ABSTRACT
Emerging in the 1970s and quadrupling nationwide (from approximately 1,000 in 1981 to almost 4,300 in 2000; Morrill & Ryan, 2004), magnet schools are thematic curriculum schools within a traditional district assignment or controlled-choice plan. The sites for these schools are usually located in or border the inner city and face such challenges as poverty, high crime rates, teen pregnancy, and illiteracy. A federal grant that addresses educational and ethnic outcomes is the initiating event that typically allows these urban schools to be transformed (U.S. Department of Education [USDOE], Magnet Schools Assistance Program Grant [MSAP], 2004).
