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Fifth grader Vanessa Dickey, right, shows a dance she and a friend created for Principal Sherri Brewer, left, at Gilbert Elementary School Wednesday, May 12, 2010. Brewer will retire at the end of the school year. Gilbert, a magnet school for communication and creative arts, was recently named the top magnet school in the country.
Monday, May 17, 2010 | 2 a.m.
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Beyond the Sun
Gilbert Elementary Magnet School
By all measures, Gilbert Elementary Magnet School for Communication and Creative Arts is a success story.
The North Las Vegas campus boasts a diverse student population with high test scores in all core subject areas, an active PTA and almost no staff turnover. For the 2010-11 academic year, more than 1,200 students applied for 100 open seats.
And last week another honor was added, as Gilbert was named the nation’s top program by Magnet Schools of America.
For Principal Sherri Brewer, who will retire this summer after more than 20 years with the Clark County School District, the national award is a validation of the positive influence the arts can have on young children.
“We have very few discipline problems here, and I honestly believe it’s because everyone is engaged and busy all the time,” Brewer said. “This is a very happy school.”
It’s also a school many people — including district officials — say should be replicated in other parts of Clark County, so more students can access similarly specialized programs. Steps are being taken toward that goal, albeit at a slower pace given the district’s uncertain fiscal outlook.
The district is considering moving to an open enrollment policy in 2011, which would allow students to apply to a campus other than the one to which they are assigned. Ideally, open enrollment would promote competition among schools, and encourage campuses to develop specialized programs that would attract a wide range of students.
But there probably won’t be enough money to provide transportation with open enrollment, raising questions about fairness because not every family will be able to get their children to and from school without the district’s help. That leaves the magnet programs (which do provide transportation) as the most flexible option for students looking for something different from what their neighborhood campuses has to offer.
To be sure, Gilbert is just one example of the district’s successful magnet program. Applications exceed available spaces across all grade levels.
For the elementary magnets, there are no academic requirements for acceptance. Students are placed into a lottery, with a quarter of the seats set aside for children living in the immediate neighborhoods surrounding the campus. The middle and high school magnets — which include the career and technical academies — require students to meet certain academic requirements before they can qualify for the lottery, again with “neighborhood” seats set aside.
For the 2010-11 academic year, 2,337 elementary school students competed for 682 open seats at five campuses. At the middle school level, 4,502 students competed for 1,486 seats at six campuses. And at high school magnet programs, 9,634 students competed for 6,453 seats at 13 campuses, including the six regional career and technical academies.
The numbers suggest a stiff degree of competition. The percentage of the district’s more than 308,000 students who are in magnet schools remains fairly low.
That’s something the district wants to change.
Several new federal grant programs, offering tens of millions of dollars to Nevada schools, would require drastic reorganization and reform. The district is considering expanding its magnet school opportunities, particularly at the elementary level, as one route toward remaking its lowest-achieving campuses.
Clark County has a record of success with its magnet programs. Sandy Miller Elementary was the nation’s top magnet school in 2009, and Advanced Technologies Academy has been honored repeatedly by the U.S. Education Department as a “Blue Ribbon School,” the highest possible designation. Hyde Park Middle School’s students routinely win state math and science competitions.
Magnet schools are not for every student, though; they require an interest in a particular area such as mathematics, science, the fine arts or international studies. In many cases the expectation of parental involvement is greater. It’s not uncommon for students to brave lengthy commutes to school. Gilbert draws students from as far away as Boulder City.
Although magnet schools receive the same per-pupil funding as “regular” campuses, the programs are often supplemented by private donations and grants (the U.S. Education Department provides startup money that expires after three years).
However, it’s up to the individual schools to secure those dollars. At Gilbert, relationships with local businesses keep the dance studio well stocked with tap shoes. Volunteers help to make the costumes for numerous campus productions. A partnership with the new Smith Center for the Performing Arts is helping bring guest artists to campus to perform and work with students.
But it’s the staff, many of whom work evenings and weekends and take on extra duties without extra pay, who keep the ball rolling, Brewer said.
“Everyone wears lots of different hats here,” Brewer said. “If you’re a person who would rather not work beyond the regular contract day, this probably isn’t the place for you.”
For Daun Korkow, who has spent his entire 29-year career teaching at Gilbert, the extra effort is worth it. While the school focuses on the creative arts — students produce daily news broadcasts and learn the fundamentals of the performing arts, among other skills — it’s not about training students for careers in the limelight, Korkow said.
A view of the broadcast studio at Gilbert Elementary School Wednesday, May 12, 2010. The students at Gilbert use the studio for a live, news broadcast every school morning, said Daun Korkow, director of the morning news show and theater manager. Gilbert, a magnet school for communication and creative arts, was recently named the top magnet school in the country.
“This is about life skills,” said Korkow, the school’s magnet theme coordinator. “It’s about how to communicate and get your point across, and how to have confidence in who you are.”
Magnet schools are criticized for snagging talented students and their highly engaged parents from conventional campuses. Billie Rayford, the associate superintendent who supervises Gilbert, said that’s not the case.
“Magnets represent one type of alternative for students who might be interested in particular area or theme,” Rayford said. “It’s not what every student wants.”
But the district recognizes that demand is outstripping the supply of magnet seats. Plans are under way to survey families to gauge the most popular academic interests and to begin converting campuses to support those programs, Rayford said.
The potential benefits of magnet programs to students, particularly minority students from low-income households, are well documented, said Mike Petrilli, vice president for national programs and policy at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.
“If there’s a successful magnet program in Clark County, the question shouldn’t be whether to keep it, it should be how to replicate it,” Petrilli said. “It’s critical that there be places within the public education system where high-achieving kids can be challenged and fulfill their potential. It’s hard to do when the traditional setting is focused on mastering the basics.”
Imagine what would happen if we issued a voucher to every student. A system where traditional, charter, and private schools would all compete for students. Where every school had to present a product the students and parents wanted or risk being an empty building with no reason to have staff.
Every school would become a magnet by definition or would cease to exist. All it takes is the courage to pass the program. Those who claim it would someone be unfair are telling you their definition of education can only exist in a monopoly without competition or choice.
<<For the 2010-11 academic year, 2,337 elementary school students competed for 682 open seats at five campuses.>>
That's not very many people who really, really want to get their elementary school age kids into an excellent school. Based on that, it's easy to assume that most parents are just fine with their neighborhood schools.
Imagine what would happen if parents would instill into their children the value of education!
You can throw all the money in the world at the schools and it is not going to help when the children don't bother to study or show up for class once in a while.
To many parents don't bother enforcing rules or study habits with their children and let them run wild both at home then at school.
Teachers have become government baby sitters for a large part of the minor population today and once these children grow up you are going to see the welfare roles grow and find a need for larger prisons.
The parents today have no one to blame but their selves for this problem.
Stop trying to be your child's best friend and turn into the parent that you need to be. Your children deserve it!
Quote from Principal Brewer, "But it's the staff, many of whom work evenings and weekends and take on extra duties without extra pay, who keep the ball rolling."
Why are fireman and police paid overtime and not teachers? Just curious.
Some people will point fingers and blame everyone but themselves and act like nothing can be done unless the other people fix their behavior. There are bad parents, but more importantly, there are also some very bad public schools. We have ample evidence that suggests you can take a random low-income kid and give him or her money to attend a private school and that kid will achieve at higher levels than their counterparts that randomly did not receive the money and were left behind in the public school system. We also have evidence that public schools facing competition with private schools and charter schools work hard to improve their performance in order to retain students -- and subsequently their funding.
The other option - genuine parental choice with scholarships and tax credits to get kids out of bad schools.
Support for vouchers and tax credits among the left are growing as more and more people realize that an unaccountable and bureaucratic public school system is leaving minorities and low-income kids further and further behind.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editor...
ShannonK: The district's own surveys do indeed show that most parents of elementary school students are generally satisfied with the quality of the programs at their neighborhood campuses.
Some parents say they aren't interested in participating in the magnet program because they don't want their children to face a long bus ride twice daily.
What might the impact be if the elementary options were widespread, instead of limited to just five campuses? That's one of the potential benefits of "open enrollment" ... more choices with the convenience of neighborhood schools.
Its no surprise to me that magnet and private schools do much better than public schools. I find teacher at magnet and private schools are in the business of educating than their predecessors, who are more interested union matters. Students at magnet and private schools are there for one reason, learning, public school students seem more interested in socializing. Yes, the public school teachers will say that magnet and private schools have a better teacher to student ratio and have less disruptive students, and parents involvement, but there is not reason why public cannot have the same. Students that causes problems need to be discipline quickly and decisively. Trouble students are the biggest disruption to someone education than anything else. Suspend a child from school and see how quickly you get parent involvement. The public school system needs to keep teaching the basics, reading, writing and arithmetic. High school students are so busy taking college prep courses, we forget about other students who are not college bound. Change how we teach students and discipline trouble students will result in be test scores.
express445 writes, "Suspend a child from school and see how quickly you get parent involvement." CCSD schools do suspend students--it's called RPC (Required Parent Conference). And what frequently happens in an RPC? The parent will say something like, "I can't handle him (her) at home." Yet the teachers are expected to handle the problem child at school.
The parents have option right now to take their kids out of poor performing schools and move them to higher performing schools. Very few choose to do so each year.
"The district is considering moving to an open enrollment policy in 2011, which would allow students to apply to a campus other than the one to which they are assigned. Ideally, open enrollment would promote competition among schools, and encourage campuses to develop specialized programs that would attract a wide range of students.
But there probably won't be enough money to provide transportation with open enrollment, raising questions about fairness because not every family will be able to get their children to and from school without the district's help."
So, basically, if you are already a highly motivated student (who would succeed anywhere) and your family has the extra money for transportation, you get in. The rest of the students, with all their problems, can attend the good old dumping grounds. It's obvious!!! Lack of success in all "public" schools MUST be the teachers' fault.
Elitist jacka$$e$.
I agree with vegaslee
The Magnet and CTA's are high performing schools because the students want to be there. Teachers feel rewarded when students do well and are willing to put in extra time for students that appreciate their efforts.
Until students and parents value education, neither will work hard to achieve it.
Magnet schools in this school district in the middle and high school levels do not accept every student who wishes to attend. They must apply and be recommended. If they have behavior issues after they are accepted, they will find they are not necessarily there for further years. If they are motivated to behave and to be there in the first place, it stands to reason they just might apply themselves a bit more to their homework and to pay attention and not cause disruption in class. Could that be part of the reason they are forming a student body that is more successful in general? DUH. I would guess test scores, grades, attendance and graduation rates are higher in magnet schools for sure without having to wonder at an explanation at all. When a student has chosen to be somewhere, rather than just shown up because it was the path of least resistance, results are bound to be a little better.