSC recently spent close to $35,000 of its grant to furnish a new kitchen for instructional purposes. Of this expenditure, Villano said "By using their grant money, its $35,000 that we didn't have to spend. We can turn around and say here's $35,000 more that can be spent at Cross or Hillhouse or some other school."

In addition to the annual state funds, each regional program has received 100 percent of the cost up-front to either renovate or build new facilities for each of the four regional magnet programs. A new Career High School will open in September 1998, and not a cent of the more than $20 million in construction costs was shouldered by New Haven taxpayers. "All of the suburban seats given up at these schools were covered by the expansion in size of the schools. We have newer and better facilities, we've increased the number of New Haven kids being served, and we've set aside seats for suburban kids which have tuition supports for all of the kids...It's a no-brainer," Linehan said.

Keeping it Comprehensive

Not to be forgotten amidst the developments in the magnet programs are Wilbur Cross and Hillhouse High Schools, the city's two comprehensive, non-magnet public high schools. Each enrolls close to 1,100 students, averaging more than 3.5 times as many students as the magnet schools.

Villano insists on the importance of these comprehensive schools to the overall citywide educational scheme. "The magnet schools are always perceived as receiving preferential treatment, but you still need comprehensive high schools. You still have that nucleus of students that isn't interested in the arts, that isn't interested in the sound, and isn't interested in business or allied health, that basically wants to get a good, solid high school diploma." Linehan agrees. "It was never argued that there was no need for comprehensive high schools. As an option, they should always remain," he said.

Will Magnets Stick?

Linehan believes that magnet schools will play an important role in the educational development of the entire state in the upcoming years.

"I think magnet schools in Connecticut inter-district magnet schools in particular will grow over the next five years. They will be one of a number of strategies to encourage people on a voluntary basis to break down "the two Connecticuts". Anytime you make it possible for people to come together around things that they share an interest in, it is met with enthusiasm. When New Haven started on this road 27 years ago, the learning curve was slow, but it took off in the '80s, and continues to, putting us in a position to take advantage of new opportunities."

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