Magnet Schools and the Pursuit of Racial Balance - Essay Example

 Magnet Schools and the Pursuit of Racial BalanceMagnet schools or alternative schools are used to promote racial diversity, improve scholastic standards and provide programs to satisfy individual talents and interests. It provides incentives to parents and students through specialised curriculum themes. According to the U.S. department of Education, 53% of large urban schools include magnet schools. There are numerous evaluations of local school magnet plans that suggest a complex set of conclusion regarding the utility of magnet schools in achieving racial desegregation.

There are 3 goals of magnet schools – to reduce minority isolation, to eliminate minority isolation and to prevent minority enrolment. Out of 54 schools in Cincinnati sample frame 10 magnet schools and 10 non magnet schools were selected. A questionnaire was distributed to all the fifth grade parents and to all non administrative staff in each school of the selected temple. Magnet schools are a tool for racial balance. Many parents believe that the goal of integration is beneficial for both the parents as well as the students.

In conclusion we may say that the students will derive benefits from encounters with students from different races. The College Movement In 1802, Nassau Hall was consumed by fire, the next year Dickson College’s building was burned down likewise there were many such college buildings which were either burned or affected by other natural calamities like lightening. Often when a college had a building, it had no students and when it had students it had no buildings.

And it if had both than it didn’t have money, professors or president. College founding in the 19th century was undertaken with the same spirit as canal-building, farming etc. Yale men were responsible for setting up Christian goals in the west. For the Methodists and the Baptists founding colleges became a part of their process of coming to terms with middle class societies. The Presbyterians had a unique aptitude in finding colleges which enabled them to outdistance all their rivals. The American colleges were conceived as social investments.

And the commitment to the republic became a guiding obligation for the American colleges. The American colleges also faced problems like its aristocratic tradition which could never cope up with the social purpose. It was also felt by many that going to the college was a way of making more money. The institutions of the college movement in America intended to be the democratic institution for the democratic society. In conclusion we may say that the American colleges reflected both the best and the worst of the American society.

Hard Choices Research universities face some hard choices which they are ill equipped to make. Many universities are choosing the long term academic-quality route. The problem for these universities is to accommodate the vast number of students. The short run solution for this problem can be privatisation, federalization, cultivation of general public support, attention to effective use of resources, pluralistic leadership, attention to long term directions of movement, consideration of protection for the non-market functions.

But in the long run these methods are not efficient as there are uncertainties relating to productivity of the nation, the capability of the nation to use these resources to the optimum level and so on. In conclusion we may say that, we need the research universities more but we may be able to afford them less.