School choice is an important component of the federal No child Left Behind Act (NCLB) . It requires districts to offer students in failing schools the choice to opt out and attend a higher performing school.
One common choice in many school districts is magnet schools. This year, Davidson County Public Schools added six magnet schools for a total of more than 30 theme-based or academic options for students. These options include schools that offer programs in: science, technology, and engineering or STEM; the arts; business and finance; museum education; entertainment; an international baccalaureate; and more.
In Nashville, students must apply to attend these public schools– a process that began November 7 and runs through December 2.
“A lot of people don’t realize that almost one in four students in this district make a choice in a school other than a zoned school.” says Dr. Jesse Register, Director of Davidson County Public Schools. “We’ve got great zone schools…. But we also have other choices for parents and we encourage them to look at the options that are available.”
To help promote that idea, the district offers magnet school applications in several languages and is working with the city of Nashville to provide more free bus transportation for students who choose schools out of their zone. It is part of a larger strategy to improve student performance under federal mandates, while also maintaining racial balance and diversity.
“If we go to school options and let students choose a high school based on what that high school offers, then it really negates No Child Left Behind school choice. There won’t be a need for that because students can choose and have transportation to any school,” says Jay Steele, assistant superintendent of high schools. “ I think by opening up niche markets in each school, learning how to sell that product to the community, then that will take care of balancing diversity in the schools and if it doesn’t then we will have to address that.”
The move toward open enrollment by Metro Schools is cited by some researchers as one approach to the problem of providing quality options for parents in low-performing schools under NCLB. Several national studies show that only about 2% of parents of students in failing schools exercise their option to choose a different school, according to Claire Smrekar of the National Center on School Choice and associate professor of public policy and education at Vanderbilt University.
“Parents only have a choice if they have a choice to move to a better school, a school that is performing at a higher level. And it turns out that in most cases parents don’t have a good choice. So the choice is a false choice because most of the schools around them are also failing. “
Smrekar says besides open enrollment within the district, a few school systems are trying to offer enrollment choices that cross district lines – or INTER-district enrollment.
“It’s the difference between a closed system of choice and a more expended system of choice that breaks down those school system boundaries that provide parents with a stronger set of options than are currently available,” explains Smrekar.