Report on Magnet Schools as a Strategy for Declining Enrollment

Executive Summary

In response to widespread declining student enrollment and subsequent financial pressures on school districts, a new report from Brown’s Promise and The Century Foundation proposes a proactive strategy centered on equity and educational excellence. The guide, titled “When Enrollment Drops: A Magnet School Strategy for Districts Committed to Excellence, Equity, and Diversity,” advocates for transforming under-enrolled schools in high-poverty areas into whole-school magnet programs. This approach is presented as an alternative to school closures, which disproportionately harm marginalized communities. The strategy directly aligns with key United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 4 (Quality Education) and SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities), by seeking to provide innovative educational opportunities while protecting vulnerable student populations.

Analysis of Current Challenges in Public Education

Financial Pressures and Enrollment Decline

School districts nationwide are confronting a dual financial challenge:

1. A persistent decline in student enrollment, which directly reduces per-pupil funding from state and federal sources.
2. The conclusion of federal COVID-19 relief funding in 2024, creating a “fiscal cliff” that complicates budget management.

These financial strains often lead districts to consider school consolidations as a cost-saving measure.

Inequitable Impact of School Closures

While often termed “consolidations” by administrators, these actions are experienced as “closures” by students, families, and educators. This approach has significant consequences that undermine progress toward SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities).

• School closures do not always yield the anticipated financial savings.
• The negative impact of closures disproportionately falls on students of color, particularly Black students, and students from low-income households.
• Closing schools in high-poverty neighborhoods can destabilize communities, running counter to the principles of SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities).

A Proposed Strategy Aligned with Sustainable Development Goals

Transforming Schools into Innovative Magnet Programs

The report offers an alternative strategy: instead of closing schools in high-poverty areas, districts can transform them into innovative, theme-based, whole-school magnet programs. This model is designed to serve all students within the school’s original neighborhood while also attracting a diverse student body from across the district, thereby increasing enrollment and vitality.

Contribution to SDG 4: Quality Education

The magnet school strategy is a direct investment in SDG 4 (Quality Education). By converting traditional schools into specialized centers of learning, districts can:

• Foster innovation and provide unique, theme-based curricula.
• Enhance the quality and appeal of public education, making it more competitive with private, parochial, or homeschooling options.
• Ensure that all students, including those in historically underserved neighborhoods, have access to inclusive and equitable high-quality educational opportunities.

Contribution to SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities

This approach is fundamentally an equity-centered strategy that advances SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities). It actively works to:

• Protect schools in high-poverty neighborhoods from closure.
• Prevent the displacement of students from marginalized groups.
• Promote diversity by attracting students from various socioeconomic and racial backgrounds to a single, revitalized school community.
• Contribute to long-term poverty reduction (SDG 1: No Poverty) by providing students in low-income areas with enhanced educational pathways.

Implementation Considerations

The report acknowledges that this strategy is not a universal solution for every challenge associated with declining enrollment. Leaders should consider the following points:

• The magnet school model is a specific tool, not a holistic strategy to solve all demographic or economic trends causing enrollment decline.
• The effectiveness of this approach may vary depending on the local context. For example, it may be less novel in districts that already rely heavily on charter schools or lottery-based admissions.
• It represents a concrete and constructive alternative to the most problematic and inequitable consolidation practices currently in use.

SDGs Addressed in the Article

1. SDG 4: Quality Education

   • The article’s central theme is public education, specifically addressing challenges like declining enrollment, funding, and the quality of schooling. It advocates for strategies that ensure “Excellence, Equity, and Diversity” in education. The proposed solution of creating “innovative, theme-based, and diverse whole-school magnet programs” is a direct effort to improve the quality of education and learning environments.

2. SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities

   • A primary concern highlighted in the article is that school closures “disproportionately hurt students of color (especially Black students) and students living in poverty.” The proposed solution is explicitly described as an “equity-centered strategy” designed to counteract these unequal outcomes and protect vulnerable communities from the negative impacts of district financial decisions.

3. SDG 1: No Poverty

   • The article repeatedly refers to “high-poverty schools,” “students living in poverty,” and the need to protect schools in “high-poverty neighborhoods.” By focusing on ensuring continued access to quality education in these areas, the article addresses a key pathway out of poverty, as education is a fundamental service for social and economic mobility.

Specific Targets Identified

1. Target 4.1: Ensure free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education

   • The article directly addresses this target by proposing a strategy to prevent school closures, which would otherwise deny students access to education. It emphasizes making this education equitable and of high quality by transforming schools into “innovative” and “excellent” magnet programs, ensuring that declining enrollment does not lead to a loss of educational opportunities.

2. Target 4.5: Eliminate gender disparities in education and ensure equal access for the vulnerable

   • This target is highly relevant as the article pinpoints the vulnerability of specific groups, stating that school closures “disproportionately hurt students of color (especially Black students) and students living in poverty.” The entire premise of the proposed magnet school strategy is to ensure “equal access” and “equity” for these vulnerable student populations.

3. Target 4.a: Build and upgrade education facilities and provide safe, inclusive and effective learning environments

   • The proposal to transform existing schools into “innovative, theme-based, and diverse whole-school magnet programs” is a direct call to upgrade educational offerings and create more effective and inclusive learning environments. This strategy aims to make schools more appealing and effective, thus preventing their closure and ensuring they remain safe and accessible community assets.

4. Target 10.2: Empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of race, or economic or other status

   • The article’s focus on an “equity-centered strategy” to prevent closures that harm students based on race and economic status is a direct effort to promote their social and educational inclusion. By keeping schools open in high-poverty neighborhoods, the strategy works to ensure these communities are not excluded from essential public services.

5. Target 10.3: Ensure equal opportunity and reduce inequalities of outcome

   • The article critiques the practice of school closures for creating inequalities of outcome. It proposes an alternative policy—magnet schools—specifically to promote “educational equity” and provide a “real alternative to some of the most commonly used and problematic approaches,” thereby working to ensure more equal opportunities for all students.

6. Target 1.4: Ensure that the poor and the vulnerable have access to basic services

   • Local public schooling is a fundamental basic service. The article’s recommendation to “protecting schools in high-poverty neighborhoods from closure” is a direct action to ensure that “students living in poverty” and other vulnerable groups maintain access to this essential service.

Indicators for Measuring Progress

1. Student Enrollment Numbers

   • The article is framed around the problem of “declining student enrollment.” An implied indicator of success for the proposed magnet school strategy would be the stabilization or increase in enrollment figures in the transformed schools, as the goal is to make them “more appealing” to attract students from across the district.

2. Rate of School Closures in Different Neighborhoods

   • The text states that closures “disproportionately hurt students of color… and students living in poverty.” An indicator to measure progress would be the number and rate of school closures, specifically comparing those in “high-poverty neighborhoods” to those in more affluent areas. A reduction in this disparity would indicate progress.

3. Demographic Composition of Schools

   • The proposal aims to create “diverse whole-school magnet programs.” A key indicator would therefore be the measurement of student diversity (racial, ethnic, socioeconomic) within these schools to assess whether they are successfully attracting a mix of students and fostering an equitable environment.

Summary Table: SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

Source: tcf.org