Poor, minority students missing out on Austin’s popular magnet programs

Though the students in the Austin school district are largely Hispanic and poor, the district’s prized magnet schools are mostly filled with white students from more affluent families.

Data obtained by the American-Statesman show that, in three of the district’s four magnet programs, fewer than a quarter of the students are Hispanic, while Latinos make up 60 percent of the district’s student body. Even fewer low-income students are admitted to magnet schools, and black students made up just 1 percent in two of the schools.

The data show a disparity that has long rankled some parents, who say the district’s strongest academics should be offered, and more obtainable, to a wider group of students. District officials say they have taken recent steps to address the matter.

Choir Director Yvette Carroll works with her all-boys choir students during music class at Fulmore Middle School. Fulmore’s magnet program has been successful in attracting a diverse student population.

Even the nationally recognized Liberal Arts and Science Academy comes up short, despite being housed at LBJ High School, which teaches mostly students of color who are low-income.

For the past five years, the percentage of black, Hispanic and low-income students attending LASA has been declining. Fewer than 2 percent of the students attending LASA are black, about 21 percent are Hispanic and fewer than 12 percent are low-income.

By contrast, 8 percent of the district’s overall student population are black and 60 percent are low-income.

Law teacher Johnny Galan looks on as students work on a project together during his class at Fulmore Middle School. While Austin school district’s magnet schools are largely catering to white students who are not low-income, the magnet program at Fulmore has attracted larger numbers of Hispanic and low-income students.

Some community members, who point out the two schools are on separate floors — LASA upstairs and LBJ downstairs — say the division is a constant blemish on the campus, where 96 percent of LBJ’s students are Hispanic or black and only 2 percent are white. While LASA students are often courted by top-tier universities, LBJ has struggled academically for years.

“In a society that says they value diversity, we see in the AP classes and magnet programs there isn’t that diversity, at least not that’s reflected in the city or the communities where these magnet programs exist,” said Kazique Prince, a consultant in cultural competency programs who ran for the school board last year. “I definitely see them as valuable, but in their current form they aren’t serving as many people of diverse backgrounds as possible.”

The district, recognizing the discrepancy, is attempting to boost the number of black, Hispanic and low-income students attending magnet programs.

Map of four Austin district magnet schools and the Ann Richards school.

“It’s an issue,” said Edmund Oropez, interim chief schools officer. “We see the numbers, too, and there is underrepresentation.”

Currently, the district does not track a student’s ethnicity or economic status on magnet applications, which include grades, scores on state-mandated tests, student essays, letters of recommendation from teachers, and entrance exams conducted on Saturdays. If they apply to multiple programs, the students must repeat a separate process for each.

Some schools, particularly those that serve middle-class and affluent students, are known to assist students in their magnet applications.

After reviewing the applications of students who didn’t get into the magnets, administrators realized that if the students had tweaked a few things to make their applications stronger, it could have changed whether they were admitted. Last year, the district began offering workshops to assist families applying to LASA. The district also began efforts to recruit minority teachers and administrators to help attract students of color, Oropez said.

“We’re trying to put things in place that can change that,” he said. “We just don’t want any kids locked out.”

Rigor and diversity

At the Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders, the district has found a way to offer rigorous academics while mirroring the demographic representation of the district. Though it is not a magnet school, admission is highly competitive and application driven.

The key difference is 75 percent of its spots are for students who come from schools where the majority of students are poor. The qualified applicants are also placed into a random lottery.

At the Humanities and Law Magnet Program at Fulmore Middle School, administrators have worked toward a diverse campus. About 52 percent of the students are Hispanic and nearly 40 percent are low-income. Magnet director Leigh Northcutt-Benson said when she visits each of the district’s 80 elementary schools, she emphasizes the importance of diversity at the school, the strands the school offers (international studies, humanities and law) and the school’s mission and vision of social responsibility.

“I tell our kids we love our diversity at Fulmore,” Northcutt-Benson said. “We want diversity here, and I think that message has gotten out to the community.”

Sixth-grader Kelsey Nyandusi said she was drawn to the school’s law program and how attentive the teachers are. But when asked what she liked most about the school, Kelsey, 12, said, “I like the diversity. I don’t like it when people are all the same. We all grew up differently, and it makes it better.”

Kelsey is one of 10 black students in the magnet program, but some classes are combined with the nonmagnet students, and the school’s overall population is more diverse, with 72 percent Hispanic and 6 percent African-American students.

Early college emphasis

The district has been beefing up other programs that specifically target minority students. At LBJ and Reagan High School, which has similar demographics, students in early college programs can earn college credit, up to an associate degree, while working toward their high school diplomas. Seventeen percent of LBJ’s and 14 percent of Reagan’s students are taking advantage of the program.

But some question why the district has waited so long to encourage diversity at the magnet programs.

Isabel Rios’ daughter, a highly motivated student who attended Kealing’s magnet program and took course work in the summers at the University of Texas, was not accepted into LASA last year.

Rios said she raised questions about why her daughter’s application was declined and pointed to the low number of low-income, black and Hispanic students at the school. She said a couple of staff members expressed similar concerns to her.

“It’s not reflecting diversity,” she said. “I want to give anyone the benefit of the doubt and that it’s just a systematic issue because of the way it’s set up, because of the rubric.”

Rios said she still hasn’t received answers from the district, but in the meantime, it has lost at least one student, since her daughter moved to Illinois with family for this school year to take more rigorous course work.

“If our magnet programs are this over capacity, what are the options for these kids?”