4th Year Coordinator Interview Guide

Appendix N

MSAP Project/School Choice Coordinator Interview Guide

Conversion Magnet Schools Evaluation

MSAP Project/School Choice
Coordinator Interview Guide

April 2007

Introduction

Hello, I am _____, with [the American Institutes for Research/Berkeley Policy Associates], a research firm in [Palo Alto/Oakland, California]. I’m calling to interview you for the Conversion Magnet Schools Evaluation, as we arranged [last week]. This interview should not take more than 20 minutes. Your answers are confidential, and responses to the study’s data collections will be used only for statistical purposes. The reports prepared for this study will summarize findings across the sample and will not associate responses with a specific district, school, or individual. We will not provide information that identifies respondents, students, or districts to anyone outside the study team, except as required by law. I’d like to reiterate that your participation is voluntary, although of course we hope you are willing to talk with us.

Can you talk to me now, or do we need to schedule a different time?

Okay. You should have received a copy of the interview questions within the past few days. Do you have those with you? [Interviewer: verify that the questions arrived and are available for use during the interview.]

In this interview we would like you to help us verify some information about the schools in this study, identify major changes that may have occurred in the district’s school choice program or in the recruitment, application, and admissions practices for the federally funded elementary school magnet programs in your district. Also we’d like to find out whether there are plans to continue the programs in these schools. For most of these topics we have included the information that we learned in 2007. I will ask you to tell me whether what we were told in 2007 is still accurate today, and if not what has changed.

A. Verifying Selected Characteristics of Schools

The information below summarizes what was reported in 2007 about a number of elementary schools in your district, including some schools that received support from the federal government’s Magnet Schools Assistance Program (MSAP). Please review the information and tell us whether the characterizations are still accurate in 2010.

1. MSAP-funded Magnet Schools

Interviewer: The MSAP-funded elementary magnet schools are listed in the table below. Ask the respondent for verification/completion of pre-coded information for items 1a through 1d for each school. Record any differences noted (i.e., information that is different in 2010 from what it was in 2007).

	MSAP School #1	MSAP School #2	MSAP School #3	MSAP School #4
School Name
1a. Are all neighborhood students admitted to the school, or do they apply for admission for a limited number of seats?
1b. In what grades can non-resident students apply for admission? (Circle all grades that apply.)	PK K 1 2 3 4 5 6	PK K 1 2 3 4 5 6	PK K 1 2 3 4 5 6	PK K 1 2 3 4 5 6
1c. In what grades are students typically accepted into the magnet? (Circle all grades that apply.)	PK K 1 2 3 4 5 6	PK K 1 2 3 4 5 6	PK K 1 2 3 4 5 6	PK K 1 2 3 4 5 6
1d. Has this school been identified for Program Improvement under NCLB? If so, in what year of the process was the school in 2009-2010?	1 2 3 4 5	1 2 3 4 5	1 2 3 4 5	1 2 3 4 5

A. Verifying Selected Characteristics of Schools (continued)

2. Non-MSAP Comparison Schools

Interviewer: The comparison schools are listed in the table below. Ask the respondent for verification/completion of pre-coded information for items 1a through 1d for each school. Record any differences noted (i.e., information that is different in 2010 from what it was in 2007).

	Comparison School 1	Comparison School 2	Comparison School 3	Comparison School 4
School Name
2a. Has the school implemented a magnet program (federal or local) since 1998?
2b. Does this school have any programs designed to attract non-resident students to enroll? (Please specify.)
2c. Has this school been identified for Program Improvement under NCLB? If so, in what year of the process was the school in 2009-2010?

B. The Overall System of School Choice

It is important to know what overall school choice options are available to students in your school district.

3. Which of the following additional types of public school choice (beyond the federally funded magnet school programs) are available to elementary school students in this district?

_____ a. Open enrollment

_____ b. Magnet school(s) not funded by MSAP

_____ c. Charter school(s)

_____ d. Traditional busing system designed to integrate students

_____ e. Other type of school choice (Please describe): _______________________________________________________

_____ f. No other type of public school choice

C. The Student Recruitment Process

We are interested in how and to what extent the strategies for recruiting students to the MSAP magnets in your districts have remained the same or changed over the past three years.

4. The following is a list of the principal methods that your district was reported to be using in 2007 to recruit applicants for the MSAP elementary magnet schools. Does this information reflect what the district is using in 2010? (If not, please describe and explain the changes.)

C. The Student Recruitment Process (continued)

5. The following is a summary of what we were told in 2007 about the extent to which recruitment materials and activities for elementary school MSAP magnets targeted families in particular neighborhoods or with particular characteristics, and whether or not such targeting differed by school. Does the information reflect what is done in 2010? (If not, please describe and explain the changes.)

6. Over the course of the past 3 years, has the district changed its strategies for recruiting students to any of the MSAP elementary schools? If yes, please describe the changes and indicate when they occurred.

MSAP Elementary School	Description of How and When Recruitment Strategies Evolved Over the Past 3 Years
A. School name (1)
B. School name (2)
C. School name (3)
D. School name (4)

D. The Application Process

Two important aspects of the application process are the significance of deadlines for students applying to the magnet program and the implications for an applicant of applying to more than one magnet program. The information below summarizes what was reported in 2007 about late applications and applications to multiple magnet programs. Please review the information and let us know whether or not the characterizations are still accurate.

7. Late Applications

Question	Previously (2007)	How Practices Differ in 2010
7a. Is there a date by which the student must apply for admission to the elementary magnet school(s)?	Y/ N
7b. If a student applies later than this date, is he or she placed later on a waiting list for admission?	Y/ N/ NA
7c. If so, are students admitted from this waiting list only after all the students who applied before the deadline are admitted?	Y/ N/ NA

7. Multiple Applications

Question	Previously (2007)	Differences in 2010 (and when change occurred)
8a. Can the student apply to multiple magnet schools?	Y/ N/ NA
8b. Must the student rank order the magnet schools to which he or she applied?”	Y/ N/ NA
8c. Does the student then get preferences of some sort at his or her higher ranked schools?	Y/ N/ NA
8d. If yes to 6c, please explain:	Preference / N / NA

E. The Admission Process

Schools often have a limited number of seats available. The admission of students who apply to magnet schools may depend on a random drawing of names or lottery to determine who will fill those seats. The information below represents what we were told in 2007 about the use of random assignment and in connection with other priorities for admitting students. Please review the information and tell us whether or not these descriptions are still accurate today.

7. Lottery or Random Assignment

Question	Previously (2007)	Differences in 2010 (and when change occurred)
9a. Does the district use a lottery, random drawing or a similar randomized method to decide upon the order in which applicants will be admitted?	Y/ N
9b. Does the district itself conduct this randomized ordering, or do individual magnet schools do this?	District/ School/ NA
9c. Do magnet schools in your district make separate admission decisions for each grade level?	Y/ N/ NA
9d. Are applicants to a particular grade in magnet elementary schools in your district divided into groups before students are randomly assigned to admission rankings? (e.g., based on sibling preference , test scores, reading ability, place of residence, income level, or other considerations)	Y/ N/ N/A

E. The Admission Process (continued)

7. Prioritizing students for admissions.

The information below summarizes for each MSAP magnet school in the study what we learned in 2007 about how applicants to a particular grade in this school are prioritized for admission to the school. (For example, “Siblings are given top priority, followed by students who do not have siblings in the school, with preference given to students from certain geographic areas of the city before others, and finally, inter-district transfers.”) Please review the information and tell us whether it is still accurate. Where relevant, please indicate what other categories are used in determining the priority for admitting students.

MSAP-funded Elementary School	Preference Categories in Order of Priority
A. School name (1)	2007 (Description for interviewee from past records):
	Current (2010):
B. School name (2)	2007 (Description for interviewee from past records):
	Current (2010):
C. School name (3)	2007 (Description for interviewee from past records):
	Current (2010):
D. School name (4)	2007 (Description for interviewee from past records):
	Current (2010):

F. Future of Magnet Schools

We are interested in learning what happens to magnet schools and their programs when three years of federal funding ends.

7. For each of the schools listed below, please answer the following: Is this school continuing as a magnet school beyond 2009-2010? If so, how will the program be funded? How, if at all, will the focus of the magnet program change (e.g., remain the same, change theme or teaching method, etc.)?

MSAP-funded Elementary School	Continuing?	Source of Funding?	Program Change?
A. School name (1)	Y/ N
B. School name (2)	Y/ N
C. School name (3)	Y/ N
D. School name (4)	Y/ N