Impact Study of Federally-Funded Magnet Schools

This Office of Management and Budget (OMB) package requests clearance for data collection activities to support a rigorous Impact Study of Federally-Funded Magnet Schools. The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) at the U.S. Department of Education (ED) has contracted with Mathematica Policy Research and its subcontractor, Social Policy Research Associates (SPR), to conduct this evaluation (ED-IES-17-C-0066). The evaluation includes an initial feasibility assessment, to determine whether an impact study can be conducted appropriately. First, the study team will interview fiscal year (FY) 2016 and 2017 Magnet Schools Assistance Program (MSAP) grantee districts and schools to gather detailed information on student recruitment and admissions policies and practices, paying particular attention to the use of randomized lotteries for student admissions. The feasibility phase will result in a brief describing how MSAP-funded schools recruit and select students for admission, a topic of interest to the program office. Second, if a sufficient number of students are being admitted to these schools through lotteries, the impact study will collect survey data from principals and district administrative records on admissions lotteries and student progress. The study would use these data to estimate the impacts of magnet schools on student achievement and diversity and to describe whether particular features of magnet schools are associated with greater success.

The latest form for Impact Study of Federally-Funded Magnet Schools expires 2021-08-31 and can be found here.