Academic Magnet admission process in spotlight
By Diette Courrégé
If Academic Magnet High School changes its admission process, the top students might not make the cut.
Some parents fear the Charleston County school will no longer admit qualified applicants based on their academic ranking. They worry the school instead will use a lottery for students who meet admission requirements, and they say that would hurt the school because applicants would be accepted randomly rather than by who has the best application score.
District officials don't know how they are going to select students for next year. They say they have to adhere to the county school board's policy on the process, but they're not sure what that policy is.
To figure it out, they are going through nearly 20 years of archived paper records. The criteria for admission to the school is not up for debate; deciding which of the qualified students will be accepted is.
The selection process became an issue when a parent told a district official what was happening. That parent's child apparently had met the admission criteria but wasn't accepted to Academic Magnet.
The school selection process will be presented to the county board at its Monday meeting. The administration could have a recommendation on what should happen, and the board would decide its course of action.
When Academic Magnet opened in 1988, it was set up to use a lottery if it had more applicants than available spots. The process changed six years ago when former deputy Superintendent Barbara Dilligard led a task force to evaluate and reorganize the school's operations, said Michael Tolley, who was the school's principal for the last three years but has left the district for a job in Seattle.
Four admission criteria were defined in a report Dilligard gave to the board, and a group of school stakeholders — the School Improvement Council and faculty — used that criteria to create a selection process, Tolley said.
Since then, the school has stuck to its admission criteria, identified the highest-scoring applicants and accepted them, Tolley said. If accepted applicants turned down their spots, the next-highest score would be identified. A group of students typically would have that same score, and the school would choose who got in by putting their names in a lottery, he said.
At least one other district school uses a rank order system for admission. Applicants to School of the Arts are ranked using interviews, auditions and a portfolio; and the top students are accepted.
Janet Rose, the district's executive director of assessment and accountability, said she doesn't think Academic Magnet can continue its selection process by rank-ordering students.
"It's wrong," she said. "It creates an elitist school. ... This is a public school, so it should be open to all kids who qualify. It's not a private school."
She didn't think going to a lottery process would affect the school's quality. If students meet the criteria for admission, they should be able to be successful at the school, she said.
Tolley agreed. The school began to attract more applicants after improvements were made to the school, he said. Students began taking more Advanced Placement courses. That led to national recognition, specifically a No. 10 ranking by Newsweek magazine, and more applications, he said. The school accepted 183 of the 373 students who applied last year.
Some parents don't want the school to move away from the rank-ordering system because they say a student who far exceeds admission requirements might not get into the school while a student who barely hits the cutoff score will.
When students apply to college, their names will not be put into a lottery; colleges will select the top students, said Robyn Bradley, a parent of a sophomore who attends Academic Magnet.
Academic Magnet is an example to the rest of the country of quality education in South Carolina, she said. "I hate to see them mucking about with something that's actually working," she said.
Others seemed fine with going back to the lottery system. Kari Cerato's eighth grade son is at Buist Academy this year and is considering Academic Magnet as an option for high school. She thought Academic Magnet should use the process that was set when it was formed, she said. Public schools should be open to anyone who lives here, she said, and she thinks a lottery for students who meet admission criteria would be the most fair solution.
Reach Diette Courrégé at 937-5546 or dcourrege@postandcourier.com.
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gencon1 (anonymous) says...
They should admit students by rank only. The ones who have the highest scores should be together and not mixed with kids who have lower scores. There is nothing wrong with high acheivers getting in first. That is the way the real world works. You don't move up in a company by lottery. You do it by being better than your peers.
October 3, 2007 at 7:30 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
roseb (anonymous) says...
Instead of fighting for one school to be up to par, why not fight for all schools to be academically sound. That way there wouldn't be any ranking or lottery. Each Charleston County School would have the same opportunities for their students and Advanced Courses for students who qualify in each school. We need to stop the dividing of education in Charleston County.
October 3, 2007 at 9:33 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
miki (anonymous) says...
I attended a nationally recognized fine arts school for 3 years about 10 years ago. There were min grade requirements, audition scores, etc. The top scores always got in first. The kids who attended the school HAD to show academic achievement, dedication to the arts, progressive improvement in their study areas, personal conduct responsibility, etc. It's a hard environment to be in unless you're already prepared for it and it is typically easier for higher scorers to utilize the opportunities to the fullest.
There is no reason to hold back high achievers to allows lower achievers to catch up. Magnet schools have a mission to provide a specific type of education and not everyone fits that mold.
Anything worth doing is worth working for. If you want in, work for it, don't luck into by the draw. You'll only pull others down.
October 3, 2007 at 9:58 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Reader (anonymous) says...
The notion that all schools can be winners is naive. That is just another way of saying, "Why don't we just strive to have all average schools?"
Besides, we are not talking about making sure that every school provides sound instruction; we are talking about whether one school should accept only the very best students.
If this silly lottery idea takes hold, perhaps the Board should also revise what constitutes a minimum performance upward to at least weed out some of the low scores who would otherwise make it into the lottery in the first place. That is, raise the baseline for making it into the lottery from 70 to 90 (or whatever the scoring looks like). That way, even though you might still see some leapfrogging of poorer students over better students, the leaps would be smaller.
October 3, 2007 at 10 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Two_Sheds (anonymous) says...
Of course AMHS is an "elitist school"--what part of "ACADEMIC MAGNET" do they NOT get?! It's not meant for every kid, but for the ones who make the extra effort to excel, and they should be aptly rewarded.
I also have a comment based upon what roseb said. Advanced classes already exist in each school; they're called Honors Courses, and every school offers them.
Herein lies a major problem: just as you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him drink, you can send a kid to school, but you cannot make him excel.
A kid's desire to do well in school is largely based upon cultural issues, and unfortunately, that is something which we cannot avoid discussing, especially here in SC. Sure, it may not be politically correct, but you cannot avoid the issue.
My husband teaches in a largely inner-city school in Charleston County, and he deals with this all the time. The faculty there is fantastic and highly qualified, and they really do want to see these kids succeed. But their efforts are constantly undermined by a culture which looks upon education with disdain and outright disgust.
Getting "better qualified" teachers is not the answer to improving some of these schools--the teachers are competent enough. The solution has to stem from a revolution in the way inner-city people view education and authority.
Until then, it's nice to know that kids who DO want to learn without disruption can endeavor to succeed and be rewarded for their efforts by being able to go to a place like AMHS.
Two Sheds
October 3, 2007 at 10:14 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
proudmomma (anonymous) says...
I was under the impression (and I know I will be corrected if I am mistaken) that the "lower achievers" in this respect are the ones that may have made a 3.9 gpa instead of 4.0. If that is the case, and this remains a public school, I believe that my children should have the opportunity to attend here if he or she achieves that status.
It won't happen anyway, I don't live in Charleston county, but hypothetically speaking...
October 3, 2007 at 11:06 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
DaysComeDaysGo (anonymous) says...
Yea, like JIMrMom says, Let the smart kids have their 'Magnet School', after all it is the 'C' students who go on to be President of the United States and World Leaders. Give me a 'C' student from almost anywhere over your Charleston 'A' student to be my Doctor, Bridge Builder or whatever!
October 3, 2007 at 11:13 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Two_Sheds (anonymous) says...
Early, you are absolutely correct about putting low acheivers in with the high acheivers: the bar for success gets lowered in order to meet the needs of the lowest common denominators in the class.
Like your wife, my husband has a masters with years of experience, but he teaches high school, meaning he has to put up with big kids who could really "put a hurtin'" on him if they wanted to. Fortunately, he's ex-military and takes NO guff at all from his students because they KNOW he'd take them down if he had to.
Sadly, most of these students, due to the high percentage of "baby daddies" who don't stick around, have never had a positive male role model to emulate. The good thing is that my husband has made a difference in a few kids' lives, so he's glad about that.
But I feel badly for your wife: they really do need male combat veterans to teach in some of these schools!
October 3, 2007 at 11:32 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
blackwoman (anonymous) says...
JIMrMom your comment "Buist Academy is a shining example of the failure of a lottery system. There are plenty of kids there that shouldn't be there,. ." Gee, their PACT Scores really reveal that? A little research is just a click away.You will likely find yourself enlightened or at least educated.
October 3, 2007 at 11:34 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
juniemoon1957 (anonymous) says...
Ahhh...was not the brightest in Nursing School, but had tons more common sense and problem solving skills than 95% of my classmates. Am highly skilled and marketable, well respected by my peers. However, I do work with one physician who is full of knowledge/brillant but cannot task on the presented symptoms and goes all around the world to find her butthole, if she can. She cannot make decisions, cannot stay focused. Cannot do more than one thing at a time. Easily overwhelmed. She was "HONORS COLLEGE", I was not.
October 3, 2007 at 12:29 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
bcreek (anonymous) says...
How about expanding the school so all who qualify can attend?
Of course, that will cost more, but isn't that a great investment in our childrens' future?
October 3, 2007 at 12:35 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
whome (anonymous) says...
under a strict ranking system, would you mind it if a disproportionate number of students were asian/indian? Sort of the situation in medical schools, where there's almost an unspoken cap. Many of the same people who were successfully removed affirmative action in california during the 1990s are aghast when the top UC schools are now 60+ percent asian...
October 3, 2007 at 1:06 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
mlm (anonymous) says...
Expanding AMHS? Why not more AMHS? The same questions have come up with Buist downtown. Instead, CCSD has continued to drag its feet on calls for expanding the options to meet the needs of its 41,000 plus students. The proposed academically oriented Charter School for Math and Science scheduled to open at the now vacant Rivers campus next year should be a great opportunity for CCSD to begin addressing this need. If county school leaders really wanted to extend the benefits of schools like AMHS, why then are they putting so many road blocks in front of this charter school group and ignoring the Burke community's call for a highly focused vocational and trades program for that school?
October 3, 2007 at 1:15 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
halfsheli (anonymous) says...
Teachers' raises have NOTHING to do with PACT scores. Otherwise how would teachers who teach grade levels (i.e. kindergarten, 11th grade English) with no PACT, EOC, or HSAP actually ever get a raise?
I know I'm "off-task" here, but I thought it should be clarified.
October 3, 2007 at 1:21 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Islander (anonymous) says...
I find it amazing that seemingly intelligent, articulate people believe that the best of the best should be subsidized to attend the best schools, and that the "almost best of the best" be required to fend for themselves. America is supposedly solely based upon equal opprotunity for all persons to participate in the system. Comments I have read in this blog can be equally applicable as to why blacks shouldn't be in white schools. It is particularly disturbing that someone equates a lottery for an Academic Magnet High School to a lottery to play sports. Every child that goes out for a sport team has an opprotunity to make the team, if he meets the criteria. That is not what has been happening at the Academic Magnet High School. While they create a criteria where "x" number of children meet the criteria, because they only take the top achievers, those that qualify don't even have an opprotunity to get in. For people to say there are plenty of people at Buist who are there that shouldn't be there is ludicrous. They met the criteria and they were picked out of a lottery. Every person at Buist has met the acdemic criteria. Everyone who applied and met the criteria had a chance. It is arrogant to think Americans should pay for a special school for the academic elite.
October 3, 2007 at 2:27 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
GG (anonymous) says...
This is definately off the magnet school topic but I have to address the following:
RE: JIMrMom post - "All teachers in CCSD do is teach to the PACT. Their performance reviews (and therefore raises) depend on it."
Teachers do not get raises based on performance reviews. Trust me on that. I am a retired SC school administrator (35 years) and have never worked in a SC district that awarded raises for performance. Not that it wouldn't be a good idea, but SC has not and probably will not do it.
"Raises" as they occur in any other working environment are not "awarded" in the educational arena for teachers.
Teacher "pay increases" are based on years of experience scale and, if the state sees fit, a very small COL percentage increase (1-3%) each year.
South Carolina has a teacher's union but not in the sense that most states (particularly eastern and northern) have. Teachers are not required to join nor does this so-called union arbitrate for raises.
BTW, school administrators do not enjoy the opportunities that teachers have in regards to the yearly state funded salary increases. School districts are not required to apply these increases to school level and some district level administrators; therefore, many admins have gone 2 - 5 years without a pay increase other than for experience.
And yet, our teachers and administrators continue to care for their students and to try to make a difference in spite of the lack of proper and/or adequate parental support.
How many of you have ever said: "I wouldn't be an educator if they paid me..."? Thank God we have people who say, "I love being an educator."
October 3, 2007 at 3:08 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
mlm (anonymous) says...
Islander said: "For people to say there are plenty of people at Buist who are there that shouldn't be there is ludicrous. They met the criteria and they were picked out of a lottery. Every person at Buist has met the academic criteria. Everyone who applied and met the criteria had a chance. It is arrogant to think Americans should pay for a special school for the academic elite."
Give me a break. What planet are you living on? It's been shown that the Buist lottery is a sham run by the people who control the waiting lists. The Buist entrance exam has been questioned for its accuracy and even for its misapplication for "screening" for gifted and talented students which it wasn't designed to do. You further confuse "going out for the team" and "being chosen" as if they are the same. I'll agree that the rhetoric used here is very much like that used in the defense of segregation...but what do you think is being used in the defense of the status quo at Buist?
Let me finish your last sentence. "It is arrogant to think Americans should pay for a special school for the academic elite." So is it not just arrogant but also dishonest to set up the educational playing field from the earliest grades so that those without the economic or political connections could never hope to join the ranks of the elite? Using what the French progressives called the "Nobility of Merit" AMHS (and Charleston County) is better off with its current system. CCSD on the other hand should be questioned about why there are so few opportunities for accessing schools like AMHS. Furthermore, why are so many kids are all but lost before they reach 3rd grade? We'll never know if these would be "A" students at AMHS, because they usually drop out long before that question is ever asked.
This lifeboat approach to public education is almost laughable if it wasn't so serious. CCSD isn't leading; it's reacting. This is a system wide problem that another manipulated lottery won't fix. The county school district needs to give parents and students more excellent choices, not limit the few we now have. County school board members need to consider that a ship can sail no better with a hole in its sail than it can with a hole in its hull.
October 3, 2007 at 3:16 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
PaperMan (anonymous) says...
How often have we heard that South Carolina is at the bottom of the food chain when it comes to the quality of the public schools in America? I know we all have and it is embarrassing. The Academic Magnet High School is ranked as one of the top 10 schools in the nation by Newsweek. Two years in a row. The school evidently has a formula for success. Now folks want to mess with its success because their child, who met minimum requirements, didn't get in. My child got into Academic Magnet and she works her tail off. She worked her tail off in middle and even elementary school to get great grades. Not good grades, not minimum standard grades but great grades. She worked harder than any kid I have ever known. I can't imagine, after all her hard work, losing her spot to some kid who met the "minimum requirements". I ran a test assuming all 373 applicants met the minimum standards and then used a random number generator to determine who got in. In my test 6 of the top 10 didn't make it and 5 of the bottom 10 did. Including number 373.
October 3, 2007 at 6:30 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Patrick (anonymous) says...
AMHS currently enjoys a 100% college matriculation rate. There is little doubt regarding the efficacy of this school. But, the result is precisely the point here it is a college prep facility. That being the case, it would be contrary to its mission to accept students for anything other than academic aptitude. Recognizing and admitting the areas top performers makes sense. This facility is a feather in the cap for our school system.
October 3, 2007 at 7:13 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Islander (anonymous) says...
How many entered the class of 2006? How many graduated? Where did the ones that did not graduate with their original class go? What makes this a top ten school? Perhaps the requirements need to be adjusted to reflect the increased number of high school candidates. Does anyone on this blog know what the requirements are? What is "minimum" requirement? It seems there are alot of opinions regarding the lottery but not alot of suggestions as how to accomodate the increased number of qualified applicants.
October 3, 2007 at 7:51 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
HappyMom (anonymous) says...
As a mom of a very bright child that just began at AMHA this year I have to say how grateful I am! My child attended a middle school with a very high Report Card and took all Honors classes. Although he worked to maintain her A average, he was bored to tears.
This year at AMHA he is extremely challenged and loving every minute of it. The overall attitude of the students is "Yes, it is hard work, but we like it." We know many of his fellow students from middle school and our neighborhood and this attitude is what helped them get into AMHA.
Without this attitude AMHA would be just another average High School. It comes from the students. I doubt that could still happen if admission is based on luck not hard work. Bravo for a school that recognizes children for their efforts, not social status, race or any other criteria they have no control over!
My child has a place and an opportunity to discover his full potential. But it was not given to him. He EARNED it. This seems to be a novel concept in todays society!
October 5, 2007 at 12:14 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
amhsmom (anonymous) says...
No good deed goes unpunished, as the saying goes. A few years back, it was difficult for AMHS to recruit students. Now that Newsweek magazine has ranked them 10th best school in the nation, everyone wants to get in. Well, I say it is too bad, and academic magnet high school needs to be based on the top academics. It just would not be fair for the those who are bored in normal classrooms to not be able to attend a school that is geared towards a challenging curriculum. My 2 children do attend academic magnet and they do love it. I think we parents have talked it up too much, and now they want to take away what we've worked for. Let's start a new rumor for all to hear, AMHS is not for everyone. Student must enjoy a lot of homework(2-4 hours...every night and weekends too). Must enjoy the academic competition and must be able to face not being the very smartest in the class in most situations, and finally when one thought they did an excellent job on a paper, they then need to be self disciplined to take rejection and go right at it again. If your student is this person, well maybe they can be re-tested the next year and get into the school once they meet the admissions criteria. Finally, just because a student did not make it in their Freshman year does not mean that they cannot try again their Sophmore year if they feel they need to be challenged more.
October 5, 2007 at 5:05 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
amhsmom (anonymous) says...
To Islander. The entry requiredments are by a Rubics score apparently. Your child submits writing samples, recommendations from teachers, middle school test scores, PACT tests and grades and the entire student is looked at and given a score. Those who meet the admissions criteria are then admitted in order of gpa's (i think that's what Mr. Tolley said in the article above.)
October 5, 2007 at 5:09 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
10216340 (anonymous) says...
Yes, the Academic Magnet High School is a great school. However, I get tired of always hearing people say that it is it in the top 10 of all high schools nationally, without really knowing what that number means and how the rankings are devised. This is a Newsweek ranking and it measures the number of Advanced Placement (AP)courses students take compared to the total number of students at the school. WELL......in order to graduate from the Academic Magnet School students MUST take a certain number of AP classes (I think it is a minimum of 4). Given this requirement, it is not surprising that they rank so high in the annual Newsweek report.
Basically, this is a meaningless measurement. Again, this is not to say that the school is not excellent....it most certainly is. Let's just keep this in perspective and above all......know where you are getting your information before you quote it and also what the information actually is saying. If you don't believe me than read on. This was taken directly from the Newsweek Article:
The Top of the Class
The complete list of the 1,300 top U.S. schools
Public schools are ranked according to a ratio devised by Jay Mathews: the number of Advanced Placement, Intl. Baccalaureate and/or Cambridge tests taken by all students at a school in 2006 divided by the number of graduating seniors. All of the schools on the list have an index of at least 1.000; they are in the top 5 percent of public schools measured this way. If you have 2006 data showing that your school should be on this list, please contact Mathews at challenge@washpost.com. For complete coverage, visit NEWSWEEK's Top High Schools section.
October 14, 2007 at 1:25 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
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