Race Tracks: Career Aspirations and Feelings of Isolation in the Mainstream Classroom

Situated within scholarly research on tracking, within-school racial segregation, and student career aspirations, this qualitative study examines how three Black students in the mainstream program at a magnet high school in the Southeastern United States discussed their career aspirations. Results indicate that while each participant aspired to attend college, their isolation from the social and cultural capital needed to successfully apply for colleges and their academic status within their school would serve as hindrances in gaining access to institutions that would help them accomplish their career aspirations. The data reveal a need to challenge educational policy such as tracking that has historically targeted and marginalized students of color and continues to provide unnecessary obstacles as they seek to reach their ambitions.

“A Ditcher and a Scholar”: Figuring College-Going Identities in an Urban Magnet High School

Background/Context To enhance postsecondary completion and minimize equity gaps, researchers have focused on defining, measuring, and developing students’ college readiness, or the preparation required to persist in higher education. While this work has been useful to identify the ingredients of postsecondary success, the emphasis on individual achievement runs the risk of portraying marginalized students as deficient. Culturally relevant studies that highlight institutional accountability for college readiness are needed to inform policy and practice. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study Using Holland and colleagues’ (1998) figured worlds theory, this study examines college readiness through the lens of student identity in an urban magnet high school. We investigate how first-generation, low-income students of color interpreted and negotiated local discourses and artifacts to “figure” college-going identities—that is, who they should become and how they should behave to earn a college degree. The purpose of this empirical approach is to contribute information that can inform college readiness efforts nationwide. Research Design The study utilizes an ethnographic approach that focused on how students conceptualized and developed their identities within the figured world of the magnet school. Data collection took place over the course of one school year and included over 200 hours of participant observation, in-depth interviews with 25 students and school staff, and document analysis. Findings The figured world of Jackson Magnet fostered and reinforced a hierarchy that consisted of magnet students (“scholars”) and their counterparts in the regular school (“ditchers”). A local feedback loop implied that the magnet school provided more rigorous college preparation than the regular school and, by extension, magnet students figured they would be ready for college. However, real-world feedback (standardized test scores) suggested magnet course rigor did not accurately reflect postsecondary standards. The result was that magnet students were underprepared but did not know it, an outcome that positioned them to experience a drastic identity reckoning in college. Conclusions/Recommendations While most college-readiness research focuses on academic skills preparation, our findings reveal the need to consider how high schools prepare students in terms of identity. In particular, our data suggest the threat of well-intentioned achievement discourses on pre-college identity development. Salient questions include whether and how to increase postsecondary opportunity without socializing students either to discriminate against their peers or to figure a false identity that undermines preparation and future cognitive stability.

Engaging STEM

To stimulate student interest in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) disciplines, the University of Central Florida (UCF) partnered with the Crooms Academy of Information Technology (CAIT), a public magnet high school that emphasizes technology education for a diverse student population. Using digital tools and a service-learning model, UCF chemistry and biology students partnered with CAIT students to debunk science myths, perform laboratory experiments, and engage in an experiential oyster reef restoration project. This chapter provides an overview of project activities, implementation and the value of using technology. Challenges are detailed to offer a model for future community partnerships. The chapter concludes with a set of best practices for future projects.

Can Interdistrict Choice Boost Student Achievement? The Case of Connecticut’s Interdistrict Magnet School Program

Connecticut’s interdistrict magnet schools offer a model of choice-based desegregation that appears to satisfy current legal constraints. This study presents evidence that interdistrict magnet schools have provided students from Connecticut’s central cities access to less racially and economically isolated educational environments and estimates the impact of attending a magnet school on student achievement. To address potential selection biases, the analyses exploit the random assignment that results from lottery-based admissions for a small set of schools, as well as value-added and fixed-effect estimators that rely on pre–magnet school measures of student achievement to obtain effect estimates for a broader set of interdistrict magnet schools. Results indicate that attendance at an interdistrict magnet high school has positive effects on the math and reading achievement of central city students and that interdistrict magnet middle schools have positive effects on reading achievement.

Giftedness and Psychological Type

This article examines the psychological types as measured by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) of students admitted to a public, residential, magnet high school for academically talented and gifted juniors and seniors. These students are compared to two groups of gifted adolescents and two groups of traditional high school students. The magnet school students are significantly like the gifted students and significantly unlike the traditional students. Gifted students seem to have a particular MBTI type distribution. Discussion focused on the implications of this finding to the education of the magnet school students and other gifted students.